Women in Business, Jobs, Women Entrepreneurs, Women in the News: News On Women

The Grace Hopper Regional Consortium Receives Grant From the National Science Foundation

A partnership of technology organizations received a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to broaden women’s participation in computing by sponsoring regional conferences across the country.  The ACM Women’s Council (ACM-W), the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI), and the National Center for Women & IT (NCWIT) have formed the Grace Hopper Regional Consortium to bring the growing career and leadership opportunities in computing to more women. Read more about it and get a schedule of events on ghregionalconsortium.org.

Susan Bithell Made Chief Underwriting Officer at Farmers Insurance Group

Farmers Insurance Group of Companies appointed Susan Bithell Vice President and Chief Underwriting Officer. Susan, who has been with Farmers since 1983, had most recently been Vice President and State Executive Director of Washington State. Read more in the prnewswire press release. 

Debra Reed Made Executive Vice President at Sempra Energy

Sempra Energy appointed Debra Reed (pictured) Executive Vice President. Debra had been President and Chief Executive Officer of SoCalGas and San Diego Gas & Electric. In another appointment, Sempra made Anne S. Smith Chief Operating Officer of SoCalGas. Anne had been Senior Vice President of Customer Services for SoCalGas and SDG&E. Read more in the marketwire press release.

Terell Warnberg Made President and COO at Animato

Animato, a consulting services company, appointed Terrell Warnberg as President and Chief Operating Officer. Terrel has extensive experience in healthcare finance, consulting and technology, and had previously been Vice President Consulting Services for ESI Healthcare Solutions. Read more on animato.com.

Laura Alber to be CEO at Williams Sonoma and Join its Board

Williams-Sonoma named its President, Laura Alber (pictured), as Chief Executive Officer and will nominate her as a Board Member. Also nominated to their Board is Sharon McCollam who is Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of the Company. Read more on furnituretoday.com.

Kathleen Abernathy Made Chief Legal Officer at Frontier Communications

Frontier Communications Corporation (NYSE: FTR) appointed Kathleen Quinn Abernathy Chief Legal Officer and Executive Vice President, Regulatory and Government Affairs. Kathleen is a Partner in the Washington, D.C. communications law firm Wilkinson Barker Knauer, LLP. Read more in the Business Wire press release.

J-Lab and the McCormick Foundation Seeking New Ideas

J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism and the McCormick Foundation are seeking to fund four women-led projects that will engage and connect communities and improve the world of journalism. Grants of $12,o00 will be to fund new startups. The deadline for application is April12, 2010. Read more about it on newmediawomen.org.

Bill and Melinda Gates Pledge $10 billion for Vaccines to Save Children

Bill and Melinda Gates announced that their foundation will commit $10 billion over the next 10 years to help research, develop and deliver vaccines for the world's poorest countries. Read more in the prnewswire press release.

The new funding announced is in addition to the $4.5 billion that the Gates Foundation has already committed to vaccine research. Read more on gatesfoundation.org.

Liz Claman Speaks to Bill Gates at Davos About Vaccine Pledge and About Investing in innovation

Kate Koziol of KSquared Marketing Loves the Challenge

Kate Koziol is President of KSquared Marketing & Public Relations. Kate has years of experience in marketing, and her company specializes in marketing, public relations, advertising and social networking. Kate had this to say about starting her own business:

What inspired you to start your business?
I wanted more challenge and flexibility in my work life. By starting my company I was able to accomplish many goals, such as:

• provide both time with my family and income for my family,
• help other companies grow their businesses by providing public relations and marketing services, and
• Craft a better brand of business promotion that is based on creating client magnetism for our accounts that draws people to their businesses.  

What steps do you think are necessary for an entrepreneur who wants to move her business to the next level?
I think these 4Ps are important: people, process, pricing and product. 

• People – Ensure that the right people are in the right positions with the right skill sets.  You can improve on skill sets, but it is difficult to reshape a negative person into a positive one.  Hire the best combination of skill, attitude and aptitude to deliver the best results.
• Process - Document and disseminate process so that everyone is on the same page and the process continues to improve.  This allows good work to become repeatable and helps your company be known for its best practice approach.
• Pricing – Align pricing with the market and the competitors.  Recognize what you are selling and shape the offering to meet the needs of the customer with an attainable price point. Being the cheapest is not always the best route, but if you a priced dramatically higher, be prepared to demonstrate the value of the higher price.
• Product – Work to uncover the results customers want so you can deliver the right product.  If a customer just wants to get to the store, a 1987 Yugo might work, but if they want to make a memorable arrival at a gathering, they might want an elephant and not a car at all.  Ask probing questions to find their real needs.

What challenges and opportunities do you see in the present economic environment?
This year companies are rebounding and they need to work smarter, most likely with less staff, so can you deliver some product or service that they previously created in house?   Do you have a software offering that will save time?  Can you help them take full effect of new tools, such as social media, to help them grow their business?

 

What advice do you have for women who are just starting out?
Study the landscape.  How is your product or offering better or different from the competitors? 

Run the financials.  Can you develop and deliver your offering at a price that is both saleable and profitable?

Do what you love.  You will work harder than you can ever imagine and be asked to stretch and grow more than you thought possible, so you why not enjoy what you are doing?  Then do it better than anyone else on the planet!

Outsource. Get rid of ancillary tasks such as accounting or sales if these are not your strong suits.

Will you be doing any hiring in 2010 or can you continue to grow your company without additional hires?

I will be hiring to bring on added infrastructure that will allow us to grow to broaden our base of operations and help us bring added innovation into the public relations, marketing and social media services that we deliver.

 

KSquared is a Member of the Women Presidents' Organization. The WPO is the global peer advisory organization connecting top women entrepreneurs who own multi-million dollar companies.

Elizabeth Black Named to 'mktg. inc' Board

'mktg, inc.' (Nasdaq: CMKG), headquartered in New York, appointed Elizabeth Black to the company's Board of Directors. Elizabeth has been a human resources and organizational effectiveness consultant for over 25 years, and is currently President of Change for Results. Read more in the prnewswire press release.

Marina Bozilenko Made Head of Biotechnology and Pharma at William Blair & Company

William Blair & Company announced that Marina S. Bozilenko has joined the firm's Healthcare Investment Banking Group as Head of Biotechnology and Pharma. Marina had been a Principal at Kidd & Company, a private-equity firm, and before that, worked at Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. as a Senior Managing Director in the Healthcare Group, and at Banc of America Securities as a Managing Director and Head of Biotechnology. Read more in the Business Wire press release.

Cost Plus Promotes Marilyn Incerty and Laura Sites-Reynolds

Cost Plus, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPWM) promoted Marilyn Incerty to Vice President of Home and Trend Development. Marilyn had been a Director of Merchandising. Laura Sites-Reynolds has been promoted to Senior Vice President of Inventory Management. Laura had been Vice President of Inventory Management. Read more in the Business Wire press release.

Jane Seagrave Made Chief Revenue Officer at Associated Press

The Associated Press appointed its Senior Vice President Jane Seagrave Chief Revenue Officer. Jane, who holds a master’s degree in Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, helped AP launch its mobile news product for smart phones. Read more about Jane's career in the Business Wire press release.

Jennifer Hurshell Made CEO at Vendaria Media

Vendaria Media, Inc., a provider of digital merchandising tools and services to manufacturers and retailers, appointed Jennifer Hurshell Chief Executive Officer. Jennifer was Co-Founder of GoGo Images and Marketfish. Before that, she was Senior Vice-President of Image Licensing at Corbis and Director of Marketing Sponsorship & Communications at Volkswagen AG. Read more in the Business Wire press release.

Lynda Clarizio Named to Batanga Board

Batanga Inc., the Hispanic-focused online media company headquartered in Florida, appointed Lynda Clarizio to its Board of Directors. Lynda is the CEO of INVISION, Inc., a provider of advertising planning and sales solutions in the television industry. Lynda had previously been President of AOL's Platform-A, and before that, she served as President of Advertising.com. Read more in the prnewswire press release.

Mary Tompkins Lewis Reviews "The Origins of El Greco"

Mary Tompkins Lewis, Art Professor at Trinity College, reviews another great artist for us, El Greco (self portrait pictured). "The Origins of El Greco: Icon Painting in Venetian Crete," at the Onassis Cultural Center in New York, is her subject this time in the Wall Street Journal. Read about the different phases of El Greco so wonderfully described by Mary in her article.

Women in Government Nominated by Obama This Week

President Barack Obama intends to nominate Elisabeth Hagen to be Under Secretary of Agriculture for Food Safety, Department of Agriculture. Dr. Hagen, who holds an M.D. from Harvard Medical School, is currently the USDA’s Chief Medical Officer. See White House press release 1/25/10.

President Obama intends to nominate Michele M. Leonhart to be Administrator of Drug Enforcement, Drug Enforcement Administration, Department of Justice. Michele  was unanimously confirmed by the Senate to serve as DEA Deputy Administrator and became the Acting Administrator in 2007. See White House press release 1/25/10.

Margaret Anderson Made Executive Director at FasterCures

FasterCures, an organization committed to saving lives by saving time in the research, discovery and development of new medical solutions, recently appointed Margaret Anderson Executive Director. Margaret had been FasterCures’ COO for five years. FasterCures is the Washington-based center of the Milken Institute. Read more in the FasterCures' press release.

Wendy Enelow and Louise Kursmark Write About "Cover Letter Magic"

Wendy Enelow and Louise Kursmark teach people to put their best foot forward when communicating with employers and recruiters. In their new edition of "Cover Letter Magic", they stress how important it is for job seekers to write cover letters that demonstrate what they can do for the employer. Here are a few tips for us from Wendy and Louise:

 

"Have a career plan. If you know that in 10 years you'd like to be the Director of Talent Management for one of the nation's leading insurance companies, then start working your plan today. Most likely, you'll start in a much lower-level HR position, but over time and based on your performance, you'll be steadily promoted to reach your career goals. Without a goal and a plan, you'll be floundering with no direction."

 

"Be certain your resume, cover letter, and all career marketing communications are all about value – the value you offer to your next employer based on the value you provided in each of your past positions. For most employers, “value” means bottom-line contributions. All of the soft skills and personality traits that you bring to each challenge of your career are relevant to employers only after they’ve determined that you have the track record and proven skills to be a high-performance employee." 
 
"Learn how to negotiate. Because salaries are usually increased by percentage points of base salary, starting with a base pay that is lower than the norm (or lower than your male counterparts) will lead to a steadily widening gap as years go by. Do your homework—have a firm grasp of competitive rates of pay for your function, location, and industry before you begin a job search—and use this understanding to confidently negotiate the most advantageous compensation package based on the value you offer."

 

"Keep your career portfolio of achievements, project highlights, awards and more up-to-date. Try to update your portfolio monthly; if not, quarterly. Then you'll be prepared to support and substantiate your request for a raise, your consideration for a promotion, or your application for a new job with a different company. Although you may think that you'll remember all of the specifics, you won't. As such, be certain to jot them down so that you're fully prepared in an instant for whatever opportunity may arise. Note that your portfolio should include content as well as graphs, tables, charts and other visuals that demonstrate your performance and achievements."