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Former European Commissioner Neelie Kroes kicks off of the ambitious Female Tech Heroes network, which will be launched on Tuesday, May 21st in the Dutch Technology Week at High Tech Campus Eindhoven. More than 600 tech women have signed up. Kroes: “Women are still underrepresented in tech and that needs to change. That’s why I’m supporting this great initiative.”

Female Tech Heroes is a new initiative in the Brainport region to make women enthusiastic about technology. The High Tech Campus Eindhoven is taking the lead. Initiators Hilde de Vocht and Ingelou Stol: “Large companies in the region such as ASML, Philips, NXP and Thermo Fisher Scientific, are all looking for female talent. Ultimately we strive for diversity. That’s the key to success. Research shows that teams with different backgrounds, genders and experiences lead to the best innovations.”

Neelie Kroes will be the face of the start of the initiative. “With the support of Neelie Kroes, we want to want to make this initiative more international. We’ll start in the Brainport region, but next year it is time for the next step: Europe.”

During Female Tech Heroes inspiring women from companies like TomTom, Philips, Adyen, Lightyear, TNO and ASML will share how they experience working in a male-dominated tech world. Stol: “We talk about work-life balance, what the women encounter, but also how awesome it is to work as a woman in the tech! You can really work on the world of tomorrow.”

“Our goal is to inspire and bring tech-interested women together. We can learn a lot from each other. That is why we have integrated all kinds of workshops into the program. You can learn to network ‘like a boss’, get acquainted with Design Thinking or, for example, dive into fin-tech.”