Dr. Madhu Chitkara - South East Asia Regional Winner by George Washington University

Chandigarh, November 9, 2013: Dr. Madhu Chitkara, Vice Chancellor, Chitkara University is South East Asia Regional Winner of Project on Women Entrepreneurship. She is the only Indian who has been felicitated with this award representing entire South East Asia Region in the World's largest Library of Case Studies on Women Entrepreneurship.  This award is an initiative of George Washington University, Center of Excellence for Entrepreneurship through project titled as "The Hot Mommas Project". This project is now the largest digital women’s case study archive in the world.

Besides Dr. Madhu Chitkara, there are six other award winners from different parts of the globe namely : Ms. Lola from Nigeria representing Africa Award, Ms. Michele Smith representing Canada Award, Ms. Hana representing East European Award, Ms. Sahar representing Middle East Award, Ms. Kristina representing Northern Europe Award and Ms. Kara representing United States Award.

Case Studies are  invited every year and Best Cases and Authors are awarded for their contribution to Women Entrepreneurship in Education. For year  2012- 13,  women from around the world like United States, Canada, Spain, Africa, Europe, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Nigeria etc. shared their stories in a structured, teachable format ( a case study) with their ventures and initiative. A case study on Dr. Madhu Chitkara's  professional journey was submitted that  included personal challenges such as work-life balance and “aha moments” in addition to traditional business lessons.

Cases were judged by a panel of globally-recognized leaders in business, government, media, academia and non profit sectors including Greenberger,  Managing Director  Morgan Stanley, Lesley Jane Seymour, Editor in Chief of More Magazine, Maryam Banikarim, Chief Marketing Officer of Gannett, Diane Tomb, President and CEO of the National Association of Women Business Owners, Ellen Thrasher, Head of the Small Business Association's Office of Entrepreneurship, Princess Fay Al Jahan Ara, President of the RACH Charity Foundation, and Katherine Johnson, former Senior Vice President of Integrated Marketing for the Oprah Winfrey Network.

Hot Mommas Project offers success stories for women balancing careers & lives. This Project was conceptualized in 2002 and founded in 2005 to fill a gap in the education system. It is the recipient of a national Coleman Foundation Case Award, and was founded by a experienced executive and Harvard Business School case author who is the instructor of the nationally award-winning Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership class at the George Washington University School of Business. The Hot Mommas Project is included in the mission of the school’s Center for Entrepreneurial Excellence. The project partners with Women’s organizations, Universities, Corporations, and institutions to teach its confidence-building, mentor programming, and leadership curriculum.

The announcement of awards is published in The Washington Post featuring the background and purpose of awards and all the cases will be published by Pearson. The case studies selected are generally discussed at School of Business, George Washington University, Harvard Business School and many other B-Schools of the World to promote Women entrepreneurship and learn from the dynamic women who made their mark in the field of Entrepreneurship. These awards are given to acknowledge the efforts of Women Entrepreneurs in Education at global level.

Many of the 400 cases, a technique borrowed from the case-study model of teaching pioneered by Harvard Business School have been published in business school textbooks. The research on such awards shows that seeing a woman play a central role in a case study makes other women more confident about what they can accomplish and feel more successful when they are able to accomplish one key thing: managing the demands of career and home.