“I don’t feel so alone now.”

Participants from India, Mexico, Germany, United States & Nepal

IMPERIA was created to develop the premier global resource for women’s leadership development, focused on high-potential women out to change the world.

We wanted to give those women the rocket boost they need to build their empires, because it’s difficult to be a woman on the cutting edge of her chosen profession or path. We wanted to ensure there’s a place she can be welcomed, understood and supported.

We knew in order to do that, we would need to redefine the narrative of what it means to be a powerful woman in the world.

We also know how important lenses are, even down to our name. We’re fans of the classics, and went to ancient Latin to find ourselves. Unfortunately, there is no feminine derivative of the word “power” (“imperium”) in Latin — so we created one. And most importantly, we know the critical support a strong community provides — so we’re building a global one.

From its inception, IMPERIA was designed to be a place where a broad range of women’s voices are represented. To combat the systemic racism that often impedes their progress, we must also ensure the women who join us here are empowered to fight it head-on. Even in creating our name, we did so consciously recognizing that imperialism has always taken place to the detriment of people of color, and especially women of color, so we are redefining the word and equipping women to powerfully run their own empires.

We have made it part of our core values to ensure our cohorts, guest speakers, internal team and advisory board reflect a truly global presence of voices, creeds and colors.

80% of the founders in our first cohort are women of color, and 30% are black women founders. They are across a broad range of industries and specialties, from health tech to education and LGBTQ rights. We will continue to uphold our dedication to this breadth of diversity and true inclusion as we move forward, bringing even more voices to the table.

And as supporters of empire builders, we knew it was important for us to build an empire of our own. We absolutely believe it’s possible to do good things in the world and do well as a result. In fact, Jennifer was preaching this one back in 1994, in her senior year of college at NYU’s Stern School of Business. It didn’t go over so smoothly back then; but now that conscious capitalism is something being embraced and understood, we feel like the world can hear us at last.

With IMPERIA, we’re furthering the journey begun in 2015 when we launched as The Concordia Project. Here’s what the road looks like: