Tag: women in business

In this video, Michelle Duguid, professor of organizational behavior, and Maxine Clark, founder and former CEO of Build-A-Bear Workshops, talk about the importance of mentorship for women in the workplace. These conversations are part of a four-part series on the course the two are co-teaching, Women & Leadership.

Clark: I think mentorship is really important. I think people think of it sometimes as a very static thing, like okay, I’m going to go ask somebody to be my mentor and then they’re going to be my mentor and they’re going to help me get to be successful. But it isn’t really like that. A mentorship relationship is really a give and take. And you can say, well I’m a young student, what can I give that person who’s older and more experienced? But there really is a lot that you can give.

It’s a very active relationship. It’s not something that is static, and it’s not something where you can just expect to be a sponge and not give anything in return. It won’t work that way. People that report directly to you are looking to you for an example. They are looking to you for guidance, and it may not always be some formal mentoring going on, there’s informal mentoring and you have to be aware of that. There’s just still not enough of us [women] that we’re still looked up to and still seen as an exception, which I wish wasn’t the case, but it actually gives us, you know, more chance to teach.

It’s a very active relationship. It’s not something that is static, and it’s not something where you can just expect to be a sponge and not give anything in return.

Duguid: The research is pretty clear on this. Women who have sponsors, people who have skin in the game for them that’ll put their reputation on the line saying, “Yeah, you know, this person is great. You should definitely have them on your team.” It is, for men and women, extremely important for the success of their careers, and like Maxine said, it is a give and take. It’s a relationship that has to be cultivated, and it needs to be cared for and always not in one direction. That’s one of the biggest things that I think that people need to know about mentorship and sponsorship relationships. One of the things with sponsorship is if someone puts their reputation on the line, and says, “This is the person you need,”  you just need to do a really good job as well.  That’s a big part of it.

Clark: It’s always flattering when somebody wants you to be their mentor, but you have to really help them realize, well, I’m glad to help you in any way I can.  So, I think there’s lots of ways to mentor.  Some are short term and some are longer term and lots of ways to get way more than you give in the process.




The White House has called on business schools to expand initiatives for women pursuing business degrees and prepare them for the the 21st century workplace. Dean Gupta and Mark Brostoff, associate dean and director of Olin’s Weston Career Center, are attending a convening at the White House hosted by the White House Council on Women and Girls and the Council of Economic Advisers on Aug. 5, 2015.

The White House Council on Women & Girls & the Council of Economic Advisors Convening on the Working Families Economic Agenda

The White House Council on Women & Girls & the Council of Economic Advisors Convening on the Working Families Economic Agenda

More than 40 business schools met with industry leaders to discuss recruiting, training, and retaining leaders for the 21st-century workplace and the importance of implementing policies that work for families. The meeting considered a proposed set of Best Practices for Business Schools to Lead in Expanding Opportunities for Women in Business and Adapt to the Changing Workforce. The document was drafted after a meeting in April 2014 of senior administration officials and business school deans.

Olin Business School announced its commitment to the four key areas set out in the Best Practices for Business Schools to expand opportunities for women:

  • Ensuring access to business schools and business careers for women
  • Building a business school experience that prepares women for the workforce of tomorrow
  • Ensuring career services that go beyond the needs of traditional students
  • Exemplifying how organizations should be run as equitable workplaces

“ Olin Business School is committed to providing an educational and cultural experience for our women students in undergraduate and graduate programs that prepares them to be leaders in the workforce of tomorrow,” said Dean Mahendra Gupta.

At the White House meeting, The dean submitted a specific list of initiatives and opportunities at Olin designed for undergraduate, graduate, and professional women as they prepare for and further their careers in the changing workforce.

1. ACCESS TO BUSINESS SCHOOL AND BUSINESS CAREERS

  • Enrollment of women has increased to 40% in the Olin MBA Program (Class of 2017). Historically, this is the highest enrollment of women in the Olin graduate program, up 11% from last year. The percentage of women admitted to the undergraduate program has increased from 38% to 45% for the incoming class this fall.
  • Olin is a long serving member of the Forte Foundation and we currently have a staff representative on the Forte School Advisory Board. Forte Foundation is a non-profit consortium of leading companies and top business schools working together to launch women into fulfilling, significant careers through access to business education, opportunities, and a community of successful women. We fulfill this mission by:
  • Olin is a founding member of the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management, an organization that works to diversify the ranks of corporate America – and the student bodies of its 15 member schools – by providing full-tuition scholarships to candidates who are committed to this mission.
  • New Saturday Part-Time Professional MBA (PMBA) Curriculum established to meet the growing needs of the diverse workforce in St. Louis, specifically targeting women in care giving positions who want to pursue a graduate business management degree.

2. BUILD A BUSINESS SCHOOL EXPERIENCE THAT PREPARES STUDENTS FOR THE WORKFORCE OF TOMORROW

  • Diversity and Inclusion training opportunities are being increased campus wide. The MBA program is expanding training beyond orientation to a required semester- long course.The University’s new Center for Diversity & Inclusion is providing additional programs year-round for students, faculty, staff, and the community to engage in on-going conversations about race and ethnicity. Through these programs, we aim to cultivate and foster a supportive campus climate for students of all backgrounds, cultures and identities
  • Olin Women in Business Association (OWIB). We partner with OWIB graduate student association in carrying out plans to attain their four primary goals:

Help to recruit strong and talented women to future classes of the Olin MBA program;
Help to set a program of personal and professional development for women MBA students while at Olin;
Help to identify and set an environment of inclusiveness and sensitivity that pervades the entire Olin community;
Strive to insure gender balance and representation in academics, guest speakers,extracurricular activities, etc.

  • Olin Women’s Mentor Program pairs local women executives with sophomores to help build hard and soft skills and networking activities.
  • OWN IT Women’s Empowerment Conference will be hosted at Olin Business School this fall. OWN IT bridges the gap between female leaders of the 21st century and the millennials who admire them…creating game-changing moments to inspire young women.

3. ENSURE CAREER SERVICES THAT GO BEYOND THE NEEDS OF TRADITIONAL STUDENTS

  • Weston Career Center Diversity Recruitment Initiative ensures that women and underrepresented minorities have equal access to recruiters during major on-campus recruitment activities, providing guidance to recruiters seeking workplace diversity and offering part-time graduate students and working professionals a dedicated career advising team who can assist students and alumni in the transition to non-traditional employment and alternative workplace arrangements.
  • Women’s Leadership Forum and Certificate Program sponsored by Olin Business School Executive Education Program sharpens the skills of mid-career women leaders who are preparing to succeed in higher executive level positions, including C-suite, that require enterprise-wide management. Topics include how to make decisions confidently, exert power and influence wisely, negotiate strategically, and manage change effectively.

4. EXEMPLIFY HOW ORGANIZATIONS SHOULD BE RUN

  • The Diversity and Inclusion Committee for the Olin Business School is charged with focusing on issues related to gender and ethnic diversity in faculty and staff recruitment; facilitating mentorships for women and underrepresented minorities; and providing support for students, faculty and staff with care giving responsibilities.
  • Diverse faculty recruitment. Since 2007, a 113% increase in faculty members with diverse backgrounds and a 143% increase in female faculty members at Olin Business School.

Image: President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama walk from Marine One on the South Lawn upon arrival at the White House following a trip to California, June 16, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)




Tuesday, February 24 marked the kickoff for the Ellevate Speaker Series. Ellevate, previously known as 85 Broads, is a global professional woman’s network that is dedicated to the investment and engagement of women in business. President Liza Seiden, along with Vice Presidents Emily Pipes and Carly Krasnoff, founded the Washington University Ellevate Chapter this year.

A group of actively engaged women gathered to hear Kelly Ainsworth, Strategic and Counterparty Risk Manager at Wells Fargo Advisors, share her professional development timeline and advice.

Kelly earned her undergraduate degree in English Literature at the University of Michigan. She earned her JD/MBA  at WashU. Despite little experience in the field, Kelly went to work in IT, an industry that is highly male dominated. In 2008, she moved into financial services, even without a background in finance.

With a diverse career storyline, Kelly explained that she never felt the glass ceiling restriction. She successfully built her own brand and developed negotiation techniques through a strong story and knowledge of her worth. Kelly emphasized that the most important aspect in advancement is to believe in yourself. No matter what happens, there is always a learning experience. Failure is an opportunity to learn and grow.

Kelly left us with six keys to success:

  1. Learn to network, and realize that it is for mutual benefit.
  2. You don’t have to have the answer; you just have to have the ability to find one.
  3. Have a plan, but be flexible. The plan will change, and you may be offered something you’ve never contemplated before.
  4. Success is not linear.
  5. Feedback is important to receive and give; it is a gift.
  6. Believe in yourself and stay true to who you want to be.

This wisdom is extremely helpful in empowering and building confidence in students. Many worry about the uncertainty of the future. While it is great to have an idea about where you’re going, it’s acceptable to change your mind along the way.

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Maxine Clark

We want to thank the WashU Ellevate group for inviting Kelly Ainsworth to speak. Be sure to look out for the next speaker in the Series; Maxine Clark, founder of Build-A-Bear Workshop, will be coming in on Tuesday, March 31st at 5:30 pm in Bauer Hall 210 N.

Group Photo by Margaret Muir.




This semester, I have had the incredible experience of serving on the Center for Experiential Learning Entrepreneurial Consulting Team (CELect). The CELect program pairs graduate students with St. Louis based startups. Over the course of the semester, student teams complete consulting projects designed to help young companies achieve specific business outcomes.

T-Rex Lammert bldg

Coworking space at T-Rex. Photo courtesy of John Warren, Jones Lang LaSalle.

CELect classes are held at T-Rex, a technology incubator and coworking space located in downtown St. Louis. The modern workplace stations at T-Rex are complete with dinosaur-themed murals, glass-paneled conference rooms, and individual phone booths. The juxtaposition of the building’s historic architecture and its creative, fun-loving interior make T-Rex the ideal entrepreneurship classroom. Located close to a MetroLink train station, it is very convenient for students to travel back and forth from campus.

Our first CELect class was a full day of instruction, co-taught by Cliff Holekamp, Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship & Director of the Entrepreneurship Platform, and Bart Hamilton, Robert Brookings Smith Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship. Together, the professors gave an overview of the St. Louis entrepreneurial landscape and provided tips for how to be an effective startup consultant. Throughout the day, Olin alumni stopped by to share the personal reasons why they chose an entrepreneurial career over the traditional corporate path.

ProsperAfter our first class, we were divided into teams and set loose to get started on our projects! My team’s consulting project is for Prosper Women Entrepreneurs Startup Accelerator, a new player in the St. Louis venture capital scene. Founded in 2014, Prosper Accelerator makes twelve $50,000 equity investments each year in women-led technology, life sciences, and CPG startup companies. The businesses selected to receive capital participate in a three month program designed to help female entrepreneurs scale their companies and receive additional venture investment.

Throughout the semester, we have had the opportunity to meet with Prosper executives, interview the entrepreneurs running Prosper’s portfolio companies, and get an inside look at how the accelerator operates. It has been very rewarding to work with an organization dedicated to supporting women entrepreneurs, especially since I have future entrepreneurial plans of my own. Our team is excited for what the rest of the project will bring, and believe that we can make a lasting impact on the future of the accelerator!

Pictured above, Prosper CELect team from left to right: Fabiola Paz, MBA’16; Elise Miller, MBA’16;  Alicia Harris JD’16; and John Hamlett, JD’16.




When Johnna Beckham, EMBA 39, had the idea to create a business selling custom suits to women online, she approached Ron King, Myron Northrup Professor of Accounting at Olin, for advice and support.  King said, “In general, with any new idea, one reacts to it based on the quality of the person and their capabilities and passion—people, project, and passion. In addition to seeing all of that in Johnna, I also saw that the market need for custom-made suits for women was an underserved market.” King ended up investing in and co-founding Johnna Marie with Beckham.

Guest blogger: Tanya Yatzeck, EMBA 43

Even with this support, Beckham found herself looking for additional help. Like most EMBA students and graduates, Beckham had a full-time job to do in addition to developing her entrepreneurial idea into a business and needed help organizing her effort.  She found Prosper Women Entrepreneurs, which she says has been critical in her ability to develop the business:

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Johnna Beckham

“As a woman entrepreneur, you need like-minded women to gauge where you are. If your execution doesn’t work, you will fail, and it’s helpful to be with other people that have been through it. I did a ton of research through career networks, and then I found the Prosper Mastermind Program. It was the first program I found that had a solid format. It is very structured, which I like.”

Prosper Women Entrepreneurs was created by women business leaders in 2014 to address the entrepreneur gender gap revealed by a Kauffman Foundation report on the state of entrepreneurship. Prosper has numerous initiatives to expand women entrepreneurs’ access to growth capital, educational resources, and networking opportunities.

Beckham is currently participating in one of Prosper’s Mastermind Groups. The two-year training programs involves women entrepreneurs working together to move their businesses forward. The Prosper Startup Accelerator (managed by Olin alumna, Kasey Joyce Grelle, MBA’14), announced in July 2014 is a program that speeds up the growth of a business through access to equity investments among other resources and provides a more intensive three to four month training program offering $50,000 in equity funding.  The St. Louis Business Journal recently reported that applications for this program were double what was expected.

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Maxine Clark

Maxine Clark, Founder and former Chief Executive Bear at Build-a-Bear was part of the group that founded Prosper Women Entrepreneurs earlier this year.  Clark, currently co-teaching the course “Women in Leadership” at Olin, says, “Most of the ideas funded in St. Louis are around technology and agribusiness. Women don’t always come up with those ideas. They want to do products and services. Prosper is a member of the entrepreneurship ecosystem—as is Olin—that provides women with the tools they need to be successful, whether the business is in science, technology or the consumer sector.”

Dr. Mary Jo Gorman.

Dr. Mary Jo Gorman.

Dr. Mary Jo Gorman, Founder and CEO of Advanced ICU Care and now Managing Director of Prosper Women Entrepreneurs earned her MBA in 1996 in Olin’s Executive MBA program.  She says, “The statistics around women-led companies show that they are not accessing capital. At Prosper Women Entrepreneurs we are trying to create a pipeline of companies that will be terrific candidates for venture capital and at the same time involve women who perhaps haven’t invested before and to get them to start investing at a level that makes them comfortable.”

Gorman also believes that gender-specific resources like Prosper won’t always be necessary. “Our sense of it is at this point in business growth, there still needs to be focused attention to underrepresented groups. In the future, this won’t be necessary. Now, focused attention will help people enter this space, who may not have thought about doing it before if it were in a more gender mixed setting.  Women often feel like they have to have everything perfectly, which sometimes appears as lack of confidence. We are trying to make the space feel like more of a safe place that results in a positive experience. “

Since completing her MBA, Gorman has started multiple companies and is a well-established business strategist with particular expertise in the medical field. Of the EMBA experience she says, “When I started my EMBA, I was a doctor with one small company. Without it there is no chance I would be where I am.  I learned that I have a strong interest in entrepreneurship, and I wrote a business plan and started a second company while I was in the program. It definitely set me on a path to learn what I needed to learn.  I expected it to lead me to healthcare administration, and I ended up in a very different place. “

Prof. Ron King, Director of the Center for Experiential Learning and Myron Northrop Professor of Accounting

Prof. Ron King, Director of the Center for Experiential Learning and Myron Northrop Professor of Accounting

When asked about the future of Johnna Marie, Ron King says, “I think the path looks very bright and I think the business model is likely to accomplish its objectives. But businesses are inherently risky. Even if the financial aspirations do not develop as quickly as planned, the process of building a business plan and putting a team together will add to her substantial resume. I’m hoping for the upside, not only for a return on investments –but for her growth and advancement. For the benefit of the St. Louis community and Washington University, there are so many reasons to support and champion efforts like hers. “

Johnna Marie launches in January 2015, and will participate in Olin’s booth at the 10th Annual Business Journal Women’s Conference in downtown St. Louis on January 30.




Many dynamic and inquisitive women gathered on Tuesday, October 28, 2014 in Holmes Lounge for the twelfth anniversary of the Composing a Life Panelist Event. Five powerful women from diverse backgrounds shared their stories, insights, and advice on how to create and balance a successful life after college.

Stephanie Krauss, a senior fellow at The Forum for Youth Investment, clarified that life is complicated and messy. Despite dropping out of high school, she obtained a General Equivalency Diploma and started attending Palm Beach Atlantic University at age 16. After graduating at age 18, Stephanie began teaching at Teach For America. She founded and led Shearwater Education Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on re-engaging disconnected youth in St. Louis. Stephanie emphasized the importance of networking and intentionally building relationships. She provided us with three pearls of wisdom:

  1. Know your personal narrative
  2. Look for trail markers along the way
  3. Be well-trained and courageous

Born and raised in China, Jia (Holly) You described her academic pressures and international integration difficulties. In the Chinese society, students are expected to do everything right and have to “compete for everything.” She moved to the United States when she was 27 years old and received her Masters of Law from Chicago-Kent College of Law. Holly was willing to work any job and started as a file room cleaner at Armstrong Teasdale LLC. She eventually became the youngest promoted partner in the firm. Holly instructed the young women to “be brave and truthful to yourself.” She explained that we each have a choice in the people we work with, and it is important to select partners who will help create synergy.

Many students related to the next speaker. Dr. Kimberli McCallum had no idea what she wanted to do in college. She recommended that students “reach out for opportunities even if they are not in their comfort zone” because the extra steps will help you go farther. Unfortunately, Kimberli had an extremely large educational debt, but she deferred her loans to go to medical school. She received her MD from Yale and completed residency in psychology at UCLA. During this time, she directed her focus on eating disorders. In 2002, Kimberli founded the McCallum Place Eating Disorder Center. Concluding her story, she encouraged us to “find our passion and to not be afraid to think outside of the box,” strongly emphasizing the importance of not taking “no” for an answer.

Jami Ake, Senior Lecturer in the Interdisciplinary Project in the Humanities and Assistant Dean in the College of Arts & Sciences at WashU, explained that where she is today is a result of a combination of accidents, luck, and choices she made that were not part of her original career path. Despite not wanting to be a teacher like her father, or a social worker like her mother, 25 years later she is involved in both. In graduate school, she started volunteering to support survivors of violence, and in doing so, she developed a passion for promoting anti-violence. Her advice is to have a plan, but not to tie your identity to it; “you’re not a failure if you aren’t doing what you set out to do.”

Women's society pic 1Growing up in with a single, working mother, Rhonda Adams planned to go to a college that would offer her a full scholarship because she did not want her mother responsible for her education. She attended Jackson State University with a full ride to study computer science. Rhonda began working for Caterpillar and ended up holding five different roles. She became extremely involved in her work and success, ultimately developing a passion to ensure minorities and women receive opportunities to grow their own businesses. After moving to St. Louis, she became the executive director of Mid-States Minority Supplier Development Council. Her personal insights included:

  1. Purpose your passion
  2. Make your passion profitable
  3. Know the importance of networking

The knowledge and real-life experiences of these inspirational women provided a framework for young women to balance their future goals, plans, and lifestyles. We greatly appreciate the time these women invested to share their insights. In addition, we thank the Women’s Society of Washington University for hosting this wonderful event. To learn more about the Women’s Society of WashU and watch the video of the  Composing a Life Event, please visit: http://stream.nts.wustl.edu/R141028002/ .

Photos by Mary Butkus.