Thursday, June 9, 2011

WEST honors four women technology leaders

By Michelle Lang

Women Entrepreneurs in Science & Technology (WEST) celebrated their 2011 Leadership Awards Wednesday at the Microsoft NERD Center in Cambridge, with its four award winners all touching on the need for passion in their work lives. The event also served as the inaugural awards event for Ilene Fischer as WEST executive director.

The Leadership Awards recognized Lydia Villa-Komaroff, chief science officer for Cytonome Inc.; Jennifer Tour Chayes, distinguished scientist and managing director of the Microsoft New England Research and Development Center; Laura Fitton, founder and CEO of OneForty.com; and Joanna Horobin, CEO of Syndax Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Asked to address the role of passion, tenacity or innovation in their careers and lives, Fitton garnered the most laughs and cheers when she took the opportunity to explain a passion that pointed to an inevitability for her to create OneForty: “It’s like a woman who’s in labor, and people don’t look at her and ask, ‘Can she execute?’”

Villa-Komaroff stressed the need for failure to achieve success. “There are no mistakes, only lessons. And lessons are repeated until they’re learned,” she said.

In accepting their leadership awards, Tour Chayes and Horobin both emphasized the reliance on other people for support.

Since February, when she was named executive director, Fischer has implemented changes for WEST, including the addition of a new science advisory board. She said she also plans to have the organization focus on women in science and technology at all levels of management, all ages, and in the suburbs outside of WEST’s Boston and Cambridge focus.