7 International Women Who Inspire Amazing Cultures
International Women Company Culture

7 International Women Who Inspire Amazing Cultures

International Women’s Day is a day close to my heart because it’s not only the day that the oldest of my two daughters was born, but it’s a day to celebrate women around the world who have made an impact. In honor of that, we at Glassdoor have come up with a list of amazing women across the globe who are CEOs of companies that have incredible company cultures.

1) Adi Tatartko from Israel & CEO of Houzz (94% approval rating / 3.9 company rating)

In just five years, Adi and her husband Alon Cohen have created one of the top 200 web properties in the U.S. Each month, the site draws in 25 million visitors and is home to those looking to revamp or re-design their home or happy place. Among venture-funded companies, only 13% have a female co-founder, Pitchbook reported. Tatartko started the company when remodeling her own home, and Houzz is now “home” to over 1,000 people!

Lesson: Create a company that helps solve challenges in your own life.

2) Anne Wojcicki from Silicon Valley & CEO of 23AndMe (100% approval rating / 4.2 company rating)

Anne Wojcicki, a 43-year-old mother of two, founded 23andMe to help give over a million consumers information about their ancestry, career status, wellness and other traits. A key piece in her effort to educate her customers about themselves is making genetics a relatable topic. She’s succeeded in demystifying genetics for adults, and she’s created two children’s books on genetics to help make the subject of biology and heredity accessible to kids.

Lesson: Make your product and company relatable to a wide audience.

3) Victoria Ransom from New Zealand & CEO of Wildfire Interactive (96% approval rating / 4.3 company rating)

This savvy CEO, along with her Swiss partner Alain Chuard, sold their social media marketing company Wildfire to Google for a reported $350 million. Instead of spending time touting this great achievement, Victoria Ransom focused on figuring out how the acquisition and merger would impact her 400 employees. The White House even honored her alongside 10 other “immigrant innovators” as “the best and brightest from around the world.” She was also #19 on Fortune Magazine’s Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs in 2012. This woman is scooping up the accolades!

Lesson: Focus on an employee-first work culture.

For more inspiration, watch this amazing video on their company culture:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RJqhAtoVYw

Obviously, these three women are the poster CEOs for achieving international success. But success starts somewhere, and all women (and men!) around the world can influence this great change in their own company to make a positive impact on the world. Here are 3 more companies to watch with incredible international female CEOs!

4 & 5) Elena & Francesca from Milan & Founders of Rebel Girls

Elena and Francesca started Rebel Girls while Elena was working as a journalist and Francesca was a stage director and playwright in Milan. The idea came about when they realized that girls needed more female role models to look up to in order to set bigger leadership goals. Now with 12 mobile apps, 6 paperback books in English, French and Italian, these two women used that capital to build a toolkit that helps underserved communities to design and build playable spaces in collaboration with the NFL, Kaboom, Zynga.org and the YMCA.

Lesson: Amazing content around your key company values can fuel your greater goal as an organization.

6) Luciana Caletti from Brazil & CEO of Love Mondays

Love Mondays is an online platform that allows professionals who are looking for jobs to access free-of-charge business valuations, salary information and tips for interviews. All its information is posted anonymously by employees. Companies, in turn, disclose information about career opportunities, trainings, benefits and job openings. Sound familiar? Luciana and her co-founders Dave Curran and Shane O'Grady built such a great company that Glassdoor acquired Love Mondays in 2016.

Lesson: Create a company that allows balanced and unbiased opinions about whatever it is you are selling to help everyone make better decisions.

7) Lorna Borenstein from Silicon Valley & CEO of Grokker

With 15 years of high-profile roles at eBay, Yahoo and Move.com, Lorna Borenstein thought her days of tech were over while heading off on a trip to Hawaii. Until she realized that there was no good high-quality yoga instruction like she wanted. That’s when Grokker was born. The site started as a way to provide high-definition videos that teach dozens of yoga techniques to help people get in better shape. Grokker has grown to 30 employees and now features videos on meditation, cycling, HIIT, pilates and more.

Lesson: Big things start small. With limited resources, every single person you hire can make the difference between success and failure.

As evident by these 7 amazing and inspiring international women, the surface has only begun to be scratched, and there’s so much potential for more women to rise to leadership roles. And men can help with that success! The NBA is one company of many that has joined the LeanIn.org movement started by the legendary COO of Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg.

Happy International Women’s Day!

For more inspiration, download our Complete Guide to Employee Engagement Activities which has everything you need to inspire a great culture at your own company.