Final 2013 Newsletter

As 2013 rushes to its inevitable end, this is the final newsletter for the year.   Thank you to Michele Parrish, Emily Edwards, Mary Anito, Stacey Bergman, Wini Hebalkar, and Cindy Closkey who spent time to reach out to our community and make the newsletter possible.  Thank you, also to everyone who took the time to share something about themselves with us.  

If you have enjoyed this newsletter, we would love to have a few more volunteers.  Please contact me at shafalir@hotmail.com

Happy Holidays!
Michele & Shafali

In this newsletter:

WLGO Statistics

Ever wonder where everyone went?  Here are a few interesting statistics:

Total # of LFM/LGO graduates + students (1990 – 2014): 268
Total # of wlgo.org members: 167
Total# of WLGO members who have completed WLGO information sheets: 126

Top 3 locations of WLGO’s:

  1. Boston area/MA 
  2. Seattle/Portland/WA  
  3. San Fransisco/Northern CA

The largest # of LGO’s work at (based on info sheets):

  1. Boeing 
  2. Intel 
  3. In consulting or own their own business 

Important Note:  Cindy Closkey has added a map of our current WLGO web site members to the wlgo.org site.  However, it includes only those members who have put a city name in the Location/Nearest Big City field of their profile on the site.   Take a look and add your location if you haven’t already. Also, add a photo of yourself, so your face appears on the map!   Our 2014 goal is to have all members have a complete WLGO.org profile so that we can easily find each other and network with greater ease.  

To see the member map and update your profile now, please go to: http://www.wlgo.org/members/

 

National Conversation on Board Diversity

Here we are in 2013, and the number of women on boards of directors remains woefully small.  This year, Michele Parrish began an initiative to address this.  Read below for details. 

The Mission

Support WLGO & Sloan Women in Learning About, Finding, & Securing For-Profit and Non-Profit Board Opportunities 

The Benefit

According to a Price Waterhouse Cooper survey, companies with women on their boards have 42% higher return on sales and 66% better return on invested capital and 53% higher return on equity 

The Current Statistics

% of women on boards today:

  • Silicon Valley 150:  9.1%
  • Fortune 100:   19.9%
  • Fortune 500:   17% (8th yr, no improvement, women are <15% of sr. exec positions in the Fortune 500)
  • Fortune 1000: 16.6% (second year in a row, 1% improvement)  — Goal is 20% by 2020!

To see how many women your company has on its board,  go to http://www.2020wob.com/

To learn more, read two recent articles below:

  1. http://www.npr.org/2013/12/10/249862083/women-still-largely-absent-from-corporate-boards
  2. Sacbee – Women In Leadership: Silicon Valley 150 vs. The S&P 100 – Fenwick Releases First Ever Survey Of Gender Diversity Read this story

If you are interested in joining a non-profit or for profit board now or in the future, please let us know. 

The WLGO Women on Boards team

Pearl Huang:  VP Global Head of DPAc GlaxoSmithKline, King of Prussia, PA
Bonnie Kao: Intel Engr Manager, San Jose CA
Charlie Lieu:  Chief Strategy Advisor, Stratos Group, Seattle, WA
Brianne Metzger-Doran, Director, Strategic Projects, US Operations & Services,  Spectra Energy
Alison McCaffree:  Executive Director, Washington Non-profits, Seattle, WA 
Denise Johnson: VP Caterpillar, Peoria, IL
Michele Parrish, President, Exec Coach & Consultant, Parrish Partners, Orange County, CA
Hollie Schmidt: VP of Scientific Operations, Accelerated Cure Project for MS, Boston, MA
Rachel Sheinbein:  Venture Partner, Angel Investor, San Fran, CA
Devra Weiss: Independent, Non-profit Data Strategy & Mgmt, Las Vegas, NV

Alternative Careers – Andrea Jones

In October, Andrea Jones hosted a very interesting session on alternative careers, walking us through her path from the corporate world to consulting.  Balancing work, children, or whatever else life throws at us is a topic near and dear to most of us.  Others shared their frustrations and the paths that they have taken.  Thinking of a career change?  Andrea shared this article on things to consider: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kathycaprino/2012/10/15/5-questions-to-answer-before-you-make-any-career-changes/  

Interesting Facts

Nerd alert – this video is 25 minutes long, and I was sure I wouldn’t get through it, but it is really interesting.  The departing commander of the space station gives an in depth tour of the space station:  https://www.youtube.com/embed/doN4t5NKW-k 

And, a cute video promoting engineering for the next generation of women: http://www.upworthy.com/if-3-little-girls-did-this-to-my-house-id-do-everything-i-could-to-get-them-full-rides-to-stanford?c=ufb1