In this episode, Hemma visits with Margarita Quihuis to talk about Peace Innovation and the role that Responsible Persuasive Techology can play in having impact at scale. Margarita is the CEO of PeaceX Ventures, the first venture studio dedicated to building ESG-native companies from the ground up. She is also the Executive Director of the Peace Innovation Lab (PIL) at Stanford and the Peace Innovation Institute at The Hague.

Tune in to hear how Margarita defines positive peace not as the absence of conflict but instead as a reflection of how the world works together on a micro-level, interacting with each other and our environment. Leveraging her expertise in behavior design and technology, Margarita helps her clients solve for X, where X is everything from AI to business to urban planning and beyond. If it exists, she’s trying to find a way to build peace into it. If, like Margarita, you agree that the time has come to be done talking about the problems that plague the world, and instead to find solutions, you won’t want to miss this episode.

Highlights:

• Margarita’s Incredible Journey to Silicon Valley at an inflection point for mobile technology and personal computing

• Behavior design and persuasive technology

• Our role in fostering positive peace in our communities and beyond

Timestamps:

1:23 - Introducing Margarita

4:40 - Margarita's "origin story"

9:12 - Leading as a female director at a venture capital firm

14:08 - Margarita's experience as a woman in Silicon Valley

28:05 - The female gaze in business

36:01 - What is Peace Innovation?

51:01 - What does responsible AI look like?

55:52 - Climate action and responsibility

59:48 - Designing positive behaviors

Resources:

https://margaritaquihuis.com/

Biography

‍Margarita Quihuis is the CEO of PeaceX Ventures, the first venture studio dedicated to building ESG-native companies from the ground up. She is the Executive Director of the Peace Innovation Lab (PIL) at Stanford and the Peace Innovation Institute at The Hague.

Margarita launched Astia, the first technology incubator for women entrepreneurs, and raised $67M in venture funding within 18 months.

As a public speaker on entrepreneurship and social behavior, she has addressed many corporations and institutions on ESG, ethical business, and innovation.

Margarita divides her time between academia and corporate engagements. As a research team member at BJ Fogg’s Behaviour Design Lab, she combines behavioral change, persuasive tech, and finance for real-world impact.

At PIL, she researches innovation, mass collaboration, and social technology to reform society. The focal points of her work have included the application of persuasive technology for government innovation, humanitarian relief, and citizen diplomacy.

Honors include:

• Named “One of the 100 Most Influential Latinos in Silicon Valley” by Latino Leaders Magazine

• Named Manor Labs: “Bright Idea” Innovator by the Ash Center for Democratic Governance at Harvard University

• Named one of Women’s eNews’ “21 Leaders for the 21st Century”

Margarita has also been an entrepreneurship consultant to the US State Department.

She has been widely quoted in the Asian Venture Capital Report, NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, US News & World Report, Forbes ASAP, CNN, and CBS MarketWatch.

In this episode, Hemma visits with Roxanne Bras Petraeus, entrepreneur super mom, U.S. Army veteran, McKinsey alum, and CEO co-founder of Ethena.

Tune in to hear about Roxanne’s remarkable journey from serving in the US Army and at consulting giant McKinsey to tech entrepreneur designing a product to reimagine the future of culture building at work. Roxanne’s willingness to ask audacious questions and do hard things well has opened doors and brought down walls. She gives a masterclass in discovering works when it comes to culture building at work, particularly for female entrepreneurs finding their voice and for those looking to advance technology solutions to enhance the employee experience.

Highlights:

• Roxanne’s experience as a woman in the US Army

• Highs and Lows of being a female tech entrepreneur

• The magic of a stumble and what we can learn

Timestamps:

1:06 - Introducing Roxanne

3:19 - Why did Roxanne start Athena?

13:33 - How do we have impactful, quality training?

18:47 - Why leaders need to set the tone

29:38 - Athena's culture survey and hotline

39:36 - Roxanne's advice for female founders

Resources:

www.ethena.com

Biography

‍Roxanne Petraeus is the CEO and Co-Founder of Ethena, a compliance training platform startup with intuitive and powerful admin tools that make required training easy, engaging, and effective.

Roxanne previously consulted for McKinsey, and before that, she was an officer in the US Army. She found that no matter the setting, whether consulting or in the military, there remained an opportunity to make compliance training better. She started Ethena in 2019 with Co-Founder Anne Solmssen.

Ethena enjoys incredibly positive word of mouth within the HR community and is trusted by thousands of companies like Figma, Notion, Noom, Pinterest, and Carta to provide actionable training. The employees love it: Ethena has a 93% positive rating and over 2M positive reviews. Roxanne is a natural leader, and her eagerness to question and reinvent old paradigms is at the heart of Ethena’s ascendance.