Stories
Stories

Next Level
Topics: Leadership-Leading ChangeCommunication-MediaTechnology-General

Next Level
Topics: Leadership-Leading ChangeCommunication-MediaTechnology-General
Next Level
Gina Joseph (GMP 29, 2020), chief strategy officer for the technology media company VentureBeat, was recently honored by the San Francisco Business Times in their “40 Under 40” issue. Joseph is thriving in the media, tech, and gaming world—all industries traditionally dominated by men and creators from the metropolitan areas on both coasts. She wants to see that change.
A 2020 survey conducted by the International Game Developers Association included questions about gender demographics in game development. According to IGDA’s data, women represented just 24 percent of game developers in 2020, a slight increase from past years. Moreover, says Joseph, there are few women in visible leadership C-suite and board leadership roles like hers in the gaming world.
In 2023, Joseph joined the board of directors for publisher Midwest Games. “Midwest Games is
really passionate about diversity and inclusion and investing into underrepresented
communities,” she says. “Great games can come from anywhere. The company’s called Midwest as they are headquartered in Wisconsin and are focused on highlighting talent from underrepresented regions. This is an idea that's easily scaled, elevating video games from all corners of the world. I think we’re paving a new way for the gaming industry.” Midwest Games’s first released games are from Mexico and Missouri with upcoming titles also spanning the Midwest and abroad.
“It’s a huge milestone for women when we get a board role with a for-profit company,” Joseph says. “I’m grateful for the opportunity but we also want to remind ourselves that we’re worth it, that we earned it.”
A first-generation American, Joseph was born and raised in California. Her parents are from Afghanistan and lived there when the country was liberalizing and women were visible in college and at the workplace. Her father was a university professor and her mother worked for a media company. “I’m in media now, too, so that is really special to me,” Joseph says. Her father recently retired as senior vice president after more than 30 years at Bank of America.
Supported by her family’s commitment to education for women, Joseph graduated from UC Berkeley in 2008 with a degree in mass communications. With more than two decades of experience, Joseph has worked for a variety of media companies, including MediaNews Group, Digital First Media, and the Hearst Corporation. In 2018, she joined VentureBeat, which covers technologies such as AI and publishes GamesBeat, news on the gaming industry with a B2B focus. VentureBeat also hosts events like the GamesBeat Summit, which is attended by some of the most influential thought leaders and innovative companies in the industry.
“We’re hyper-focused on covering transformative technologies,” Joseph says. “The gaming industry is redefining how we engage with content and how we connect with people from across the world, and AI is transforming how every industry operates.”
Soon after joining the company, she founded VentureBeat Lab, a new way for brand partners to collaborate through creating custom content, which grew sales and partnerships by 400 percent within six months of launch. She has established partnerships with major players such as Google, Meta, Amazon, NVIDIA, and most recently announced an AI tour partnership with Microsoft.

Photos by Smeeta Mahanti
Accustomed to often being the only woman in the room, as well as the youngest, Joseph is passionate about bringing more diversity and inclusion to leadership. She serves on the boards of the Daily Californian, UC Berkeley’s newspaper, and the Alumnae-i Network for Harvard Women. She’s also a member of Chief, a private network of women with a mission to change the face of leadership. “It’s a great way for women to connect with other C-level executives,” she says. “It’s healthy to have communities where women are supporting each other and learning from each other. We’re raising our voices and saying it’s not okay for us to be an afterthought, for only 2 percent of venture capital to go toward women. We have a responsibility to speak up and do more.”
An inclusive workplace is a healthy one, says Joseph, who is one of the first first-generation, Afghan Americans to graduate from Harvard Business School Executive Education. “One of my professors, Rawi Abdelal at HBS, dropped this phrase, epistemological fragmentation—that is, we know what we know only because of what we’re exposed to. The decisions we make are based on the information we’re exposed to, so it’s important to have many perspectives to be able to make better decisions. Professor Linda Hill emphasized how company culture directly impacts how productive you are as an organization, and that really stuck with me.”
The post-pandemic world of remote and hybrid work is helping businesses achieve diversity, as well as giving women more flexibility to work and be present for their families. A frequent remote worker herself, Joseph is able to serve as a classroom parent to her young daughter’s school. And at work she is able to hire globally, rather than just locally. “Now I can be inclusive. I can hire people from across the world. I don’t have to hire someone specifically in San Francisco to do the job, and [my hires] can work for an exciting tech publication.”
Post a Comment
Related Stories
-
- 17 Jan 2025
- Skydeck
Tracking Modern Air Travel’s Takeoff
Re: Frank Lorenzo (MBA 1963) -
- 15 Dec 2024
- HBS Magazine
Agenda: Amanda E/J Morrison (MBA 2014)
Re: Amanda Johnson (MBA 2014); By: Janelle Nanos -
- 15 Dec 2024
- HBS Magazine
On The Case
Re: Tomislav Mihaljevic (GMP 15); Linda A. Hill (Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Business Administration); By: Jen McFarland Flint -
- 03 Dec 2024
- HBS Alumni News
Magic Numbers
Re: Shalinee Sharma (MBA 2005); By: Amy Crawford