Bumps on the On Ramp

iStock_000003269650XSmall_1_.jpgby Liz O’Donnell (Boston)

Stay at home mothers (SAHMs) are looking for work and facing some good news/bad news. A combination of factors is sending these SAHMs back to work. Some need to replace the income of spouses who have been laid off. Others need the additional money to combat increased living costs. And still others are merely ready to return after taking time to care for their families.

As we have been reporting on The Glass Hammer, the good news is that it is no longer considered impossible to re-enter the work world. Several years ago, the mainstream media was full of stories that said women who had taken time off to raise families had very slim chances of being rehired. Employers just didn’t value the skills women cultivated as heads of households and PTO volunteers, the stories said.

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Furloughs, Reduced Work-Weeks & Flexible Work Arrangements: The Law of Alternative Work Arrangements

Furloughs As employers look for alternatives to layoffs during these tough economic times, there are numerous options to cut costs. Those options include work furloughs, reduced work-weeks or reduced salaries, and flexible work arrangements. Yet, employers must take care to structure those measures to avoid legal pitfalls. Leila Narvid of Payne & Fears LLP in San Francisco believes that these options have the benefit of avoiding the decrease in morale that inevitably comes with layoffs. At the same time, she says that “unless carefully planned and regulated, they can expose employers to liability for wage and hour violations.”

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Women Share How They “Ignore Gender” to Achieve Success

iStock_000005327644XSmall_1_.jpgby Anna Collins, Esq. (Portland, Maine)

Just as success means different things to different people, obtaining success for women involves diverse choices and paths. According to a recent Huffington Post article, while some women believe it is necessary to navigate through the gender dynamics in business by focusing on gender when necessary, others actually ignore gender as a blatant strategy for success. In order to understand the trend of “ignoring gender” as a means to achieve success, we spoke to several women about their own paths to success. Of course, “ignoring gender” means different things to different people.

For Marlene Mitchell Gordon, Vice President and Assistant General Counsel for Burger King Corporation , “ignoring gender” means treating each person as a human being rather than male or female. She recalls how one male colleague seemed uncomfortable with her. When she realized that he had never before worked with a woman of color, she proceeded to ignore gender and race by working to build a relationship with him focused on getting to know him as a person and allowing him to get to know her. By taking initiative to learn about his background and experiences and sharing her background and experiences with him, they found that they shared common experiences. This led to them forging a strong business relationship based on mutual respect and trust. As a result, Ms. Gordon found that her gender and race were quickly non-issues.

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In Case You Missed It: News Round-Up

martin.jpgContributed by Martin Mitchell of the Corporate Training Group

In case you were too busy to have kept up with all the news, contributor Martin Mitchell has gathered some important market events from last week to help you start this week well informed:

Mergers and Acquisitions

  • As had been rumoured last week, mining group Rio Tinto announced a $19.5bn cash injection from Chinese state-owned Chinalco. The deal involves Chinalco buying $7.2bn of convertible bonds, plus spending $12.3bn talking minority stakes in some of Rio Tinto’s best mining assets. The bonds consist of two tranches that will pay 9% and 9.5% coupons and mature in 7 years. If converted, they will increase Chinalco’s stake from 9% to 18%.

  • Again in China, Bank of China has emerged as Beijing’s preferred choice of bidder for AIG’s Asian life assurance unit. The unit is expected to sell for about $20bn.

  • Three more inter-dealer brokers have approached the consortium that is considering bidding for LCH.Clearnet. Tullett-Prebon, GFI Group and Tradition want to join Icap and 10 banks in a counterbid against the non-binding offer from the US Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation.

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The Hestia Fund

by Liz O’Donnell (Boston)

After a career in the non-profit world and a master’s degree from The Kennedy School of Government, Susan Priem heard about the Washington Women’s Fund in Seattle and was inspired to start her own women’s giving circle in Boston. She felt that a group of women acting collectively could make a greater impact than several individuals. So in 1999 she talked to a few of her friends and the following year along with eight other women, she started what is now known as the Hestia Fund. The group is named for Hestia, the Greek goddess of the hearth.

Priem’s vision was that each woman would give an equal amount of money to invest in a cause of their choosing and would make a three year commitment to the organization. Early on, the women of Hestia agreed to a mission: to positively impact the lives of low-income women and their children living in Massachusetts. The women carry out this mission by giving primarily to after school program.

The original group agreed to each give $5000 and set a goal of increasing the group size to 20 women. By the end of the second year, the group was 40 strong. Last year there were 60 active members and eight members who contribute financially but are not active in the decision making.

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Passions: Roller Derby

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iStock_000001512993XSmall_1_.jpgby Natalie Sabia (New York City)

Rough. Competitive. Supportive. Thrilling. These are all just a few words that describe women’s roller derby. Anya, aka “Hard Anya,” is one of the toughest and most dedicated women on the Gotham Girls Roller Derby team. Hard Anya, which is her skate name, works full time in web development for a tech company; design’s the website for Gotham Girls and serves on the advisory board. “It’s a serious organization, not just a hobby,” said Anya.

Gotham Girls Roller Derby is a not-for-profit organization, which is operated by the skater women. Gotham Girls is New York City’s only all-female roller derby league, which is composed by strong and independent women. “It’s a great network of people both professionally and socially,” said Anya.

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Economic Crisis & Climate Policy: Risks and Opportunities

Women’s Network for a Sustainable Future (WNSF) Cordially invites you to its New York Luncheon Panel Economic Crisis & Climate Policy: Risks and Opportunities

Including speakers from: Swiss Re,NYC Mayor’s Climate Change Task Force And Deutsche Bank

A discussion of implications of the economic downturn on climate policy and commentary on the role of climate technologies in boosting the economy

Generously hosted by

Swiss Re

Seating is limited and pre-registration is requiredPlease register online

Please bring Photo Identification to all WNSF events. Please check the website

WNSF.org for the newest edition of Net Notes

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CFOs Who’ve Left the Fortune 1000: Where Are They Now?

by Liz O’Donnell (Boston)

Year after year, the number of female CFOs in the Fortune 1000 remains flat, or perhaps slightly down. Last summer, CFO Magazine reported that 10 female CFOS had joined the Fortune 500 and ten had left. However, only one month after they published that list, Erin Callan left her post as CFO at Lehman Brothers. Although Callan claims in interviews that the decision to leave was hers –a sacrifice as the public face of the company during a time shareholders wanted to see drastic change—most insiders believe she was ousted as a scapegoat by CEO Dick Fuld.

Susan Decker’s “departure” story involved the upward trajectory of two female executives. Decker left the CFO job at Yahoo to become president of the Internet company. Recently, however, she resigned as president when she was passed over for the CEO spot. But, the new CEO is a woman. The Internet company hired Carol Bartz, formerly of AutoDesk, to guide the struggling giant.

Another move with an interesting back story is that of Christa Davies. Davies had a high ranking position as a divisional-CFO with Microsoft. While on maternity leave, she received a call to join Aon Corp., a $10 billion company, as Executive Vice President, Global Finance. She is now Aon’s Chief Financial Officer.

Other female CFOs include Jean S. Blackwell, an attorney by training, who held many positions in Cummins, including serving as General Counsel from 1997 and Chief Financial Officer from Chief Financial Officer of Cummins Inc. from February 2003 to April 2008. Blackwell is currently serving as the Chief Executive of Cummins Foundation and Executive Vice President of Corporate Responsibility at Cummins Inc.

After 24 years with United Stationers, the last six of which as CFO of the organization, Kathleen S. Dvorak resigned from the company to “seek new challenges”. She now serves as CFO of Richardson Electronics in Illinois.

Judy C. Lewent, the first woman to serve as the CFO of a major corporation, held the position of Chief Financial Officer of Merck & Co., Inc. from 1990 until September 2007. She currently serves as co-chairman and executive vice president of Merial Limited.

The following women appear to have retired from daily corporate life:

Dianne M. Neal served as executive vice president and CFO of Reynolds American from August 2004 to December 2007. She is serving on several boards, including the Reynolds House Museum of American Art.

Patricia A. McKay was the Executive Vice President and the Chief Financial Officer of Office Depot. She held this position from October 2005 through March 2008 until she was replaced amid poor earnings reports. She had previously served as the executive vice president/CFO job with California-based Restoration Hardware.

Marianne M. Parrs served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Office of International Paper Company from November 2005 until the end of 2007. Ms. Parrs also serves on the boards of CIT Group Inc.; the Rise Foundation in Memphis, Tennessee; and the Leadership Academy in Memphis, Tennessee.

JoAnn Reed retired on March 15, 2008 after nearly 20 years at Medco Health Solutions, Inc., including 16 years as the company’s Chief Financial Officer. She is currently serving in an advisory capacity to the company through 2010.

E. Follin Smith joined Constellation Energy as senior vice president and chief financial officer. She left the company and the position of CFO to “be more actively involved with my children at this stage of their lives.”

Linda Dimopoulos started at Darden Restaurants in 1982 and was promoted from CIO to CFO in December 2002. She remained in that position until retiring June 2007 after 25 years of service to the company.

Statistics don’t lie –the percentage of women CFOs in the Fortune 500 is very small, as is the number of women across the C-suites. And while that in and of itself may not be news, it is still an important story about gender inequity in the workplace. However, the stories of women like Decker, Davies and Callan fill in some of the details of what is happening for women in corporate America.

The good news, as reported by CFO Magazine, is that there is a strong pipeline of female corporate controllers and treasurers at the top companies in the wings and in line to take the helm – women such as Joan Lordi Amble, EVP & corporate comptroller, American Express; Mary Boland, SVP & CFO, The Americas, Levi Strauss; Aileen Blake, EVP & controller, Northern Trust; Marcia Dall, VP & financial officer, Cigna Healthcare; Kim Harris Jones, VP & chief controller, Chrysler; and Teri List, VP, finance, global operations, Procter & Gamble.

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PWICA Meet and Greet- 1

PWICA(Professional Women in Corporate America)

We decided on having event whereby members could meet and support each other through the services we offer and to ask for assistance from others. We had a very successful event last Fall and want to continue that process. Future events will be planned going forward based upon what the attendees are seeking. Hope to see you there and welcome your ideas.

For More information contact:

2123461540

bmiller@pace.edu

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African American Women Face Serious Challenges In Climb Up The Corporate Ladder

iStock_000005052080XSmall_1_.jpgby Anna Collins, Esq. (Portland, Maine)

Following the election of Barack Obama, there has been an increase in discussion of how the election of the first African-American President will impact opportunities for minorities seeking to move into executive positions of leadership. In order to assess such opportunities, The Executive Leadership Council commissioned a poll of 150 executives shortly after the election.

The good news is that 75 percent of the executives believe that having minorities in senior executive positions is particularly important to providing new ideas and to better reflect the diversity of customers. The bad news is that the findings also demonstrate that African-American women face serious challenges in their climb up the corporate ladder. Thirty-one percent of the surveyed executives attribute those challenges to weaker or less strategic networks available to African-American women. Inaccurate perceptions of African-American women’s capabilities (24 percent) and work/life balance demands (23 percent) round out the top three issues cited as preventing or slowing down their rise.

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