emberin was founded in 2005 by Maureen Frank. emberin stands for the embers inside. The global issue that emberin focuses on is that there is not enough women in senior management positions in our major organisations. As a result, too many organisations miss out on the substantial business benefits resulting from gender diversity.

After Maureen won a Telstra Business Woman of the Year Award in 2004, she wrote a book, You Go Girlfriend, aimed at helping women juggle their careers and personal lives. It sold over 10 000 copies. During this time Maureen did a lot of public speaking on the advancement of women (and still does!) and decided to leave her job as head of mergers and acquisition for a major insurance company to focus her energies on helping women create more successful and less stressful lives. A key goal of her company was to develop programs that assist employers with their strategies in creating workplaces that values both genders.

In 2007 Maureen released my mentor – Challenging Women to Step up. Within 18 months over 3000 women had completed the program. In September 2009, Maureen launched a second edition: my mentor – Challenging women to make it happen, and my mentor – Mastering Gender Leadership as well as companion programs – Alumni, Manager and Parental Leave.

In 2010, Maureen launched Women’s Village the ultimate portal for the working woman providing articles, advice, helpful tools and learning opportunities as well as a place for women to network. Membership is free of charge and it provides an unparalleled opportunity for organisations to offer it to their female staff as part of their employee value proposition.