THIS IS WHO WE ARE
EWA raises funds to support scholarships for women leaders whose organizations cannot or will not support them
OUR STORY
HELPING WOMEN TO ADVANCE
Once upon a time, a serial entrepreneur and immigrant to the USA, Larraine Segil decided to take her decades of experience and pay it forward to future generations of women who had some of her same challenges of "being exceptional but different."
Her goal was to guide and connect them. She endowed the educational institutions that educated her and selected upper career Exceptional Women Who Walked the Road Less Traveled from those places annually. They called themselves the Larraine Segil Scholars (or LSS). These women learned from Larraine how-to guide, connect and mentor each other and yearned to pay this knowledge forward to others while progressing in their own careers. That is why this Non-Profit Public Foundation, Exceptional Women Awardees (EWA) was founded.
The LSS are the Founders of the EWA.
Larraine approached some of the world's leading companies and asked them if they wanted their high potential, high-level women to be enabled to rise even further in their organizations through the EWA Proprietary Metrics Driven Mentoring and Executive Coaching group by volunteer C-level Executives, and if so, if they would support this program?
The answer was a resounding 'yes'.
KPMG, Adecco, Intel, Cisco, Korn Ferry, Amgen, UBS, ITV Studios America, Frontier Communications, Cisco, Amgen, GlobalLogic (Hitachi), White & Case Lawyers and many more nominated their women executives, and continue to do so.
Some women whose companies would not support them, nominated themselves.
C- Level Women
Over time, it became clear that there is a sub segment of women for whom EWA has become a critical community. They are women at C level who are either thinking of transitioning into a portfolio career, paying it forward along with Board work, or selling their businesses or the ones they are running, or even moving to another C level position. These women find when they make these transitions, they leave behind their identity, community and often their purpose with the P&L they just left. We fill that gap with a peer group of intellectual stimulation, mutual referrals, support and community. EWA now has at least one cohort annually that is only C level women. In 2021 there will be 2 such cohorts, as the demand is significant.
Public Sector Women
EWA fundraises to enable a public sector woman to join selected cohorts ( LAPD, FBI, ATF and more) at no cost
The Awardee not only benefits in her own career, but she also learns how to coach and mentor, and joins the Alumnae group to pass her knowledge on to those who follow. The ladder of success for our women is always moving in both directions - reaching up and reaching down.
LARRAINE SEGIL
FOUNDER, CHAIR AND CEO OF THE EXCEPTIONAL WOMEN AWARDEES FOUNDATION
Larraine Segil is a South African-born entrepreneur, attorney, adviser, lecturer, author, board member, and cheesemaker! She is renowned as the leading Guru in Strategic Alliances having written 5 books on the topic and built (and sold) the leading Consultancy in the area after being CEO of entrepreneurial companies in Health Care and Aerospace Advanced Materials Distribution. She taught Executive Education on Alliances at Caltech for 24 years. She is a Professor at Southwestern Law School on Business Alliances and has been a Professor in the Straus Center Masters Program in Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine ( #1 in the USA). Her Mentoring Methodology for EWA is proprietary and brings her partnering expertise into a metrics-driven, year-long program that has proven results. Segil was a member of the Board of Frontier Communications ( 2005 -2017) a Fortune 200 company.