SAN FRANCISCO, UNITED STATES - Media OutReach - 3 December 2020 - Corporateleaders from Salesforce, Google, PayPal, VISA, BlackRock, Cisco, Adobe, HorizonTherapeutics, KPMG and others, all serving in their personal capacity, havevolunteered to come together to support the work of the Asian University forWomen (AUW) located in Chittagong, Bangladesh.

The AUW Bay Area Advisory Board isentrusted with raising awareness of the urgent need to enhance opportunitiesfor women's higher education and leadership development; facilitatingpartnerships between Bay Area universities and companies and AUW to improveteaching and learning at the University; and fundraising for student scholarshipsand other needs at the University from individuals, philanthropies, andbusinesses. It is part of a global network of Advisory Boards that support AUW,including in Tokyo, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, and Singapore.

Ritu Bhargava, the Chairof the AUW Bay Area Advisory Board

Ritu Bhargava, a Senior Vice President atSalesforce, Chairs the Advisory Board.  "Iwent to an all-women's college in India," said Bhargava. "I was inspired and learnedthat a woman can dream of the unimaginable and achieve it.  I want to let the young women of AUW knowthat it is possible for them, too. And I want to help them get there."Bhargava, who is the head of Engineering for Sales Cloud, is also mentoring acurrent student at AUW.  This mentorshiprelationship is one of the core responsibilities of all Bay Area Advisory Boardmembers.

Stacey Taylor, the Chairof Events & Advocacy Committee

Srini Ramanathan, the Chair of thePartnership Committee

Alex Craddock, the Co-Chairof the Scholarship Support Committee

Marcy Campbell, the Co-Chairof the Scholarship Support Committee

The Advisory Board is organized into threecommittees: a Partnerships Committee, chaired by Dr. Srini Ramanathan, GroupVice President of Development Sciences at Horizon Therapeutics; an Events &Advocacy Committee, chaired by Stacey Taylor; and a Scholarship Support Committee,co-chaired by Marcy Campbell, Vice President of Sales for the North Americanand Australian Markets at PayPal and Alexander Craddock, ManagingDirector and Chief Marketing Officer, iShares, BlackRock.

The Advisory Board has been meetingregularly since it came together in early September and is currently hosting aweek-long virtual film festival called, HERSTORY: Women's EmpowermentThrough Her Lens. The film festival will showcase a number of filmsdirected and produced by prominent South Asian women. It will be accompanied byan exclusive director's panel featuring acclaimed film directors Smriti Mundhra,Alka Raghuram, Alankrita Shrivastava, and others; and a live discussion featuringAUW student Nazifa Rafa; and Dr. Tiffany Cone, an AUW faculty member,anthropologist, and filmmaker. The event aims to raise $100,000 for studentscholarships to AUW.

The Chancellor of Asian University forWomen, Cherie Blair, a prominent human rights lawyer and wife of the former BritishPrime Minister Tony Blair, attended an initial Advisory Board meeting. "Whatimpressed me most about the Bay Area Advisory Board," she commented, "was thecreativity, energy, and deep concern among all of its members for the issuesthat AUW addresses on the ground in educating and empowering women."

"On my many visits to AUW's campus, I hadpalpably felt the inspiration and optimism shared by AUW students. At this timeof the global pandemic, it is heartening to see others also similarly inspiredand helping sustain our mission in such a positive and constructive manner.These women and men who have come together to make a positive impact forchanging the lives of women are also our heroes," she added.

TheAUW Bay Area Advisory Board is composed of the following individuals:

RituBhargava, Senior Vice President,Salesforce (BoardChair)

Srini Ramanathan,Group Vice President of DevelopmentSciences, Horizon Therapeutics (Chair,Partnerships Committee)

StaceyTaylor, VicePresident, Systems Strategy and Operational Excellence, VISA (Chair, Events & AdvocacyCommittee)

AlexCraddock, ManagingDirector and Chief Marketing Officer, iShares, BlackRock (Co-Chair, Scholarship SupportCommittee)

Marcy Campbell, Vice President, Sales for the North American andAustralian Markets, PayPal (Co-Chair, Scholarship Support Committee)

Shomit Ghose, Partner, ONSET Ventures

Brian Greenen, Independent Consultant; Former Vice President,North American Sales, Oracle

Dave Kleidermacher, Vice President of Engineering for Android Security& Privacy, Google

Grace Kloba, Senior Engineering Director for Android, Google

Purnima Kochikar, Vice President of Business Development, Google Play

Raj Krishna, Vice President of Strategy & Planning, theCloud Networking Group, Cisco

Simon Longbottom, Vice President, Creative Cloud and Document Cloud,Adobe

Ariel Spivak, Managing Director, Auto, TV, and IoTPartnerships, Google

Vijay Subramanyam, Managing Director, Transformation Delivery, KPMG

About Asian University for Women (AUW):

Founded in 2008and located in Chittagong, Bangladesh, AUW is the first of its kind: a regionalinstitution dedicated to women's education and leadership development throughliberal arts and sciences education.  Itis international in outlook but rooted in the contexts and aspirations of thepeople of Asia. Chartered by the Parliament of Bangladesh, AUW exists solely tosupport a rising network of women leaders, entrepreneurs, and changemakers fromacross the region. It seeks out women who show significant academic achievementand potential, demonstrate courage and a sense of outrage at injustice, and areempathic to the woes of other people.

900 studentsfrom 18 countries currently attend AUW: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan,Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan,Palestine, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Syria, Timor Leste, Vietnam, and Yemen. Morethan 85% of AUW students are on full or near-full scholarships funded bysupporters from around the world. The University has graduated over a thousandstudents to date. A majority of AUW graduates secure employment in the privateand public sectors in their home countries while about 25% go on to pursuegraduate studies at other institutions of higher learning including Oxford,Cambridge, Johns Hopkins, Stanford, Columbia, Duke, Brandeis and Tufts, amongothers. To learn more about Asian University for Women, please visit https://asian-university.org.