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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100 Women in Hedge Funds Honors Sonia Gardner of Avenue Capital Group

by Margarita Shelley-Smith

While numerous publications and analysts address the question of women’s inability to successfully manage high risk investments and understand the nuances of portfolio management, Sonia Gardner is a clear example to the contrary.

On June 5th, 2008, 100 Women in Hedge Funds named Sonia Gardner of Avenue Capital Group as a recipient of this year’s Leadership Award. This award recognizes individuals whose professional dedication, innovation, passion and ethics set a standard of excellence for the industry. “We are so pleased to be honoring Sonia Gardner, whose combined achievements as a founder, partner and leader of a pioneering, pre-eminent alternative asset management firm are unique,” said the board director, Mimi Drake.
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These Times They Are a Changin’

Recently, as I sat in my Chicago apartment listening to my iPod, Bob Dylan’s famous verses prompted me to consider the changing times for women in business. I started to think of the significant advances that have been made over the past 20 years, resulting in the ever-increasing pool of talented female professionals. I believe these advances are due to in no small part to the increasing availability of resources for women in business, including the growing number of organizations dedicated to helping female professionals succeed.

One such organization, Chicago Financial Women (CFW), was established to support Midwest women in the fields of finance and financial services through professional development, education, and networking. Originally a chapter of the Financial Women’s Association headquartered in New York, Chicago Financial Women became an independent organization about three years ago. I sat down with Deborah Canale, the president of the organization, to discuss the activities of the group, as well as the current state of women in finance in Chicago.
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