The EIC is implementing several programmes to close the gender gap. Through initiatives such as the EIC Women Leadership Programme and WomenTech EU, we interact with several pioneering female entrepreneurs driving successful businesses. This 8 March, we decided to applaud 8 of these remarkable women connected to the EIC. Some are mentoring and coaching other business leaders, while others are innovating or financing technologies. But they all have one thing in common: an inspiring story connected to women, diversity, and inclusion.
Elaine Spain and Kellie Adamson, EIC-funded researchers
“Go with your gut instinct”
To represent the women researchers that are part of EIC-funded companies we have not one, but two ladies from SepTec | Novus Diagnostics Ltd. Elaine Spain and Kellie Adamson are, respectively, the COO and CSO of the EIC-funded health tech company which they have co-founded together. When thinking about the kick-off of their business, Elaine and Kellie highlighted that they “have met a lot of exceptional female role models who have gone out of their way to help us while encouraging us to keep going when times were tough”.
If they had to point out a name, having in mind their research background, the two co-founders think about the pioneer Marie Curie: “She was definitely a woman working in a man’s world and she was the first woman ever to win a Nobel Prize way back in 1903. Marie Curie was also the first scientist ever to have won two Nobels and is still one of only two to have won in two different scientific disciplines (physics and Chemistry). These were phenomenal achievements, regardless of gender and we admire her courage as a female scientist struggling within the male-dominated scientific community”.
Leaving some nice words of incentive to female peers, Elaine and Kellie said the following: “It’s a cliché, but honestly go with your gut instinct. It’s ok and encouraging to be open about what you don’t know, but don’t allow those insecurities guide you down the wrong path. Don’t feel afraid to ask for help and do not underestimate the benefit of networking!”.
Josefien Groot, EIC-funded entrepreneur
"Failure is a natural part of being successful"
Josefien Groot started Qlayers together with Ruben Geutjens in 2017. The high-tech startup offers innovative robotic solutions to overcome the limitations of manual coating methods. The team has been developing hardware that creates microstructures on large surfaces, enabling automated coating of different structures, such as storage tanks, wind turbines, ships, and aircraft.
Josefien is passionate about sustainability: “I want to improve the world when it comes to sustainability and social equality. I decided that the best way to do this is by becoming an entrepreneur since new companies can disrupt industries, unhealthy patterns, structures and systems in a very fast way", she said. "I hope that by starting my own companies, I can create the space for people to exploit their potential and positively change the world”.
Thanks to their unique technology, Qlayers was already featured in the 10 Dutch Breakthrough Technologies for 2018 by StartupDelta and selected as one of the 500 most promising deep-tech startups worldwide by the Hello Tomorrow summit 2017 and 2018. In addition to that, Josefien won the award Rising Innovator at the EU Prize for Women Innovators 2020. The young innovator is convinced that the world needs more disruptive and radical solutions to address the current global challenges. And for the young researchers and innovators that are tapping into the idea of creating a new business, she leaves this short and precise advice: “Just start. You never know all the answers, but it is by doing that you find out what works and what doesn't work. Failure is a natural part of being successful”, concluded.
Ana Maiques, Member of the EIC Advisory Board
“Keep your mission and your vision very close to your heart”
Ana founded a unique health company. Neuroelectrics aims to change the way we interact with the brain, developing innovative technologies to monitor and stimulate the brain to help many patients in need. She was nominated by IESE as one of the most influential entrepreneurs under 40 in Spain (2010) and received the EU Prize for Women Innovators from the European Commission EC in 2014. During the beginning of her career as an entrepreneur, she often heard that she could become rich if their technology were applied to video games. But she decided to stay true to her beliefs and follow her ambition.
“Most entrepreneurs I respect are people that want to change the world. They want to fix a problem, and they have a vision. And they work restlessly because they truly believe in their vision to change the world. And with regards to women, I think that plays in your benefit because most women I know are driven by a strong social determination or social commitment", she mentioned. "Don't let the fact that you're growing a company distract you from the reason you created it. It's important to keep your mission and your vision very close to your heart, but then become more and more professional in your execution."
Ana also received many awards during her career, but she never felt scared of talking about them to promote its curriculum. Neuroelectrics received the Best Start-up in Health 2015 by the Wired UK magazine, and Ana was awarded as one of the 2016 Best Entrepreneurial Companies in the USA by Entrepreneur Magazine. "One of my recommendations to women entrepreneurs is to communicate more and believe more in how good they are. We usually hide our achievements, don't recognize our achievements, or speak too loud about what we are doing. And I think that goes against us. I do think that the way we speak, the way we communicate, should be as strong as men do it", she mentioned.
Patricia Grigoleit, EIC Coach
“Convey your enthusiasm to your coworkers, investors and clients”
Patricia Grigoleit has more than 25 years of expertise in international healthcare and in the pharmaceutical sector. She is the Managing Director of TIGO GmbH, a company developing innovative biotechnology products and innovative concepts in logistics and accessories. In addition to that, she’s also a Board Member of Ilya Pharma, and she is appointed Senior Advisor / Specialist of the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). She joined the pool of coaches from the European Innovation Council to provide support to several young entrepreneurs funded by the EIC, and she’s also in touch with several SMEs through the EIC Business Acceleration Services.
During her career as women entrepreneur and coach, Patricia was inspired by several female role models. She had an enthusiastic young teacher who sparked her interest in natural sciences and human sciences, followed by a professor of internal medicine that allowed her to get an idea on how much it takes to be a good mother, an acknowledged researcher, and an inspiring teacher. But she has a special female leader that change her vision: “Else Kröner was the woman who inspired me the most to take entrepreneurial responsibility within a large healthcare company as well as to be brave enough to start my own business. After WW2, she was just 20 years old, and she didn’t have any degree in pharmacy, but she did not shy away to take responsibility for the heritage of the then small and unprofitable pharmaceutical company Fresenius. She had the entrepreneurial spirit and the personal skills to engage the right people and building one of the world leading healthcare companies.” Patricia highlights that Else developed her own feminine style when female leadership was not the norm, and she still admires her humanitarian engagement. “In line with these values I want to support young entrepreneurs as a business coach.”
When it comes to give a small piece of advice to the women innovators of tomorrow, Patricia gives a short but consistent recommendation. “Be ambitious and convey your enthusiasm to your coworkers, investors and clients”, concluded.
Leila Rettali-Llorens, HR Director at CaixaBank Payments & Consumer
“Innovation is about diversity”
Leila is a professional with 20 years of experience in Human Resources in multinational environments. In the past, she worked as Senior HR Business Partner at Sanofi Iberia, talent & Resourcing General Manager at Sony Europe, and HR Senior Consultant at Accenture. She is currently the HR Director of CaixaBank Payments & Consumer and she’s driving a very important change on female leadership in the HR department.
In fact, 41.7% of managerial positions at CaixaBank are held by women. Furthermore, the Board of Directors is made up of 30% women, one of the highest ratios of the sector. Leila had the opportunity to add value to the business as a strategic partner and to contribute to the cultural and digital transformation of several companies.
Leila was one of the keynote speakers of the Launching event of the EIC Women Leadership Programme and she left some details about her HR perspective on diversity. “We have 30% of women in directive positions at Caixabank and 40% in total. I think this is a very important achievement. In my opinion, innovation is about diversity, and we really try to strive for this diversity at Caixabank. We created a programme called WEengage a few years ago and we are very focused on leadership development for women”, she added. Leila is passionate about the idea of contributing to an organization that believes in talent and considers that empathy, interpersonal skills, leadership, and teamwork are part of her DNA.
Angele Giuliano, EIC Ambassador
“Intrapreneurship and internal innovation within businesses is going to keep growing”
Angele Giuliano, one of the EIC Ambassadors, is the CEO and managing director of AcrossLimits since 2001. After many years of experience in business development, now Angele is also helping others as a business angel and mentor. One of Angele’s personal ambitions is to see more girls taking up (and staying) in technology as a life-long career, thus being very active in several fora and initiatives that focus on gender and technology.
We talked with Angele about the innovation scenario for this year, and she sees an opportunity for entrepreneurship to keep growing in times of need: “The difficult situations are spurring many more to embrace entrepreneurship especially in sectors related to digital technologies - whether applied to health, education or environment. This is a chance for smaller SMEs, who are more agile and are managing to lower costs and keep or increase productivity. Intrapreneurship and internal innovation within businesses is going to keep growing”.
Kinga Stanislawska, VC Investor
“Learn to appreciate your small successes”
Kinga Stanislawska is an investor and entrepreneur, who co-founded Experior VC, being also a member of the EIC Fund Investment Committee. With the goal of advocating for gender balance in this sector, King co-initiated the European Women in VC Community. In the scope of her work towards women empowerment, Kinga was one of the keynote speakers at the Launching Event of the EIC Women Leadership Programme. At the occasion, she mentioned three key points to encourage women who’d like to take on a leadership role.
Here it is what Kinga had to say: “First, we should always remember to appreciate small successes. Day by day, you need to be happy with what you’re doing and when you do have a success, congratulate yourself on it. Life is made up of little steps, it’s not always fireworks, so you should appreciate your small successes. Secondly, take risks! If you take the risk, you might fail, but you can also succeed. Don’t worry if you fail! Just try and take the risk. Finally, I would say that you should make yourself visible to your peers. Make sure everyone in your field knows who you are and what you are aiming to achieve, and it is very likely that you’ll receive a helping hand.”
Veronica Orvalho, Mentor in the EIC Women Leadership Programme
“The only thing that you can control are your choices”
Veronica Orvalho is the proud Mentor of two participants of the first cohort of the EIC Women Leadership Programme (WLP). Adding to her role as researcher and university professor, Veronica is also a company founder, being currently the CEO of Didimo, an EIC-funded company that creates automated solutions for the generation of digital humans.
To give us her thoughts for this International Women’s Day, Veronica pointed out the three big tips that she would give to her EIC WLP mentees starting their journey in entrepreneurship and innovation: “First, be true to yourself and seek to make the world a better place. Second, always remember that the only thing that you can control are your choices. Third, be ruthless and say “No” to the things that do not matter, so you can say “Yes” to the things that do. Be Humble; have Grit”.
When it comes to inspiration for her own path, Veronica goes to her roots and mentions the two women who inspired her the most: “My godmother, Raquel Chiappini, 84 years old, she is humble, courageous and leads with a kind heart. She has taught me that empathy is the key ingredient to lead others to success and connect with people in the most human way. And my aunt, Anna Sereno, 80 years old, she has been a pioneer in building schools in geographically isolated places in Argentina. She inspired my love for teaching and helped me understand that education is freedom and that the opposite of education is not ignorance, the opposite of education is isolation”.
DISCLAIMER: This information is provided in the interest of knowledge sharing and should not be interpreted as the official view of the European Commission, or any other organisation.