“Believe in yourself.” That’s the core advice from Weili Dai, cofounder of Marvell, whom some are dubbing the new Tech Wonder Woman, given the recent ouster of Carol Bartz from Yahoo. Dai’s advice for women in business is resonating, given the focus on women’s crucial role in reviving the economy at the historic APEC Women and the Economy Summit in San Francisco last week, chaired by Hillary Clinton. The summit concluded that that increasing women’s participation in the economy could lead to a 14 percent rise in per capita income by 2020.
Weili Dai spoke at APEC and has strong views about women’s role in the business world. She argues that the best way to grow the world economy is to fully engage women as business leaders. She points out that fewer than 29% of global decision making positions are held by women. Encouraging more women to focus on science and technology is key she says. At the Game Changers Conference in Silicon Valley, despite calls from other delegates for trade intervention against China, she voiced her preference for collaboration not confrontation. “We are powerful, China is powerful. Today, we live in the global world….let’s collaborate…cooperation is the healthy thing to do.”
In this Fresh Dialogues interview, she shares some tips about how to succeed in the tech world. A native of Shanghai, Dai attended UC Berkeley and cofounded Marvell in 1995. Since then, she’s helped to grow the company into one of the world’s largest chipmakers. Marvell touts a few admirable green policies but could do better as a green leader, coming 434th in Newsweek’s green ranking of America’s largest 500 companies.
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Here are video highlights from the SVLG Game Changers 2012 Conference which took place in Silicon Valley, September 13, 2011.
Gavin Newsom, CA Lieutenant Governor was on fire as he talked about California’s struggling economy and political disfunction: “We’ve been flat lining for 30 years…we have to wake up!”
California State Senator, Joe Simitian echoed his frustration with polarized politics and called for a popular public uprising. Striking a more optimistic viewpoint, the charismatic Shai Agassi, CEO of Better Place, the EV infrastructure, battery replacement company shared his vision for making the San Francisco Bay Area a model for the future of electric vehicles to “show Detroit…DC the way to go.”
Weili Dai, the intriguing cofounder of Marvell, the fabless semiconductor company, reiterated the need for cooperation with China, despite several calls for taking a more aggressive stance to protect and nurture America’s deteriorating manufacturing base.
This interview was recorded in Silicon Valley on Sept 13, 2011. With thanks to the SVLG and SV Community Foundation for front row seats. See video at the Fresh Dialogues Channel here
Here is an exclusive Fresh Dialogues interview with Marvell’s VP, Weili Dai – she gives tips to women in business. Number one: believe in yourself
Read transcripts, see photos and check out our ARCHIVES featuring exclusive interviews with Tom Friedman, Paul Krugman, Vinod Khosla and many more…
How is Google greening its growing army of Googlers, on and off campus? Biodiesel buses, Google bikes…pogo sticks anyone?
I sat down with Parag Chokshi, Google’s Clean Energy Public Affairs Manager this summer and he explained some of Google’s employee incentives and green practices. Did you know that if you get to the Googleplex under your own steam – walking, running, biking…or on your pogo stick, Google will donate to a charity of your choice? And if you can’t bear to move from your cool pad in San Fran, and the thought of 36 miles on a pogo stick seems a stretch, Google will transport you to work in one of its special biodiesel buses. Wifi equipped of course.
There’s even a sizeable organic vegetable garden on the campus, so if you fancy getting dirt under your finger nails and communing with Mother Earth, Google’s your place.
Of course, Google also fanfares the usual green suspects:
solar power (one of the largest commercial installations in the Bay Area at 1.6 MW or 30% of the complex’s peak power use);
Bloom Energy Boxes (Google was one of the first customers for this efficient fuel cell power source);
But if you think working at Google is just one green Kumbaya center, remember it’s not just a holiday camp…Pay maybe the highest average in the tech industry (2011 Payscale Report) but according to anecdotal evidence and Google’s own job descriptions, expect a high-stress startup environment and the bureaucratic issues typical of any fast growing big company.
Google’s infamous Don’t Be Evilmantra has inspired some remarkable projects, including the newly launched Google Ideas, but it’s Google’s Green Dream that caught my attention this week.
On Friday, I sat down with Parag Chokshi, Clean Energy Public Affairs Manager, at Google’s Mountain View Headquarters. We discussed Google’s recently published report, The Impact of Clean Energy Innovationwhich paints a picture of green nirvana in the US economy and energy market – if green investment and government incentives spur rapid innovation. And it’s a big IF, based on some rather optimistic assumptions, that’s why we’re calling it Google’s Green Dream.
Among the report’s predictions… By 2030, clean energy innovation will:
– boost US economic growth by $155-$244 Billion in GDP/year
– create over one million new jobs
– help electric vehicles command a 90% market share (small cars and trucks)
– save households almost $1000/year in energy bills
– reduce US oil consumption by over 1 B barrels/ year and greenhouse gases by 13-20%
The report concludes that if investment and incentives are delayed five years, the opportunity cost will be $2-3 Trillion.
Is this a realistic Green Dream by Google’s Green Czar Bill Weihl and his team? Or naive wishful thinking? Chokshi acknowledges that Google is examining some “aggressive scenarios” but underlines that the report’s purpose is to stimulate debate on how to get to this Green Dream; and to spur more investment by both the public and private sector. In this Fresh Dialogues VIDEO, Chokshi outlines the dramatic improvements in battery technology that are crucial to increasing the adoption of electric vehicles, but declined to confirm whether Google is investing its considerable financial and engineering muscle in the already crowded race to build a better EV battery. We can only speculate.
TRANSCRIPT of Google Interview with Parag Chokshi, Clean Energy Pubic Affairs Manager. Recorded on Friday July 8, 2011. The interview has been edited for length. Highlights here.
Alison van Diggelen: Today, we’re at the Google Headquarters in Mountain View California. I’m here with Parag Chokshi, and he is Pubic Affairs Manager of Clean Energy at Google.
(Parag) You have an audacious goal at Google: to make renewable energy less costly than coal. …
Parag Chokshi: That’s right.
Alison: How is that target going and can you talk on that target?
Parag: Sure…there are a lot of initiatives that we do in support of that goal. There’s an internal effort – an engineering effort – that focuses on solar thermal technology, so that’s another piece of getting to that goal. And of course there’s the Energy innovation study that we published just last week. We’re really trying to provide some data on the long-term impact of investment by the public and the private sector in an effort to spur more investment and to get other folks involved toward getting to that goal.
There are a lot of pieces to it: an internal engineering team, the investments we’re making and then some efforts in the policy and advocacy space.
Alison: What were some of the most exciting conclusions that the report made?
