What we can learn from our Favorite Women January 2008

Among the women business executives most searched for on NewsonWomen.com this month were Ellen Alemany, CEO at RBS America (pictured at left), Andrea Wong, CEO of Lifetime Entertainment Services and Barbara Turf, new CEO of Crate & Barrel. Major corporations appointing women to important jobs in January included DuPont, Metlife, Dunkin Brands, PSEG, CareerBuilder, Pfizer, Nintendo of America and more.

The importance of marketing and global strategy in today’s economy is reflected in the significant number of women put in high level marketing and strategy jobs this month, such as Michelle Gass at Starbucks and Sue Kroll at Warner Brothers Pictures.

I continue to be impressed by the women in technology and engineering highlighted this month like Jocelyn Scott at DuPont; Maria Morris at Metlife; Irene Qualters at SGI, and the young women of MIT, who spent January traveling the country to encourage high school girls to study math and engineering.

As Meg Whitman steps down from the CEO job at eBay, I would be sad were it not for the women I see stepping up to leadership positions. While we didn’t get the CEO job at eBay, although Lorrie Norrington stepped up to be President of eBay Marketplaces Operations, we did see some big corps giving big jobs to women like Sabrina Simmons becoming CFO at Gap, Inc. A significant number of women were made Presidents this month, to lead their companies or divisions. Leadership is the key to the future, and we should all take the lead by working together and sharing information using the vehicles available such as business associations or conferences, like the Harvard Business School Dynamic Women in Business Conference and the Columbia Women in Business School Conference featured this month.

Can we find a recipe for success among the appointments made in January? Women moved into important jobs in media, retailing, human resources, construction, food and beverage, education, and finance, showing us there is no one recipe for success. However, I do see two roads to these leadership positions. One is experience/expertise. Barbara Turf’s story is particularly interesting, starting out as a part time sales rep at Crate and Barrel, rising to store manager, eventually becoming President in 1996, and now the ultimate prize – CEO of the company. Then there is Tina Gaudoin who spent time at Harpers Bazaar, Vogue, Tatlers, iVillage and Luxx before landing the new WSJ job; or Michelle Donnan who was at Abercrombie’s, J Crew, Macy’s and American Eagle before becoming President of dEliA*s Brand. The second road, which I have mentioned before, is education. Many of these women have advanced degrees; MBA’s, MD’s, JD’s or PhD’s, like Deborah Spar, the Harvard B School Professor who just became President of Barnard.

Managing our careers means looking for the opportunity that can give us the right experience, expertise or education. A tall order, but these women show us it is possible.