PALO ALTO, CA--(Marketwired - Sep 22, 2015) - The Anita Borg Institute (ABI), a non-profit organization focused on the advancement of women in computing, announces the participation of leading men from business, technology and academia in the 2015 Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC).

Blake Irving, CEO and Board Director of GoDaddy, will speak at this year's GHC. Also participating is Brian Nosek, Executive Director of the Center for Open Science, as well as Grady Booch, Chief Scientist for Software Engineering at IBM Research.

"We are pleased to welcome Blake, Brian and Grady to this year's Grace Hopper Celebration," said Telle Whitney, President and CEO of the Anita Borg Institute. "It is important and inspiring to see prominent men supporting women and serving as strong role models at their organizations across academia and industries."

Blake will deliver a plenary speech about changing the culture of tech through transformation at the individual, company and industry level on Wednesday, October 14. Blake joined GoDaddy as CEO and Board Director in 2013. In his role, Blake is focused on shifting the global economy toward small business by helping people easily start, grow and run their own ventures. Previously, Blake served as EVP and Chief Product Officer at Yahoo!, and spent 15 years at Microsoft.

"It's an honor to speak at GHC 2015 in the company of so many inspirational leaders, all working to make the tech industry a place where all talented people can thrive," said GoDaddy CEO Blake Irving. "Transformation takes a conscious, committed and steady effort, and I look forward to sharing GoDaddy's continuing journey. Meaningful progress toward a gender diverse workforce is critical, especially when you consider the diversity of the customers our industry serves."

On Thursday, October 15, Brian will speak about solving implicit biases that present barriers to promoting diversity in STEM fields. In addition to running the Center for Open Science, Brian is the co-founder of Project Implicit, an Internet-based multi-university collaboration of research and education about implicit cognition. He is also a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Virginia. Brian received a Ph.D. from Yale University, and holds a Bachelor's degree in psychology with minors in computer science and women's studies from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

"Implicit bias is one of the most common hurdles we face in achieving more diverse and welcoming workforces," said Brian Nosek. "I am pleased to discuss insights into the latest scientific evidence of this important issue, and how we are putting the evidence and lessons into practice at the Center for Open Science."

Grady will speak on Friday, October 16 about the art and science of software engineering, and how the field has grown and changed over the years. Grady is an IBM Fellow and Chief Scientist for Software Engineering at IBM's Almaden Research Facility. He is internationally recognized for his work in software architecture, software engineering and collaborative development environments.

"I'm delighted to be speaking at the 2015 Grace Hopper Celebration," said Grady Booch. "I look forward to sharing my technical insights on the incredible opportunity we have as software developers to make our visions reality and change the world."

About the Grace Hopper Celebration

The 2015 Grace Hopper celebration, the largest gathering of women in computing in the world, expects 12,000 attendees this year, a 50 percent increase from the previous year. The conference, held in Houston, Texas, takes place October 14 - 16 2015. This year's conference features leading technical speakers, career development sessions, awards, a poster session, a hackathon and the industry's largest career fair for women in computing.

2015 Grace Hopper Celebration Sponsors

Diamond sponsors include: Apple, Capital One, Cisco, Google and Microsoft.

Platinum sponsors include: Accenture, Airbnb, Amazon, Avanade, Bank of America, CA Technologies, Dell, Dropbox, eBay, EMC, Ericsson, Facebook, GoDaddy, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Intuit, Juniper Networks, LinkedIn, Lockheed Martin, MasterCard, Nationwide, NetApp, PayPal, Qualcomm, Rackspace, Thomson Reuters, ThoughtWorks, Two Sigma, Visa and Yahoo!.

Gold Academic sponsors include: Carnegie Mellon University, Georgia Tech College of Computing, Harvey Mudd College, Montana State University, New York University, Purdue University, Rice University, Stanford University Department of Computer Science, Texas A&M University Department of Computer Science, University of California - Berkeley, University of California - Los Angeles, University of California - San Diego Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Houston Department of Computer Science, University of Maryland, Baltimore County and USC.

Gold Labs and Nonprofits sponsors include: ACM, Dignity Health, Internet Society ISOC, MIT Lincoln Laboratory and NCWIT.

About the Anita Borg Institute (ABI)

The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI) connects, inspires and guides women in computing and organizations that view technology innovation as a strategic imperative. Founded in 1997 by computer scientist Anita Borg, our reach extends to more than 65 countries. We believe technology innovation powers the global economy, and that women are crucial to building technology the world needs. As a social enterprise, we recognize women making positive contributions, and advise organizations on how to improve performance by building more inclusive teams. ABI has over 50 industry partners, which you can view at http://anitaborg.org/partner-with-us/our-partners. The Anita Borg Institute is a not-for-profit 501(c) 3 charitable organization in the US and a non-profit organization registered as a section-8 Company under the Companies Act, 2013 in India. For more information, visit www.anitaborg.org.

Follow the Anita Borg Institute on Twitter at @anitaborg_org and become a fan at http://www.facebook.com/anitaborginstitute.