Women still underrepresented as senior government leaders
Kelly Carnes, president and CEO of TechVision 21 and the former Assistant Secretary of Commerce for technology policy, talked to the Women of Washington about h...
“I think that women are still not as well represented as they could be at the most senior levels of government, technology corporations and nonprofit organizations,” said Kelly Carnes, president and CEO of TechVision 21, in an interview with Women of Washington hosts Aileen Black and Gigi Schumm. Kelly Carnes, president and CEO of TechVision21 “I think that women have made enormous progress at coming up in professions such as law and medicine, but then when you get to other areas of science and engineering, there still is a need to work on the pipeline and also create opportunities for women to advance to the most senior levels,” Carnes said.
Carnes, who is also the former Assistant Secretary of Commerce for technology policy, discussed how the U.S. can keep up with technology and globalization.
“The Obama administration has done a really good job on creating a clean tech strategy and clean tech investment portfolio that has really helped to move that sector of the economy forward. They’re also doing great work with manufacturing,” she said.
“The unfinished business relates to efforts to address what’s commonly known as the ‘valley of death’, where so many companies and technologies get their start with a great idea that’s shown in the laboratory, but there’s so much work to get that idea commercialized and actually into a product and a successful company.”
Carnes also talked about the time she spent working for Hillary Clinton, when she was the first lady.
“[Hilary Clinton] is fantastic, a wonderful role model,” Carnes said. “She was a really great first lady, then senator, then Secretary of State.”
Gigi Schumm welcomes Washington's most ambitious and influential female executives to share their secrets to success. Contact Gigi at gigischumm@gmail.com. Subscribe to Women of Washington’s audio interviews on Apple Podcasts or PodcastOne.