Agnes Wilewicz

In her professional life, Agnes is a partner and shareholder of an international law firm. There, she litigates contract disputes and handles environmental matters. In her personal life, her daughter (also a Founding Gember), inspires her to think bigger and wider. Together, they envision a world-wide GEM reach, helping women and girls around the globe to achieve greatness. In her free time, Agnes is a fanatic reader, averaging 65-75 books a year. She is obsessed with traveling, and just getting things done.

To me, GEMs is fundamentally about empowerment and enablement. It’s about helping women and girls to break down societal or self-imposed barriers that all too often inhibit them for one reason or another. It is also about providing an inspiring and freeing platform to organically network and do good things on a wide scale. It’s about connecting like-minded individuals to provide a forum for them to learn, develop, and grow together.

A fellow GEM once told me of a time where her husband was away on a business trip and their home AC unit broke. This, of course, happened during a stifling Long Island heat wave in July. Her first thought was, “well, he’ll be home in four days and can fix it then”. But then, having just attended a GEM meeting the prior week, her immediate next thought was: “Wait, I’ll fix it myself!” Knowing that her husband would just call their usual handyman to come by anyway, she picked up the phone and made the appointment. The AC repairperson was available that day, and it was fixed before the evening was out.

This is the example I want to set for the next generation of women. GEMs to me is all about having the first automatic inclination to be: “I can do that!”