Director of Pricing Product, PayPal
September 2018
What made you want to settle down in San Francisco?
To begin with it was the numerous business opportunities I have here. After working for Ubisoft, I joined PayPal in 2007 and was lucky to quickly climb the career ladder which has been really enriching.
At the same time, I’ve always dreamed of helping to build a fairer society, so I decided to support women at PayPal, by seeking to boost their career and leadership opportunities.
So, I created and was President of Unity, Women@PayPal before handing over to others to devote my time to developing WIF on the West Coast.
Even if Silicon Valley is known for being a fully-fledged ecosystem where ideas proliferate and innovations never cease to stimulate the economy, gender parity at work remains a major problem. But companies are listening more now and are starting to open up to change – so there’s hope things will progress.
How did you join the WIF Foundation?
I met Martine Liautaud at a panel discussion she organized and facilitated on women and mentoring – the theme stuck a chord with me. A few weeks later a fortunate turn of events saw me participating in the Women Entrepreneurs program at Stanford. I then saw Martine to discuss the project to develop the Foundation on the West Coast which I was ready to get involved in.
What’s your road map to develop WIF’s transatlantic program?
The first goal is to expand the WIF Foundation on the West Coast. To achieve that, we’ve organized a series of thematic panel discussions; the first was on the future of medicine, the second, on October 10th, will be devoted to the future of food tech. The idea, at each event, is to invite women who are experts or leaders in their field, to encourage a change in the public’s perceptions and mindset. Yes, women can be leaders! The themes will address the major challenges of various industries, highlighting the situation for women (challenges and opportunities), and making the case for women to be more present, especially in science and technology. Many sectors are becoming more technological; women need to keep abreast of these markets tomorrow. Our second goal is to extend and reinforce the mentoring programs with new partnerships with local corporates, like those signed with Stanford and Berkeley, to consolidate our training programs in women’s’ leadership. Our aspiration is for women to have the same opportunities as men to shape tomorrow’s economy.
> Check out Nolwenn Godard’s LinkedIn profile.
