Conference Connects, Inspires Women Professionals
06/17/2019
Contact: Nancy Cicco, 978-934-4944 or Nancy_Cicco@uml.edu and Christine Gillette, 978-934-2209 or Christine_Gillette@uml.edu
Media Advisory
When: Tuesday, June 18, 8:30 a.m. to 3:45 p.m., with keynote speakers at 8:45 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.
Where: UMass Lowell Inn & Conference Center, 50 Warren St., Lowell. Contact UMass Lowell media relations for directions and parking information.
What: An IBM executive who oversees the company’s emerging technology partnerships and a marketing strategist who launched her career in Lowell will anchor UMass Lowell’s 2019 Women’s Leadership Conference.
“The Power and Potential of Women” will unite more than 250 professionals across all fields to share strategies on enriching their careers and personal lives.
Sophie Vandebroek, vice president of emerging technology partnerships at IBM Corp, where she leads key strategic initiatives to scale the company’s partnerships and ecosystems, will speak at 2:30 p.m. Vandebroek was previously chief operating officer for IBM Research, a leader in transformative innovations such as artificial intelligence, blockchain technology and quantum computing.
Prior to joining IBM, she was chief technology officer of Xerox Corp., where she also served as president of the company’s Innovation Group and as a corporate officer. Vandebroek is a 2011 inductee of Women in Technology International’s Hall of Fame and a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. She holds 14 U.S. patents and serves as a director of IDEXX Corp.
Delivering the morning’s keynote remarks at 8:45 a.m. will be Lorna Boucher, managing director, chief marketing officer and executive committee member of Instinet Holdings Inc., a New York brokerage firm that serves clients in the asset-management and insurance sectors. Boucher launched her career while she was still a student at UMass Lowell, where a class assignment asked her to develop a marketing plan for Lowell’s small businesses. Boucher’s project was so successful, it helped her land her first full-time job. Since then, Boucher has progressed to increasingly more senior roles in marketing and brand management, serving companies including Bankers Trust Co., UBS and KCG Holdings. In 2017, Markets Media honored her with the Women in Finance Award for Excellence in Marketing. Boucher also serves on UMass Lowell’s Manning School of Business Advisory Board.
UMass Lowell Chancellor Jacquie Moloney, who founded the conference in 2015, will welcome participants to the event. The first woman to lead the university in its history, Moloney was one of the inaugural recipients of the “Women Who Mean Business” honor from the Boston Business Journal. For the second straight year, UMass Lowell is the highest-ranked educational institution among the Top 100 Women-Led Businesses in Massachusetts.
Sessions at the conference will focus on developing strategies for career advancement, building professional skills, owning one’s value and empowering and inspiring others. Faculty from the Manning School and Center for the Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace will moderate many of the event’s interactive workshops and panel discussions. For a full list of sessions and speakers, see https://gps.uml.edu/wlc.