Debra “Debbie” Sterling
Founder and CEO of GoldieBlox
Debbie Sterling is the Founder and CEO of GoldieBlox, the award-winning children's multimedia company known for disrupting the pink aisle in toy stores globally and challenging gender stereotypes with the world's first girl engineer character. GoldieBlox's Kickstarter campaign led to $1 million in sales, was sold in Toys "R" Us, and was a best-seller on Amazon. The app now has over 1 million downloads and over 1 million toys sold across more than 6,000 major worldwide retailers. GoldieBlox was named one of the World's Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company in 2014 and was awarded the 2014 Educational Toy of the Year by The Toy Industry Association.
Debbie is an engineer, entrepreneur, spokesperson, and one of the leaders in the movement toward getting girls interested in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). She was named TIME's "Person of the Moment," InStyle's 50 Most Badass Women, LinkedIn's "Top Voice, "Fortune's "40 Under 40," and she was honored by the National Retail Federation as one of 25 "People Shaping Retail's Future." In 2015, Debbie was inducted as a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship under the Obama administration and honored by the National Women's History Museum with a "Living Legacy" Award for her work to empower girls around the world. Debbie received her degree in Engineering at Stanford University in 2005.