NEWS

Earlier this year I moderated a Women in Leadership panel discussion for the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC) and Women in Communications and Technology (CWT) speaker series, with a focus on the intersection between retail and technology. This event brought together three female leaders running successful e-commerce businesses in Canada: Well.ca's President and CEO, Rebecca McKillican; BRIKA's co-founder and builder of business, Jen Lee Koss, and me.

The tech industry’s diversity problems are exacerbated by its obsession with genius coders and brilliant founders, Carissa Romero, a partner at the diversity consulting startup Paradigm, said today at TechCrunch Disrupt NY. Romero, who took part in a panel of diversity advocates, said that the mentality that geniuses are born rather than created through experience and practice can be alienating for people who don’t fit the stereotype of the average tech worker: young, white, straight male, probably rocking a hoodie.