The U.S. Department of State announced the first-ever Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) Indo-Pacific Women-in-Tech Summit, which took place November 13-16 in Taipei with 75 women entrepreneurs from Brunei, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. At the summit, the women entrepreneurs participated in interactive workshops, a pitch competition, and networking opportunities for participants to strengthen and advance women-led businesses across the region. Part of the United States' broader efforts to expand economic opportunity and equity, as well as societal inclusion, AWE aims to provide knowledge, networks, and access to international women entrepreneurs as they launch or scale successful businesses in communities worldwide.
The AWE Indo-Pacific Women-in-Tech Summit was hosted by the American Institute in Taiwan with strong support from Taiwan's Small and Medium Enterprise and Startup Administration under the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Implemented through a collaboration between the State Department and Advancing Women in Tech (AWIT), a 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to accelerating more women into technical leadership roles, the summit showcased two experts through the U.S. Speaker Program, a State Department program which connects professional foreign audiences with U.S. subject-matter experts; Shanti Punukollo, board member of AWIT, CEO of Punukollu Inc., and former product leader at Amazon and Microsoft, and Holly Liu, co-founder of Kabam and co-founder and managing partner of PKO Investments, delivered remarks and engaged participants in active discussions during the Summit.
The Academy for Women Entrepreneurs is a global economic empowerment exchange program established by the U.S. Department of State, in partnership with Arizona State University's Thunderbird School of Global Management and the Freeport-McMoRan Foundation. Operating in more than 100 countries and economies worldwide, AWE has engaged with approximately 25,000 women entrepreneurs to support them in their journeys to reach their full economic potential.
