Vedica Women’s Alliance (V-WA); first of its kind membership based network for senior women leaders set to launch
New Delhi: The Vedica Scholars Programme for Women is all set to launch the Vedica Women’s Alliance (V-WA), a first-of-its-kind membership-based network that aims to aggregate, advocate, and amplify voices of senior women leaders from across the country. As part of the launch, Vedica is organising, ‘The V-WA Week’ – a series of high-quality and thoughtful engagements, focusing on initiating a powerful dialogue on ‘women and work’ issues and trends, from 26th – 30th September, 2020. V-WA aims to create a credible platform for meaningful engagement between senior women leaders and relevant stakeholders from the government, industry and academia to effect lasting and broad-based change. Organizations interested in associating may nominate up to three senior women leaders to become representing members of the peer group.
The V-WA Week is lined up with insightful sessions from explementary leaders in their fields – Pattie Sellers, Founder and CEO at SellersEaston Media, Richard Rekhy, Former CEO, KPMG India and Board Member of KPMG Dubai, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, CEO at 20-first – Global Gender-Balance Consultancy, Supriya Sule, Member of Parliament, Roz Savage, Author, Speaker, Ocean Rower, and Sustainability Advocate, Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, Director of the Wellbeing Research Centre at University of Oxford, Ira Trivedi, Founder at IraYoga Wellness, Author, and Yoga Acharya, Apurva Purohit, President at Jagran Prakashan Ltd, Antje Bauer, Executive Coach and Mentor and Shachi Irde, Inclusion Strategist.
With the evolving scenario at the workplace, the launch comes at a crucial inflection point in the future of workplace parity. V-WA hopes to grow the cadre of professional women – in terms of numbers and influence
Broad-based change is envisioned via peer learning sessions to foster ‘collective wisdom’, monthly issue-based briefings on specific ‘women and work’ subjects, curated masterclasses with a unique focus on personal and professional transformation, high-quality research products and regular surveys with an aim to create new knowledge and generate awareness. V-WA will also entail mentorship opportunities with a chance to build an influential professional network and facilitate direct engagement with government, industry and academia to shape policy for women and gender in the workforce. Member services will equip women professionals to pursue successful ‘break-free’ careers and become powerful catalysts of change.
An eminent set of member organizations such as Bain and Company, Genpact, WDC, Max Group, Big Basket, Diageo, Times Internet, JSW amongst others, are already onboard. The V-WA Advisory Council members include illustrious leaders from across the globe, with an unequivocal commitment towards creating a more equal workplace. Some prominent names include Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, CEO of 20 First, Richard Rekhy, Consultant and Board Member of KPMG Dubai, Megha Chawla, Partner at Bain and Company, Audrey Clegg, Group Talent Director at Coca-Cola HBC, Sasha Sanyal, Global Business Leader, Insurance, Diversity, and CSR at Genpact, Bhawani Singh Shekhawat, CEO of The Akshaya Patra Foundation, Supria Dhanda, Vice President and Country Manager, Western Digital, Lopamudra Banerjee, CHRO, Carrier Midea and Anuradha Das Mathur, Founder and Dean, The Vedica Scholars Programme for Women.
On the occasion of the imminent launch, Anuradha Das Mathur who has run professional communities through her career said, “We have created a powerful peer network of senior women through the Vedica Scholars Programme for Women. V-WA is an obvious next step. Our mission is to aggregate and amplify voices and begin advocating for lasting change. We are hugely encouraged by the early support and are excited by what we can achieve – together.”