Three weeks. Six continents. Diverse Professions.
New Paradigms in Women’s Leadership: Summit 2020
13th - 30th September 2020
Each weekday, courageous women from across generations share their knowledge in:
Literature - Publishing - Fashion Design - Coaching - Spiritual Teaching - Entrepreneurship Solopreneurship - Consultancy - Marketing - Storytelling - Research and much more.
Learn what enabled these pioneers to take their seat of leadership in the world
Moments of crisis can produce extraordinary growth. As women, we are now called to bring through the next phase of evolution in leadership. Reaching deeply into our own unique sense of the feminine, and allowing the leadership within to find powerful voice and expression. Listening together to what is asking to come through us in this time.
This summit is entirely free of charge to all women who feel called to be part of the paradigm shift. A gift to you and to the world: no obligation, no strings.
Who is this summit for?
If you identify as a woman, whatever your role:
- Have you felt the need for radical change, but struggled to see clearly how to make it happen?
- Do you long to connect with a tribe that shares your deepest values?
- Does success ever feel like a struggle?
- Do you want to find your true purpose?
- Do you wish to be the author of your own story?
What’s in it for you?
• Take risks and have courageous conversations, challenging the status quo internally and externally
• Enquire honestly into the identities you hold, asking what serves you and what doesn’t
• Challenge society’s narrative of who you should be
• Don’t let others write your next chapter
• Commit to leading a full life and having your voice heard
• Live in alignment with your values
• Connect with a sense of purpose and direction
Why a Summit for Women?
Womanhood is complex. Many of the challenges we face as women are collective, and it’s vital to understand that we are not alone.By rediscovering our instinct for co-creation, rather than competition with our fellow travellers, we awaken a force of nature that is profoundly needed in the world.
- Share the journeys of ordinary women who embody courage. Find out how they speak up and break convention, naming what is sacred.
- Distinguish issues that are yours from those that are systemic yet internalised.
- Connect across borders with role models and transformative narratives of women standing in their power and following their purpose
- Collaborate, share the challenges of being a woman and amplify the courageous work happening in different parts of the world,
- Explore the diversity of approaches and methodologies required to create the shift you long for
How it works
- 13 weekdays. 13 interviews. Weekends to Rest & Integrate
- Every weekday, a new conversation is delivered to your inbox. Relax and be with this conversation at your own time, without the stress of a live webinar!
- Join our Facebook group, exclusively during the summit, to connect with the group.
- Attend our optional open and closing sessions, live on Zoom.
Together let’s explore how we can lead during these uncertain times, and emerge courageously into the new possibilities that await.
Speakers
Individuality and intimacy
Aggie is the Managing Partner of Beyond Business School Consulting and she is also the Co-Founder of Ubuntu.Lab an online-offline applied learning program for innovators, change-makers and emerging leaders on the African Continent. She also serves as an associate of the Presencing Institute. As an associate of the Presencing Institute Aggie, has had the opportunity to coordinate & co-facilitate learning programmes focused on bringing about profound change at personal and organisational levels. In the recent past she has co-designed and facilitated leadership and organisation development programmes for Ubuntu.Lab, Africa Union, Bank of Zambia, Stanbic Zambia, WWF Africa, Nigeria’s agriculture sector, Civil Society Organisations in Ireland, Croydon Council in the UK, Edinburgh University in Scotland, the United Nations Environment Programme – Africa program, Zambia Institute of Human Resources and the National Health Service (NHS) UK.
Aggie’s other work experience include among others, working as Public Affairs Manager for YWCA England and Wales, Gender Adviser for Oxfam GB’s Humanitarian Department, Programme Development Manager for Oxfam in Yemen and Kosovo, Executive Director for Zambia National Women’s Lobby Group in Zambia, Programmes Manager for Women for Change, a local women’s organisation in Zambia, and was the inaugural Coordinator for YWCA Drop-In-Centre for the Young Women’s Christian Association which was the leading organisation in promoting Women’s Rights in Zambia.
Aggie holds qualifications in Organisation Development, Development Studies and Community Development.
Money and marketing as a force for good
Sophie Jane Mortimer is a communications consultant for changemakers and creatives. Over the past decade she’s built successful marketing strategies and launches for global movements, visionaries and creative projects, like the TreeSisters ‘Million Trees’ campaign, where she helped to grow an audience of over 250,000 to crowdfund over $100,000 and plant a million trees as well as Red School‘s global ‘Menstruality’ movement. Her secret power is making marketing joyful, fun and easy rather than overwhelming and depleting. Sophie is passionate about empowering and educating people to offer their unique contribution, so that we can co-create the world we want for future generations.
The power of networking and sorority for professional women
Co-Founder and CEO of the certified B-Corp Women in Management and UN Women Consultant. Experts in social entrepreneurship, networking and gender equality in organizations.
Global MBA from Universidad de Chile and Concordia University, Canada. Public Administrator of Universidad de Concepción with a graduate diploma in International Trade and Diplomacy. Graduated from “Promociona Chile” Program, for Women in Leadership Roles from Universidad Adolfo Ibañez. Fellow TICA (Thailand International Collaboration Agency) 2018 for its annual Gender Equality program. Chosen one of the 100 Women Leaders of Chile in 2019 by Diario El Mercurio-Mujeres Empresarias.
Living your life’s work
CHAMELI ARDAGH is the founder of Awakening Women, a yogini and women’s wisdom keeper. Her love of decoding and experimenting with ancient wisdom teachings through her own practice in yogini circles all over the world has crystallized maps of spiritual awakening and leadership that are accessible, practical and honoring of women today. Rooted in earth honoring, devotional women’s spirituality and goddess centered tantric yoga, she is especially appreciated for her love of mythology and storytelling as a key to spiritual awakening and embodiment.
Following her own love of prolonged periods of practice immersion, she has created the wildly successful annual ashram retreats in India and Greece, gathering women from all over the world for more than 13 years, as well as facilitator trainings, online practice immersions and an online Women’s Wisdom School. She is a spiritual activist and philanthropist in training, committed to using her influence and resources to educate and support organizations working on behalf of Mother Earth and the empowerment of women and girls. Chameli was born in Norway, and when she is not traveling, she now lives in Northern California with her husband Arjuna and their cats, Leonard and Luzma, and dog, Cinnamon. www.AwakeningWomen.com
Owning your Story, writing your daring ending
Vijayalakshmi Chari (Vijji) wears multiple hats as a coach, facilitator, and storyteller. Having done her Masters in Management studies in Mumbai, Vijji has worked for over 19 years in the corporate sector and education with several organisations like Navgati, Infosys, Dr Reddy’s foundation, ThinkSoft and TV Rao learning systems in the area of leadership development and organizational diagnosis. Her interest in learning led her to set up Magic Puddles, an alternate learning space for children in their formative years. She is most passionate about creating spaces for individuals and groups for explorations at self and interpersonal levels. In addition to coaching, Vijji also is co-founder of By the River, an organization that uses storytelling to build a culture of authenticity and inclusion. As a trained process facilitator, she has designed and facilitated personal growth labs in the area of leadership for women. She uses theatre and various methodologies of experiential learning to facilitate individual and team transformation. Vijji is a certified Professional Credited Coach (PCC) by the International Coach Federation (ICF) and has worked with diverse professionals from first time managers to business heads across industries (product development centers, IT, hospitality, and retail) and entrepreneurs. She has also been a mentor to others training towards their coaching certification as well.
The dance of the feminine and masculine
Harriet is a Psychologist specialising in Leadership and Organisational development. She completed a psychosynthesis psychotherapy training and Masters degree in Leadership and Organizational Development. She is also a part of the Faculty at the Institute of Psychosynthesis and a coaching supervisor as well. Harriet is an experienced facilitator of group work and is passionate about supporting the emergence of a more diverse workplace. She has worked with executives from Apple, Ebay, Paypal, Tata and other corporate multi-nationals, and government departments. Harriet has developed and delivered several leadership programmes for UAE women incorporating equine guided learning, sponsored by HRH Princess Haya bint Al Hussein.
Re-imagining women’s leadership: The new axis of power
Geeta Desai is the Immediate Past President of Graduate Women International (GWI)
Geeta has previously represented Graduate Women International GWI at the UN where she worked with its functional commissions, agencies and funds to help women and girls create lives of sustainable independence. In this capacity, she has also worked with UN Women, the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, supporting the development of workshops for the Commission on the Status of Women parallel events.
She has also served as Advocacy Convener for Women Graduates – USA, the American affiliate of GWI. There she maintained a blog about international women’s issues and the internationalization of American women’s issues.
Geeta has been the featured speaker at numerous women’s conferences in the United States as well as in Asia. She has spoken on topics that cover the Global Women’s Crisis, Human Rights, Social and Economic Justice in South Asia and Women’s Global Leadership Development.
Specifically, her work has focused on India and she travelled frequently to that country to research Indian and multi-national NGOs that are working to end sex-trafficking and other crimes against women.
For three decades, she worked as an Organizational Development Consultant to private foundations in the United States to help nonprofits with Program Development and Evaluation, Resource and Capacity Development, Human Resource Development, Management Training, Executive Coaching and the Management of Diversity.
She has chaired several national conferences on diversity in America, the most recent being “Diversity on Non-Profit Boards”, and she has developed a series of leadership workshops, seminars and discussions on the subjects of diversity and inclusiveness that are being taught nationally by a number of trainers.
She also convened the United States’ first conference on Corporate Social Responsibility.
Her other accomplishments include the creation of a residence for homeless AIDs patients in collaboration with the Gannett Foundation and the Dutchess County Department of Social Services; the development of the first NY regional Community Needs Assessment Study; development of a blueprint for inter-racial dialogue for New State’s media, criminal and law enforcement, housing, business and education representatives and the creation of the first Universal Response to Domestic Violence System for Dutchess County.
She has also served as Past President of the Poughkeepsie American Association of University Women. In this capacity, she has worked for gender equity for women and girls through local and national programs, particularly in the areas of access to education and employment.
Unlearning shame
Anushka Kelkar is a researcher and content creator whose interests lie in the intersection of mental health, and social and behavior change. Currently, she works at Dasra, India’s largest strategic philanthropy foundation. Over the last 2 years, she built Brown Girl Gazing, a virtual space where women can openly talk about their relationships with their bodies, the narrow beauty standards in Indian society, and how cultural biases influence the kind of opportunities women have access to. Her project is followed by 10,800+ people and has been featured on platforms like The Huffington Post, CNN, Quartz, Times Of India, Hindustan Times, Scroll, Mid-day and several others.
The powerhouse of the body
Tami Lynn Kent is the founder of Holistic Pelvic Care for women and author of Wild Feminine: Finding Power, Spirit & Joy in the Female Body, Mothering From Your Center, and Wild Creative. She is also an international teacher and TEDx speaker. Her books have been published in Mandarin, French, and Dutch. Tami is passionate about empowering women in health & teaching them how to cultivate their creative energy in all stages of life through her practitioner training programs and personal sessions. Find out more at www.wildfeminine.com.
Fashion with a cause/ Pause: sustainability
Neha is the co-founder of a conscious clothing brand based in India called Pause. Pause launched a little over 3 years ago and has carved out a niche in the sustainable clothing category. With over 10 years of experience in the textile industry in Los Angeles & Mumbai, she believes in and supports the sustainable textile movement taking place in the world right now. She works with eco friendly and upcycled fabric and is working towards creating a zero waste brand. Design for cyclability, design to reduce chemical impact, design to reduce water & energy use and design that explores clean & better technology are the pillars of her practise.
The dance of the feminine and masculine
Laira is a Leadership Coach and a UKCP Accredited Psychotherapist. Her first career was in Investment Banking in Canary Wharf, London, working across the UK, USA and Europe with a focus on Relationship Development and Management. For the past 15 years, Laira has been immersed in the profession of personal development and coaching in the UK. She is a facilitator and director at Equilibrium Partners. Specifically, she integrates Neuro-Linguistic Programming and the Psychosynthesis coaching model of Trifocal vision, drawing upon a unique Leadership and Organisational model called 5DL FIVE DIMENSIONS OF LEADERSHIP developed by Roger Evans.
Behind silenced voices
Trish is a Singer/Songwriter, a registered Voice Movement Therapy Practitioner, a Performing Artist, Educator and Community Choir Director. Whether working with groups or individuals, her approach to life evokes respect, joy, energy, freedom, trust and connection. Believing passionately that ‘Every life can SING’, she specializes in finding the nerve to voice who we truly are, whether at work, home or creating in between. Her life work is anchored in the bedrock of ‘play’. She is trained in InterPlay ®- an improvisation based community arts practice, founded by Cynthia Winton-Henry & Phil Porter, USA. Trish co-founded InterPlay Australia.The creative path has taken her around Australia and overseas to the UK, Europe, USA, India, South Africa and more recently Cambodia, as guest artist, teacher, performer and facilitator. Trish has directed many a cappella choirs, including the Sydney and Cambodia Threshold Choirs (singers who sing beside bedsides in palliative care and recovery). She resided in Phnom Penh 2015-17 and co founded the startup of a not for profit organization -‘Cambodia Sings’ –‘rekindling the love of singing for all Cambodians’.
Behind silenced voices
Wading through fear, finding your authentic voice
Lucy H. Pearce is the author of nine life-changing non-fiction books for women, including Nautilus Award winners Medicine Woman and Burning Woman. Her most recent book is Creatrix: she who makes. Her writing focuses on women’s healing through archetypal psychology, embodiment and creativity. She is currently working on her next book, She of the Sea. Lucy is also the founder of Womancraft Publishing, which publishes paradigm-shifting books by women for women. Her work has been featured in dozens of online and print media and featured in Earth Pathways Diary, WeMoon and If Women Rose Rooted. A much in demand teacher and speaker, she was Keynote at the Goddess Conference in Glastonbury in 2019.
The self beyond known identities and polarities
Meg has spent the better part of the last 20+ years actively seeking the call of her soul — leaving Corporate America in 1999 to step “two-feet in” and commit to finding and living her Soul’s Mission. After countless starts and stops and years of “inner-work,” Meg abandoned her search to dive head first into what was right in front of her; her relationship with herself and her protective personality. It wasn’t until she turned towards herself with deep tender care and welcomed her unconscious shadow patterns and traumatized selves with kindness, compassion, and love, did she begin to align with her Soul, gain clarity about her Dharma, and begin to Embody the SoulWork she is here to do. Along the way, she was given the metaphor of the Seasons to use as a Map for finding her way back into Alignment. She shares with us the Map that she discovered for Hearing and Heeding the Embodied Call of the Soul. She calls this work The Seasons of SoulWork: Embodying the Truth of Who You Are to do the Work You Came Here to Do.
About the Summit and Your Host
Our purpose here is to build a global web of pioneering women, supporting one another. The summit was born from founder Shruti Sonthalia’s vision for women across the world to access more positive narratives: of women standing in their power and living a positive sum game, finding role models in each other.
Shruti is a leadership development facilitator, executive coach,and coach trainer. She has studied Sociology at the London School of Economics (UK) and holds a Diploma in Economics (Singapore). She is a faculty and mentor coach at the international coach training organisation Leadership That Works and co-founder of the Corona Quilt. Shruti enables pioneering leaders to discover their leadership voice, distil their visions into roadmaps, and create top-team alignment. She has led organisational transformation assignments and coaching interventions in both corporate and humanitarian sectors.
What is the New Paradigm in Women’s Leadership?
Attuning to body, mind and spirit, and finding the strength to align and include all three in critical decision-making. Listening deeply to what matters most, and reorienting life around this inner knowing. Recognising joyful creativity as a resource. Manifesting a powerful feminine leadership presence, rooted in the authority of love.
Women will not succeed by claiming territory in an existing zero-sum game, but by changing the rules to bring love into equal standing with power. What happens when we refuse to apologise for our own power, or mould ourselves to fit existing systems?
Reframing the quality time you spend relaxing with loved ones as a critical investment in the flourishing of your work. Enquiring into the shame that teaches us to deprioritise joy, health, vitality and ease. Celebrating successes and owning a sense of accomplishment and contribution.
Developing the confidence to voice your ideas and innovations with colleagues, bosses, partners, and male family members without conflict. Exploring ways to introduce profitable new systems and services within your organization.
The learned patriarchal mindset manifests as self-doubt and perfectionism, silencing our authority and stunting the impact of our work. How do we overcome the self-sabotage that comes from internalised oppression? How do we trust the intuitive thread of creation, allowing us to trust the organic energy of emergence, making ourselves available to it and leading from there?
We understand the wisdom of our bodies, including in the intelligence of creation, our womb, pelvic floor, masculine and feminine energy systems that are present with us. We live our lives connected, attuned to that greater flow. We build and navigate our own lives and how we create in the world from this place of inner alignment, balance and knowing.
We are embedded in nature and the larger living system – we live our life with acknowledgement of this. We care for the planet and for our being, and make choices that honour and express this oneness. We care for our planet, and place future generations at the centre of our decision making.
Money is seen as a resource and energy that can be channeled to manifest the world we desire. It is used to amplify voices that matter creating a more whole, connected and fulfilled world.