A Woman’s World

October 28, 2011 By Aminda

In 2010, the growth rate of women-owned businesses in the U.S. slowed, for the first time in the past 14 years. During that time period, the number of women-owned businesses has grown at a rate that exceeds the national average—one and a half times the national average. Women today have influence in all areas of business and industry but who are the most influential women in innovation?

There have been lists of the most innovative companies, most innovative countries but none recognizing these leaders. Here we’ve profiled a few standouts who could start this list but there are clearly many more. What do you think? Who would you add to the list of women leaders in innovation?

Getting Things Done at DARPA

Regina Dugan is director of DARPA, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency responsible for the development of new military technology. In this role, she has invigorated the agency with initiatives that may fundamentally change the way the military innovates. A large part of this strategy includes embracing crowdsourcing for both idea creation and manufacturing.

From Chief to Chairperson

Serving as conference chair for CoDev, one of the largest and longest running innovation conferences in the world, Cheryl Perkins is also a consultant and speaker dedicated to helping companies generate innovations. She previously served as Chief Innovation Officer at Kimberly Clark and has been identified as one of the Top 25 Champions of Innovation by Business Week magazine.

Technology Leader

A native of Kenya, Juliana Rotich is Executive Director and co-founder of Ushahidi, a web based reporting system that utilizes crowdsourced data to formulate visual map information of a crisis on a real-time basis. At Ushahidi she manages projects and aids in the development and testing of the platform. She is a budding African Futurist and a TED Senior Fellow. She often speaks at international conferences about tech andAfrica.


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