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Women in Leadership: why does it matter? There is increasing recognition across different sectors of our society that gender balance in leadership creates economic growth and can provide society with different perspectives and approaches to management and business issues. Yet companies are still struggling to attract and promote female talent. During the last decade we have actually seen an improvement in the share of women leaders in Europe, however the percentages of women sitting in executive positions is still not sufficient to reach the desired gender balance. According to European Commission data from 2016, the average number of women

Starting your Entrepreneurial Journey - WE Health Module 2 At the start of June, female founders from all over Europe came together in Munich with the aim of advancing their entrepreneurial journeys. Organised by the Technical University Munich and the WE Health partners from IESE Business School, Imperial College and Karolinska Institutet, the second module of the “Empowering Women in Health Innovation” (WE Health) initiative helped equip these women with the skills, the support and the courage to address their entrepreneurial challenges. The participants were guided through some key aspects of founding a venture – from validating their

Get-to-know Katarzyna Hess-Wiktor, founder and former WE Health participant Katarzyna took part in the WE Health Module 1 in Stockholm and shares her story as the founder of Minnity and her learning from the workshop. What motivated and inspired you to start your business? My first experience of dementia was when my grandma developed Alzheimer’s disease. To see her gradually lose the ability to remember things, orientate herself or recognize her family was very difficult for me. A couple of years later, I’ve decided to focus my PhD research on the experience of family caregiver’s of people with Alzheimer’s. Since then, I

How Women Leaders Will Drive Innovation in the Healthcare Sector 17-19 September 2018, at IESE Business School, Barcelona The WE Health project closed its 2018 educational offering with a capacity building training targeted at women in leadership positions in the healthcare sector. It was the first gathering of such talented female healthcare leaders from all over Europe and was a great opportunity to connect and exchange experiences among peers facing the same challenges and sharing similar experiences. 38 women from different European countries (Portugal, UK, Sweden, Germany, Spain, France, Romania...) working in different institutions (pharma companies, universities, research

Learn about Julia Hoxha and her way from research to founding her startup Zana Julia Hoxha is a former postdoctoral research scientist in Medical Informatics at Columbia University working at the intersection of machine learning, recommender systems, and semantic technologies.  She took part in our WE Health program in Module 2-2017 in Munich and was now awarded a winner of the Noah conference in Berlin with her startup Zana. Learn more about her experience as an entrepreneur.  What motivated and inspired you to start your business? As many others, I have the need to look up medical information on the

Hacking Female Health supported by WE Health The Hacking Health Hackathon addressing the topic of Female Health took place from the 2nd to the 4th of November in Berlin. In September 1995, countries gathered in Bejing for the 4th World Congress for women, organised by the World Health Organization (WHO). The outcome of this meeting was the Beijing Declaration, a resolution adopted by the UN to promote equality and the empowerment of women. The word health is mentioned four times in the declaration, emphasising the correlation of access to equal health care and the ability to manage one’s own

Meet Katarína Gatialová – President of the European Health Parliament Katarína Gatialová took part in the WE Health project’s module 3 in Barcelona back in 2017, and is now the President of the European Health Parliament and Consultant for the Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic, where she is helping to shape the future of healthcare in Europe on a policy level. Tell us about your role in the European Health Parliament and as a consultant for the Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic The European Health Parliament is a multidisciplinary movement connecting and empowering the

Meet Mary Franzese – improving the treatment of brain damage as co-founder of NeuronGuard Mary, who took part in WE Health Module 2 – 2018 in Munich, shares her story and advice as a “stubborn dreamer womenpreneur”. What motivated and inspired you to start your business? In 2013, I was attending a Master in Entrepreneurship and Business Strategy at SDA Bocconi (IT). I was pretty sure I would finish my studies and start working within a consulting firm. Then I participated in a Start-up MBA Program, where entrepreneurs had to submit their ideas to speed-up, find team members

2018 – A Year full of Women Power at WE Health After completing the first year in 2017, WE Health was running already in its second year in 2018. A year full of new ideas, supporters and participants lies behind us. The partners of IESE Business School in Barcelona, Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, the Technical University Munich and Imperial College London, set out to further enhance the participation of women in health innovation and entrepreneurship activities. In February, an ideation event in Barcelona helped us to dig deeper into the challenges and needs of women who are innovating

Why WE Health Project could be useful for entrepreneurs women in healthcare? Meet Séverine Le Loarne from l'École de Management de Grénoble, who tell us how WE Health Poject helps to bring knowlegde and make networking between thetop innovators women in health care. These were her statements at the last 3 days workshop, "WEHealth Capacity Building Program" wich took place in Barcelona. - Why do you think projects like WE Health are necessary at European level? "Well, I think that the We Health Project is really important, because 70% of the workforce of the health sectors is composed by