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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Happy 30th Anniversary – Time to Change the Pregnancy Discrimination Act?

by Sima Matthes

Although 2007 showed an increase in reported pregnancy discrimination complaints to the EEOC (up 14 percent from the previous year and up 40 percent from 10 years ago), it is only certain recent case in the UK and a pending case before the US Supreme Court that have brought the issue front and center for public debate.

According to the Sunday Times in the UK, Sarah Vince-Caine won £120,000 in compensation for unfair dismissal and sex discrimination from her former employer, the Giorgio Armani group. She sued the company after she was pushed into a lower-level role and eventually fired after her second maternity leave.

Although this represents a victory for Ms. Vince-Caine, Nicola Brewer, chief executive of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, in a separate statement, remarked “If the world of work is premised on the assumption that a woman will take a year off, that loads the dice against her.”

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Golf Outing with 85 Broads and the Women’s Bond Club

Sign up for the Golfing and Golf Workshop at the beautiful Harbor Links Golf Course – either play 18 holes of golf or take a day of lessons to learn to play golf. A half-day of lessons and play is also available.

The workshop consists of 6 students for each instructor. Learn the basic swing techniques, chipping and putting as well as the rules, etiquette and language of golf. Practice your lessons with unlimited balls on the driving range.

Golf clubs may be rented at Harbor Links, if needed, for an additional cost. The day also includes lunch and cocktails and networking opportunities with members of 85 Broads and the Women’s Bond Club.

The day gets started at 11:00 am with check-in and lunch starts at 11:30. Play begins at 12:45 p.m. for those playing 18 holes. Instruction begins at 1:00 pm followed by 9-hole play at 2:45 pm. The day ends with a cocktail reception from 5:30 – 6:30 pm.

To Register

(Please bring photo I.D)

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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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Girls Bond Over Banking

by Caroline Shannon

While many expect young girls to be fascinated with Disney Princesses or to memorize all the songs from High School Musical, some business experts are working to push a more practical interest – an interest in finance.

Yep, we’re talking about clubs and camps that teach gals about saving, investing and other personal finance concepts – all life necessities that experts feel, if started early, can make a girl’s professional adult life more successful.

Marsha Firestone, Ph.D, CEO and founder of the Women’s Presidents’ Organization, says programs like these are a necessity, seeing as how “people are programmed to teach young girls one way and boys another way and not necessarily with forethought.”

“We have research that indicating that at about age 11 girls start to lose self confidence,” said Firestone. “It is a programmed response to treat them differently. People do not ask young women to make financial decisions or take financial responsibility.”

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WSTA 2008 Summer Magic

WSTA Socials afford industry professionals the opportunity to socialize in a relaxed atmosphere.

Ticket Price Includes: 4-hour open bar, hot and cold hors d’oeuvres, buffet and music all at a spectacular venue.

For more information on WSTA

For tickets to this WSTA Social Event

*After July 11th all tickets will be $195 plus shipping and handling charges.

*Ticket sales close July 16, 2008 4:00 PM EST.

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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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Facilitating Social Intelligence: A Woman Thing?

An Interactive Workshop in Social Awareness and Social Facility.

This learning event will unveil your inner capacity to create humanwealth through creativity, empathy, generosity and curiosity.

How can we best produce a healthy and intelligent community… Are womenleading the way in facilitating social intelligence? Is it a genderneutral issue? (And does it matter…) The audience will have theopportunity to listen to practitionners’ short interventions andactively take part in experience-based discussions and challenges.

For more information

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How to Look Like a Workaholic in a 40-Hour Workweek

Contributed by Laura Stack of The Productivity Pro®, Inc.

In a perfect world, we would be judged solely on our results, regardless of what others thought about how or when we got our work done. The good news is that this type of “results only” mentality is catching on. Some companies and managers are beginning to realize that there are better ways to manage performance than by counting hours at the office. Organizations are responding to the changing needs of workers everywhere by offering arrangements such as flextime and telecommuting.

The bad news is that, like it or not, corporate mentality is what it is. The 40-hour week is not just an expectation; it’s the minimum, especially for salaried professionals. Self-proclaimed workaholics advertise their twelve-hour days like a badge of honor and wouldn’t be caught dead leaving the office before 6:30 PM. Read more

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Ask-A-Recruiter: Ignore Phone Interview Skills At Your Peril

Contributed by Caroline Ceniza-Levine of SixFigureStart

When recruiters want to speak via phone, does this mean they are not really interested?

Phone interviews are not a sign of lack of interest. In fact, they are a key part of the job search process, and ignoring the importance of phone skills is a common job search mistake. As a recruiter, most of my general interviews are via phone. Some recruiters use a phone screen for every search and reserve live meetings for finalists only. Furthermore, a lot of recruiting process work is via telephone: either you or your potential employer is leaving a message to schedule an interview or to check status. Although the term “telephone tag” recalls a childhood game, do not take phone interactions lightly.

Here are some telephone tips: Read more

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