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About Project Tsunami
Project Tsunami, Inc. (http://www.projecttsunami.org),
is a global accelerator for women's entrepreneurship
to increase the economic growth and viability of
countries and communities. Founded by three
entrepreneurs in October 2002 as a non-profit based
in Atlanta, Georgia, its mission is to use cutting-edge
technology to:
- Connect a Global BrainTrust of leaders,
- Identify and share best practices,
- Link programs and resources, and
- Empower women leaders to press for removal of barriers that hold back expansion of the women's small and medium enterprise (WSME) sector.
Project Tsunami was created to advocate for national
and international policies and investments in the
public and private sector that recognize and
incorporate women's entrepreneurship into the
economic mainstream. Its five core strategies are
designed to influence public and corporate policy and
the media with the goal of expanding the WSME
business sector by:
- Increasing research, data and statistics,
- Improving access to capital,
- Educating women and girls about entrepreneurship,
- Improving access to networks, markets and international trade,
- Increasing access to and utilization of technology.
Project Tsunami will address particular attention to
the policy opportunity provided by the Organization
for Economic Cooperation and Development, which
will look at ways of mainstreaming women's
entrepreneurship as part of a double ministerial
conference of industry and small business ministers
from 74 countries in Istanbul in June 2004. This
OECD session is a follow-up to their two global
conferences on women's entrepreneurship in 1997
and 2000 in Paris, where Virginia Littlejohn, Project
Tsunami Co-Chair, served as Senior Advisor.
Project Tsunami began its work with a major seed
grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation,
which funds innovative programs that foster
entrepreneurship. Project Tsunami will create the
momentum for a global wave of change (hence our
name) by using cutting-edge technologies to host a
series of Internet-based and face-to-face
discussions focused on women's entrepreneurship
with leaders from around the world. The results
and key policy recommendations will be presented to
policymakers in various countries, and at the OECD
double ministerial meeting in Istanbul in June 2004.
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Global Accelerator for Women's Entrepreneurship Launched in North America and Europe
Project Tsunami, Inc., a global accelerator for women's
entrepreneurship, was launched in North America on
October 28-29, 2002, in Atlanta, Georgia, at the
Commerce Club and at the Canadian Consulate
General for the Southeastern United States.
Atlanta launch participants included Astrid Pregel,
Canada's Consul General for the Southeastern US and
a member of Project Tsunami's Global BrainTrust; Dr.
Terry Blum, Dean of the Dupree School of Management
at Georgia Tech; Dr. Betty Siegal, President of
Kennesaw State University; and Jasmin Rodriguez,
Manager of Women's Programs in 2002 at the Ewing
Marion Kauffman Foundation, the primary foundation
in the US supporting entrepreneurship. Others
celebrating the North American launch included heads
of non-profit organizations, corporate leaders,
government officials, women angels and venture
capitalists, and Project Tsunami's Board members.
Project Tsunami's European launch took place six
weeks later at UNESCO headquarters in Paris.
Tsunami's three founders-Co-Chairs Virginia Littlejohn
and Linda Tarr-Whelan, and President and CEO Linda
Muir-made presentations to women entrepreneurial
leaders and policymakers at a conference organized by
Dirigeantes, a French association of women in small
and medium enterprises (WSMEs). Entrepreneurs and
NGO leaders and national and international
policymakers (including ambassadors, ministers and
senior members of the Secretariat from the 30-country
OECD) attended, including many members of the OECD
Working Party on Small and Medium Enterprise (SMEs)
and Entrepreneurship. At the Project Tsunami
workshops, more than 100 WSME leaders and
policymakers from more than 30 countries
participated. There was great enthusiasm for the
potential of working together across the globe to
advance women's entrepreneurship.
Interim Executive Director Named
Elizabeth A. Vazquez, President of TradeBuilders, Inc.,
was named Interim Executive Director of Project
Tsunami for a three-month period beginning February
15th. She has worked extensively on women
entrepreneurial issues with the OECD, IBM, Global
Banking Alliance for Women, the White House, etc.
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Launch
Left to right: Jasmin Rodriguez of
the Kauffman Foundation, and
Project Tsunami's three founders,
Linda Muir, Linda Tarr-Whelan and
Virginia Littlejohn, at the US launch
of Project Tsunami at the
Commerce Club in Atlanta in
October 2002
Upcoming Events
"iWOMEN Impacting Our World
Luncheon" on March 6, 2003,
hosted on International Women's
Day. Project Tsunami President and
CEO, Linda Muir, and Board
member, Paula Gordon, are
members of the event Steering
Committee.
That evening, Project Tsunami and
the Council of Women World
Leaders (the CWWL, comprised of
current and former women heads
of state) will host an exclusive
dinner conversation in Atlanta with
former Canadian Prime Minister
Kim Campbell, Chair of the Council
of Women World Leaders; Shirley
Franklin, Mayor of Atlanta; and
Project Tsunami's Co-Chair, Linda
Tarr-Whelan, former US
Ambassador to the UN Commission
on the Status of Women. Laura
Liswood, Secretary General of the
CWWL, will serve as moderator. The
speakers will discuss "Women
Leaders Impacting Our World" and
the significance of women's
enterprise to the world economy.
The invitational event, sponsored
by King & Spalding Law Firm, is at
the Official Residence of the
Canadian Consul General for the
Southeastern United States, Astrid
Pregel, a member of Project
Tsunami's Global BrainTrust. Top
business, government and nonprofit
leaders will attend this
exclusive dinner.
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