Movers and Shakers: Michelle Crumm, Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer of Adaptive Materials

by Margarita Shelley-Smith (Ann Arbor, Michigan)

The Glass Hammer recently spoke with Michelle Crumm, the co-founder and chief business officer of Adaptive Materials, an innovative company in Ann Arbor, MI. Adaptive Materials (AM) develops portable, quiet and efficient fuel cell systems capable of converting low cost, ecologically friendly fuel into electrical energy. These devices are already being used by the United States Armed Forces, commercial industries, and in emergency response situations by the Department of Defense.

Michelle Crumm, the business mind behind the success of the company, is a licensed CPA, with an MBA from University of Michigan. She was awarded the Crain’s Detroit Business “Most Influential Women” award in 2007 and was named one of “2008 Women of the Year” by the Enterprising Women magazine. Under her guidance, the company grew from a start-up into a manufacturing enterprise with double-digit increase in revenue. In March, the company moved to brand-new 47,000 square foot headquarters, and noted that its staff had tripled in the past year.

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Women on the Technological Edge

by Heather Cassell (San Francisco)

What do Liquid Paper, the submarine telescope and lamp, Kevlar, the windshield wiper, and the rotary engine have in common? They were all invented by women. Women have been creating innovative technologies that benefit the lives of people worldwide since before the start of the Industrial Revolution; however, until relatively recently, few, if any, women have been acknowledged for such achievements.

The Anita Borg Institute for Women in Technology is helping to fill the recognition gap with the Women of Vision awards. The Institute, an organization that provides resources and programs to help the public and private sectors recruit, retain, and develop women leaders in high tech fields, created these awards nearly three years ago to recognize and honor women’s achievements in innovation, leadership and social impact through technology.

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12 — Oops, 11 — Women at the Top of the Global 500

by Pamela Weinsaft (New York City)

Last week, Fortune named its Global 500 companies. This year, women lead 12 of those companies, an increase of 2 women over the prior year’s list.

Less than a week later, however, it was announced that Patricia Russo, CEO of Alcatel-Lucent and architect of the merger, will be stepping down by year’s end. Since the merger of Alcatel and Lucent in 2006, Russo has implemented a restructuring plan, which called for the firing of 12,500 workers. According to TheStreet.com, investors had been calling for Russo’s ouster since the merger, upset with the company’s performance and her pay package.

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Voices of Experience: Christine Bazanowski Scaffidi, First Vice President of Commercial Lending Services at Commerzbank

by Jessica Titlebaum (Chicago)

The Glass Hammer recently spoke with Christine Bazanowski Scaffidi, First Vice President of Commercial Lending Services at Commerzbank, who, refreshingly, cites her parents as her most important professional role models. From her corner office overlooking the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, she recalled dinner conversations from when she was growing up during which her father discussed the staff he managed and the challenges they faced. She also remembered her mother reminding her to “bloom where you are planted” when Christine voiced frustration at being limited to an administrative role when she started with Commerzbank 20 years ago.

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If It’s Not Bleeding, And It’s Not Burning, It’s Not An Emergency

by Sima Matthes (New York City)

I am crouched down, my face pressed against the back of my partner. It’s dark, and hot, and I am unable to see past my protective mask. It’s noisy—crackling and creaking all around, the sound of dripping water overhead—and yet strangely quiet. We advance, holding onto the hose, and hoping that we’re going to get to the fire before it gets any larger. I’m terrified and exhilarated. I can’t clear my head, so I scream—a deep, primal scream—and then, suddenly, I know what I’m supposed to be doing again.

We find our way toward the source of the heat, click the switch, and exit the exercise. Outside, I join my class of fellow firefighters, dirty, stinky and dripping with perspiration and condensation from the inside of our masks. We wait to be debriefed, then gear up for the next “evolution.”

This is not for the faint of heart, and I wonder how I got here.

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Voice of Experience: Marianne Brown, CEO of Omgeo LLC

by Pamela Weinsaft (New York City)

A true pull-yourself-up-by-your bootstraps success story, Marianne Brown, CEO of Omgeo LLC, spoke with The Glass Hammer about her unusual path to the top and why she’s succeeding there.

A self-professed academic overachiever in high school, Ms. Brown described her university experience simply: “fun won out”. Since she was, in her own words, “debt adverse” and paying her own tuition, she left school temporarily to get a job and earn some money. That job with ADP Brokerage Services, initially as a clerk/secretary, was the beginning of her illustrious career in trade management services.

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Adventures in Trading

Contributed by Suzanne Bodlovic (Chicago)

I am deep in the woods, up high on a mountain. It is the dead of night. With a map, compass and a backpack full of gear, I am with my teammates and we are looking for our next checkpoint. We are lost and have been racing for the last 15 hours. We are still nowhere near the finish line. Tired, hungry and cold, with blisters on my feet, I am ready to quit. I tell myself to dig deep and find the inner strength to push through. Focus on good thoughts and ignore the negative – just make it to the finish line.

I am back at work on the trading floor, making markets for my own trading account in a pit full of sweaty men who are out for blood. The tension in the air is thick. I am mentally drained and my position is going against me. Even though people surround me, I am alone, and must rely on my mental strength to get me through the day.

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Movers and Shakers in Energy

It’s the first bud of the spring that gets noticed. It pokes its head out of the dirt, and blooms regardless of whether others around it are doing the same thing. This is true of women at the top of corporations as well. Often, they’re the only women at the table, and even as their numbers increase, they do so slowly, causing us to take notice of big appointments when they occur.

This week, Lynn Laverty Elsenhans was elected Chief Executive Officer and President of Sunoco Inc. Ms. Elsenhans is Sunoco’s first female CEO and President, following her tenure at Royal Dutch Shell, and replaces John Drosdick upon his retirement in August. Ms. Elsenhans holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics from Rice University, and an MBA from Harvard. Ms. Elsenhans will receive an initial salary of $1.24 million and a onetime grant of restricted share units equal in value to $5 million, the company said. According to the Wall Street Journal, this appointment increases the number of women at the head of Fortune 500 companies to 13.

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The Executive’s Guide to Throwing the Perfect Dinner Party

by Jacqueline Church

You run a department, head a practice, handle the crankiest clients and supervise staff. But throw a dinner party? Who has the time? Where to start? If hosting a dinner party has never been your strong suit, and you don’t want to go the “hired help” route, fear not: you already have all the skills you need by virtue of your success at work. Here then, the simple rules of successful hosting:
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Stay at Home Husband? One Lawyer’s Story

Ilise*, a female attorney at a big New York law firm, is the envy of most of her female peers, at least those with children. Unlike most of the other lawyers at her firm, who have to juggle unpredictable hours with inflexible and costly childcare arrangements, Ilise has a built in child care system that doesn’t make her feel as though her two daughters, ages 18 months and 4 years, are being deprived of quality parental time. After Ilise came back to work from her second maternity leave, her husband, a writer, decided to stay home with the girls.

Ilise’s situation is unique, but hardly unusual among professional woman these days. In fact, stay at home husbands have been a hot topic in the blogosphere.

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