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The Naperville Marriott hosted a confluence of women leaders to celebrate the progress of women in leadership roles at the Annual South Asian Woman’s Conference hosted by the Indo American Community Services March 13.
IACS is a pioneering not for profit organization supporting the South Asian American community through various initiatives such as diversity career expos, women empowerment forums, professional leadership and entrepreneurial conferences.
The event commenced with a welcome address by Gowri Natarajan, member of the organizing committee and Sanjana Srinivasan, a student at UIC and a finalist of the IACS internship program.
The panelists included three accomplished women leaders from diverse fields – Katie Lawler, senior vice-president and chief human resources officer, ITW; Andrea Sreshta, co-founder of LuminAID and Anupy Singla, famous cookbook author and founder of Indian as Apple Pie.
Lawler spoke about working for a U.S. Senator, and going back to school to earn a degree in law and ending up as a HR professional at ITW. She commented that she “found her voice” during this journey by analyzing, learning and articulating what she wanted in her career. She advised all the participants to “find their voice” and “own their career” by continuously building skills and capabilities, accepting tough and varied assignments and building and nurturing networks and relationships within and outside work.
Andrea Sreshta talked about the origins of LuminAID. As a student at Columbia University, she learnt of the devastating earthquake in Haiti. Andrea and her classmate and cofounder of LuminAID Anna Stork turned their class project into a humanitarian mission and invented a compact solar-powered light that helps people in emergencies. The product became very successful and is now backed by Mark Cuban of “Shark Tank” fame and is also racking up sales among campers and other outdoor adventurers.
Singla, author of three books, the most recent being, ‘Indian for Everyone’ released in October 2014, has compiled the most popular Indian recipes outside of India. Born in India and raised in Philadelphia, she grew up visiting her grandfather’s village in Punjab, where she learned to cook. Her first two books, ‘The Indian Slow Cooker’ and ‘Vegan Indian Cooking’ remain the top-selling Indian cookbooks in North America. She advised attendees to own up mistakes and learn from them as they can only help them progress in their careers.
The event also highlighted two local women entrepreneurs Mansi Hans, founder of ‘A Colorful Affair’ and Soumitraa Ganguly, founder of ‘Ankita Collections’ who showcased their products at the conference. ‘A Colorful Affair’ conducts art workshops and offers participants a custom art experience at events such as birthday parties, picnics and corporate meetings. Ankita Collections sells contemporary art from South Asia and teaches Indian folk and tribal art forms to students of different ages through extensive curriculums and training. Lakshmi Nagamohan, member of the organizing team said that the conference provided a “unique platform” for participants to network and learn about leadership strategies, and professional development; issues important to women in today’s competitive workforce. Sreenivas Katragadda, president of IACS thanked corporate sponsors Dover Corporation, Grainger, ITW and L&T Infotech and Access Technologies Solutions, Trinuc LLC.
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