Joint Alumni Forum
Gender Representation Revisited – acknowledging International Women’s Day / Women’s History Month
Panel Discussion with Experts
Keynote Speaker:
Marisa Drew, Chief Sustainability Officer at Standard Chartered
Panel Speakers:
David Foster, Ice Hockey Trainer, "Mr. Mom" and Family Project Manager
Sree Kancherla, Director, Global Sustainability at Kearney
Anna Stando, facilitator/speaker, gender equality, unconscious bias and inclusive leadership
Moderator:
Diane Bailey, Executive Board, Harvard Club of Switzerland and Founder of the Joint Alumni Forum
Dear Harvardians, Joint Alumni Forum, and Interested Parties,
The Joint Alumni Forum is commencing 8 years of fostering social responsibility impact with 18 events and 50+ guest speakers. In its first year, the Forum ran an interactive event on Gender Equality, aimed at both female and male participants. 7 years later the Joint Alumni Forum Committee would like to revisit gender representation and other related themes.
The next event “Gender Representation Revisited” is on 20 March 2025, at 6 pm at Walder Wyss offices in Zurich and virtually. We would like to look back 7 years later and reflect on whether anything has changed in the equality space at all, inter alia.
- Have things improved or are things still the same as 7 years ago, 20 years ago, or even longer?
- what exactly is gender nowadays, do we need to change the definition?
- how have equality issues changed in the modern, green, and digital world?
Our keynote speaker, Marissa Drew, has been recognized by: (i) BBC as one of the Most Powerful Women in Britain, (ii) Fortune Magazine as one of the 50 Most Powerful Women in International Business, (iii) Financial News in its "Most Influential Women in Finance" list from 2007 – 2018, and (iv) Time Magazine as one of top Global Climate Leaders and by Futur i/o as one of the top European CSO's. See the full profile below.
Another member of the panel, David Forster, brings a different perspective as inter alia a Mr. Mom and Ice Hockey Trainer of both boys and girls hockey teams. He can speak about the vast differences between the treatment of boys and girls in the sports world and how he is trying to affect equal opportunities there.
We will also hear from Sree Kancherla about how she created a hybrid social impact business model to transition Women for Women International’s Rwandan program, and Anna Stando who can speak about how things have evolved in Switzerland in gender equality, unconscious bias and inclusive leadership.
We will conclude with closing remarks by Urs Schenker, Walder Wyss/President of the Harvard Club of Switzerland, who can give a personal account of some key moments of the Swiss Woman’s Suffrage Movement.
When: Thursday 20 March 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm (arrivals from 5:30 pm), Drinks and Networking to follow
Location: Walder Wyss AG, Seefeldstrasse 123, 8008 Zürich
Tickets: General Admission CHF20, Student/Part-timer and Retired rate CHF10, Free Virtual Option. Free for refugees
We look forward to providing a forum for discussion and networking.
For and on behalf of the Harvard Club of Switzerland and the Joint Alumni Forum
Diane B Bailey
Register here
Meet our Panel
Marisa Drew
Marisa Drew was appointed Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) for Standard Chartered Bank on 1 July 2022. Marisa has held numerous leadership roles during her 39-year career in financial services. She worked at Merrill Lynch in Investment Banking from 1992 until she joined Credit Suisse in 2003 to lead the Leveraged Finance Organization and ultimately ran EMEA Investment Banking and Capital Markets. In 2017, Marisa moved into the field of sustainability as CEO of the Impact Advisory and Finance Group for Credit Suisse and ultimately served as the bank's inaugural CSO.
Marisa currently serves on several boards and advisory panels, including as an NED of NASDAQ-listed Liberty Global plc and AIM-listed Agronomics, as well as the ReOcean Fund advisory council backed by HSH Prince Albert's Monaco Foundation. She is also an advisory board member of the City of London Corporation and on the Monetary Authority of Singapore's Sustainable Finance Advisory Panel.
Marisa’s external activities also include a charitable UK Advisory Board role for Room-to-Read. Amongst other previous roles, Marisa has served on the advisory boards of the Aspen Institute UK, the Milken Institute Center for Strategic Philanthropy, the FCA Markets Practitioners Panel, and on several High-Level Working Groups sponsored by the World Economic Forum and the UN, including the UN Oceans Panel. In 2024, Marisa was recognized by Time Magazine as one of the top Global Climate Leaders and by Futur i/o as one of the top European CSOs. In 2022, Marisa was recognized by Sustainability Magazine as one of the Top 10 CSOs of a Global Corporation, and in 2021 as one of 100 Global Visionary Leaders by Meaningful Business and EY. The BBC has also recognized her as one of the Most Powerful Women in Britain and by Fortune Magazine as one of the 50 Most Powerful Women in International Business.
Marissa has a BA in Finance & Marketing with distinction from Virginia's McIntire School of Commerce (1986) and an MBA with distinction from Wharton, University of Pennsylvania (1992).
David Forster
David Forester is a self-proclaimed “Mr. Mom" and Family Project Manager. Since 2016, he has been training ice hockey players for both boys and girls in Switzerland.
David’s previous roles include being an independent Trader and Fund Manager (2008 – 2018), Executive Director, Head of Risk Management Technology (to 2005), Global Head of Credit Business Change (UBS 2004 - 2007), and Head of Corporate Technology Group, Head of Risk Systems and Head of Strategy and Planning at ABN AMRO (1999 - 2003). Before that, David had many roles at Bankers Trust including Head of Risk Management Systems, Head of Global Derivatives Risk Management, Head of Global Medium Term Funding, Strategic Liquidity Investment Portfolio Manager, Interest Rate Swaps Book runner, and Front Office Technology (1986 – 1998).
David’s volunteer work included Assistant Coach for 3 ZSC Nachwuchs hockey teams (U11-U13) and a Coach/Trainer for SIHF Girls Ice Hockey (U12). David is also one of the co-founders of the Joint Alumni Forum.
David earned a BA in Applied Mathematics with a Computer Science concentration from Yale University (1981-1086).
Sree Kancherla
Sree is an innovative and influential advisor and global business strategist in the evolving social impact and corporate sustainability sector. She has fueled ESG initiatives for diverse industries, bringing more than 20 years of dedicated expertise in building new ESG programs. She empowers enterprises to design environmentally and socially conscious infrastructures and partnerships that transform organizations, communities, and individuals.
Among her many initiatives, Sree launched a social enterprise fellowship program for recent college graduates, created a hybrid social impact business model to transition Women for Women International’s Rwandan program, and led her consultancy for ESG sustainability and social impact programs.
Sree currently steers business advisory as Global Director of Sustainability for Kearney, developing sustainability practices, social impact, and ESG projects for Fortune 500 clients.
Sree has a BA from Emory University, a JD from New England Law in Boston, and an MBA from George Mason University.
Anna Stando
Anna Stando is a workshop facilitator and public speaker, specializing in gender equality, unconscious bias and inclusive leadership. She is a certified facilitator of the Lean In “50 Ways to Fight Bias” program and currently holds the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Lead ad interim role at Axpo.
She worked previously as Relations Manager for Advance – an association of nearly 150 companies – helping members to reach gender equality in their organisations, giving her insights into best practices across various sectors and industries, and to collaborate with multiple Employee Resource Groups. Her corporate career includes working for ECCO, where she first held the responsibility for sales of accessories in Europe and then Asia and the US.
Born and raised in Poland, she has lived in the Netherlands, Guatemala, Mexico, Denmark and Thailand, learning the practical way about inclusion, intercultural communication, unconscious bias, and more. She is now based in Switzerland.
Anna has a master’s degree in Intercultural Communication from the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, and 10 years of international experience in speaking, training and moderation.
About the Joint Alumni Forum
The Joint Alumni Forum, a social responsibility committee of the Harvard Club of Switzerland and cooperation with the alumni clubs in Switzerland of Harvard, Oxford & Cambridge, Stanford, Yale, and Columbia University was established in January 2018 as a forum for discussion, education, and debate on various themes encompassing social responsibility (i.e. equality themes, environment, sustainability, human rights, etc.). The outreach for the speakers series is broader than the alumni of universities in the collaboration, but also like-minded representatives of institutions and interest groups based in Switzerland and members of the public. If you’d like to know more about us or participate in our initiatives you can contact joint.alumni.forum@gmail.com.
Our Sponsors
Big thank you to our sponsors for this event:
Venue Sponsor:
