GWA Featured in CEO Summit Journal

Ahead of the APEC, we shared our founding story with the CEO Summit Journal. Excerpt below, and the full article included as an image.

“In 2011, when the United States last hosted APEC, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton launched and chaired the first-ever APEC Women and the Economy Summit in San Francisco. The high-level convening of cross-sector leaders from the APEC economies adopted the San Francisco Declaration to ‘mainstream gender to address the most significant barriers hindering women’s full economic participation.  From access to capital and markets, to skills and leadership, APEC leaders committed resources to elevate and empower women’s influence toward economic growth. Ginger Lew, senior counselor at the White House, and Wenchi Yu, senior advisor at the U.S. Department of State, were key advisors.

As APEC returns to the U.S., Lew – now a U.S. delegate to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) – and Yu, an entrepreneur, joined forces to further their commitment to promote young women leaders in sustainability from the APEC region. 

Yu worked with Fritz Demopoulos, an entrepreneur and philanthropist, to co-found Global Women Asia (GWA), a community focused on global women leadership with Asian perspectives. Aligned by the vision to empower young women leaders, GWA launched the Women in Sustainability Fellowship. Nine fellows from nine distinct economies were selected. As a cohort, they have professional experience in sustainability across business, government, academic, and social sectors spanning five continents.”