Seneca Women

In honor of Women's History Month, we celebrated women’s leadership at The Global Women’s Forum, hosted by Bank of America and Seneca Women at the New York Stock Exchange. One of the best parts of the day was getting to meet some incredible woman-owned business owners, like Amy Peterson, founder of Rebel Nell, which repurposes discarded murals into jewelry and provides support for women with barriers to employment. I also loved spending time with Bank of America CHRO Sheri Bronstein, president and co-head, Merrill Wealth Management, Lindsay Hans (who also interviewed me during the event), and head of external communications, Jessica Oppenheim, and seeing Steve Samuels, Managing Director at Merrill Lynch, who showed me a photo of his 87-year-old mother Virginia reading my book, “Thrive”!? My fellow speakers included NYSE Chair and Seneca Women partner Sharon Bowen; US Soccer president Cindy Parlow Cone, Dr. Joan LaRovere, of Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School and co-founder of Virtue Foundation; Ambassador Melanne Verveer; Seneca Women co-founder Kim Azzarelli; Wendy Stewart, President, Global Commercial Banking, Bank of America; Lindsay Hans, President & Co-head, Merrill Wealth Management; and Katy Knox, President, Bank of America Private Bank.

What does women’s leadership look like? Here’s just one example: “I really get frustrated when everyone tells me, well, this is the way we've always done it,” said Cindy Parlow Cone, president of U.S. Soccer Federation and former champion player. “I'm looking for us to think, how is it possible? Stop looking at all the obstacles. How do we reach that goal?” Parlow Cone was one of the speakers on Thursday at the Global Women’s Forum, hosted by Bank of America in partnership with Seneca Women, at the New York Stock Exchange. Held in celebration of?Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day, the event brought together C-suite executives to discuss the state of women’s leadership. Parlow Cone’s remarks came during her on-stage conversation with Wendy Stewart, President, Global Commercial Banking, Bank of America. At the Forum, guests were welcomed by NYSE Chair Sharon Bowen—Seneca Women partner and the first woman, and first person of color, to chair the NYSE—and Katy Knox President, Bank of America Private Bank. The day’s takeaway: Women’s leadership is vital to companies and societies. All you have to do is look at the data to understand “the power of parity and…what it means when you unleash the vital force that women represent, particularly in economies,” said Ambassador Melanne Verveer, co-founder of Seneca Women and executive director of the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security. “Women's leadership,” she added, is “transforming the world and the economies of the world.” A special perspective on women in the C-suite came from Arianna Huffington the CEO and founder of Thrive Global and founder of The Huffington Post, in conversation with Lindsay Hans, President and Co-Head, Merrill Wealth Management. “There is…a special place in heaven for women who support other women,” said Huffington. She also advised: “Women, and I speak for myself here, tend to be perfectionists and we tend to move into self-judgments very quickly. It's incredibly draining. Excellence is an incredible goal. To have perfect perfection is not.” The audience also heard from health leader Dr. Joan LaRovere, MD, MSc, MBA, who noted that people have “woken up to the fact that women's health is just not reproductive medicine.” Dr. LaRovere is Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Associate Chief Medical Officer for Transformation at Boston Children's Hospital. As president of nonprofit Virtue Foundation, she’s leading their AI-based data mapping initiative to improve global health. “It is so important that we focus on funding women scientists,” she added, “because they're often the ones doing the work beyond just understanding reproduction, but understanding hormonal impacts on brain health, heart health, bone health, immune function.”

Databricks is at #WEF25 this week talking about AI for enterprise and AI for good! BTS with Joan LaRovere, MD, MSc, MBA (Co-founder & President, Virtue Foundation), Sharon Bowen (Chair, NYSE and Partner, Seneca Women), and Databricks' Arsalan Tavakoli and Rob Reed as they discuss how to get more transformative AI into production in 2025.

It was a pleasure to be in conversation with the former Prime Minister of Finland, Sanna Marin, in Davos at the Seneca Women’s breakfast. She touched on a range of topics, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Finland’s swift action—including joining NATO—and what is at stake, reflections on why Nordic countries have been so successful in elevating women to top positions in government and politics, and technology-facilitated violence, which is a threat not only to women but to democracy and the values we hold dear. She issued a powerful call to action to be engaged through regulations and other means to address threats and misinformation.

Women in leadership empower collective success - that was the focus of yesterday's #WEF25 discussion with Bea Perez hosted by Seneca Women and Sharon Bowen. ? I firmly believe that empowering women leads to innovation and progress that benefits entire organizations. At this week’s “A View from the Top: When Women Lead” session, I discussed the programs and initiatives we have in place to support women leaders at Bank of America, and how other organizations can ensure women are properly represented in leadership. ? We also gained valuable insights from the Former Prime Minister of Finland, Sanna Marin, on the global state of women and Joan LaRovere, MD, MSc, MBA, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, on how AI can transform women’s health. ? Thank you to the Seneca Women team, Kim Azzarelli, Melanne Verveer & Sharon Bowen for having me and hosting this powerful discussion. Here’s to shaping an even brighter future!

Last week, Seneca Women, in collaboration with Procter & Gamble, hosted our second Young Women’s Financial Wellness Forum at the NYSE where we honored the incredible life of Harriet Tubman and celebrated United States Mint’s Harriet Tubman Commemorative Coin. At the forum, I had the privilege of speaking to more than 100 students from New York City-area schools and organizations, as well as women leaders, about my career journey. The students had an event-filled day learning practical leadership and financial skills — two areas I’m especially passionate about. ? I know that the young women from the forum will be contributing in their own unique ways to better the world and advance our collective path forward. Thank you to Ventris Gibson, Director, U.S. Mint, and WOODROW Keown, President, National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, for all that you do.

Excited to speak on the AI Impact in Healthcare Delivery Panel at the MIT Media Lab. I will be showcasing the work of Virtue Foundation and our novel use of #AI to create an efficient market in #globalhealth. Honored to be joined by Chandler McCann from DataRobot and Rob Reed from Databricks, outstanding partners in our common goal to build an enterprise grade AI/ML solution to better match resource with need and bring healthcare to those who most need it in #LMICs. Delighted to be moderated by Kim Azzarelli from Seneca Women and also be joined by Karim Galil, M.D. from Mendel.ai. Phenomenal to be covered by Forbes. Special thanks to John Werner and Paul Baier. #ImaginationinAction