Successful women on making it ‘here’

Sofa Talks: SACC-SF kicks off a new way to meet 

  • SofaTalks. Three powerful Nordic women will talk candidly about their experiences becoming leaders in technology in Silicon Valley: Charlotte Fors, Silje Vallestad and Denise Persson. (Image source: LinkedIn)

  • On March 19, three powerful Nordic women will talk candidly at the Swedish American Chamber of Commerce San Francisco/Silicon Valley’s first “Sofa Talk" about their experiences becoming leaders in technology in Silicon Valley.
    Charlotte Fors, Silje Vallestad and Denise Persson will share not only the stories about their pathways to success, but also their insights on what barriers exist for women in technology, how to overcome those barriers, what the keys to success are, the differences between SF/SV and Scandinavia with regard to how women support each other, and how they deal with work/life issues to juggle "having it all." This transformational evening of inspiration, networking, trivia, prizes and fun will take place on the sofas of BoConcept’s San Francisco store.
    Read more and book your seat here: Nordic Women in Technology

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  • Charlotte Fors has worked toward breaking the silicon ceiling through the founding of Women in Wireless, a nonprofit organization that promotes and develops female leaders in mobile and digital media. The organization has grown to more than 10,000 member with chapters in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, New York, Boston and the UK. Fors is also the VP of sales for mBox, a global leader in mobile messaging. She has been in the wireless industry since 2003, successfully managing sales and account management teams in the U.S., Europe and Asia. In 2012, Fors was recognized by the Mobile Marketer as one of the top 25 Women to Watch in the Mobile industry. She is on the boards of Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce SF/SV and MEF Mobile, the mobile entertainment forum.

  • SofaTalks. Three powerful Nordic women will talk candidly about their experiences becoming leaders in technology in Silicon Valley: Charlotte Fors, Silje Vallestad and Denise Persson. (Image source: LinkedIn)

  • Silje Vallestad is the founder and chief safety officer of bSafe (formerly Bipper), a multiple award winning mobile safety company developing personal safety services for families and women. In 2011 she was Female Entrepreneur of the Year in Norway, and in 2013 she was honored as a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum and recognized as one of the 20 greatest business thinkers in the Nordics. With no background in technology or business, Vallestad founded bSafe based on the needs she saw for her own three kids, herself and women and children everywhere. She is now rolling out the services in more countries to help save lives and keep people safer. Vallestad started founding idealistic projects and organizations internationally at a young age and has became a profiled youth representative, bringing together young grass root idealists from around the world with key decision makers of the world including The Dalai Lama, Hillary Clinton, President Vaclav Havel and Dame Anita Roddick.

  • Denise Persson is chief marketing officer at Apigee. She joined Apigee in December 2013 after having served as CMO for ON24, a SaaS webcasting and virtual communications company, for the previous five years. Throughout her career Persson has built and led global marketing teams for high-growth, category-creating companies and helped take companies through multiple phases, including mergers and acquisitions and public offerings.
    The idea behind the “Sofa Talks” series is to spotlight and celebrate successful Nordic women in the Bay Area while simultaneously providing a unique forum for Swedish, Swedish-American and American professional women to network together in a relaxed, fun environment. Ultimately the hope is to bring a broader global view to the discussions of women’s issues in the Bay Area and ignite conversations that inspire them to achieve their goals and share experiences overcoming obstacles to reduce the learning curve of the path to success for all women.

  • Register at SACC San Francisco