Atlanta Center to Aid Women Entrepreneurs throughout the World

GlobalAtlanta
February 21, 2003

Atlanta's reputation as an international entrepreneurial hub played a key role in the decision to headquarter Project Tsunami, a global center to promote women's entrepreneurship, in the city, according to Linda Muir, an Atlanta attorney and Tsunami co-founder.

"Atlanta is viewed as a rising international city and women entrepreneurs in particular are finding Atlanta to be a positive climate for business growth, even in these difficult economic times," Ms. Muir told GlobalFax last week.

Such an environment, she said, lends itself to Project Tsunami's goals, which include providing women entrepreneurs with international market access resources and establishing a clearinghouse of economic data and statistics about women in business worldwide.

Impetus for Project Tsunami, said Ms. Muir, grew out of 2000's Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development conference, held in Paris, during which Virginia Littlejohn, a Tsunami co-chair and senior OECD adviser, challenged participants to initiate a "global tidal wave of economic opportunities" for women across the globe.

Linda Tarr-Whelan, former ambassador to the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women, later joined Ms. Littlejohn and Ms. Muir in their initiative, launching Project Tsunami last year with a grant from the Kansas-based Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which supports entrepreneurial initiatives.

The project's aims will be presented and discussed at the iWomen International Conference, to be held in Atlanta, March 6. iWomen Conference chair, Astrid Pregel, Canada's consul-general here, is a member of the center's regional advisory board.

"We hope ultimately that Project Tsunami will influence public policy to reflect the significance of women's entrepreneurship as a component necessary for the growth of national and global economies," said Ms. Muir.

The group also hopes to expand the Project Tsunami concept to regional centers across the United States over the next few years.