W-Tech 2009

womenintechnology.co.uk and the British Computer Society would like to invite you to W-Tech 2009, a one day recruitment, career development and networking event for female technologists including students, postgraduates, experienced professionals and returners to work. The event is free to attend and there will be a recruitment fair running during the day alongside a packed programme of career development and technology talks, workshops and seminars covering topics such as managing your online profile, increasing your confidence and improving your influencing skills. Attendees will have the chance to attend up to six of these free career development sessions running between 12pm and 5.45pm. More information on the sessions available can be found here: https://www.womenintechnology.co.uk/upcoming-event

In the evening there will be a networking event (similar in style to the womenintechnology networking events we run) that’s going to be a ‘must attend’ networking opportunity for everyone interested in and involved with ‘Women in IT’. The evening part of the event will start with a reception at 6pm. The theme for the formal part of the evening will be ‘achieving in the technology profession’ and we are bringing together a panel of successful women working in IT who will share their own career experiences and take questions from the audience.

Confirmed speakers so far are Lis Astall, MD Public Service in Europe, Africa & Latin America at Accenture, Punita Gajree, Head of Programme Solutions for London 2012 and Kavita Oberoi – Managing Director, Oberoi Consulting (Kavita appeared on Channel 4’s hit show The Secret Millionaire in August 2008).People can attend during the day, for the evening networking or for both parts of the event – everyone is welcome but they need to register. Places on the free career development workshops can be reserved during the event sign up process so sign up soon to make sure you can attend the sessions you’re most interested in! You can register by clicking here: https://forms.bcs.org/w-tech/prog/index.php Please put the date in your diary, pass this invite onto other women (and men) who you think would be interested in attending W-Tech 2009 and we’ll look forward to seeing you there on the 3rd February.If you have any questions at all or if you are an employer who might be interested in being involved with the event, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Thanks so much! Best wishes,

Maggie BerryDirector, womenintechnology.co.uk Direct line: 020 7422 9214 Email: mberry@womenin.co.uk

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Goldilocks in Reverse: The Making of the Current Financial Crisis

financialdecline.JPGContributed by Martin Mitchell, director of eLearning for the Corporate Training Group

Background – Everything is “Just Right”

It all began when the economy was in what was said to be a ‘Goldilocks’ scenario – the world’s developed economies, particularly the US and Western Europe, were neither too hot nor too cold, but were just right.

The benign economic backdrop of low inflation and low interest rates meant investors were keen to find investments with competitive yields, and were even willing to borrow to invest in them and ‘leverage up.’ So, the bankers came up with variants of the old securitization model to provide instruments paying high yields. They repackaged pools of loans, especially mortgage loans and sold bonds linked to these loans to investors. These ‘asset backed securities’ were supplemented by credit enhancements, like insurance to enable the bonds to get high credit ratings from the ratings agencies. Special purpose vehicles (SPVs) were set up to facilitate the issuance and were variously known as collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) or collateralized loan obligations (CLOs). This was the golden age of what became known as ‘structured credit.’

Read more

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In Case You Missed It: News Round-Up

martin.jpgContributed by Martin Mitchell of the Corporate Training Group

In case you were too busy to have kept up with all the news, contributor Martin Mitchell has gathered some important market events from last week to help you start this week well informed:

Mergers and Acquisitions

  • As expected, pharmaceuticals group Pfizer unveiled a $68bn takeover of Wyeth.The bid is to be paid for using equal amounts of cash, equity and debt. The news will be good for the seven advising banks that could earn as much as $150m in fees. The lucky recipients are three lead financial advisers for Pfizer (Bank of America/Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase) plus another two financial advisers (Barclays and Citigroup), the advisers to Wyeth are Morgan Stanley and Evercore Partners.
  • Dow Chemical’s planned $15bn takeover of Rohm & Haas is in jeopardy since Dow does not have the funds to close the deal. The deal was struck last summer before valuations collapsed and Dow saw a potential cash infusion of $9.5bn from Kuwait for a planned joint venture vanish. However, the US Federal Trade Commission has now cleared the deal, which under the original terms means Dow should now complete the takeover. Dow is scrambling to get together the finance and is considering cutting its dividend. This would save around $1.6bn, but Dow has not cut its dividend since 1912! Rohm & Haas have asked a US court to enforce the transaction at the original price.
  • Swiss drugmaker Roche launched a surprise $42bn hostile bid for the 44% of Californian biotech company Genentech Inc that it doesn’t own. It bid $86.50 per share against an $89 per share bid that was rejected in August.

Read more

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Leadership Conference on Global Corporate Citizenship

Agenda Highlights Include:

Opening Keynote Presentation:

A senior executive from Bayer Corporation will discuss how they incorporate CSR as an integral part of its business plan for global leadership.

Citizenship and Corporate Social Responsibility:

The Landscape Carl Bauer, Director, National Energy Technology Laboratory, Department of Energy William Guyton, President, World Cocoa Foundation Dr. Jonathan Margolis, Deputy Coordinator Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State Jim Thomas, Vice President, Corporate Social Responsibility, JCPenney

Proving Return on Investment for Citizenship and CSR Initiatives:

Moderator Gordon Feller, Chief Executive Officer, Urban Age Institute Speakers Jeff Erikson, Vice President, SustainAbility, Inc. David Logan, President, Corporate Citizenship Andrew Mercy, President, AngelPoints, Inc.

Luncheon: CSR and the Value to the Bottom Line Introduction:

David Vidal, Research Director, Global Corporate Citizenship, The Conference Board Presenter Sir Mark Moody–Stuart, Chairman, Anglo-American plc, London, England

For more information on topics, or to view the Pre-Conference Workshop, or to Register

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5th Insurance Linked Securities Summit

Insurance linked securities, whether in the form of catastrophe bonds or synthetic life settlements, offer investors both a high potential for growth and a diversified and uncorrelated asset. Following a landmark year in 2007, the catastrophe bond market has faced challenges in 2008. With insurance prices softening, bond issuances are down and the need to find value and the appropriate risk level is paramount. It is in times like these that innovation prevails, and the convergence of the reinsurance and capital markets is poised to respond. Meanwhile, the life settlement products market is growing at a rapid pace, with sophistication in products increasing to fulfill the demand of an increasingly sophisticated investor base. With the support of capital market financing, the insurance and life settlement industries are set to become one of the most lucrative markets in the coming years. The need to transfer risk and the appetite to take on risk will always be present, and the insurance-linked securities industry has the potential for innovation to develop the solutions to survive any market cycle.

Who should attend?

• Hedge Funds

• Dedicated ILS Funds

• Pension Funds

• Reinsurance Companies

• Life Settlements Investors

• Risk Managers

• Portfolio Managers

• Capital Markets Specialists

• Chief Underwriting Officers

• Life Settlement Providers

• Fixed Income Investment

• Managers

• ABS Investors

• Alternative Risk Transfer

• Specialists

• Weather Risk Managers

• Actuarial Consultants

For more information and to Register

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State of the Clean Green Industry

SDForum, in partnership with FountainBlue, is delighted to invite you to our second annual State of the Clean Green Industry, featuring policy-makers, entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and investors, updating the larger Silicon Valley community on the opportunities and challenges in the clean green space.

Panel Discussion: ‘Where’s the Green in Clean?’ This discussion will feature a wide range of investorsin clean energy organizations, from angels to VCs to investment bankers.

Panel Discussion: ‘Doing Well While Doing Good’ Panelists will discuss what their organization is doinginternally to minimize their carbon footprint, and how their products and services are better servingtheir customers, how their efforts will stimulate innovation in clean technology.

Panel Discussion: ‘Clean Green Success Stories’

Register here

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She’s Geeky in the Bay Area

Join us for the second She’s Geeky in the Bay Area
You can register here.

This is a beautiful venue with lots of natural light. You can take Cal Train to the Mountain View stop and on weekdays get a shuttle there. We are going to work to support women who want to carpool to the venue from through out the bay area – when you registered you will be asked about this.

Schedule
January 29
Pre-Conference informal no-host drinks and dinner – location TBD in Mountain View

Friday and Saturday
Will be full of peer-to-peer learning and discussion sessions. All the women at the conference will gather on Saturday morning and make an agenda for the day. A list of proposed topics appears on the She’s Geeky wiki.
Breakfast snacks, coffee, and lunch will be provided.

January 30
Registration Opens at 8am
Breakfast begins at 8am – begals, coffee, yogurt, fruit
Introductions and Agenda making begins at 9am
2 sessions
Lunch
3 sessions
Closing 5-5:30
Drinks and Snacks
Ada Lovelace Movie 6pm
Organized Group Dinners in Mountain View (no host) 7pm
January 31
Registration Opens at 8am
Breakfast begins at 8am – begals, coffee, yogurt, fruit
Introductions and Agenda making begins at 9am
3 sessions
Lunch
2 sessions
Closing 4:30-5
Upcoming Event
Women in Boston and DC are working to bring She’s geeky to their city in the Spring. Please let us know if you want to help with those events by sending e-mail at info@shesgeeky.org

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Top Companies for Women

by Liz O’Donnell (Boston)

Fortune Magazine recently released its annual list of “100 Best Companies to Work For.” Flexibility and integrating personal and professional lives are key considerations for prospective employees today –especially for women. The top companies recognize this and have added programs to ease employee’s personal workloads and child-rearing responsibilities. For example, more than one-fourth of the “Best Companies” offer an onsite child-care center. Another example: 82 percent of the companies allow employees to telecommute or work at home at least 20 percent of the time. Finally, 15 companies on this list pay 100% of their employees’ health-care premiums.

This year, Silicon Valley company NetApp tops the list, knocking Google from the perch it held for two years in a row. Among a slew of employee perks at this technology company, two stand out: adoption aid and autism coverage. NetApp, not coincidentally, also made the list of companies with the most women. Twenty-four percent of the employees are female. The companies with the highest percentage of women include a daycare provider (Bright Horizons, which has an almost all female team), a teddy bear giant (Build-a-Bear), and several healthcare companies.

Read more

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Corporate Image and Branding Conference

Join us at the 2009 Corporate Image and Branding Conference and participate as the world’s most innovative companies discuss their strategies and solutions.

Speakers include:

John Volkman Corporate Vice President Branding, AMD

Gaston Legorburu Chief Creative Officer Sapient Corporation

Lee Hornick Program Director The Conference Board

James Kelly US Brand Leader PricewaterhouseCoopers

James Cerruti Executive Vice President Managing Director – Research BrandLogic

Bill Samuels, Jr. Chief Executive Officer and President Maker’s Mark Bourbon

For more information or to Register

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January 2009 Women 2.0 Mixer & Book Swap!

Join Women 2.0 for drinks and a book swap, tell us the best book you read in 2008, and what you are eager to read in 2009. Be sure to bring your business/tech/entrepreneurship books to swap for other Women 2.0 members’ books!

With Special Guest:

Tara Hunt,Tara is co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Citizen Agency, an Internet consultancy specializing in community-centric strategies around product research, design, development and marketing. She has over 11 years experience in web design, 8 years in online marketing, and over 4 years of blogging on HorsePigCow. Tara is the author of “The Whuffie Factor” (coming mid-2009), an insightful and practical guide to connecting with the online communities that matter to your business in ways that enrich both.

Get $5 off if you bring a book!

Register here

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