Empowering women and girls across the world is proven to make communities and industry thrive. As the Special advisor on Women, Girls, and Technology at Mozilla and the Global Ambassador for Technovation, Anar Simpson is supporting a generation of innovators with paramount leadership.  “That sense of purpose is what is worth pursuing.” Anar’s leadership has been recognized in her home Canada, the United States, and abroad. Currently located in Silicon Valley, Anar works with local changemakers everywhere she goes, like Catherine Courage, VP of Design at Google (pictured, left) who is a staunch supporter of women in tech programs including Technovation and TechWomen. In 2017, Anar received the Silicon Valley Business Journal’s Women of Influence Award, and the GSMA Global Mobile Leadership Award for outstanding contributions to close the gender gap, just to name a few. With her push of Technovation, a global entrepreneurship technology program for girls, she is shaping communities, mindsets, and lives. In this week’s #StartupPodcast, host Rivers Corbett talks to Anar about her biggest inspirations and how she’s striving to break gender barriers.

This podcast is brought to you by Quickbooks Online, Mastercard, Rogers, UPS, PayPal, Rebel.com and Scotiabank – your partners in growing your business.