Elizabeth A. Vazquez

 

President, CEO and Co-Founder; WEConnect International

Elizabeth A. Vazquez is the President, CEO, and Co-Founder of WEConnect International, a corporate led non-profit that helps to empower women business owners to succeed in global markets. She is a world leader in women’s economic empowerment and global supplier diversity and inclusion.

WEConnect International identifies, educates, registers, and certifies women’s business enterprises that are at least 51% owned, managed, and controlled by one or more women, and then connects them with member buyers. The organization supports and promotes women-owned businesses based in over 100 countries, including local support and certification in 45 countries across the Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Ms. Vazquez works with many corporate leaders, including WEConnect International members with over US$1 trillion in annual purchasing power. WEConnect International helps to develop the capacity of large buyers to source more products and services from underutilized suppliers, including women-owned businesses globally.

Ms. Vazquez is the co-author of the book, “Buying for Impact: How to Buy from Women and Change Our World.” She sits on the Walmart Global Women’s Economic Empowerment Initiative’s International Advisory Council, the Procter & Gamble Supplier Diversity Advisory Council, the Global Citizen and CHIME FOR CHANGE Girls’ and Women’s Committee, and is a Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards Jury Member. She “rang the bell” at the New York Stock Exchange in 2019 in support of women business owners around the world, sits on several Boards of Directors and served on the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment.

She has a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University where she studied development economics and international negotiation as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow and is the recipient of the 2018 Fletcher Women’s Leadership Award for outstanding graduates who are making a meaningful impact in the world.