How Women Lead

No one gets a heads up before a crisis hits. There's no dress rehearsal, no time to workshop your talking points. You're already in it, and how you lead in that moment defines what people remember after. On September 30, we're bringing together women who've been in the room when the stakes were highest for a real conversation on staying clear-headed, keeping trust intact, and controlling the narrative when it matters most. Join us in New York City: https://lnkd.in/e3feMyYX Dawn Zappetti Diane Gardner Melissa Barahona Jordan Fisher Coco Sellman Kristina Karcic-Ehret Laura Henson Rashida Malcolm Bradley

Portfolio company news: Sylvatex (SVX) just took a major step toward solving one of America's biggest supply chain vulnerabilities. Sylvatex, an HWI portfolio company founded and led by Virginia Klausmeier, has announced a strategic partnership with ONEJOON Group, a global leader in battery equipment and engineering, to accelerate commercial-scale production of domestic cathode materials for lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries. Why this matters: Today, LFP cathode production is heavily concentrated in China. Sylvatex's precursor-free manufacturing platform eliminates a costly intermediate production step required by conventional methods, and this new partnership pairs that innovation with OneJoon's proven equipment and Lab-to-Production expertise to move it from validated process to reliable commercial output, faster and with less risk. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gxWdshk9 The impact: • A credible, faster path to domestic LFP cathode supply: critical as demand accelerates across AI data centers, grid-scale energy storage, EVs, and defense • Projected to cut capital expenditure by up to 50%, total production cost by ~35%, and energy use by ~25% per ton of LFP, with no added water use and no sulfate wastewater • A more resilient, cost-competitive alternative to overseas-concentrated supply chains, at a moment when energy security is a national priority Want to hear more directly from Virginia? Join us next Wednesday, August 19 for our virtual How She Invests: Energy, Grid, and the Cyber Landscape event, where she will be part of the conversation on the future of energy and infrastructure investing. 🔗 RSVP: https://lnkd.in/gv886Siw

34 women now lead Fortune Global 500 companies. A record. Still just 6.8%. We're changing this narrative. Invite another woman in: https://lnkd.in/gJPV2Q5r

Boardrooms change because women decide to walk in. That's the energy behind #GetOnBoard Week (Sept 14–18) — five days dedicated to getting more women into the boardroom. And in Chicago, that work has a name and a face: our Chicago Leadership Committee. The board table has room, and this group is pulling up chairs. Join them at #GetOnBoard Week: https://lnkd.in/gNHmRbep And if you're in the Chicago area, they're hosting a networking reception on September 16th: https://lnkd.in/gQgnY6WV

Women have the capital. Who's opening the door? Women are leading companies. Sitting on boards. Advising founders. Shaping markets. Every single day. So why is there still no clear data on how women actually find their way into private-market investing? Advisors? Peer networks? Founder relationships? Investment communities? Or are too many women still figuring it out alone, with no map and no guide? We're launching the Women, Wealth & Private Market Access Survey: a research effort to find out how women learn about private-market opportunities, who they trust, where the barriers still sit, and what it would actually take to move more women from curious to confident to invested. Why now: every year this gap goes unmeasured is another year women's capital sits on the sidelines of opportunities it's more than ready for. Why you: whether you're an active LP, just starting to explore private markets, or somewhere in the middle, your answer is the data point we're missing. 👉 Take the survey: https://lnkd.in/gnZha73B 👉 Share it with the women investors, executives, founders, board directors, and advisors in your network. The bigger the sample, the sharper the picture. Women aren't short on capital or capability. Let's find out exactly what's standing between that capital and the table, and close the gap with data.

"The women I respect most in this ecosystem didn't build wealth so they could buy more. They built it so they could choose more. Choose which board seats to take. Choose which founders to back, and on what terms. Choose to leave a job that was shrinking them. Choose to pursue their real love. Choose to have impact, to be the real reason something changes." — Julie Castro Abrams Take five minutes to read this. It's well worth your time.

Many women leaders we know are exhausted from the same thing: putting out fires. She shows up. She responds. She holds the line when things fall apart because someone has to, and she's good at it. But here's what nobody tells you: the muscle you use to survive a crisis is not the same muscle you need to build something that outlasts you. Most women never get the space to build the second one. There's always another fire. That's exactly the gap the Movement Building Fellowship exists to close. Applications are now open for the 2026 Women Leaders for the World Movement Building Cohort: for women already leading on the front lines, ready to stop just responding and start building the long-term infrastructure that systemic change actually requires. You'll be facilitated by Carmen Perez-Jordan, civil and human rights leader, Chicana feminist, and someone who has spent a career doing exactly this work. 📅 Applications close August 30 📅 Fellowship runs November 2026 – June 2027 📍 In-residency week: November 3–8, Northern California Join an upcoming info session to learn more and apply: https://lnkd.in/ghfXjCAQ

There's a version of every career where you stay in your lane. Where you keep the title that makes sense on paper, take the safe next step, wait for permission to be "ready." And then there's the version where you pivot into a new industry, a new function, a boardroom you weren't "supposed" to be in yet, and it turns out the thing you were most afraid to leave behind is exactly what made you valuable in the new room. On August 27 in Palo Alto, the women who've lived that second version sit down to talk about what actually happens in the space between who you were and who you're becoming. The real mechanics: how to know a pivot is the right move and not just restlessness, how to translate experience that doesn't look "board-ready" on paper into a seat at the table, and what it takes to walk into a room of directors and belong there. If you've ever sat with a decision that scared you a little, this room is for you. 📍 Foley & Lardner, Palo Alto | Aug 27, 5:30–7:30 PM https://lnkd.in/dRjDwuu8

Two days. Countless connections. So much momentum. We just wrapped an incredible trip to Chicago, and the energy is still buzzing. Here's what happened when this community showed up: 🤝 4 VC meetings — investors eager to deepen their connection to How Women Invest and back more women-led companies in Chicago. ☕ A Women Leaders for the Women breakfast — 12 extraordinary Fellows, Global Advisors, and Coaches gathered to share reflections on the program, the relationships built, and the impact of this community. 🌟 35 women at our Leadership Committee gathering — Nelly Montoya, CCMP™, CPA, Jennifer Lee CDI.D, and Dr. Ann Williams spoke beautifully about why this work matters. And our dear Janine MacLachlan? She brought 7 incredible new women into the room, because that's what this community does, we bring each other along. 🍽️ Dinner with LPs and prospective partners who are excited to do more with us in Chicago. Chicago is embodying what collective action looks like: one room, one relationship, one woman bringing another woman in at a time. To everyone who showed up, shared their story, made an introduction, or simply believed in what we're building, thank you. This is how movements are built.

If you're still waiting for permission to go after a board seat, this is it. Take the seat. https://lnkd.in/gNHmRbep