|
In August 1996, Laura Liswood co-founded the Council of Women World Leaders with President Vigdís Finnbogadóttir of Iceland.Initially, the Council was located at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Liswood is the Secretary General of the Council, which is composed of current and former women presidents, prime ministers, and heads of government. The Council works to expand the understanding of leadership, establish a network of resources for high-level women leaders, and provide a forum for them to collaborate and shape international issues. The Council is now housed at the Aspen Institute in Washington, D.C.
Laura Liswood is currently a Senior Advisor at Goldman Sachs & Co, which she joined in 2001 as the Managing Director of Global Leadership and Diversity.
In 1997, Liswood co-founded The White House Project, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization dedicated to electing a woman president of the United States. Her work with women presidents and prime ministers was the inspiration for the Project, which aims to inspire a paradigm change in the United States about women as leaders.
From 1992-1996, as director of the Harvard Women's Leadership Project, Liswood identified global leadership contributions made by women heads of state. On a quest to determine what it would take for a woman to become President of the United States, she interviewed fifteen current and former women presidents and prime ministers. Her discussions with them are chronicled in her most recent book and video documentary, Women World Leaders.
Liswood’s professional experience includes a term as the CEO and President of the American Society for Training and Development, executive-level consulting to Fortune 500 and international companies, and executive positions at Rainier National Bank and Group W. Cable, a subsidiary of Westinghouse Broadcasting and Cable. She received the Westinghouse Award of Excellence for her contribution to women and minorities in the work place. She is also the author of a book on service quality, Serving Them Right.
Liswood, a nationally recognized speaker, author, and advisor, has worked to foster women’s leadership for more than twenty years as a member of the International Women's Forum, Leadership America, the board of the First Women’s Bank of California, and the Washington Women's Political Caucus. Former commissioner of the City of Seattle Women's Commission, Liswood was the owner and publisher of Seattle Woman and is the founder of May's List, a bipartisan political donor network emphasizing women’s leadership in the political arena. In 2000, the Secretary of Defense appointed her to a three-year term on the Defense Department Advisory Committee on Women in the Services (DACOWITS). After the events of September 11,2001, Liswood became a reserve police officer in Washington, D.C. and is now a sergeant.
Liswood holds a B.A. from California State University, San Diego and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. She earned her J.D. from the University of California, Davis, School of Law, and is admitted to practice law in California and Massachusetts.
Laura Liswood's Website 
The Loudest Duck
Email Laura
|
|
