The panel of judges for our EmpowerWISM program was carefully selected to ensure we had an array of highly established and diverse experts within the transportation industry. The skillsets and experience each panelist brings to the table is totally unique with backgrounds in both the public and private sectors. A goal of ours was to enlist the expertise of women who have been involved with other female-orientated programs, promoting equality and inclusivity, particularly within the mobility arena.

Keep reading to find out the industry experts that will be the judges for our Empower Women in Shared Mobility Award! 

2021 empower women in shared mobility: meet the judges

Our judges include, Rupa Nandy, Head of UITP (International Association of Public Transport) India, Jessica Alba, Transportation Planning, Policy & Strategy at Stanford University, Sandra Phillips, Shared Mobility Architect, Founder and CEO, movmi, Amy Ford, Transportation and Advanced Mobility Leader at ITS America, Jane Hoffer, CEO at GoWithFlow and Stephanie Medeiros, Global Account Executive at ABB.

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

The intake form has a set of 5 questions that allow you to showcase your vision, product/service and business. The judges will then assess each application based on the following categories: vision, leadership and innovation. We have built out a subset of questions that we’ll use to guide our evaluation;

VISION

• Is the venture majority women owned or controlled or managed?
• How well is the vision articulated?
• Is the vision aligned to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals?
• Does the solution support efforts around transportation equity?

LEADERSHIP

• How well demonstrated is your market know-how?
• What are the unique strengths of your team?
• What’s your growth strategy?
• Is the solution super specific to one city/community or has potential to scale?

INNOVATION

• What’s unique about your product/service?
• Is ‘technology’ one of your innovation pillars?
• What need does your product/service solve in the transportation value chain?

To apply for the #EmpowerWISM program click here.

We created the Empower Women in Shared Mobility Award to address the lack of female founded and led companies within our sector. As you may already know, we will be showcasing 3 companies and the winning company will receive a 12 month mentoring package, access to the EmpowerWisM network and will be invited to different opportunities to showcase their work. However, the application criteria for this program has been updated. Previously we asked for 51% or more majority female founded/owned/led companies and companies with a yearly revenue up to 350k.

Since the program launched in October, we received much interest from female professionals within the industry – who did not quite meet the previous criteria. We removed the more than 51% majority owned stipulation to allow for companies that have at least one female co-founders and executives which is a step in the right direction. Companies with more female representation receive bonus points. Companies with a revenue above 350k can also now apply.

The very fact that we needed to update this criteria, is evidence of the severe lack of women leads within this industry. This is why programs like this one, are vital in helping to rectify the inherent gender bias within the design and operations the transportation sector.

To apply for the #EmpowerWISM program click here.

Note: This article has not been endorsed or sponsored by any of the providers mentioned and there is no affiliation between movmi and them.