Le Service pour la science et la technologie de l’Ambassade de France en Allemagne met en lumière des femmes scientifiques et des managers de projets, en particulier des coopérations franco-allemandes scientifiques féminines, contribuant ainsi à la déclinaison par l’Ambassade de France en Allemagne de la stratégie internationale de la France pour une diplomatie féministe (2025-2030). Plus d’informations : https://de.ambafrance.org/Strategie-internationale-de-la-France-pour-une-diplomatie-feministe-2025-2030
Angela Naser est directrice du de la branche France de Women in Tech® et Noha Salama est directrice de la branche Allemagne. Créée en 2018 et basée à Paris, Women in Tech® est une ONG engagée dans la promotion de l’égalité des sexes dans le domaine de la technologie. L’organisation agit pour l’inclusion, la diversité et l’équité dans le secteur Science, Technologie, Ingénierie et Mathématiques (STEM), avec pour mission de combler l’écart entre les sexes et célébrer les réalisations des femmes et des hommes dans le domaine de la technologie.
Can you introduce yourself?
Noha Salama: My name is Noha Salama, I am the Chapter Director of the Germany Chapter of Women in Tech®. I have been working in IT now since my graduation in 1991. My first degree was a degree in computer science. This whole time, I have been working here in Munich. Although I started my career as a software engineer, since then I have had many different roles at different companies. I worked in software engineering, in project management, also in sales, in new business development, and also, most recently, in leadership roles.
Angela Naser: I am Angela Naser, and I am the Director of Women in Tech® France and the Director of Institutional Relations for Women in Tech® Global. I do not come from the tech world at first; I was the CEO of General Electric Capital Finance for 17 years. After that, I launched Revolut Bank. In France, I launched three digital banks for the BPCE Group, including a German bank called Fidor. That’s why I was often in Germany, between Berlin and Munich. I also worked twice on the presidential campaigns of the President of the Republic on strategy. And I was the campaign director for Gabriel Attal three times in 2019, 2022, and 2024. I am a volunteer at Women in Tech®. My real job is that I am a freelance CFO for the United Nations, but since Women in Tech® takes up 60% of my time and I only communicate about Women in Tech®, everyone thinks that it is my profession.
Can you introduce Women in Tech® Global and your Chapters?
Noha Salama: Women in Tech®, we are a global movement. The movement was started in 2018 in order to educate, empower, and support the female community. The NGO is still headquartered in France, and we have the endorsement of the French presidency, which gets renewed every year. Also, the global summit, the main conference every year, took place last year in Paris and the year before also. Now, we have 60 chapters worldwide. I launched the chapter two and a half years ago here in Munich. The collaboration was with AWS, Amazon Web Services. At the time, Amazon Web Services, they were one of the sponsors of our global organization. This way, we could use their premises, their offices here in Munich, for the launch event.
Angela Naser: On my side, about a year and a half ago, Ayumi, the founder of Women in Tech®, asked me to launch Women in Tech® in France. Today, the Women in Tech® community, has about 600,000 members worldwide. The French community is the third largest in the world and first in Europe. We are behind the United States and India. As chapters, we have a general directive line, but each country responds to the specific expectations of its country. For example, in Brazil, we were the first to create schools in the favelas in Brazil that are completely free. These are tech training schools, coding, and tech in general. We were also the first to create these schools in South Africa. The particularity in several countries on the African continent is that we also create safe places nearby where women who are mothers can leave their children in a secure place and, above all, have access to a doctor because access to healthcare is very complicated in these countries.
Why did you decide to advocate for the inclusion of women in tech and in science in general?
Angela Naser: I am of Syrian and Lebanese origin. I arrived in France at the age of eight. I experienced my first terrorist attack at the age of five and I escaped two terrorist attacks in Syria because we left Syria, as my parents are doctors and had to complete their studies in France. I did not attend a French school; I went to a diplomatic Arab school that no longer exists. So, I learned French by reading books. And I really like this quote by Romain Gary: « I don’t have a drop of French blood, but France flows through my veins. » I have always been interested in issues of diversity and inclusion. It has always been something very important to me because I grew up with parents who always made us aware of these issues. For example, when I was at General Electric Capital Finance, I was the president of the Femmes @G association. You know, I was a manager at General Electric where I had the largest team at the age of 23. So, I started very early. And I have been a volunteer at “Les Restos du Cœur” for 30 years. So, access to education, difficulties, all of that, is something I know well.
Noha Salama: When I started my career in Munich as a software developer, I was the only female on the team. Being the only woman on the team has accompanied me throughout my career. I wanted to get promoted. I wanted to assume a leadership role. I applied when a lead role was vacant. Back in the 1990s, I got the answer from the country director of the software company, “But you are a woman. You want to lead this team?”. Now, we cannot even believe it. Also, in sales and business development and different roles, unfortunately, many times I encountered difficulties because I am a woman and I guess also because of my origin. I always laugh and I say, unfortunately, my name is not “Petra Müller”. So, having a foreign name in Germany or being a migrant in Germany, was difficult. Although I’ve grown up with the German language because I visited the German school in Cairo. But these aspects, the gender, the origin, unfortunately, in our domain, they still play a role, especially if you apply for some of the highest leadership roles. Until now, when I apply for roles as Vice President in software companies or in IT companies, even though I get ahead in the different interviews, at the end, it’s still a man who gets the job. I think within IT, also this subdomain of sales, interviewers and the hiring managers, they still think they want to hire a man for this role. With the help of many NGOs and companies, I want to change this reality. Now I think I’ve had enough experience in my career, and I really want to give back to the female community. I want the younger female professionals, not just in IT, but in all domains, to have a fair chance. I want us to break these barriers.
Where does your interest for science come from?
Noha Salama: When I was a school girl, I had maybe too many interests. On the one hand, I loved languages. At my school, I was already speaking four languages. I was also very interested in international politics. But then also, talking about the different interests, I joined the Computer AG at my school and started learning about computers. I also got so impressed by the technology and the possibilities. I love the innovation and the technology, and I saw the opportunities it would create for society in general. Also, because I was very good at math, and I knew that if you’re good at math, then it’s a good idea to use this skill and study computer science.
Angela Naser: I come from a scientific background. I studied medicine but I dropped out after the third year. The same week, my parents found out that I was no longer in medicine, that I had taken out a student loan, and that I was doing marketing. Moreover, I come from a region where this question doesn’t arise because, in the Middle East, women are more prevalent in tech and science fields. I became interested in tech very early on. I handled the digitalization of the General Electric Capital Finance group. I experienced a cultural shock when I left General Electric after sixteen and a half years, because in the USA, 70% of the workforce were women, and there were no issues with diversity or inclusion. However, when I entered French finance, I was truly shocked to realize that, despite always holding responsible positions, beyond a certain level, women can only be HR director or marketing manager.
Can you give us examples of actions you take in your role as chapter directors?
Angela Naser: For example, when we launched Women in Tech® in France, we formed partnerships with the best tech schools so that our members, and being a member of Women in Tech® is completely free worldwide, could access trainings at -40%, -30%, or even for free. We don’t gain anything from this. For instance, even with the University of Luxembourg, we have a deal where online courses cost €1,200. But if you are part of Women in Tech®, it only costs you €37, and we occasionally offer completely free training. Also, as people often told me they don’t have access to influential networks, I set up Meet and Greet events where we invite people from finance, C-level executives, CEOs, etc. We organize round tables. For example, the next one is on May 22nd, where we will have the number two from Microsoft, the CEO of Nokia, and the CEO of SNCF Mixité. Today, students find internships much more easily thanks to our Meet and Drink events or gain easier access to banks. This doesn’t mean the credit is accepted, but you know, it’s really about connecting people and trying to make things much easier. We also intervene a lot in middle and high schools and with associations. For example, this year I am taking 150 high school girls to VivaTech with us. Also, for example, this year we worked with the town hall of the city of Meudon on a festival called Science Infuse. It was the first edition about two months ago. There weren’t as many people as we hoped, but it was to introduce all the science professions, whether space careers, math, physics, chemistry. Really, almost all professions were represented. The big companies were there too, and we brought in people from UNESCO and the UN, as well as all the GAFAM who accepted to come. And at the global Women in Tech® level, my next target is to launch Women in Tech® in Iran, so I’m at my third meeting with the authorities. We are present in Afghanistan; we are the only women’s NGO still present in Afghanistan.
Noha Salama: With my chapter here in Germany, we organize a lot of trainings, both in the area of technical skills as well as soft skills, and also very practical trainings for women. For example, how do I optimize and improve my CV? How do I apply for the job I want? We ask the attendees to bring their notebooks, their laptops, and we work with professional recruiters from companies, also female recruiters. And we have breakout sessions where the attendees can work very closely with the recruiters. And a lot of coaching, with professional coaches here in Germany, female coaches, and I’m very grateful to them because they work with us on a pro bono basis in order to educate our community members. So, work on technical skills, as well as the skills, how to negotiate, how to apply, how to improve my CV. You can imagine our workshops and events are also very highly attended by expat women here in Germany.
Do you have mentoring programs?
Angela Naser: We have a major mentoring program at Women in Tech® Global for which people have to pay for, but I negotiated to launch it for free in France, and it will officially launch on June 5th. We have eleven mentors who hold very important positions in the tech industry in France. We opened the applications and received about fifty candidates.
Noha Salama: Women in Tech®, we have our own mentorship platform. There, I signed up as a mentor one year ago for example. They assigned two mentees to myself, and I have been working with them in order to help them achieve their goals.
Is it more difficult to advocate for women in today’s political context worldwide?
Angela Naser: A year ago, I was summoned by all the directors of the best tech schools, and even the top “grandes écoles” in France, during the discussion on the immigration law in France, because they were very worried about the student visa. They told me that they have 20% girls, and out of these 20% of female students, 80% come from the Maghreb countries or the African continent. They told me that if the government changes the student visa policy, they won’t have any more girls, so they were very worried. There are several schools where, in fact, they have dropped back to 16% girls. Often, we intervene in lecture halls where there are no girls. It’s getting more and more complicated today. Unfortunately, with the international situation, the GAFAM have stopped all their diversity and inclusion budgets. There are companies that directly tell us they won’t hire women. Today, we no longer need to read between the lines: they no longer have any problem saying it outright.
Do you also take action for diversity in a broader sense then gender equality?
Angela Naser: I wanted to organize hackathons and mix children from REP and REP+ [REP zones are areas identified by the French Ministry of Education where schools face significant challenges due to social and economic disadvantages] schools with private and prestigious high schools. I contacted Xavier Niel [founder of Ecole 42], and now we have a contract with École 42 [The 42 schools are self-training higher education establishments whose aim is to train developers]. Worldwide, we have free access to École 42 whenever we want to organize events for hackathons, training, etc. So, we organized our first hackathon a year and a half ago, mixing high schools from Noisy-le-Grand, Mantes-la-Jolie, Puteaux [REP or public high schools], Lycée Louis-le-Grand, and Stanislas [private and prestigious high schools]. These children have very little chance of interacting in life, and today, we are very happy that it creates friendships. Many small associations contact us, and they are very surprised that we respond. Two months ago, a small neighborhood association in Villeneuve-Saint-Georges contacted us to organize a hackathon. We did it. We went for three days to organize a hackathon there, and now we are organizing a camp in July at École 42 where we invite 50 young girls aged fourteen to sixteen and their parents. So, we will train both the children and the parents. Next week, we have a DIGI Girl’s Day; Microsoft is lending us their premises for a day, and we have invited young girls from Noisy-le-Grand and Aulnay-sous-Bois [REP or public high schools] to come and spend a day at Microsoft with training on artificial intelligence. I will give you another very concrete example. When we organized the first hackathon, a teacher from the high school in Aulnay-sous-Bois told us, « I only have four students, boys or girls, who have an internship; no one wants to take them because they come from Aulnay-sous-Bois. » We leveraged our entire network and found 90 internships, and this year, I found 150 internships.
Noha Salama: To give you an example, one of our youth delegates to our last trip to Japan, she lives in Munich, works in IT but she’s from Cameroon. She shared her story with us and how challenging it is for her to be a black woman at her company, and always be the only black woman. By making her feel welcome and part of the delegation, a part of the family, or showing her what Elizabeth Moreno said on stage, her insights, she is now much more empowered. If you look at the pictures of our delegation, it’s really interesting because although it’s Women in Tech® Germany delegation, you’ll see that it’s reflecting the current German society. It’s very diverse, extremely diverse. And at such conferences in general, or also in New York at UN nobody asked me, what country are you originally from? They ask me, Oh, you’re with the German delegation. Oh, that’s great. We talk about the conference itself. Origin or skin color is irrelevant. If we can replicate this parity and this equality that we have at Women in Tech®, to the economy in general and to the society in general, it will be fabulous.
Do you get concrete feedback from your actions?
Noha Salama: I get a lot of positive feedback from the attendees of the trainings. Sometimes they write to me on LinkedIn and say, “Thanks to this training, I got my new job”.
Angela Naser: After the meet and greets, it’s funny, we often get emails saying, « You’ve given us so much motivation, I’m going to hand in my resignation! » But I don’t want people to resign. But we are brought back to a bit of pragmatism and reality in terms of impact by saying, « If we reach one or two high school girls, we are already very happy. » And we don’t always know, sometimes it will serve them in 10 years.
What advice would you give to young girls ?
Noha Salama: I would give them the advice of getting as much education as they can. Education is one of the most important assets. I would also give them the advice to get a mentorship. They can sign up on our platform, on our women tech hub and get a mentor. I would tell them that at this day and age, nothing should hold them back. No matter what job they want to go for, what they want to study, the sky is the limit.
Angela Naser: There is a great quote, I repeat it all the time from Nelson Mandela, that I really like, which says, « I never lose, either I win or I learn. » And I love telling to girls, if you only knew everything I have learned just in 2024, I think I am at the peak of learning right now. And I want to tell them that the environment is very important, especially in middle school and high school and even to adults, I tell them, being surrounded by motivated and inspiring people, having friends who are like you and encourage you, is super important. And I tell them all the time, choose your surroundings wisely because we are the average of the five people we know. And I want to tell young girls to just dare. Dare to believe in your dreams, dare to step out of your comfort zone and you will see that life is even more beautiful if you dare. And it’s okay to take hits. And once again, either we win or we learn. So, in the end, we are only winners.
Rédaction : Noela Müller, Julie Le Gall
Entretien réalisé le 15 mai
Mise à jour : 13 juin 2025
