ThoughtWorks is proud to be one of the bronze sponsors of The Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC) of Women in Computing for the second time in Bangalore, India.

GHC is a series of conferences designed to bring the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront. Presenters are leaders in their respective fields, representing industrial, academic and government communities. Leading researchers present their current work, while special sessions focus on the role of women in today's technology fields, including computer science, information technology, research and engineering.

ThoughtWorks speakers include Rebecca Parsons, Vidya Laxman, Magda Stremeski and Alana George.

About the Speakers

Rebecca Parsons is ThoughtWorks' CTO. She has over 20 years of application development experience across industries. She has published in language and artificial intelligence publications, served on program committees, and reviews for several journals. Before coming to ThoughtWorks she worked as an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Central Florida where she taught courses in compilers, program optimization, distributed computation, programming languages, theory of computation, machine learning and computational biology.

Vidya Laxman is the VP of Operations for ThoughtWorks Studios. She has over 15 years of professional experience spanning multiple industries – technology, banking and public sector. Prior to ThoughtWorks, Vidya spent 3 years at SunGard, as the Director & Head for Public Sector in India where she demonstrated ability to architect and operationalize initiatives. Prior to that, she spent 12 years in the United States working for various software product companies. Her specific accomplishments include high performing, cross-functional, culturally diverse teams spread over 3 continents.

Magda Stremeski is a Business Analyst Consultant with ThoughtWorks. She completed a Bachelor of Business Systems at Monash University and a Bachelor of Information Technology at Swinburne University, where she took part in the Digital Divas program. In 2008, Magda became interested in getting more women involved in IT when she became a finalist in the Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship. Today, she is involved in a number of organizations and programs aimed at encouraging women to join and stay working in IT in her hometown of Melbourne, Australia.

Alana George is a software developer with ThoughtWorks, a global IT consultancy and has a strong interest in the challenges involved in recruiting more women into IT. She has worked as a facilitator and established the web portal for the Digital Divas project, and is a contributing author to "Tech girls are chic (not just geek)", a book aimed at attracting high school girls to a career in IT.