Tag: women in business

St. Louis is a long way from her native Barbados, but Michelle Duguid has adjusted to life on the shores of the Mississippi as an assistant professor of organizational behavior at Olin since 2009. Her areas of research include: group demography and social status; group creativity and decision-making.

Duguid’s research paper, “Female Tokens in High-Prestige Work Groups: Catalysts or Inhibitors of Group Diversification?” was featured in Olin Praxis: Research that Impacts Business in 2012.

Read more about a new course on Women and Leadership that Duguid is co-teaching this semester with Maxine Clark, founder of Build-A-Bear Workshop.

“The next phase of the women’s movement must be a men’s movement,” Anne-Marie Slaughter told a standing room only-audience at Olin’s Emerson Auditorium this morning. “We’re not going to move the needle at the top levels of leadership until we stop focusing only on women and focus on all people,” the president and CEO of The New America Foundation said.

Anne-Marie Slaughter

Slaughter is an economist, former Princeton professor, and ex-director of policy planning for the U.S. State Department. Her article, “Why Women Still Can’t Have it All,” published in The Atlantic two and a half years ago sparked a conversation and debate that has inspired her new call for a “humanist movement” to create real equality in the workplace and private lives.

Slaughter proposes a new metaphor for careers that aim for a more realistic balance of work and life demands. Instead of a corporate ladder or jungle gym climb to the top, she suggests that people approach different phases in their lives like an athlete who undertakes interval training. There are intense, high-pressure periods interspersed by more flexible intervals that reflect cycles in work and life including childbearing, promotions, parenting, new jobs, etc.

Just as the digital revolution has made on-demand, customized, and self-curated media possible, Slaughter predicts the workplace will also shatter standardization and evolve into a more customized career model. Slaughter’s vision is one of an Efficient Workplace where, “If family comes first, work does not come second, and life comes together.”

Changes in attitudes, behaviors, biases, child-rearing, and the very vocabulary used to describe what men and women value in their lives at work and at home are necessary to bring about the next phase of the women’s and men’s movement that Slaughter outlined in her talk. No small task, by any means. But she has a book coming out in the spring that may provide more details on how to make it happen. Stay tuned.

Anne-Marie Slaughter’s talk was co-sponsored by the St. Louis Business Journal, Prosper Women Entrepreneurs, and Olin Business School.

A new course co-taught by Professor Michelle Duguid and Maxine Clark, founder of Build-A-Bear Workshop, is taking a multi- faceted approach to learning about women and leadership that includes a lineup of top executive guest speakers.

Anne-Marie Slaughter

Anne-Marie Slaughter, president and CEO of the New America Foundation, will tackle the issues surrounding work-life balance in her visit to the class, Oct. 27. On Oct. 28, Olin is co-sponsoring a lecture by Dr. Slaughter in conjunction with Prosper Women Entrepreneurs and the St. Louis Business Journal in Emerson Auditorium.

Dr. Slaughter is the Bert G. Kerstetter ’66 University Professor Emerita of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University. From 2009–2011 she served as director of Policy Planning for the United States Department of State, the first woman to hold that position. Prior to her government service, Dr. Slaughter was the Dean of Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs from 2002–2009 and the J. Sinclair Armstrong Professor of International, Foreign, and Comparative Law at Harvard Law School from 1994-2002.

The guest speaker list for Women and Leadership, OB 500B:

Leadership
David Farr, Chairman and CEO, Emerson
Kathy Button Bell, VP and CMO, Emerson

Work-Life Balance
Anne-Marie Slaughter, President and CEO, New America Foundation

Persuasion and Influence Strategies
Kathy Cramer, Founder and Managing Partner, The Cramer Institute

Negotiations
Mary Anne Sedey, Partner, Sedey Harper, P.C.
Francine Katz, Consultant and Former Chief Communications Officer Anheuser-Busch, Inc.

Building Alliances: Networking, Mentoring and Sponsorship
Jill Barad, Former Chairman and CEO, Mattel

Managing Your Personal Brand
Phebe Farrow Port, SVP, Global Management Strategies; SVP and Chief of Staff Executive Management Initiatives, Estee Lauder Companies

Image: painting from Olin Women in Business Painting Brunch

Zoe Hillenmeyer, MBA’13, was honored by the Forte Foundation June 28 in New York City for her contributions to the Olin community to advance women into business leadership positions.

Zoe Hillenmeyer addressed the the Forte MBA Women’s Leadership Conference when she received the Edie Hunt award.

The Edie Hunt award, named in honor of Forte’s Board Chair Emeritus, was presented at Forte’s annual MBA Women’s Leadership Conference.

During her MBA program at Olin, Zoe Hillenmeyer re-invigorated and renamed the Olin Women in Business (OWIB) student organization.

She spearheaded several new events and opportunities for Olin students and alumnae to network and learn from each other.

The 2012-2013 OWIB Board.

Among the initiatives launched under Hillenmeyer’s leadership were the Women at the Table dinners; gender and diversity workshops; a speaker series featuring Olin alumnae in corporate leadership positions; and resume and career coaching for women.

Hillenmeyer orchestrated OWIB outreach to prospective MBA students that included hosting recruiting events and these efforts are credited, in part, for one of the largest increases in the number of women enrolled in Olin’s MBA program last year.

Edie Hunt is Forté’s Board Chair Emeritus and a Managing Director at Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Congratulations, Zoe, on a well-deserved honor and recognition from the ForteFoundation!

We’ve heard it for the past few years—St. Louis is a hub of startup activity.  There’s an energy, a buzz, a whirr about the town and it’s catching on.  And now—our little secret is spreading.

St. Louis is getting national attention for the startups that call it home.  And the really cool part?  Wash U MBAs (both current and alums) are a huge part of the action.

Last week Ben Castleman of The Wall Street Journal ran a story called, “Cities Hunt for Startup Magic.”   In it, he profiled the entrepreneurs who were bucking national trends by launching their own companies—and he profiled the city in which they were doing it:  St. Louis.

Accompanying his article was a video called “Will St. Louis become the next Silicon Valley.?” Cultivation Capital General Partner and Olin alum Rick Holton was a key part of the story, describing how St. Louis emerged as a hub for entrepreneurship.

But the St. Louis startup love didn’t stop there.  Last week, James Corbett put together this snapshot of St. Louis entrepreneurship.  It takes viewers inside the  T-Rex startup city.  Current Olin MBA Geoff Stonner describes his work with FoodEssentials and what it’s like being a part of the community (if you pay close attention, I even make a cameo in there at one point).

The takeaway?  Big things are happening here in St. Louis.  This is a town that is proving that entrepreneurs don’t have to pack up and move to the coasts to be successful.  In fact, St. Louis is proving that startups can even be more successful and their employees can lead better, happier lives by basing themselves here.  Five years ago, that thought might have sounded crazy.  Today, it’s a reality.  And Washington University Olin MBAs are a huge part of that success.

Photo credit: postcard collage by Jeff Kopp.

Christine Taylor-Broughton

Christine Taylor-Broughton has been promoted from vice president of Enterprise Car Sales to senior vice president of North American Operations, succeeding Matthew Darrah, who announced his retirement earlier this year after 29 years with the company. The appointment is effective immediately according to a press release from the the company.

Taylor-Broughton earned her MBA from Olin in 2010. In her new role, she will oversee all of Enterprise Holdings’ operations in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, including 6,000 branch offices.

Taylor-Broughton is the granddaughter of Jack Taylor, who founded Enterprise in 1957. Jack’s son and Taylor-Broughton’s father, Andrew C. Taylor, succeeded him in 1980. “We firmly believe that operating Enterprise Holdings as a family-owned business provides a strategic advantage in the highly competitive car rental marketplace,” Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Andy Taylor noted. “Chrissy’s appointment underscores our family’s ongoing commitment to this business, while also highlighting her work ethic and dedication to excellence for the long term.”

Two other Taylor family members also hold key leadership roles. Jo Ann Taylor Kindle, Jack Taylor’s daughter, is President of the Enterprise Holdings Foundation and is responsible for the allocation of millions of dollars in charitable contributions to thousands of organizations each year. Kindle also manages the family’s philanthropic endeavors, including the Crawford Taylor Foundation. Kindle’s daughter, Carolyn, is Vice President and Executive Director of the Enterprise Holdings Foundation, a role in which she develops and implements the Foundation’s philanthropic strategies and objectives.