Advance Auto Parts, Inc., (NYSE: AAP), headquartered in Virginia, appointed Frances Frei (pictured) to its Board of Directors. Frances is the UPS Foundation Professor of Service Management at Harvard Business School. Read more in the Business Wire press release.
Digital River, Inc. (NASDAQ: DRIV),headquartered in Minnesota, appointed Cheryl Rosner to its Board of Directors. Cheryl is a former CEO and President of TicketsNow.com Inc., a Ticketmaster company. Read more in the Business Wire press release.
Finance and Entertainment fought for the headlines on NewsonWomen.com in November with some amazing appointments in each industry taking place. Liz Smith was our lone CEO appointment (OSI Restaurant Partners - you've probably eaten at one their restaurants, maybe Outback Steakhouse?). Lisa Erspamer (pictured) becoming Chief Creative Officer of the Oprah Winfrey Network is also a big deal given the significant changes expected in what television will become and how tv programming will be delivered, and because of Oprah's November announcement that she will be ending her show on ABC at the end of her contract. More major companies appointing women to big jobs in November included Walgreens, Lockheed Martin, US Airways, Jamba Juice Company, Jones Lang LaSalle, Engine Alliance, Nationwide Bank, Vivendi Entertainment, Dreamworks Animation, Conde Nast, Hasbro Studios, Charles River Associates, TIAA-CREF, Baird, DaVita, and the Gates Foundation. Headlining government appointments this month was Amy Gutmann, President of University of Pennsylvania, who was made Chair of the Presidential Commission Studying Bioethical Issues. Of course for me the biggest news of November was NewsonWomen.com winning "Blog of the Year" from the Women in Business Stevie Awards! What was your favorite news story?
Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley (pictured) won the special democratic primary for the Massachusetts U.S. Senate seat. If she wins the special election, Martha, who holds a JD from Boston University, will be the first woman to represent Massachusetts in the United States Senate. Read more on washingtonpost.com.
President Obama nominated Nancy Freudenthal, and Judge Benita Pearson to serve on the District Court bench. Nancy, a Litigation Partner at Davis & Cannon, LLP, is a nominee for the District of Wyoming. Judge Benita Pearson, who is a Federal Magistrate Judge in the Northern District of Ohio, is a nominee for the Northern District of Ohio. See White House press release 12/4.
President Obama nominated Rosemary DiCarlo to be United States Deputy Representative to the United Nations, with the rank of Ambassador, United States Mission to the United Nations. Rosemary, who holds a Ph.D. from Brown University, has served as U.S. Alternate Representative to the United Nations since August 2008. See White House press release 12/2.
President Obama nominated Jackalyne Pfannenstiel to be Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Installations and Environment), Department of Defense. Jackalyne, who holds an M.A. in Economics from the University of Hartford, is the former Chairman of the State of California Energy Commission. See White House press release 12/2.
CB Richard Ellis Group, Inc. (NYSE: CBG), headquartered in California, appointed Laura D’Andrea Tyson (pictured) to its Board of Directors. Laura, who holds a PhD in Economics from MIT, is the S.K. and Angela Chan Professor of Global Management, Walter A. Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley. Read more in the Business press release.
J. C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE: JCP), headquartered in Texas, appointed Geraldine B. Laybourne to its Board of Directors. Geraldine was the Co-Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Oxygen Media. Read more in the Business Wire press release.
Applied Materials, Inc., headquartered in California, appointed Susan M. James to its Board of Directors. Susan was a Partner at Ernst & Young. Read more in the Business Wire press release.
PECO, an electric and natural gas utility subsidiary of Exelon Corporation based in Pennsylvania, appointed Charisse R. Lillie to its Board of Directors. Charisse, who holds a Master’s of Law from Yale Law School, is Vice President of Community Investment for Comcast Corporation and Executive Vice President of the Comcast Foundation. Read more in the Business Wire press release.
Twenty women were appointed to Corporate Boards in November as reported on NewsonWomen.com, dashing our upward trend from October when 24 women were appointed, but beating last year when 18 women were appointed to Boards in November08. Susan Lyne (pictured), CEO of online luxory retailer Gilt Groupe, will join two other women on the newly formed ten member AOL Board. Other major companies putting women on Boards in November included Nike, Skilled Healthcare Group, Carter's Inc, Beneficial Mutual Bancorp, American Pacific, Sterling Bancorp, and Allstate.
New annual surveys were released in November confirming a slight decline in the number of women appointed to Boards. The marginal changes reflected in the surveys are evidence that big changes in these numbers will require a big event. We just went through a major economic meltdown and significant government interventions and that didn't result in many women being catapulted into board positions, so I'm not sure what kind of event would be needed to make major changes in board gender statistics!
Phoebe McGall (pictured left with her son) and Nicole Cook are two of the many women who take advantage of the different career options offered by DeLoitte LLP. Deloitte, recently named a "Model Employer" in the Shriver report, A Woman's Nation, started one of the first major corporate initiatives for the retention and advancement of women in 1993. Deloitte now uses a corporate lattice model of career development rather than the traditional corporate ladder, offering women the flexibility they need.
Phoebe, who is a Manager at Deloitte Consulting, uses Deloitte's Mass Career Customization (MCC) program to shape a schedule that allows her to serve clients and meet the needs of her toddler son. MCC enables all Deloitte professionals to dial up and dial down their careers to fit their needs at various life stages.
Nicole Cook (pictured left with her family), a Senior Manager for Deloitte Tax, took a one-month sabbatical this year to vacation with husband Jack, an attorney, and daughter Lily. She also spent this time serving the Down Syndrome Association of Wisconsin in her role as an active board member. Deloitte’s voluntary sabbatical program was launched in June and allows employees to take up to six months off to engage in volunteering and other personal pursuits. Read more about this "Model Employer" on deloitte.com.