The Financial Women's Association Of San Francisco
presents

An Industry Leadership Series Event:

"Overcoming Obstacles: Women Trailblazers in Entrepreneurship"

A veteran entrepreneur will attest that getting a business up and running is fraught with challenges. Coming up with a unique idea is not enough – developing strategy, procuring funding, cultivating a stellar team, and securing a competitive advantage are all essential steps to building a successful company. Join us on Thursday, April 17th in San Francisco for a panel discussion bringing you the perspectives of four women entrepreneurs in a diverse set of industries who will offer a unique take on overcoming obstacles, breaking stereotypes, and engendering respect as women business founders.

Panel Participants

- Speaker / Moderator -

Denise Brosseau - Co-Founder & President, Invent Your Future
www.inventyourfuture.com
Denise Brosseau is the co-founder and President of Invent Your Future Enterprises (IYF), a professional development company accelerating the success of the next generation of women leaders. IYF offers leadership conferences and events for entrepreneurs and corporate women as well as leadership development programs, mentor-matching software, business simulation games, and skill-building toolkits for corporations. Their clients include Symantec, Genentech & Cisco.

A serial entrepreneur, Denise founded her first company - a computer training business - at the age of 28. A Wellesley graduate with a Stanford MBA, she also served as the founding CEO of the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs (now FWE&E) from 1993-2002, building the organization into the leading trade association for women-founded and led businesses in the United States. During that time, she co-founded the highly successful venture conference series for women entrepreneurs, Springboard Venture Forums. Participants in the Springboard events have secured over $3.7B in funding for their businesses. She continues to serve as an adviser to both organizations.

Denise spent the early part of her career in the high-tech industry at companies like Broderbund Software and Motorola. Just prior to founding Invent Your Future, Denise led a strategic consulting practice for five years, where she served start-ups, corporations, and non-profits. She is a frequent speaker at industry and women's conferences, including at this year's Professional Business Women of California event and at the Conference Board's Women's Leadership Forum.

- Panelists -

Shelli-Anne Couch - Co-Founder, Billion Dollar Babes
www.billiondollarbabes.com
Shelli-Anne Couch is the quintessential mom-preneur, wrangling the Los Angeles-based global operations of Couch Nobelius Media & Events and the international designer sale Billion Dollar Babes, along with two toddler daughters. This multi-tasking media maven thrives on identifying the next and best. Shelli-Anne has orchestrated events for corporate titans and Heads of State, film premieres, fashion shows, Oscar parties, and media campaigns.

Since its inception in 2001, Billion Dollar Babes has evolved into a complete lifestyle brand whose designer fashion sales in LA, NYC, San Francisco, Chicago, London and Dublin provide a sartorial playground for stylish shoppers and an enviable customer base for luxury advertisers, including W Hotels, American Express, Lexus and Giorgio Armani Cosmetics.

Before founding Couch Nobelius and Billion Dollar Babes, Shelli-Anne was the U.S. Editor for People magazine's Australian edition, Who Weekly. She is an award-winning journalist (the youngest writer to win the equivalent of the Pulitzer in Australia) with almost 20 years' media experience in Australia and the U.S.

Karen Northup, CPA, CMA – Founder & CEO, Corefino
www.corefino.com
Karen Northup founded Corefino in 2002. Corefino delivers outsourced finance and accounting operations to small-medium enterprises, guaranteeing its customers are GAAP–compliant and diligence-ready. From the beginning, Karen assumed Corefino's workplace would be significantly virtual. Today, the company's 28 employees and 25 contractors reside in three countries and provide services to customers in five countries. Karen has focused on building a company culture that is customer-focused, collaborative, responsive, and fun regardless of geographical distance.

Prior to founding Corefino, Karen was the CFO at a variety of successful venture-backed technology companies, including Scout Media, where she served as the CFO through the company's successful acquisition by Fox Interactive; Rivals.com, where she successfully directed the company through the filing of its IPO; and Telocity (now DirecTV), where she had the key role in raising a $134MM mezzanine round. Karen also held management roles with GlobalCenter (including having a key role in its acquisition by Global Crossing) and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Karen serves on the board of Children's Hospice and Palliative Care Coalition and on the advisory boards of 3 emerging companies.

Vicki Saunders, Founder & CEO, Zazengo
www.zazengo.com 
Vicki Saunders is a serial entrepreneur committed to developing sustainable, thriving businesses that tackle major challenges we are facing in society. Vicki is CEO of Zazengo, an online platform that manages, tracks, and inspires impact. Zazengo's innovative business model shares revenue with non-profit partners by creating a new market for advertisers and sponsors.

Prior to Zazengo, Vicki was co-CEO of the NRG Group, a publicly traded company on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The NRG Group grew out of KidsNRG - Canada's leading supporter of youth entrepreneurship - when KidsNRG merged with a $40M venture fund to develop an internet incubator and youth marketing consultancy. Vicki has been a catalyst for many start-ups and also founded and ran an English language school in Prague, Czech Republic in 1990, an import-export business between the Czech Republic and India, and Impactanation, an organization dedicated to increasing awareness and inspiring entrepreneurial action in young people around the themes of environment, health and social justice.

In 2001, Vicki was selected as a Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum. She has spoken widely at events around the world, including at The World Economic Forum in Davos (on a panel with Serge Brin), as a keynote at the Women of Influence Series in Canada, at the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs events, and will be a keynote at Tallberg Forum in 2008.

REGISTRATION

There are 5 ways to pre-register:

1. Register online. Online registration is now closed.

2. Print and mail the following form to FWA, P.O. Box 26143, San Francisco, CA 94126
  
3. Print and fax the following form to 415-586-6606
  
4. Send an email to
 
5. Call Rhoda Singer at (415) 586-8599

Refund Policy:  We are unable to issue refunds unless the refund request is received 72 hours prior to the event.

cut here An Industry Leadership Series Event: "Overcoming Obstacles: Women Trailblazers in Entrepreneurship"
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