Julie Castro Abrams is an expert in board governance and building diverse boards that are a strategic advantage. She is an experienced non-profit CEO and entrepreneur, and through her consulting practice she supports leaders to build high-performance boards break through performance for the leaders and high performing multicultural teams. She is the CEO of How Women Lead, a network of over 20,000 women dedicated to promoting diverse women’s voices and propelling women’s leadership forward, as well as the Managing Partner of How Women Invest, the country’s largest venture fund focused exclusively on women founders.

An active investor and advisor to start-ups, and as the leader of the nation’s largest microenterprise and microfinance organization for 11 years, Julie has helped launch over 6,000 women into successful businesses. Julie previously sat on the advisory boards of the fin-tech start-up LENDonate, Nia Capital. She was formerly the Governance Chair for the Women’s Funding Network.

A recipient of many accolades, Julie has won the More Jobs Genius Award, the Morgan Stanley Innovation Award, Cisco’s Innovation in Technology Award, the League of Women Voters’ Women Who Could Be President Award, the Stevie Award for Best Non-Profit Executive, and the Commission on the Status of Women’s Human Rights Award, and is a member of the Women of Color Action Network, Leadership California, and the Marin Women’s Hall of Fame. She has also been featured in four books, including “Scrappy Women in Business,” “Women of Courage,” “The Missing Mentor,” and Fast Company’s video series “30 Second MBA.”