Six Industry Leaders Empower Women in Tech Panel at Open Atlas Summit 2025

Gender plays during immigration. Race does during immigration. Being a woman in tech navigating the uncertainties of visas creates layers of challenges that most career guides simply ignore.

Immigration status and career advancement cannot be separated. The visa dependency factor cannot be absent from workplace dynamics. One cannot talk about salary negotiations when their legal ability to work depends on employer sponsorship.

Open Atlas Summit 2025 has got it right.

Saturday morning. August 16, 2025. The six extraordinary women shall bring weight to the intersecting realities that most conferences shun.

The Real Talk Panel

Nikita Gupta. Roshni Chellani. Ruchi Bhatia. Jahnavi Shah. Aizada Marat. Minn Kim.

These aren’t Normal women or inspirational storytellers. These are women who have climbed through the technical ladders while wrestling with immigration challenges their male counterparts never have had to grapple with. Women who have negotiated promotions while holding an H-1B visa. Women who have set up companies despite work authorization limitations.

The panel happens during the packed Saturday morning section of Open Atlas Summit 2025. Not hidden away in the afternoon or in a weird optional breakout session. This is prime time. Center stage.

Nikin and Soundarya strategically positioned this panel within the Open Atlas Summit 2025 timetable. Coming in right after Vijay Amritraj with his championship mindset keynote and before workshop sessions start, right when the energy is high and attention is locked.

Beyond Generic Empowerment

Most women-in-tech panels pump out generic advice. Lean in. Seek mentors. Build confidence. Overcome imposter syndrome.

This Open Atlas Summit 2025 panel digs deeper.

How do you ask for a promotion when the visa renewal depends on your current employer? How do you negotiate salary when competitors cannot get you hired because of work authorization? And how do you build networks in your profession when you have to document travel for attendance to a conference?

These would be the questions the six panel members are considering because all mainstream advice on career “should” totally miss these issues.

“We’re not interested in surface-level inspiration,” explains Soundarya Balasubramani, Open Atlas Summit 2025 co-organizer. “These women have navigated specific challenges that require specific strategies. The panel will provide tactical guidance that actually works in real-world situations.”

The Immigration Factor

Gender discrimination exists everywhere in tech. Immigration complications add additional layers that multiply the challenges exponentially.

In the technical fields largely dominated by men, women face many promotion barriers. Add to that the dependency on a visa that tied career mobility to employer sponsorship. Factor in family planning considerations affecting immigration timelines. Add cultural expectations that may be kind of conflicting with the norms of American workplaces.

Hiring magic is another area where these intersect to create barriers that require special solutions.

The women’s panel at the Open Atlas Summit 2025 will address the intersections directly. No sanitizing with corporate speak. No politically correct platitudes. Honest discussions on what really works.

Tactical Strategy Session

The emphasis in the session will be on the actual application rather than theoretical discussion. All panelists will share specific strategies that have yielded tangible results in their own careers. Negotiation techniques that work when being free to move between jobs is not an option. Leadership approaches to growing one’s influence even under the constraints of a visa. Building a network that opens doors across immigration categories.

Attendees will leave Open Atlas Summit 2025 with frameworks in place rather than inspirational quotes.

Timing within Open Atlas Summit 2025’s Saturday programming allows for immediate application in afternoon workshops. They will be able to try strategies during networking events. Feedback from peers could help them further refine their approaches.

Real Numbers, Real Impact

The six women come from diverse technical backgrounds and immigration pathways. Engineering leaders who converted from student visa status to green card holders. Entrepreneurs that managed work authorization while building companies. Top executives who worked their way up, despite lacking absolute clarity on permission to act.

Together, they have managed millions in tech career salaries, spent hundreds on visa applications, and had numerous conversations regarding promotions that are developed very uniquely.

August 16 Reality Check

On August 16, 2025, the panel will kick off at Open Atlas Summit 2025 with an airing of such grotesque truths concerning immigrants and women discriminated against by means of systems.

The six panelists will verbalize strategies that work because they consider immigration constraints. Tactics that turn cultural backgrounds into competitive advantages. Approaches that help to cement one’s career with or without legal certainty.

Nikin Tharan explains the panel’s importance within Open Atlas Summit 2025: “When women face both gender bias and immigration barriers, they need strategies that address both challenges simultaneously. This panel provides exactly that.”

The Multiplier Effect

Women attending Open Atlas Summit 2025 represent all kinds of technical disciplines and all types of immigration categories. From software engineers on H-1B visas and research scientists

building O-1 applications, to entrepreneurs building companies on student visas-and product managers processed through the green card.

Hence, the panel strategies cut through these diverse situations while considering the twist that each pathway puts on the situation.

The Open Atlas Summit 2025 women’s panel happens once. The strategies last careers. Register at Open Atlas Summit 2025 details are at https://openatlas.events.

The real talk begins August 15th in Milpitas.