Friday, March 9, 2007

Mass High Tech fetes Women to Watch

Last night, Mass High Tech held its annual Women to Watch awards event, honoring 10 of New England's most accomplished women in the high tech industry.

The event, held at the Fairmont Copley Hotel in Boston, attracted more than 300 people from the New England technology community, including a group of young women from several local colleges and universities, including Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Westfield State College.

The honorees spanned the breadth of the New England technology community, from life sciences to telecommunications to new energy, and represented the international diversity of the high tech industry, with honorees hailing from Colombia, Sweden and India, as well as the United States.

Honorees were presented by Women to Watch program co-chairs Anne Taylor, an associate editor at CXO Media and co-founder of the Women to Watch program, and Trish Fleming, executive director of the MIT Enterprise Forum. Passion and drive were the common themes among the honorees, each of whom spoke briefly, telling stories -- and sometimes jokes -- about their passion for science and learning, and its relationship to building a successful career in the traditionally male-dominated high tech industry.

The 2007 Women to Watch honorees are:

• Deya Corzo, senior medical director, Genzyme Inc.
• Mary Lynne Hedley, executive vice president and chief scientific officer, MGI Pharma Inc.
• Asa Kalavade, founder and chief technical officer, Tatara Systems Inc.
• Christina Lampe-Onnerud, founder and chief executive officer, Boston-Power Inc.
• Paula Long, founder and vice president, products and strategy, EqualLogic Inc.
• Rachel Meyers, director of research, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc.
• Stefania Nappi, chief executive officer, PreferredTime Inc.
• Mira Sahney, president, Myomo Inc.
• Karen Tegan Padir, vice president of enterprise Java platforms, Sun Microsystems Inc.
• Angela Zapata, principal scientist, bioengineering, The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory