March 15, 2017

Drucker Alumni: Saori Casey in Tech Top 20 and More

Photo of Drucker School alumna Saori Casey (MBA, 1995)
Drucker School alumna Saori Casey (MBA, 1995)

According to a recent story from Business Insider, the difficulty in finding women to join company boards isn’t because of a lack of qualified individuals—it’s because of a lack of diversity in the networks recommending board candidates.

“While there may be no intent to actively exclude any group,” the article reports, “this lack of diversity in networks means that opportunities aren’t exposed to a broader pool of talent.”

Business Insider describes a LinkedIn-like network that is creating recommendations of highly qualified women in the tech sector who should be considered as company board candidates.

High on that list of “20 Women in Finance You Should Add to Your Company’s Board” is Drucker alumna Saori Casey (MBA, 1995), who currently serves as vice president of corporate financial planning at Apple.

Business Insider highlights Casey’s work at Apple, which has placed her in charge of “everything from demand forecasting to investment allocations.”

In addition to being a Drucker alumna, Casey also sits on the Drucker School Board of Industry Advisors, which provides strategic feedback and more to the Drucker School.

Other women ranked among the 20 tech board candidates include Kelly Kramer of Cisco, Nvidia’s Colette Kress, and Square’s Sarah Friar.

Tech and Young Minds
How influential is game technology on young minds?

Very influential, it turns out. A recent Yahoo! Finance report highlights the work of actress and comedian Amy Poehler with Lenovo and the company’s efforts to create educational platforms for kids—including one that teaches kids coding as the starting point for a future career as a game designer.

The report includes commentary by Lenovo’s vice president and general manager of global eCommerce,  Ajit Sivadasan (MBA, 1999), whose remarks about his company’s efforts to assist young people are rooted in the Drucker tradition of social impact and improvement.

“We build our technology to empower young people to become not just content consumers, but content creators,” Sivadasan says. “Lenovo is committed to the STEAM movement in the U.S. and is taking steps through programs like this to ensure we are invested in helping our young people be motivated and inspired to look into STEAM-related fields.”

Like Casey, Sivadasan also sits on the Drucker School Board of Industry Advisors.