Pledge 1%’s #WomenWhoLead series celebrates female leaders who are paving the way for the next generation. While our featured leaders come from a variety of backgrounds and industries, they are united in their efforts to promote equality for all women in the workplace. We’ve asked them to share a bit about their journey to success, as well as lessons they’ve learned along the way.
Indupriya (Indu) Tetali
Business Process Specialist, TechForce Services
Sydney NSW Australia
What is your current role? Briefly describe in 1-2 sentences.
Business Process Specialist and Project Delivery assistant: I would like to understand the business use case/objective and workout a solution delivery strategy that embeds the technology with the industry standards, risks, security, current and future processes focusing on the overall big picture of the audience.
What’s the best part of your job? What do you enjoy the most?
Being creative and rethinking the problem case into an optimised and executable strategy which is S.M.A.R.T (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time driven). No two customers are exactly same and their problems are not same, so creative thinking.
We’ve all faced personal and professional challenges these past two years – what motivates you to keep going?
Sometimes connect with cosmos and resonate within to spread positive vibrations. Yoga and meditation helped me to travel with kind and stable pace during these recent times, was it easy? No and again was it hard? Not if we quest and realign our inner levels.
What’s the best piece of advice you ever received?
Never assume, don’t be hasty, just hibernate sometime to resume with more power.
What does generosity mean to you?
It is our very behaviour passed on to us from generations, let us not loose the power of it and spread more to receive happiness back, just keep it active and wake it up!
How do you feel businesses can play a larger role in solving today’s biggest challenges? Do you have any specific stories or examples from your work or colleagues you can share?
There are many challenges the world is facing but most of the challenges touch sustainability and being human centric ethos in this digital world along with diversities.
Sustainability should be an important principle across of the industries, the investments and visions should drive towards an ethical, secured and platforms that suit all the ages and all times.
Every department in an organisation plays essential role for the business to run and to look all the departments at same levels serving different responsibilities that completes a single big company vision puzzle. Being human connections are not only HR department focused but it should be inculcated as part of all the departments.
The businesses around the world addressing these principles, the world organisations and governments are working towards it, set their foot into these ideas and areas. There are more eco-friendly industries/businesses turning up and the consumers started assessing and shifting to these businesses.
It is a collective change happening across the world…
My organisation, TechForce Services has the above-mentioned as the core standards, human values are focus in a way that every employee gets an opportunity to learn and grow, the professional comfort resonates lot of positive vibes at personal end, this again adds to the company business goals. Its a win-win cycle and it sprouts and grows.
As a business process specialist, an ISO and industry standards enthusiast, for the organisation to grow and get standardised all the divisions globally and the departments should follow the motives of the organisation uniform way and also serving regionally. This is a challenge to execute like greatest symphonies of all to working together towards a common company goal in a standardised way.
There are many aspects to balance and grow together but community service plays vital role in our day to day lifestyle. There are many organisations that support and opportunities to share our happiness and knowledge to others, 1% pledge is one such organisations that drives and connects the businesses across the world to contribute by feeling responsible and contented.
There are many such stories and experiences that directs and motivates our journeys and destinations.
If you could describe yourself in one word what would that be and why?
Zealous: Learning to never give up and perform 100% and not focus on the outcome but focus on the strategy. So accept anything that comes and twirl it.
If you could pick a song to guide you through 2022, which song would it be?
Girl on Fire by Alicia Keys – defines my journey late 2021 to starting this 2022 to make dynamism my habit going forward. This song is to me, my mother and to all the motherly forces around me.
What are you looking forward to this year? Are there any goals (personal or professional), activities, or experiences you are excited about?
Looking for more vision on learning the data insights and use as per the real business cases, stay closer to mother nature and nurture her.
I am very keen to restart my art journey this year, interested to pursue Mandala art and other world traditional art forms. Spend time with my family and travel around which has been missed out in the last 2 years, Japan is in my list at the moment.
Is there anything else you’d like to share?
Be receptive, both at personal and professional ends: to change, to knowledge, to connections, to challenges faced and then personalise it.
Pledge 1%’s #WomenWhoLead series celebrates female leaders who are paving the way for the next generation. While our featured leaders come from a variety of backgrounds and industries, they are united in their efforts to promote equality for all women in the workplace. We’ve asked them to share a bit about their journey to success, as well as lessons they’ve learned along the way.
Filipa Bellette
Co-Founder, Chris & Filly Functional Medicine
Don, Tasmania, Australia
What is your current role? Briefly describe in 1-2 sentences.
I’m a Clinical Nutritionist, Functional Medicine Practitioner & PhD Scholar. Founder of award-winning holistic health practice, Chris & Filly Functional Medicine
What’s the best part of your job? What do you enjoy the most?
My clients! I absolutely love seeing the changes people experience – health-wise, in parenthood, in their careers and in life – when working with us. Getting random emails or texts that say – “My energy is back!” or “I feel so calm and focussed now” or “I’m a happier mummy” – is just the absolute best. I do also love being a thought-leader in my industry, advocating for prevention and overcoming of body burnout in high-achieving mums, and inspiring mums to love themselves enough to heal their body.
We’ve all faced personal and professional challenges these past two years – what motivates you to keep going?
The pandemic has been tough for many people. We actually pivoted our business right at the start of the pandemic, during lockdown. We pivoted because we knew our clients needed more help, more support, more guidance, and more accountability, especially during this time of high-stress and an ever-changing world. I’m passionate about creating the absolute best solution to help our clients end their body burnout. My team is constantly pushing the boundaries, chaining up our services and product ecosystem, to create the best path for healing, that is effective, simple, fast, and not overwhelming.
What’s the best piece of advice you ever received?
You cannot pour from an empty cup
What does generosity mean to you?
Generosity can come in so many forms. An unexpected smile or a hug is generosity. Going the extra mile to help others is generosity. Pouring all your expertise and passion for the purpose of providing your clients complete and remarkable results in generosity. Offering free advice and inspiring others is generosity. And pledging 1%(+) of our sales is generosity.
How do you feel businesses can play a larger role in solving today’s biggest challenges? Do you have any specific stories or examples from your work or colleagues you can share?
For our company, we solve today’s biggest challenges in a two-fold way. Firstly, is the impact we have with our clients. For example, healing one mother from body burnout, has a huge impact on her family, her children, her community, and generations to come. When a mum is free of exhaustion and anxiety and inflammation, she can show up as a better mother, a better career/business woman, and a more vibrant human being in society. With every woman that we help, we are creating a healthier, happier, and more meaningful world. And a more gender equitable world. We’ve recently been awarded in the Telstra Best of Business Awards in the category Advancing Women, for our work in helping progress women.
Secondly, we are a Business Doing What Matters. We have a partnership with child protection organisation Free To Shine where we give a portion of our fees, to help keep girls in Cambodia safe and in school, and out of sex brothels. Sex-trafficking is one of the world’s most abhorent human rights issues, and we are actively working towards ending this issue.
If you could describe yourself in one word what would that be and why?
Analytical, quirky & empathetic (sorry, couldn’t pick one, lol!). Analytical, as I have a keen eye for detail and connecting all the pieces, when addressing health issues with clients, as well as creating and running a business. Quirky, because that’s what people say! You’re cut and quirky, haha! And empathetic, because I deeply care.
What are you looking forward to this year? Are there any goals (personal or professional), activities, or experiences you are excited about?
2022 is so exciting! We are heading to the Telstra Best of Business Awards for the Nationals in April (we were announced State Winner a couple of weeks ago for Accelerating Women). I’m also in the process of writing a book – “Healthy, Happy Mum: How To End Body Burnout” (working title) – which I aim to have finished and published by the end of the year. My team are creating a new transformational course/program to further help our clients establish a healthy body and life. And I’m looking forward to more work-life balance, and spending quality time with my husband and two little girls.
Pledge 1%’s #WomenWhoLead series celebrates female leaders who are paving the way for the next generation. While our featured leaders come from a variety of backgrounds and industries, they are united in their efforts to promote equality for all women in the workplace. We’ve asked them to share a bit about their journey to success, as well as lessons they’ve learned along the way.
Vanessa Chesnut
Lead Product Designer, Humanly.io
Houston, TX, US
What is your current role? Briefly describe in 1-2 sentences.
I am the lead product designer at a seed-stage company in the HR Tech space. I spend about 20% of my time creating sales and marketing assets and 80% working on building out our interview intelligence tool called Humanly Voice. I function as both a PM and a Designer, building out strategy, moving pixels, and making sure we are tying all of our product decisions back to our customer needs.
What’s the best part of your job? What do you enjoy the most?
I enjoy all of the potential energy that comes along with working at a startup. I get to work on hard problems that I believe are still unsolved and that will have huge net- positive returns for both interviewers and interviewees inside the hiring experience.
We’ve all faced personal and professional challenges these past two years – what motivates you to keep going?
- Getting to build a product from 0 to 1 (Humanly Voice)
- The discovery of new things and solving hard problems
- A strong desire to change the world for the better
What’s the best piece of advice you ever received?
Write down your thoughts and predictions of a product or feature launch beforehand and revisit them afterward. Our memory is notoriously flawed and we rewrite history with false memories. Writing down our thoughts keeps us honest.
What does generosity mean to you?
No strings attached.
If you could describe yourself in one word what would that be and why?
Crafty
Since joining a startup, I’ve led projects that are completely outside my expertise like researching how to build out machine-learning models or understanding the nuances of why people interrupt others during interviews, mostly unconsciously.
As a product designer, I design the world that I want to see, crafting solutions to problems, both known and unknown.
If you could pick a song to guide you through 2022, which song would it be?
What are you looking forward to this year? Are there any goals (personal or professional), activities, or experiences you are excited about?
Outside of my work, I’m excited about learning more about the potentials of Web3 ( Metaverse, NFT, blockchain gaming) and I’m looking forward to imparting my design knowledge on my mentee, who is a junior product designer at a startup.
I’m also looking forward to my traveling to Japan this summer and eating SO much sushi, visiting a ton of UNESCO World Heritage sites, and getting to see non-western design principles and philosophy.
Pledge 1%’s #WomenWhoLead series celebrates female leaders who are paving the way for the next generation. While our featured leaders come from a variety of backgrounds and industries, they are united in their efforts to promote equality for all women in the workplace. We’ve asked them to share a bit about their journey to success, as well as lessons they’ve learned along the way.
Molly Emmett
Data Scientist, Atrium
Denver, Colorado, United States
What is your current role? Briefly describe in 1-2 sentences.
As a data scientist at Atrium, I work with clients to design, build, and productionize models. I also work with a nonprofit to optimize their data definition, capture, and analysis.
What’s the best part of your job? What do you enjoy the most?
I get to help build Atrium’s Cultivate program, which focuses on supporting nonprofits. I became a data scientist in order to deepen my technical skills and bring those skills back to the social impact arena. Thinking about how to render social impact an integral part of the business context is a meaningful way to bridge my previous and current experiences.
We’ve all faced personal and professional challenges these past two years – what motivates you to keep going?
When I feel like I’m running down personally or professionally, I think about my former students. Some of them faced significant hardship, and if they could show up to school with humor and goodwill, I can get up and keep going in their example.
What does generosity mean to you?
Generosity is both personal and structural. In any given interaction, and increasingly so as online interaction is normalized, we only see a fraction of a person. Recognizing that we don’t know a person’s entire history or even what their day has been like is an important practice of generosity that can be logically extended to encompass structural generosity that does not make presumptions about people and groups in need.
How do you feel businesses can play a larger role in solving today’s biggest challenges? Do you have any specific stories or examples from your work or colleagues you can share?
One way that businesses can play a larger role in solving social and environmental challenges is by actively listening to the experts in those arenas. Individuals who work directly with people in need or who have been focused on climate change may have deep understanding of the subtleties of these issues. Asking questions of the people who are being served or the people who, for example, farm or otherwise create the product that is being sold is essential to doing relevant good as opposed to strictly intentional good.
If you could pick a song to guide you through 2022, which song would it be?
Bruce Springsteen’s Dancing in the Dark. I love this song’s acknowledgement of sadness and frustration. We’ve all been confronted with circumstantial uncertainty over the past couple of years, and there’s something to be said for openly expressing the arduousness of that and picking yourself and others up in whatever ways you can (…and I love The Boss).
Pledge 1%’s #WomenWhoLead series celebrates female leaders who are paving the way for the next generation. While our featured leaders come from a variety of backgrounds and industries, they are united in their efforts to promote equality for all women in the workplace. We’ve asked them to share a bit about their journey to success, as well as lessons they’ve learned along the way.
Nivi Achanta
CEO, Soapbox Project
Seattle, WA, USA
What is your current role? Briefly describe in 1-2 sentences.
I’m the self-proclaimed Party Sorceress at Soapbox Project. I’m the founder and only full-time employee, which means I do almost everything: write our newsletters, build community, host events, and make it easy for busy people to create environmental justice!
What’s the best part of your job? What do you enjoy the most?
The community building piece, hands-down. I LOVE talking to our members and bringing people closer, whether it’s through our weekly virtual events or monthly in-person Action Hours. Social change is a long game, and it requires us overcoming the deeply entrenched ideas that business should be cutthroat and competitive. Building community shows me every day that this business isn’t about myself; it’s about the health and well-being of our planet and its people.
One fun recent win: we had a virtual event where two participants met for the first time, and within an hour post-event, they met up IRL at a local bar! This is the greatest metric of success I could have hoped for.
We’ve all faced personal and professional challenges these past two years – what motivates you to keep going?
Community keeps me going. This includes the Soapbox Project membership community, my community of close friends in Seattle, spaces I attend online with other women entrepreneurs, and the knowledge that we really are in this together, whether we like it or not. Zooming out and realizing the absurdity of being humans on a tiny spinning planet keeps me grounded in a strange way — I realize that if I fail, it does not matter, and if I succeed, it’s going to be beautiful and human-powered, with my community beside me.
What does generosity mean to you?
Generosity is actually one of my core values, so I think about the behaviors I demonstrate. At the heart of it, if it’s within my means to help someone in need, I must.
How do you feel businesses can play a larger role in solving today’s biggest challenges? Do you have any specific stories or examples from your work or colleagues you can share?
Businesses can play a HUGE role in solving today’s biggest challenges, but only if we step out of the mindset of “business as usual”. We have to think creatively about the core of what we’re doing, and this means rejecting VC money that doesn’t align with our values, bootstrapping even when it’s hard, giving up control, and putting impacted people in leadership positions.
At Soapbox, we’ve raised over $80,000 for environmental and social justice since 2020. This is a LOT of money for an organization led by one tiny person!
Additionally, one impact I’m proud of is our quarterly letter-writing to incarcerated people events. Since 2021, we’ve written over 1,000 letters to people in prisons, and we’ve changed the lives of our pen-pals on both sides. Our incarcerated friends have written to us saying that they finally feel “more like a human and less like a prisoner”, and attendees on the Soapbox side have had their entire perspectives changed on the US prison system, what compassion means, and how we’re unintentionally doing harm. Soapbox facilitates these events with tech companies and large corporations, and the employees we work with are finally seeing how much more they can do as workers.
If everyone in the business world just did 1% better and sustained that effort over time, it could truly change the world, as long as that 1% of effort and resources is coming from a place of seeking true change, instead of PR or external validation.
If you could describe yourself in one word what would that be and why?
Vibrant
If you could pick a song to guide you through 2022, which song would it be?
Decide to be happy by misterwives
Pledge 1%’s #WomenWhoLead series celebrates female leaders who are paving the way for the next generation. While our featured leaders come from a variety of backgrounds and industries, they are united in their efforts to promote equality for all women in the workplace. We’ve asked them to share a bit about their journey to success, as well as lessons they’ve learned along the way.
Heidi Ridley
Co-Founder and CEO, RadiantESG Global Investors LLC
Danville, CA, USA
What is your current role? Briefly describe in 1-2 sentences.
RadiantESG is a new company in a start-up situation, so roles are less defined and tend to be more broad. In my capacity as CEO, my main focuses are defining the vision and strategy for RadiantESG and to motivate and engage our team to successfully execute on our strategic plan. It’s also important that I lead our discussions with all key constituents, most notably the clients we serve. Finally, there is a strong advocacy role to play as a leader within my industry on key topics such as the role of investments in driving positive change on environmental, social and governance issues, diversity and inclusion.
What’s the best part of your job? What do you enjoy the most?
The best part of my job is co-creating this new company with a group of incredibly talented people, whom I admire and respect. We worked together on average 15 years and I was truly honored that they decided to join me on this journey. I am really enjoying building something from the ground up, motivating by creating an organization that is really different and inspires others.
We’ve all faced personal and professional challenges these past two years – what motivates you to keep going?
A real sense of purpose and a strong desire to have a lasting positive impact on the financial services industry–both in terms of championing the important role capital markets can play in driving progress on environmental, social and governance issues and in helping to bring about a more inclusive mindset toward women and other underrepresented groups.
What’s the best piece of advice you ever received?
Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith and grow your wings on the way down.
What does generosity mean to you?
When you do something for which you are not the beneficiary.
How do you feel businesses can play a larger role in solving today’s biggest challenges? Do you have any specific stories or examples from your work or colleagues you can share?
The world’s biggest challenges need focused alignment between governments, businesses, and individuals. Private companies are often at the nexus of these three groups, benefitting from evolving priorities in government spending and acting as a conduit for buy-in from the public generally. In this way, private businesses have a unique role to play in transformational change. A good current example would be the emergence of smaller companies that will be key in driving a transition to a greener energy grid. To be sure, not every one of them will be a good investment, but as a group they help push technology forward, attract capital to where it is needed most, and influence individual preferences.
If you could describe yourself in one word what would that be and why?
Determined. If I set my mind to something, I cannot be deterred. I genuinely believe that there is no challenge that can’t be overcome. I am willing to put in the work and my resilience knows no bounds.
If you could pick a song to guide you through 2022, which song would it be?
Footprints On The Moon by Gabby Barrett
What are you looking forward to this year? Are there any goals (personal or professional), activities, or experiences you are excited about?
On a professional level, I’m very excited about being able to meet with clients face to face again and look forward to what I hope will be a successful launch year for our firm.
On a personal level, the big development is preparing to be empty nesters. Our two older boys were married last year, our third son will be starting senior year at CU Boulder and our youngest son is graduating high school and will be off to college in the summer.
Pledge 1%’s #WomenWhoLead series celebrates female leaders who are paving the way for the next generation. While our featured leaders come from a variety of backgrounds and industries, they are united in their efforts to promote equality for all women in the workplace. We’ve asked them to share a bit about their journey to success, as well as lessons they’ve learned along the way.
Katrina Julia
Creator + CEO, FIT Life Creation
Nomad currently – since end of 2020 – will be based again in Atlanta, GA this year
What is your current role? Briefly describe in 1-2 sentences.
I am a Multi-passionate entrepreneur who helps entrepreneurs and brands create + scale a life and business they love. This is done as the Creator and CEO of FIT Life Creation, all in one lifestyle brand with tips, tools and tech in wellness, business, marketing and travel. Think Amazon and Airbnb have a family.
What’s the best part of your job? What do you enjoy the most?
The purpose, the growth, the learning, the challenge. I love it all!
We’ve all faced personal and professional challenges these past two years – what motivates you to keep going?
Passion, Purpose, People, Persistence. Faith + Focus drive me.
What’s the best piece of advice you ever received?
You may be and do anything you want in this life- mom.
What does generosity mean to you?
Giving from an overflow because when you focus on gratitude there is always overflow.
Giving from your heart limitlessly even and especially when it is not convenient.
How do you feel businesses can play a larger role in solving today’s biggest challenges? Do you have any specific stories or examples from your work or colleagues you can share?
Yes, I absolutely AGREE!
Here is an article where I wrote Transformation is Required and solving problems like wellness, monetizing, ending homelessness, ending cancer, helping vets and battered women.
If you could describe yourself in one word what would that be and why?
Limitless – there is no box – that is how I live my life.
If you could pick a song to guide you through 2022, which song would it be?
Jireh – Maverick City – helps keep me focused and grateful and aligned.
What are you looking forward to this year? Are there any goals (personal or professional), activities, or experiences you are excited about?
YES! Travel this year to Colombia and Panama right now and projects in Panama, next Portugal, The Cru, launches with influencer marketing, our mastermind with Creation Club + Lifestyle Brand Academy, CREATEIT Summit later this year and more!
Pledge 1%’s #WomenWhoLead series celebrates female leaders who are paving the way for the next generation. While our featured leaders come from a variety of backgrounds and industries, they are united in their efforts to promote equality for all women in the workplace. We’ve asked them to share a bit about their journey to success, as well as lessons they’ve learned along the way.
Donna Litt
COO, Uvaro
Waterloo, ON, Canada
What is your current role? Briefly describe in 1-2 sentences.
Responsible for ensuring we have the systems and data practices in place to align, enable, and resource our team, so that we may deliver on our company goals.
What’s the best part of your job? What do you enjoy the most?
Working collaboratively to help team members work through new challenges.
We’ve all faced personal and professional challenges these past two years – what motivates you to keep going?
Mindset. I have 24 hrs in the day to do 6 things: Move my body, eat good food, move my business forward, move my personal life forward, be good to my people, get a good sleep.
What’s the best piece of advice you ever received?
All you ever need to do is the next one thing.
What does generosity mean to you?
The more you receive the more you have to give.
How do you feel businesses can play a larger role in solving today’s biggest challenges? Do you have any specific stories or examples from your work or colleagues you can share?
Businesses align and mobilize groups of people– employees and customers, primarily. Businesses are also in a position to dedicate significant resources to solving the problems their employees and customers care about. By being customer-centric and value-creation driven, businesses learn what their customers and employees care about, and can dedicate resources accordingly.
Uvaro got to where it is today by listening to our customers. We started as a technology company selling efficiency software to sales teams. In a few short years we’ve become the only community dedicated to our customer’s career success, from their first job to their last, and have helped hundreds of people gain confidence and find new success in the workplace.
If you could describe yourself in one word what would that be and why?
Stubborn.
If you could pick a song to guide you through 2022, which song would it be?
Marie Davidson, Work It
What are you looking forward to this year? Are there any goals (personal or professional), activities, or experiences you are excited about?
Helping our team realize more of their potential.
Pledge 1%’s #WomenWhoLead series celebrates female leaders who are paving the way for the next generation. While our featured leaders come from a variety of backgrounds and industries, they are united in their efforts to promote equality for all women in the workplace. We’ve asked them to share a bit about their journey to success, as well as lessons they’ve learned along the way.
Angela Wilson
Founder, CEO, & Chief Vision Officer, Exploryst
Denver, Colorado, USA
What is your current role? Briefly describe in 1-2 sentences.
I am responsible for setting the mission and vision, assembling a diverse team, driving profitability, and managing the company’s overall operations.
What’s the best part of your job? What do you enjoy the most?
It is knowing that I am solving a problem that has not been addressed for over a billion people with disabilities worldwide.
We’ve all faced personal and professional challenges these past two years – what motivates you to keep going?
As the parent of a child with disabilities, this is a problem that my family and I will be facing for years to come and it has not been solved to our satisfaction.
Individuals and families should not be restricted from the transformational activities that become part of your soul when you experience new things and visit new places.
I want to share the world with my family, with all families.
What’s the best piece of advice you ever received?
Go slow to go fast.
What does generosity mean to you?
I have been generous by supporting and donating to causes and people beyond my comfort zone. It helps me grow and allows others the opportunity to grow.
How do you feel businesses can play a larger role in solving today’s biggest challenges? Do you have any specific stories or examples from your work or colleagues you can share?
Hiring for diversity is not only better for business outcomes, but it is also better for the workers and their communities as well.
“A Study Finds That Diverse Companies Produce 19% More Revenue”
Exploryst has instituted policies for diverse hiring – age, race, religion, color, sex (including breastfeeding and conditions related to breastfeeding), gender (including gender identity and gender expression), national origin, ancestry, family status, medical condition, sexual orientation, genetic characteristics and information, physical or mental disability, and military or veteran status.
If you could describe yourself in one word what would that be and why?
Resilient. Starting a tourism industry business right before a global pandemic and sticking with it over the past two years is definitely resilience.
If you could pick a song to guide you through 2022, which song would it be?
Don’t Stop by Fleetwood Mac.
What are you looking forward to this year? Are there any goals (personal or professional), activities, or experiences you are excited about?
Professionally, my goals are to successfully fund raise for our seed round and begin to expand into other metropolitan areas around the country and the world.