Catalyst Awards 2008 Highlights

Nissan Motor Co. Ltd and ING US Financial Services were big winners at Catalyst’s annual awards yesterday in New York City at the Waldorf -Astoria. This award celebrates innovative initiatives that advance women and business and has had progressive companies (at least according to our opinion here at the Glass Hammer) win the award in 2007- Goldman Sachs, PWC, Scotiabank and PepsiCo Inc.

Speaking of PepsiCo, their fabulous CEO Indra Nooyi was the speaker at the luncheon, and she was engaging and entertaining in her keynote address, entitled “One Woman’ s Journey to the Top.”

Ms. Nooyi covered a range of topics that we will be discussing in a full article on Monday called “Mentors, Meritocracy and Maternity,” about the challenges and tradeoffs needed to get to the corner office.

There is clear message emerging from leading corporations- try to reflect your client base in your workforce make-up and try to create a flexible environment that works for everyone.

Catalyst is a non-profit corporation and for more information on them and how they rank employers check out www.catalyst.org.