Governor Dr. Tamilisai Soundararajan on Thursday launched HYSEA Women Leaders’ Forum, an initiative of Hyderabad Software Enterprises Association to mentor young and upcoming women leaders of the IT/ITES industry.
Mentorship and coaching are key enablers for accelerated growth of young and aspiring women leaders in the industry, the Governor said, launching the Forum virtually. “As someone who is an ardent advocate of women’s rights, gender parity, women empowerment and equality, it would give me immense satisfaction to see accomplished women leaders coming on to a platform to mentor and nurture young and upcoming women leaders of the IT industry,” she said.
HYSEA said the Forum will identify challenges and develop programmes for women leaders to effectively manage them. It will create mentoring and counselling platforms, set quantifiable targets to create leaders at different levels and continuously improve these numbers over a set time-frame. Accomplished women leaders and also men leaders from across the industry will provide thought leadership and mentor young, upcoming women leaders of the industry. The Forum is also expected to emerge as an important networking platform for women leaders.
Centre Director-GSC in Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Visakhapatnam of HSBC Mamatha Madireddy will be leading the Forum, a release from the Association said.
President of HYSEA Bharani K Aroll said setting up of the Forum is part of HYSEA’s focus to improve opportunities for women to move into leadership positions within the industry. Under a leadership development programme for women launched in 2009, more than 1,000 women leaders from over 200 companies have been trained.
Ms. Madireddy, who moderated a panel discussion on Women in Leadership, following the launch, said “bridging the gender gap is a constant journey...the ultimate goal is to reach a point where this is not even a topic to discuss.”
