Dee Poku-Spalding is an entrepreneur and women’s advocate who was born in the UK and raised between London and Accra.
She is the Founder and CEO of WIE, an influential leadership network and platform for women. The organization comprises four brands all designed to advance and connect women in the workplace – the WIE Network, The Other Festival, A Dinner For Ladies and Black Women Raise. WIE has attracted numerous business and cultural leaders to its global symposiums and salons, including Queen Rania, Melinda Gates, Mellody Hobson, Naomi Campbell, Donna Karan, Arianna Huffington, Thasunda Duckett, Diane von Furstenberg, Nancy Pelosi, Katia Beauchamp, Jill Biden, Tyra Banks, Lauren Bush, Iman, Rosario Dawson and Christy Turlington.
A former Hollywood studio executive, Dee’s background includes senior marketing roles at Paramount Pictures and Focus Features working on award-winning films such as Al Gore’s ‘An Inconvenient Truth’; the Coen brothers’ ‘No Country For Old Men’; Sofia Coppola’s 'Lost in Translation', Alejandro González Iñárritu’s ‘Babel’ and Ang Lee’s 'Brokeback Mountain'.
Dee has been named one of Marie Claire Magazine’s ‘50 women changing the world’, a CUP Catalyst Changemaker and one of TRUE Africa’s 100 Top Innovators. She is a sought after speaker on women’s workplace advancement, and has shared her insights at the UN, the New York Times New Rules Summit, the Women’s March summit, the Black Girls Rock Summit, SHE Summit, Makers; CUP Women’s Leadership Forum; NYU Stern Undergraduate Women in Business, Georgetown University Women’s Summit, and BAFTA amongst others.
She serves on the Board of Directors of non-profits, the British Academy of Film & Television (BAFTA), She’s The First, is an advisor to various startups and was previously on the Credit Suisse New Markets Women’s Advisory Board. She is a current contributor to Forbes. Dee holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics.
