Speaker Series 10/10/19

by Jessica Wong

In the club’s first event of the 2019/2020 school year on October 10th, Vanderbilt Women in Business welcomed back an impressive alum. In her monochromatic black (aside from the silver-sequined slip-on flats, of course) power ‘fit, Emily White (‘00) sat with Vanderbilt’s Professor Jamie Leddin for a fireside chat-style talk, discussing with 75 attendees her time at Vanderbilt, where she earned her degree in art history and met her now-husband, and beyond. 

White’s “beyond” can be traced all over the tech world, from Employee 200 of Google less than a year after graduation to Facebook to Instagram to Snapchat COO, among other things. She currently is president of the private equity and venture capital firm Anthos Capital and is based in Los Angeles with her family. 

She highlighted the importance of focusing on people and culture over the prospective job title or even company name when looking to get involved in a company, and credits her success to self-confidence, owning your place in a room and avoiding being your own biggest barrier. White’s resonating words of advice? To find your superpower–everyone has one–and then seek out a career that accommodates yours. Know when to say yes. Internalize that you have control, and it’s more than you think. Listen to your whispers, those hints you hear in the back of your head, and be brave enough to make the moves they tell you to (she credits this one to Oprah). Grow the most from your failure. 

The talk was closed out by an audience Q&A session, and a private networking event for the internal WIB team.