March is Women’s History Month, and I am writing today to share an update on why we are building Women@BrightInsight, how we are celebrating Women’s History Month, and to highlight the team involved with bringing Women@BrightInsight to life.
First, some history: Swati Reichmuth, Simran Jain and I created Women@BrightInsight in August 2020 as an initiative within BrightInsight’s Culture Club and with the (enthusiastic!) support of our CEO Kal Patel, MD and CCO Dave Matthews.
On a personal level, my passion for Women@BrightInsight stems from wanting to create a women’s community and forum to discuss the issues that are most pertinent for women in business. However, our vision for Women@BrightInsight involves much more than simply community building.
The objective of Women@BrightInsight is to continue to improve the experience for women at BrightInsight and ensure ongoing representation within leadership and across the company.
Over the last six months our Women@BrightInsight planning team has expanded drastically. We currently have a 30-strong team of women who meet each month and put in a ton of ‘magic time’ and energy to develop and execute programming against these focus areas.
We are kicking off Women’s History Month by getting to know the women of BrightInsight with women’s fun facts intros in our #diversity-and-inclusion Slack channel. Also this week, Kal will host neuroscience expert and author Amy Brann for a company-wide fireside chat on strategies and approaches to preserve our wellbeing.
Later in March, we have a women’s speed-networking event and a book club on ‘Unapologetically Ambitious’ by Shellye Archambeau, from whom we were fortunate to hear during BrightInsight Week. Side note: I am trying to put into practice Shellye’s guidance to shift mindset from making sacrifices to owning my decisions, and it’s been really thought-provoking!
To close this post, here is the latest view of our planning committee members and a few highlights of why others are passionate about Women@BrightInsight.
Learning & development, connections, book club, wiki: Joling Mew, Preeti Bhatia, Van-Anh Su, Katie McMahon, Alicia Tran, Divya Nityanandam, Yasmin Kahiye, Linda Goodstein, Dipti Ayachit, Ankita Shah.
Mentorship, sponsorship, male allyship: Maria O’Callaghan, Philippa Rock, Aisling Murray, Rutu Upadhyaya, Barbee Mooneyhan, Nida Somani, Elena Ames.
Diversity & inclusion, work & family, fireside chats, internships: Jamie Burgess, Preeti Saini, Danielle Mirabile, Heather Gibbons, Ana Burman, Virginia Fishburn, Tamika Mitchell.
Others joining for the conversation: Swati Reichmuth, Simran Jain, Eesha Ambike, Susanne Pepper, Anusha Sridharan, Aditi Shastry.
Alicia Tran – Senior Manager, Commercial Strategy & Operations
“I have always had the drive to do more, but never truly understood what that meant until I witnessed what my female mentors could accomplish. By interacting and learning from them, my dreams became a lot bigger. Instead of simply working towards my next promotion, I focused on how I could grow and develop while making a significant impact with each step in my career. I have been fortunate enough to meet some great women throughout my career that inspire me and are still there for me any time I need advice. My motivation for helping found Women@BrightInsight is to support other women in finding and reaching their potential, just as my mentors do for me.”
Van-Anh Su – Senior Manager, Business Operations and Strategy
“In my day-to-day work, I have been amazed by the women I’ve met at BrightInsight, and grateful for the informal supportive relationships I’ve cultivated so far. As part of the Women@BrightInsight planning committee, I’m excited to build a community where women across the organization can learn from one another as we continue on our career journeys. More generally, I deeply care about diversity, equity and inclusion at work so through the committee, I look forward to doing my part to foster a workplace where diverse groups – including the women at BrightInsight – can thrive.”
Divya Nityanandam – Senior Project Manager and Scrum Master
“Having joined BrightInsight recently, I was excited to be a part of Women@BrightInsight planning committee that keeps me surrounded with incredibly talented and smart women who are working tirelessly to empower each other. To me a community like Women@BrightInsight allows me to learn from the best and share experiences that are unique to being a woman at the workplace. This community offers a space to overcome challenges and thrive with the help of one another's experience and nuggets of wisdom. Being a part of the planning committee, makes it possible to bring fulfilling initiatives such as rolling out a mentorship program to life at an early stage startup while creating a space for women to lean in.”
Ankita Shah – Senior Design Quality Engineer
“As BrightInsight grows as a company, each and every one of us will be required to grow alongside. We will need to grow in many ways - our execution, outlook towards one another, our skillsets, time management, responsibilities, communication skills and more. Growth is exciting, but also challenging. I truly believe that having the type of support enabled by Women@BrightInsight will provide each of us the strong roots needed to grow.”