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Caren Merrick, the founder and CEO of Pocket Mentor joins host Deirdre Breakenridge on Women Worldwide. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Caren was a partner at Bibury Partners, an angel investment and advisory firm. Earlier in her career she was\\xa0co-founder and EVP of webMethods, leading the company to the most successful software IPO in 2000. Caren grew the company to 1,100 employees and $200m in revenue, which eventually led to its acquisition by SoftwareAG in 2007 for $540million.

On the show, Caren discusses her career journey and how she has served on different boards. According to The Gender Diversity Index, in 2015, of the 842 active companies on the Fortune 1,000 list, women held 18.8% of board seats. This is an increase from 17.7% in 2014. If you compare these stats to the 14.6% of board seats that were held by women in 2011, you can see the numbers are rising, but not high enough. According to Caren, too few women see themselves as participants in the boardroom and they aren\\u2019t stepping up by taking risks or taking on new projects. Lastly, Caren discusses\\xa0her thoughts on reinvention and why it\\u2019s so important for professionals to invest in self-discovery. Professionals should know that change can be uncomfortable and you can\\u2019t force it.

A\\xa0little more about Caren Merrick\\xa0\\u2026 Caren\\xa0serves on the board of directors for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which manages and operates the $800m Washington Ronald Reagan National and Dulles International airports, serving over 40 million passengers a year. The Authority also manages the development of the $6B Dulles Corridor Silver Line Metrorail project.\\xa0The boards on which she serves provide governance and oversight across multiple industries with a combined value of $10b.

You can connect with Caren on LinkedIn and Twitter @CDMerrick

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