Shelley Zalis

Shelley Zalis decided gender equality belonged on the same stage as revenue and growth, then built the room to put it there.

After launching the research firm OTX in 2000 and growing it into one of the fastest-growing companies in its field before selling to Ipsos in 2010, Zalis pivoted fully to advancing women in the workplace. As founder and CEO of The Female Quotient, known widely as its “Chief Troublemaker,” she created the Equality Lounge® – a gathering space now embedded at the World Economic Forum, Cannes Lions, and CES, where business leaders are pushed to treat gender equality as a competitive necessity, not a side conversation.

Today, The Female Quotient works directly with Fortune 500 companies to build cultures where women’s advancement is the baseline, not the initiative. Shelley and The Female Quotient also helped activate OurSheconomy, helping bring greater visibility to women whose contributions have too often gone unseen.

By moving gender equality from the margins of business conversations to the center of decision-making, Shelley is helping redefine what inclusive economic power looks like. She is changing not only who gets a seat at the table, but what the table is expected to talk about. Her work is helping make space for a future where women’s economic power is not questioned, but expected.