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

Jennifer Balbier Made Senior Vice President, Artistry Brands at Estee Lauder

Jennifer Balbier was appointed Senior Vice President, Global Product Development, Artistry Brands, The Estée Lauder Companies, overseeing all product development for M•A•C Cosmetics, Bobbi Brown and Smashbox brands. Jennifer had been Senior Vice President Global Product Development, M•A•C Cosmetics. Read more in the Business Wire press release.

Alexa Hirschfeld of Paperless Post and Nine other Women Entrepreneurs Chosen to Attend the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit October 4, 2010

Alexa Hirschfeld, Co-founder of Paperless Post, the online fine stationery and invitation website with custom, personalized invitations and announcements, has been chosen as one of the ten female small-business entrepreneurs to join the annual Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, to be held October 4-6, 2010, in Washington, D.C. Congratulations Alexa! Read more about who else will be attending the summit.

Kathryn Mikells Made Chief Financial Officer at Nalco

Nalco (NYSE: NLC) appointed Kathryn Mikells Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer and she will join the company on completion of the merger between United and Continental Airlines. Kathryn is currently CFO of United Airlines parent company, UAL Corporation. Read more in the GlobeNewswire press release.

Charleston Women Business Leaders Being Honored October 21, 2010

Twelve Charleston-area business leaders have been selected as finalists for the 2010 Influential Women in Business awards by the Charleston Regional Business Journal. It's interesting to note that these women come from a number of different industries including banking, real estate, business management, education, consulting and philanthropy. Anita Zucker (pictured), CEO of the conglomerate InterTech Group, is among the finalists. Read more...

Katherine Gill-Charest Made Senior Vice President at Viacom

Viacom appointed Katherine Gill-Charest Senior Vice President and Controller. Katherine had been Vice President and Deputy Controller of Viacom since June 2007. Read more in the prnewswire press release.

Linda Bernardi Named to Cloudsoft Corporation Board of Directors. Other Women Named to Boards.

Cloudsoft Corporation appointed Linda Bernardi (pictured left) to its Board of Directors. Linda has extensive experience in emerging technologies, and is an investor in technology startups focused in the areas of cloud computing, edge analytics, digital media and digital media content management. Read more in the Business Wire press release.

International Game Technology (NYSE: IGT), headquartered in Nevada,  appointed Janice Chaffin to the Company's Board of Directors. Janice is Group President for Symantec Corporation's Consumer Business Unit. Read more in the prnewswire press release.

Kaiser Aluminum Corporation, headquartered in California, appointed Lauralee E. Martin to its Board of Directors. Lauralee is Executive Vice President and Chief Operating and Financial Officer of Jones Lang LaSalle. Read more in the Globenewswire press release on marketwatch.com.

Lincare Holdings Inc., headquartered in Florida, appointed Ellen M. Zane and Angela P. Bryant to its Board of Directors. Ellen is President and Chief Executive Officer of Tufts Medical Center. Angela served as Lincare's General Counsel from 1999 through 2004. Read more in the ClobeNewswire press release on marketwatch.com.

The Yankee Candle Company, Inc., headquartered in Massachusetts, appointed Trudy Sullivan (pictured left) to its Board of Directors. Trudy is the President and Chief Executive Officer of The Talbots, Inc. Read more in the prnewswire press release.

 

BioElectronics Corporation, headquartered in Maryland, appointed Dr. Stacy Wood to its Board of Directors. Stacy is the Langdon Distinguished Professor of Marketing at North Carolina State University's College of Management. Read more in the marketwire press release on marketwatch.com.

The Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation (Farmer Mac; NYSE: AGM) appointed Sara L. Faivre-Davis to the Board of Directors of Farmer Mac. Sara is the co-owner and managing partner of Wild Type Ranch in Texas. Before that, Sara was involved with livestock genomics companies and has also held research positions as a staff scientist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Read more in the prnewswire press release.  

LeAnn Nealz Made President of Juicy Couture

Juicy Couture appointed LeAnn Nealz President and Chief Creative Officer. LeAnn had been Executive Vice President and Chief Design Officer at American Eagle. Read more in the prnewswire press release.

Denise Morrison Made Chief Operating Officer of Campbell Soup and a Director

Campbell Soup Company (NYSE: CPB) appointed Denise M. Morrison (pictured) Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer and a Director of the company, with the expectation of her becoming CEO in 2012. Denise has been the President of North America Soup, Sauces and Beverages since October 2007.  Read about it in the Business Wire press release.

The Company also appointed Irene Chang Britt Senior Vice President – Chief Strategy Officer. Irene will also be responsible for Global Marketing Services and Global Consumer and Customer Insights. Irene is currently the Company's President of North America Foodservice. Read more about other management changes in the Business Wire press release.

GAO Report Shows Better Education but no Better Jobs - Where's the E-Quality?

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) came out with a new study on Women in Management in this country, finding that the status quo is alive and well in business! In 2007, women made up about 40% of the managers in the industries analyzed, just about the same as in 2000, showing no progress over the seven years. However these women did have a higher level of education than the women managers of 2000. Male managers with a bachelor's degree or higher increased 3% to 56% in 2007, but female managers with a bachelor's degree or higher increased 6% to 51% in 2007. 

So it seems women are getting a better education, but not better jobs! And the same is true for what they get paid. The report estimated that female managers earned 81 cents for every dollar earned by male managers in 2007, compared to 79 cents in 2000. Some call this improvement, I consider it more of a rounding error. 

I have heard all the excuses before that will be made in response to this report. Businesses will say they can't find women managers (they should check out the 5,000 women I have written about on NewsonWomen), government will say they are studying the issue, and what will we say? There will be more women's conferences where women will talk to other women about it. I believe these conferences are very valuable, but I also believe that we need to get outside that box. We just saw a summary of the Op-Ed section of the NYTimes for the past forty years in which there were very few women's opinions printed. And that is true for other papers as well. Editors will say it is hard to increase the number of women printed without sacrificing quality. I'm not sure this is true based on the samples I read, but even if it is, maybe it shouldn't be about quality, but about e-quality. There are plenty of women leaders giving their opinions at women's conferences all over the country. The problem is they rarely get covered by the press in a meaningful way, so their opinions are lost unless you were lucky enough to hear their speech. If Bill Clinton speaks somewhere even if he is getting paid all the newspapers will cover it and we will hear his opinion. In addition to speaking at conferences, more women leaders should be writing op-ed pieces so we can all hear their opinions. Or maybe women at the conferences can write op-eds on what they learned. And editors should print them! Women's opinions are valuable whether you like the quality of the writing or not. Let's put equality over quality for a change. I doubt the newspapers will lose any advertising over it. And I think the readers would appreciate the papers' effort to be inclusive.

We can start today with several suggestions. Editors can match their op-ed pieces by men with blog posts by women in an effort to be equal. There are thousands of interesting women blogging about the issues of today like jobs, healthcare and financial security. And if women want to improve their ability to write an Op-Ed piece, Stanford University is starting its Thought Leadership Greenhouse Project to encourage women to voice their opinions on Oct 6, 2010. There are also many other organizations working to propel women into postions of power in business and in politics which could help. There is so much opportunity out there, and women are taking more and more of the leadership initiative. It's time for women to get recognized and get paid.

Karen Parkhill Joins Local Initiatives Support Corporation Board of Directors

The Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) has elected JPMorgan Chase Executive Karen Parkhill to its national Board of Directors. Karen is Chief Financial Officer of Chase Commercial Banking at JPMorgan Chase. Read more in the prnewswire press release. LISC "combines corporate, government and philanthropic resources to help nonprofit community development corporations revitalize distressed neighborhoods".

Cathy Stubbs Made Senior Vice President of Finance at Endeavour

Endeavour International Corporation promoted Cathy L. Stubbs to Senior Vice President of Finance. Cathy has been with Endeavour since 2004. Read more in the prnewswire press release.

Kathleen Finch Made General Manager of HGTV at Scripps Networks

HGTV appointed Kathleen Finch Senior Vice President and General Manager. Kathleen, who has been with Scripps Networks since 1999, previously served as Senior Vice President and General Manager of DIY Network. Read more in the Buisness Wire press release.

Maria Shriver Busy with "Family Day" and "The Modern House Call for Women"

Maria Shriver, California's First Lady who is a mother, a business woman and a public servant, will celebrate California’s Family Day September 28, 2010, with hundreds of families joining her for dinner at the Santa Monica Family YMCA. Family Day was launched by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University based on their research that found the more often kids eat dinner with their families, the less likely they are to smoke, drink or use drugs. Learn more on we-are-family.

Maria also announced today “The Modern House Call for Women,"  a groundbreaking three-day event that will provide a range of free medical, health, and educational services to underserved women Friday October 22 – Sunday October 24 at The Walter Pyramid at California State University at Long Beach. The event is sponsored by The Women’s Conference Organization. Read about how to participate as a patient or a volunteer on themodernhousecall.com.

Maria - you are a woman who gets things done! Why do people always talk about Arnold for President instead of you?

Alexis Fosler Made Head of International Sales at Omnium

Omnium LLC appointed Alexis Fosler as Head of International Sales. Alexis had been the Head of Prime Brokerage Sales in Singapore for Citigroup. Read more in the Business Wire press release.

Karen Tripp Made Executive Vice President at The Hartford

The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc., (NYSE: HIG) appointed Karen C. Tripp Executive Vice President, Marketing and Communications. Karen had been Vice President of Corporate Communications for L-3 Communications, and before that, General Manager of Global Communications for General Electric’s Infrastructure business. Read more in the Business Wire press release.

Why so few Women on the Op-Ed Page?

The NY Times had a special section in the paper yesterday celebrating 40 years of its Op-Ed page. I was struck by the fact that only twenty something of the sample op-eds they included were written (or cartoons drawn) by women (check my math and correct me if I’m wrong). About 100 men were featured, including Presidents, Vice Presidents and Mayors, and some ceo’s, economists, and other business and world leaders. The women featured included mostly wonderful poets, artists and writers, one or two world leaders and a President’s daughter.

Half of the ivy league colleges are led by women, many companies are led by women and I would guess the blogosphere has thousands of women expressing their opinions. Why so few op-eds in the NYTimes? Could it be because there is no fence around the blogosphere keeping us out, or no filter deciding whether we are clever or important enough? Why are so many talented women disconnected from the mainstream media? One group trying to connect women to the media is the OpEd Project, which encourages and assists those who want to be heard. The NY Times says the op-ed section is meant to "open the paper to outside voices". Women have a tremendous amount to contribute and should be well represented on this page. I encourage more women to write to the NY Times, and I encourage the NY Times to publish more women. That is my op-ed on the op-ed!

In August, 2010, Online Companies and Banks Continue Putting Women in Big Jobs

August was slightly slower than June or July when we saw over 60 women appointed to big jobs, but still above the fifty mark we have  had each month so far this year. Major companies appointing women to big jobs in August included Bank of America (who appointed Bridget O’Connor - pictured - Chief Technology Officer for Consumer and Small Business Banking and Home Loans and Insurance), and Best Buy, GE, Borders Group, USA Today, Freddie Mac, Cigna, HP, BofA Merrill Lynch, Citizens Financial, eBay, Guardian Life Insurance, Friendly Ice Cream Corporation, Citizens Republic, Westinghouse, Boeing, BNY Mellon, CIT, Johnson Publishing, Celgene, Albemarle and ITT. Also, it was great to see online companies Likelist, ideeli, Mail.com, Kaboodle, Tribune Interactive, Lending Club, and Zillow.com all appoint women to important jobs.

Alice Beamesderfer Made Deputy Director for Collections at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

The Philadelphia Museum of Art appointed Alice Beamesderfer Deputy Director for Collections and Exhibitions. Alice had been Associate Director of Collections and Interim Head of Curatorial Affairs at the Museum. Read more about it in the Museum press release.

Katherine Weymouth Named to Washington Post Board of Directors. Other Women Appointed to Boards.

The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO) appointed Katharine Weymouth (pictured) to its Board of Directors. Katherine, who holds a JD from Stanford Law School, is Chief Executive Officer of Washington Post Media, a unit of The Washington Post Company. Read more in the Business Wire press release. 

CDI Corp. (NYSE: CDI), headquartered in Pennsylvania, appointed Anna M. Seal to its Board of Directors. Anna is Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK) Global Manufacturing and Supply Division. Read more in the prnewswire press release.

ikaSystems, headquartered in Massachusetts, appointed Leslie V. Norwalk to its Board of Directors. Leslie is a former Acting Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Read more in the Business Wire press release.

Senomyx, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNMX), headquartered in California, appointed Mary Ann Gray to its Board of Directors. Mary Ann is President of Gray Strategic Advisors, LLC. Read more in the Buisness Wire press release.

Sealy Corporation (NYSE: ZZ) headquartered in North Carolina, appointed Deborah G. Ellinger to its Board of Directors. Deborah is an Advisor to Catterton Partners. As part of her responsibilities she served as the President of Restoration Hardware as well as the Chief Executive Officer of Old Mother Hubbard/Wellness Pet Food. Read more in the prnewswire press release.

SquareTwo Financial, headquartered in Colorado, appointed Kim Patmore to its Board of Directors. Kim is a former Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of First Data Corporation. Read more in the prnewswire press release.

Christina Matteucci - Executive Director at david beahm design

david beahm design, one of the country's leading event design firms, promoted Christina Matteucci to Executive Director. Christina will lead the company's new "david beahm destinations" program, slated to launch in November 2010. Read the prnewswire press release.