On Tuesday, March 26, 2024, Women’s eNews will honor ’21 Leaders for the 21st Century’ at its 24th annual Gala in New York City. The 2024 honorees were selected due to the Innovative programs and practices they provide to help ensure full equality regardless of gender, race, age, sexual orientation, or abilities. Each week, we will introduce you to one of this year’s stellar honorees.
Global advocate for women’s rights; Former Commissioner for International Affairs City of New York
Today we invite you to meet Penny Abeywardena, who has held leadership roles in international affairs, government and philanthropy for over 20years. Her contributions have been recognized and celebrated by the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, and the French American Foundation, among others. She was recently appointed to the rank of Knight in France’s National Order of Merit by President Macron for her global leadership on diplomacy, human rights, and sustainability.
Penny is a contributing columnist at Forbes on leadership strategies. Her writing is focused on identifying strategies of influence and persuasion when there is little or no perceived power. She writes on issues ranging from AI to food security and climate change. Penny recently held senior advisor roles with LUISS Guido Carli University in Rome on sustainable financing and the Charities Aid Foundation based in London.
During her eight years of service as the Commissioner for International Affairs for the City of New York (2014-2022), she led the agency serving the largest diplomatic corps in the world. During her tenure New York City successfully implemented a series of award-winning programs with the international community including the creation of the Voluntary Local Review, a global movement of hundreds of local governments working to achieve the SDGs and the Junior Ambassador program which enabled underserved youth to address the SDGs in their local community. Prior to her role in government, Penny was the Director of the Women’s program at the Clinton Global Initiative (2009-2014), where she advised multinational corporations, philanthropists, NGOs and multilateral institutions to increase investments in gender-focused development initiatives.
Penny is currently on the Board of Directors of FHI360, the Center for Reproductive Rights and the American Society of the French Order of Merit. She also serves on advisory councils for APCO Worldwide, the 92Y Belfer Center for Innovation & Social Impact and Vote Run Lead. She’s recently served on the board of the United Nations Fund for International Partnerships, which provides oversight of the UN Foundation, the International Peace Institute, the Aspen Institute’s Digital Equity Advisory Council, and was co-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Cities of Tomorrow.
Date: Tuesday, March 26th @ 6pm (ET)
Location: CLUB 101 Ballroom, 101 Park Avenue @ 40th Street, NYC
RSVP by February 14th. Price per Ticket = $1,000
(To ensure prime seating, please email angie@womensenews.org with your order.)
For a current list of honorees, please click here.
