WIN/WIN: Women in Innovation

In this episode, Vanessa Colella revisits her career beginnings teaching science for Teach For America and explains how that experience led her to think about the micro and macro ways of driving change. Vanessa talks about how her variety of endeavors, including time at grad school, McKinsey, and Yahoo, shape her approach to developing new ideas as Chief Innovation Officer at Citi.  Listen fo...

In this episode, Barkha Saxena explores how her early passion for math led to a career in data and analytics. After growing up in India and working as a software engineer in the early dot-com era, Barkha relocated to the US, eventually reaching out to the founder of Poshmark and joining the team to build something from the ground up.  Listen for advice on: How data can help underserved groups...

In this episode, Fawn Qiu talks about having a “messy” career guided by the pursuit of personal growth to develop new skills. She recounts the unpredictability of conducting user testing with kids to develop games and apps for the Sesame Workshop, teaching workshops to make engineering feel more accessible, and how she uses AI in her role at LinkedIn.  Listen for advice on: Assessing company...

In this episode, Catherine Clark drills down on what it takes to be an effective innovation partner, from her early agency work partnering with Unilever to her current projects for Starbucks. She talks about feeling fearless as she co-founded her branding agency with a neighbor, and why their shared values — around family life and women in leadership — transcended their opposite thinking styles.&n...

In this episode, Haley Russell reveals what it’s like to build a company from the ground up. She reflects on her early entrepreneurship efforts, including starting a summer camp while in middle school, and how that later led her to business school, Uber, and founding a sustainable pet food brand. She shares how her dog’s preference for crickets gave her a needed spark.  Listen for advice on:...

In this episode, Krupa Tailor walks through her journey as a first-generation American — from studying at the University of Michigan and earning an MBA at Columbia to landing roles at Unilever and American Express. She elaborates on the thrill and risk of starting her own business venture and why “think big, start small” is her guiding principle.  Listen for advice on:  What steps to tak...

In this episode of the “WIN/WIN” podcast, Kiely Sweatt discusses her non-traditional path to innovation, as exemplified by her background in poetry, education, and design thinking workshop facilitation. In her role as Head of Innovation at Oracle Consulting (NA), Kiely helps the business re-think its approach to what it means to innovate and implement complex technological solutions externally. Li...

In this episode, Jane Geraghty talks through her career trajectory — cutting her teeth in advertising in London, exploring a new culture in NYC on Madison Avenue, working in television in the UK, and becoming a global CEO. She reflects on finding her true voice in her 30s, and how a combination of passion and competition has driven her career strategy.    Listen for advice on: What’s fue...

In the last part of the WIN: Women in Innovation 5-year special, WIN’s only full-time employee & Global Executive Director, Aubrie Fennecken, discusses her journey from theatre management to non profit organizations and innovation. Aubrie discusses her wish list for WIN and explains the ways in which innovation has evolved and its effects on the future for the organization. Aubrie also provide...

In this episode, Shelbi Jones reflects on the images she’s had of success — from her childhood in Ohio to jobs at Complex, Refinery 29, and Facebook. She shares how her visions of “success” have changed, how identity drives her work (and her podcast “Define Normal”), and answers the question “who is Shelbi Jones?”  Listen for advice on: How sales and creative teams can work together  Loo...

In this episode, Lisa Gralnek recounts how curiosity and opportunity took her from a career in the ‘90s fashion world to business school, BCG, and a variety of companies including Adidas and Chobani. At each turn, she created her own roles as a change agent, and ultimately started her own consultancy.   Listen for advice on: How to systematically infuse innovation into everything you do&...

In this episode, Maria Potoroczyn takes our listeners through her innovation journey, whether that was co-founding WIN with Alfia Ilicheva or going from innovation consulting to leading Citi’s conversational AI bot to now heading up product management at Trust & Will, an estate planning start-up. She explains the importance of scaling with intention and some of the principles of community that...

In this episode, Sara Agrest explains how her relentless want to know “why?” has guided her decades-long career in architecture. She gives insight on her methods for keeping a job feeling fresh and shares how her mother’s career as a journalist informed her upbringing.  Listen for advice on: How “sustainability” is being re-defined in architecture and beyond  Using reframing techniques t...

For the first part of the WIN: Women in Innovation 5-year anniversary mini-series, Alfia Ilicheva joins Zoia to share all the founding story behind WIN. She shares the challenges and opportunities,, as well as how Alfia approached her own innovation trajectory while prioritizing her family and taking on other projects along the way. Listen to find out more about:  What it takes to start a dec...

In this episode, Melanie Bell-Mayeda talks about the “aha” moment that re-routed her career into the world of design. She reflects on the toolkits she built working in financial services, licensing, and strategy, and how she took them with her to IDEO. She explains the challenges of working on “wicked problems” — areas that often require systems change — and the opportunities for innovation. ...

In this episode, Sarah Judd Welch explains the drive she had at a young age to want to run her own company, and how she made the jump from freelancing in digital strategy to running an organizational design consultancy. She focuses on the idea of “belonging,” the existential questions it prompts, and why workplaces with inclusive cultures see an impact on their teams, their output, and their botto...

In this episode, Amanda Ramos explores how the concepts of facilitating innovation adoption and building buy-in have shaped her success during a 14-year career at Gensler. She points to the power of co-leadership to bring more voices to the table and emphasizes the importance of knowing your purpose before taking a leap.   Listen for advice on:  Why understanding another’s humanity...

In this special edition episode of the WIN/WIN podcast, Hailey Floyd joins us to celebrate Black History Month. Hailey’s impressive career trajectory includes being an Advance Associate on Michelle Obama’s team in the White House, as well as doing communications strategy at Apple. Hailey discusses the influences that enabled her success and the women she has looked up to along the way. Today’s con...

In this episode, Yasmin Kothari examines a career that’s included a Harvard MBA, strategy consulting at McKinsey, conducting user research in India and Africa, and product roles at AirBnB, PayPal, and Asana — not too far off her childhood dream of flying to meetings and making deals. Through every role, she explains the connective tissue as being able to take complex problems and break them into a...

In this episode, Lee Eiseman expounds on the importance of color and the psychology and perceptions around it. Currently the Executive Director of the Pantone Color Institute, she’s spent over 35 years examining color, starting with designing a practicum while studying at UCLA, which she still uses in teaching about color today. She explains why Pantone looks to the zeitgeist for their annual colo...

This week’s episode is a WIN/WIN Special about “Ready. Steady. Money.,” guest hosted by Aru Agarwal, WIN: Women in Innovation’s Global Programming Lead, and Associate Director of Business Transformation at R/GA.Money coaches Amy Schultz and Claire Coleman reflect on their own money journeys and the role of money coaching in helping women (and everyone else!) unleash their potential. WIN is hosting...

In this episode, Emily Heyward retraces her steps from working on TV advertising campaigns for huge brands to ultimately forming her own creative services company, Red Antler. She reflects on working with brands that have successfully made people take a leap of faith, and explains how the effects of sexism factored into her decision to launch a company.    Listen for advice on: How times...

In this episode, Cheryl Grise shares how her second grade teacher helped propel her early sense of purpose, prompting her toward a career centered around creating transformative leaders. She explains how her passion for sailing influences how she thinks about leadership and delivers a few of her top guidelines for leading effectively.  Listen for advice on: The importance of amplifying the ac...

In this episode, Olivia Hawkins charts her career, from navigating the digital world during the first dot com boom (and bust) to currently leading business consulting and defining data ethics principles with one of the world’s largest advertising companies, WPP. She reflects on the excitement of the disruptive early web, the challenges around data privacy, and the contradictory messages she receiv...

In this episode, Charlotte Diaz explains her route from business school and management consulting to discovering the brand strategy world — at Vivaldi Partners, RGA, and now in her role at Critical Mass. She elaborates on the business imperative to focus on the customer, why she’s dedicated to creating meaningful experiences for employees, and the challenges for women rising into leadership. ...