Ms. Fix-it: Barbara Desoer

By: Pamela Weinsaft

Just as military promotions are offered as a reward for dangerous missions, the key to success in the corporate world may lie in the willingness to take on the challenge of turning around struggling companies or divisions of companies. When women succeed in meeting these challenges, they blaze a trail, advance to senior ranks, and may even shatter that fabled glass ceiling.

Barbara Desoer, bumped from her position of 47 on the Forbes 50 Most Powerful Women in Business in 2006 has been catapulted back into the spotlight this week with her promotion to the rank of President of the new Bank of America mortgage, home equity, and insurance services business. The Wall Street Journal reports that with the acquisition of Countrywide on July 1, 2008, Bank of America became the largest mortgage originator and servicer in the U.S. Ms. Desoer has been given the challenge of pulling Bank of America’s new problem child—Countrywide Mortgage—back into the family fold.
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Movers and Shakers: Maria McLaughlin, Marketing Director at Appro

By: Bailey McCann

Recently, Glass Hammer spoke with Maria McLaughlin, the Director of Marketing for Appro International, a technology firm in Milpitas, California. Appro specializes in high performance computing for the oil and gas and financial services industries; government labs, energy and defense departments; electronic design automation; digital content creation; education and manufacturing sectors.

According to the company website, Maria McLaughlin joined Appro in 2002 and has responsibility for all Appro’s marketing, which includes branding, market analysis, perception improvement, marketing communications, and demand creation. She is also responsible for coordinating the product-definition and Go-to-Market Plan activities across Appro. Prior to her role at Appro, Ms. McLaughlin worked at Hewlett-Packard and 3M Corporation.

Ms. McLaughlin is the only woman on the 8-member executive team. When she started at Appro, there was no marketing department, a deficiency that relegated the company to serving a niche market. But before she could help take the company’s message to a larger consumer base, she had to prove her own value, as well as the value of marketing, to the company. During our interview, she offered insights on how she successfully created a now-thriving department and overcame any negative preconceptions of a woman in technology marketing.

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35 Women Under 35: Lisa Ditlefsen, Head of Search at Base One

By: Elizabeth Harrin

The same week that Lisa Ditlefsen turned 30, she collected her prize at the BlackBerry Women & Technology Awards for the best use of technology by a woman under 30. She received the award for the work she has done creating an SEO (search engine optimization) department at Base One. Not bad for someone who three years ago admitted she knew nothing about online marketing.

Lisa came to London from Norway in 1999 on a gap year and fell into B2B marketing more or less by chance, after a stint working on a travel magazine. After a break to have her daughter, she returned to Base One and was offered the chance to do something the company had never done before – search engine marketing.
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Voices of Experience: Julia Kaufmann-Yu, Vice President at Goldman Sachs

Julia Kaufmann-Yu has been going full speed ahead since she on-ramped back into a career in financial services about four months ago. Julia is currently a Vice President at Goldman Sachs, within the Strategic and Technology Initiatives group. At the New Directions: Next Steps in Your Career, a conference about on-ramping sponsored by Goldman Sachs, Julia spoke on a panel about her experiences re-entering the job market after taking some time off to raise her three young children. The Glass Hammer sat down with Julia in an interview recently, where she shared more of her insight and advice about how to re-enter the job market after taking a break.

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Movers and Shakers: West Coast Round-Up

By: Heather Cassell

Women are on the move in May and June into the executive suites of top industries.

Biotech

Pamela Cohen was hired as senior vice president and chief medical officer of Kosan Biosciences Inc. She was formerly the global oncology therapeutic head for GE Healthcare Medical Diagnostics. Jane Moffitt became vice president of Nile Therapeutics Inc. in San Francisco. She formerly was the West Coast director of operations for SciLucent before joining the cardiovascular therapy biopharma. Mary Bolton was hired as vice president, clinical development of Sunesis Pharmaceuticals Inc. Judith Fox was promoted to vice president, product and preclinical development of the oncology therapeutics biopharma.

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Voices of Experience: Robin Gugick Mayer, Corporate Bonds Analyst at UBS

By: Jessica Titlebaum

“Opportunities are changing,” said Robin Gugick Mayer, a Corporate Bonds Analyst at UBS. “Companies are recognizing a talent pool that wasn’t recognized even just a few years ago and want to tap into it.”

Mrs. Mayer is referring to the pool of talented women who are returning to the workforce after a career break. As an on-ramper herself, she participated in the Career Comeback Program sponsored by UBS and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School to help her prepare for her return.

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Rising Stars: Katherine Bradford, Global Head of Marketing and Public Relations at Patsystems

By: Sophie Fletcher

“It’s important to have a woman mentor,” said Katherine Bradford, who was recently promoted to Global Head of Marketing at the trading technology firm, Patsystems. “Not only can you ask her about business and your career, you can also ask if it’s appropriate to wear dangly earrings in a business meeting.”

Joking aside, at the age of 26, Katherine Bradford has stepped into an important role at one of the leading technology providers in the futures industry. When I saw Katherine last, she had just returned from London, spending six weeks at the company’s headquarters. She was working with her new manager, colleagues, and clients to become better acquainted with Patsystems’ operations in Europe.
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30 Under 30: Jessica Zemple, Intellectual Property Exchange International

At 30, Jessica Zemple has taken on a big challenge. Her job is to build the technology infrastructure for the trading of an entirely new asset class. Traditionally, stocks and options for technology corporations derive their price from the market valuation of the enterprise as a whole. Zemple and the Intellectual Property Exchange International (IPXI) are asking investors to shift their thinking from broad-based valuations to looking at the specific valuation of intellectual property portfolios.

Jessica explained that a study by Ned Davis Research indicated that in 1975, intangible assets (patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets) comprised 16.8 percent of the market capitalization of companies in the S&P 500. That number increased to almost 80 percent in 2005. “We went from manufacturing products to manufacturing ideas,” Zemple said. “We feel the economic inversion is the perfect opportunity to build a new marketplace and we have several products that will allow investors, speculators, and hedgers to gain access to a new asset class, developing precise exposures to underlying technologies along the way.”

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Rising Stars Series: Interview with Ani M. Vartanian, VP of Rockwood Capital

Contributed by Heather Cassell

What a fascinating and dramatic world we live in, at least from Ani M. Vartanian’s perspective. With the credit crunch, Bear Stearns crumbling, foreclosure crisis, historical election year, political scandals, and the year hasn’t even hit the halfway mark yet.

“It’s better than reality TV,” said Vartanian, 32, vice president of the acquisition and asset management team of Rockwood Capital, a $6.2 billion private real estate investment company.

Vartanian likes to keep her finger on the pulse of the intersections between politics, business, and public policy, which has helped her rapidly climb the investment real estate ladder.

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Intrepid Women Series: Evening at the Russian Bath House

The Intrepid Women series follows brave women who venture into the traditionally male dominated domains that have long been sources of entertainment for men in law and finance, but where women rarely tread. Previous excursions include steak houses and cigar bars.

793238617_5d2328f9a7_m.jpgFor years, one of my Russian friends has been telling me about the Russian bathhouse in my neighborhood. I live in the Financial District of New York City, and apparently there is a secret den of tough love Eastern European style relaxation, right around the corner from Wall Street.

Walking down Fulton Street, it doesn’t look like much. Blink and you’ll miss it. The little white and blue sign reads Spa 88, and is sandwiched between a bodega and a fast food restaurant. I thought it was probably a discount nail salon as I walked past it every day.

Oh, was I wrong.

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