April 2021
Case
HBS Case Collection

Glass-Shattering Leaders: Ilene H. Lang

By: Boris Groysberg and Colleen Ammerman

Format:Print
| Language:English
| Pages:5

Abstract

Ilene Lang started her career in technology at a time when the tech sector was new and women had only recently entered the workplace in large numbers. Over the next thirty years, she built a career spanning large and small tech companies, leading global teams and overseeing products such as AltaVista, an early search engine. After leading three dot-coms in the late 1990s, she was ready for a new chapter and joined Catalyst, a global nonprofit focused on women in the workplace, as CEO. Lang led Catalyst through the aftermath of September 11 and the Great Recession, all while expanding the organization’s portfolio and reach, before retiring in 2014 and continuing her advocacy as a corporate director and advisor to organizations focused on increasing women’s economic power and leadership.