Events
Women on Leadership and Innovation
How to create innovative and collegial professional enterprises
On March 7 the Global Policy Institute, GPI, hosted a special GPI EXCHANGE Event on “Women in Leadership and Innovation”, featuring: Alexis Bonnell, Chief Innovation Officer of USAID, and Beth Hand, a strategic consultant who helps mission-driven leaders and organizations achieve strategic results. Kristi Ragan, DAI Chief of Party, USAID INVEST Project, and BAU Professor of Leadership served as Moderator.
Paolo von Schirach, Global Policy Institute President, delivered welcoming remarks.
The event was held one day in advance of International Women’s Day, celebrated on March 8. The presentations and following discussions focused on how to gain the confidence to be an innovator, and on how leaders can create productive professional environments by encouraging all team members to express themselves. Great leaders are those who constructively encourage all to contribute. Sometimes the best solutions or innovations come from team members who would not ordinarily come forward with their original ideas. Great leaders are those who help all workers give the best of themselves by creating a genuinely collaborative environment where all participants feel welcome and comfortable.
Both speakers provided real life illustrations of constructive leadership and of the critical importance of innovation from their unique vantage points of seasoned management consultants and high level government officials.
Alexis Bonnell is the Chief Innovation Officer of USAID. Over her career, Bonnell has developed and delivered over a billion dollars of humanitarian and development programming in over 25 conflict, post-conflict and emergency countries, in almost every sector: from education to stabilization, for more than 30 international bilateral donors, 10 U.N. agencies, the military and the private sector.
Beth Hand is a strategic consultant who helps mission-driven leaders and organizations achieve strategic results. Earlier in her career, she consulted on $300 million up to $1 billion dollar information technology and organizational transformation initiatives. She was one of a few women consultants engaged by the Turkish General Directorate of Revenues to assist with setting the overarching framework, program and change management strategy for a country-wide information technology infrastructure project.
Watch the short video of the event here.