Women in HR: Celebrating International Women’s Day

Every year, on March 8, the people of the world mark International Women’s Day (IWD). The globe has recognized the holiday since the early 1900s. It celebrates the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. It also serves as a call to action for gender equality.

"The story of women's struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organization but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights," Gloria Steinem says. She’s a world-renowned feminist, journalist and social and political activist.

Colors of the Day

As with most holidays of note, colors signify specific meanings related to what is celebrated or remembers. International Women’s Day is no different.

Internationally, purple is a colour for symbolising women. Historically the combination of purple, green and white to symbolise women's equality originated from the Women’s Social and Political Union in the UK in 1908. Purple signifies justice and dignity. Green symbolises hope. White represents purity, but is no longer used due to 'purity' being a controversial concept. The introduction of the colour yellow representing a 'new dawn' is commonly used to signify a second wave of feminism. Thus purple with green represents traditional feminism, purple with yellow represents progressive contemporary feminism.

International Women’s Day Timeline

Celebrating HR Exchange Network Advisory Board Members

We, at the HR Exchange Network, are very proud to honor the women on our Advisory Board.  Read more about them below.

Rebecca Ahmed is currently the Director of HR Systems & Operations for Pinnacle Entertainment, a dynamic and growing casino entertainment company with 16,000+ team members across the United States. She oversees and collaborates with HR Business Partners and senior leadership teams in the creation and execution of business growth and performance strategies. Ms. Ahmed studied Public Relations and Business at the University of Southern California, and received her Master’s in Hotel Administration at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She has 8+ years of HR experience, and held leadership positions at organizations including Allegiant Travel Company & The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.  Rebecca can best be described as a passionate and driven People Services professional, changing the face of HR! In her free time, you will find her working out via Class Pass, or hopping on plane with passport in hand, looking forward to discovering a new adventure!

Debra Wasserman has been at TransUnion for over 20 years where her role included overseeing various functions within Human Resources including benefits, compensation, wellness, global mobility, immigration, and service delivery.  In addition, she has worked closely with HRIS to implement and upgrade various self-service systems used by employees company-wide.  In recent years, Debra created a global wellness program for TransUnion that is focused on the entire wellbeing of the employees, including physical, emotional, and financial health.

Andrea Ledford, Executive Vice President, Chief Administration Office, and Chief Human Resources Officer for NCR Corporation, is a strategic member of the NCR Executive Team helping to drive our future vision. She oversees critical functions that drive change management, support NCR's corporate strategy as a hardware-enabled, software-driven business, and cultivate incredible employee experiences that engage, educate and inspire. Her global responsibilities include Human Resources, Corporate Marketing and Public Affairs, Corporate Real Estate, Global Security and Aviation. Andrea also oversees the NCR Foundation, which is dedicated to helping build stronger communities around the world by investing in innovative solutions that help people become self-sufficient. Prior to this position, Ledford served as NCR’s vice president of Human Resources for the Asia-Pacific region and Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).  Before joining NCR in February 2006, Ledford was Symbol Technologies’ EMEA leader of Human Resources and held a variety of leadership roles at Cisco Systems in EMEA, Asia-Pacific and Latin America. Her background also includes positions in the areas of international human resources, compensation and benefits, and leadership development with Storage Technology, United International Holdings and Synergen.  Ledford has an Executive MBA from Insead University in Fontainebleau, France, and a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Colorado.

Dr. Jaclyn Lee is currently the Senior Director, Human Resources and Head of HR Technology and Analytics, for The Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). She handles the full spectrum of HR for the university and is one of the pioneer team members charged with starting up the new university from scratch. She has worked with the senior management team in developing the mission, vision and values of the new university when it was incepted. As the Senior Director for HR, she is also responsible for developing the Total Compensation Structure, Performance Management System, spearheading new HR policies and processes, recruiting key leaders, senior academics and faculty, as well as managing the Human Capital Development Strategy. In addition, she heads the Human Resource Technology and Analytics function and is also a specialist in the use of digital tools for culture change.  Lee was previously Senior Vice President, Group Human Resources, responsible for managing the full spectrum of human resources for Certis CISCO Security Pte Ltd, a security services company comprising of about 10,000 employees in Singapore and 25,000 in the region. Her role there included strategic HR planning for Singapore and the region, compensation and benefits, performance management and scorecard measurement, employee engagement, human capital development, employer branding, resourcing and other special projects. One of her key achievements in Certis was successfully managing a very difficult wage re-structuring project that involved thousands of workers. She was also responsible for setting up a recruitment agency that provided a continuous supply of manpower to business units, eventually giving Certis the competitive advantage in winning large business contracts.  She has over 25 years of HR experience, and has also managed Strategic Planning, organizational development, and regional HR in one of her previous roles as Regional HR Director for NEC Solutions Asia Pacific. In that capacity as Regional HR Director, she developed the talent and career development framework for Engineers and high potentials in the South Asia Region. She was also the Balance Scorecard leader for the region.  Jaclyn participates actively in conferences as a speaker, both locally and internationally and has spoken at more than 50 local and international conferences. She is the recipient of the Outstanding Contribution to HR Award (HRM Asia 2017) as well as the Leading HR Leader Award at the annual SHRI Awards for 2008. On top of being a volunteer HR Director in SPRING Singapore’s initiative to drive good HR practices in SMEs, she is also a member of the Professional Practices Committee of the Institute for Human Resource Professionals, and a member of the Human Capital Policy Advisory Committee for SPRING Singapore.  Jaclyn is a strong advocate of HR Digitization and Analytics, and has in recent years been speaking on topics ranging from the future of work to future skills, appification, as well as the use of Big Data in Human Resources. She is also an expert in the use of crowd sourcing technologies for culture change, and has developed a tool called the, “OCAI-Spilter” that uses the concept of group decision making and Design Thinking to facilitate the process of culture change.  She has a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Business Information Systems from the University of Twente (Netherlands), Masters in Business from Singapore Management University, Masters in Human Resources Management from the State University of New Jersey, Rutgers (USA), and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Psychology from Brandon University (Canada).

Sana' Rasul is the President & Chief Girlfriend of HR Girlfriends, a Human Resources networking organization dedicated to advancing the practice and culture of people empowerment. Her team of Girlfriends consult, train, educate, develop, share, promote and advocate for solutions in the field of human resource management. Sana' is also a credentialed Career Strategist, at TheCareerHelpDesk.com, where she has helped professionals across all industries create a next level career plan, negotiate compensation and develop strategies to land the job, not just the interview.

Rhonda N. Hall has over 25 years of experience leading teams through process & behavioral improvement projects. She worked as an internal Organizational Development & Effectiveness Executive with organizations such as Johnson & Johnson, KPMG Peat Marwick LLP, and Seton Family of Hospitals - Ascension. Additionally, Rhonda has functioned as an external consultant to public, private and non-profit organizations internationally. Specializing in human performance through executive coaching she has been instrumental in life changing adjustments in people’s personal and professional lives. With a keen focus on releasing human potential, she prides herself on teaching others to fish for themselves. Her ability to bring out the best of each individual contributor enables clients to reach their highest potential. She has extensive experience in board development and leading boards through Strategic Planning processes. Rhonda is a well traveled keynote speaker and facilitator of project teams.  Rhonda currently serves as the Vice President of Human Resources & Organizational Development with University Federal Credit Union (UFCU) based in Austin, Texas.

For more information on the HR Exchange Network Advisory Board, click here.