Pledge 1%'s #WomenWhoLead series celebrates female leaders who are paving the way for the next generation. While our featured leaders come from a variety of backgrounds and industries, they are united in their efforts to promote equality for all women in the workplace. We’ve asked them to share a bit about their journey to success, as well as lessons they’ve learned along the way.
Jan D'Alessandro
President, Blue J Strategies & Executive Advisor, Lookout Foundation
San Francisco, California
What is your current role? Briefly describe in 1-2 sentences.
President, Blue J Strategies & Executive Advisor, Lookout Foundation. I run a strategic advisory business helping public, private and nonprofit companies scale through strategic partnerships, with a particular focus on building cohesive social impact programs. In addition to my work leading the Pledge 1% Equity Initiative and work with purpose driven companies, Unagi Scooters and Future Fuel, I advise the Lookout Foundation.
What’s the best part of your job? What do you enjoy the most?
I love all my clients and most enjoy the ability to work with companies that are committed to giving back to their communities. I am inspired by the deep commitment to giving back that Lookout demonstrates. Lookout joined the Pledge 1% movement with an equity, time, profits and product pledge. I help the Foundation choose impactful nonprofits with which to partner with grants and employee volunteer time in furtherance of their core themes- Women & STEM and Data Privacy and Security. Lookout launched an important conference Day of Shecurity, focused on helping women secure jobs in the cybersecurity industry. The conference now reaches over 1000 women twice a year and is one of the predominant means for helping raise awareness of roles in this lucrative field. Lookout also has an extremely generous employee matching program of $1000 per employee per year. The Lookout Foundation reserves a portion of its budget to address disaster relief. With the matching program, Lookout and our employees joined the Pledge 1% campaigns and contributed over $50,000 to help Indian Covid Relief efforts and over $50,000 to help the people of the Ukraine
We’ve all faced personal and professional challenges these past two years - what motivates you to keep going?
The ability to use my skills and networks to help purpose driven companies give back to the communities in which we live and work keeps me going.
What’s the best piece of advice you ever received?
Do What Matters.
What does generosity mean to you?
Giving back with whatever resources you have.
How do you feel businesses can play a larger role in solving today’s biggest challenges? Do you have any specific stories or examples from your work or colleagues you can share?
Businesses have an enormous responsibility- and opportunity to positively impact the communities in which we live and work. Harnessing the resources at their disposal - employee time, products, profits and relationships with customers and partners is a powerful force multiplier. See above about Lookout.
If you could describe yourself in one word what would that be and why?
Positive. I see the world with rose colored glasses, striving to see the best in people and situations. My motto is to "Assume Good Will and Spread Good Cheer."
If you could pick a song to guide you through 2022, which song would it be?
"Everyone Loves the Sunshine." Roy Ayers
What are you looking forward to this year? Are there any goals (personal or professional), activities, or experiences you are excited about?
I look forward to expanding the impact that we are making with Day of Shecurity to helping more women receive training and resources, and obtaining roles in the cybersecurity industry. I look forward to helping Pledge 1% unlock another 2 billion in new philanthropy, to helping Unagi Scooters give employees of Google and other forward thinking companies the ability to commute to work in a joyful and sustainable way, and to helping Future Fuel give employers like Salesforce and other forward thinking companies the ability to allow their employees to pay down their student debt faster.
