Shamila Gopalan
Superstars of STEM Mentor
Shamila is an entrepreneur and a corporate leader. She has been at the helm of building businesses independently and in Fortune 500 firms globally, from CNN to National Geographic Channel through to Fox International, for close to 25 years across 3 continents.
She has built two businesses and exited one before moving to Australia 5 years ago. Now on her 3rd venture, HerWit, she continues her journey of being an entrepreneur with a purpose. Shamila has recently been appointed to the executive leadership team as Head of Growth and Partnership for SisterWorks, a social enterprise NFP, empowering migrant and refugee women with opportunities to become economically empowered.
Shamila has always been passionate about pushing the envelope for equality, diversity, and inclusion, and recognises the power of having more female role models and leaders. Having found HerWit, a profit-for-purpose venture, she empowers ambitious female founders to start, pivot and scale their businesses while amplifying them as inspiring leaders to ignite conversations that create positive change for girls and women around the world.
In 2016, she was awarded one of Asia Top 50 Female Leaders, currently appointed to the board of Forkful and Living on the Spectrum, and an advisory board member with Brilliant Women Global (BWG), a highly collegiate network of women available for Board roles and transformation projects and in 2020, she is appointed as a coach for RMIT’s Launch-Hub Accelerator program. She is also the co-host of a podcast, ‘Unapologetically Brown’ where she looks at what it means to be a woman of colour, focused on issues around culture, identity and race, to the everyday experiences.
Shamila is a featured international speaker and judge for multiple global awards, investor pitches and events. She is a steady voice for disruption, empowerment, and impact for women entrepreneurs and leaders around the globe.