Reshma Saujani

Reshma Saujani, founder of Girls Who Code, a non-profit with 10,000 chapters globally working to close the gender gap in tech and help young girls learn coding skills.

Born to Gujarati Indian parents, Harvard University and Yale Law School graduate Saujani started in corporate law before making history as the first Indian-American woman to run for US Congress in 2010.

► In 2011, seeing the gender gap in STEM, she founded Girls Who Code, which has since reached 300,000 students, partnered with tech giants like Amazon and Microsoft, and was named Fast Company's Most Innovative Non-Profit in 2019.
► In 2020, seeing mothers struggle during the pandemic, Saujani launched Moms First, fighting for paid family leave and affordable childcare – work that helped shape the groundbreaking "Marshall Plan for Moms."

Saujani now hosts “My So-Called Midlife”, a podcast exploring the challenges women face in midlife. Featuring prominent guests like Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Justice Ketanji Brown, it earned 8th spot on TIME Magazine's “10 Best Podcasts of 2024.” 🥳

Saujani's work has earned her several accolades:

► WSJ Magazine Innovator of the Year (2020)
► Forbes Most Powerful Women Changing the World (2020)
► Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People (2018)

I’ve known and admired Reshma’s courage and compassion for years. My fave quote: "Women are so afraid of failure because they think it will break them…I give myself 30 days to think about it, to analyze it, and then I move on. And so I think that I have learned that failure is a privilege."