Filipina achiever honored in New York

Analisa Leonor Balares is CEO, Chief Innovation Officer, and Founder of WOMENSPHERE, an international NGO and global community incubating and accelerating women and girls to create the future. (Photo: Womensphere/ Facebook)

MANILA –Analisa Leonor Balares, a Filipina global women’s advocate, was among the 18 women recognized by the Society of Foreign Consuls in New York (SOFC) during its International Women’s Day Celebration at the Bohemian Hall of the Consulate General of the Czech Republic on March 2.

Analisa Leonor Balares is CEO, Chief Innovation Officer, and Founder of WOMENSPHERE, an international NGO and global community incubating and accelerating women and girls to create the future.

She has produced over 50 Womensphere conferences/forums/events in America and Europe, and is currently building the New Champions Womensphere Incubator Network, dedicated to training and advancing women and girls in leadership, innovation, entrepreneurship, sustainability, and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics).

Currently, she is developing four incubator satellites in the Philippines.

Analisa, a product of Manila Science High school where she earned multiple national awards, was a Scholar at Lester Pearson United World College in Canada, and Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, and a Certificate in Digital Filmmaking from the New York Film Academy.

Prior to her fulltime involvement in women’s advocacy, she worked at Microsoft, Milestone Capital, Goldman Sachs High Technology Investment Banking, Morgan Stanley’s Energy Investment Banking Group, among others. She has been recognized as a Young Global Leaderby the World Economic Forum (WEF), where she co-chairs New Champions 5050, the YGL community’s global initiative for gender parity and women’s empowerment. She was recently selected by NASA as a NASA Datanaut and is recognized as one of the New Leaders of America.

Now, on its 6th year, SOFC International Women’s Day has been an occasion to celebrate the achievements of women throughout the many immigrant communities in New York who help to strengthen the State’s vibrancy and diversity.

Consul General Maria Theresa Dizon-De Vega, currently serving as one of the Vice Presidents of the SOFC together with the SOFC President Consul General Isabel Nieto of Colombia awarded a certificate of recognition to Ms. Balares. The 17 other awardees are from Algeria, Bangladesh, Barbados, Bulgaria, Columbia, Georgia, Haiti, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kazhakastan, Kosovo, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Slovak Republic, and Turkey.