Reshma Saujani

Reshma Saujani is the founder and CEO of Girls Who Code, a national nonprofit organization working to close the gender gap in technology. Through its summer immersion programs and clubs, Girls Who Code is leading the movement to inspire, educate and equip young women with the computing skills to pursue 21st-century opportunities.

Started in 2012, the organization has grown to reach 40,000 girls in every state by the end of 2016. This year, Girls Who Code will run 78 summer immersion programs and 1,500 clubs. The results speak for themselves: Ninety percent of alumnae have declared or intend to declare a major or minor in computer science.

Reshma began her career as an attorney and activist. In 2010, she surged onto the political scene as the first Indian-American woman to run for U.S. Congress. During the race, Reshma visited local schools and saw the gender gap in computing classes firsthand, which led her to start Girls Who Code. Reshma has also served as Deputy Public Advocate for New York City and ran a spirited campaign for Public Advocate in 2013.

Reshma’s TED Talk, “Teach girls bravery, not perfection” has more than one million views and has sparked a national conversation about how we’re raising our girls. She is also the author of the groundbreaking new book Women Who Don’t Wait in Line. Reshma is a graduate of the University of Illinois, Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and Yale Law School. She’s been named one of Fortune’s World’s Greatest Leaders, one of Fortune’s 40 under 40, a WSJ Magazine Innovator of the Year, one of the 50 Most Powerful Women in New York by the New York Daily News, on CNBC’s Next List, Forbes’s Most Powerful Women Changing the World, Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People, Crain’s New York 40 Under 40, Ad Age’s Creativity 50, Business Insider’s 50 Women Who Are Changing the World, City & State’s Rising Stars, and an AOL/PBS Next MAKER.