31 Days of Notable Women- Robin Chase, woman entrepreneur

Robin Chase is the founder and CEO of Buzzcar, a service that brings together car owners and drivers in a car sharing marketplace. Buzzcar.com empowers individuals to take control of their mobility, without looking to governments or big businesses for solutions.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Chase

31 Days of Notable Women- Margot Fraser, founder of Birkenstock

When Margot Fraser reflects on business trends and what she’d like to see more of in the socially-responsible business movement, the question of ownership immediately comes to mind.

The founder of Birkenstock USA would like to see new business ownership models pioneered and encouraged, where people investing in a company are also intimately connected to the organization.  She recalls starting Birkenstock USA in 1967 with little money and loans from several friends. Such small-scale options aren’t viable for entrepreneurs today, which has Fraser questioning what alternatives are available.

“It’s obvious that what we have now in mainstream business is not working because the owners are mostly investors that don’t understand the business. Their only interest is to get money out of the business, to extract. While there is a need for profit, profit isn’t the reason for business,” says Fraser.

To read more, go to: http://www.care2.com/causes/a-call-for-new-business-ownership-models.html#ixzz1ycYVVa1x

 

31 Days of Notable Women- Mary Schapiro, Securities & Exchange Commission

Mary Schapiro, the current Chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, resides in Washington,DC. Her educational background is as follows: BA/BS from Franklin & Marshall College; JD from George Washington University.

Schapiro has spent much of the year trying to overcome the results of past lax regulatory enforcement. From excavating the Bernie Madoff fraud to investigating the ratings agencies’ possible role in the financial crisis, Schapiro is striving to bring order to the most important financial-regulatory house in the world. Most recently she enjoyed a victory: the passage of a long-sought, though somewhat controversial, rule that allows shareholders to have influence over the makeup of a public company’s board of directors.

Source cited: http://www.forbes.com/profile/mary-schapiro

31 Days of Notable Women- Beyonce, music/ business mogul

Beyoncé Knowles, the 29 year old singer, actress, dancer, and clothes designer made it to Forbes World’s Most Powerful Women list for 2010 with earnings of over $35 million dollars. The Houston-born diva ranks unusually low on our list this year because she didn’t tour or release an album over the past year. But her fourth solo effort “4” is on the way. The simple title was reportedly selected by her fans and is also a nod to her April 4th wedding anniversary with hubby Jay-Z. In the absence of new revenue on the music side, business-focused Beyoncé cashes in on her clothing line “Dereon” and massive endorsement deals with L’Oreal, DirecTV, and General Mills.

Source cited: http://www.forbes.com/profile/beyonce-knowles

31 Days of Notable Women- Denise Bode, Wind Energy Assn.

Denise Bode is the Chief Executive Officer of the American Wind Energy Association, the national trade association of theU.S.wind energy industry. Ms. Bode is a nationally recognized energy policy expert and served for nine years on the Oklahoma Corporation Commission.

Source cited: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/denise-bode

31 Days of Notable women-Gail Kelly, businesswoman par excellence

Gail Kelly, Chief Executive at Westpac (Education: BA/BS,University of Cape Town)

As head of Australia’s second-largest bank, Westpac, with $551 billion in assets and $15.9 billion in revenue, and the country’s most influential businesswoman, the native South African has an outsized public profile.

Source cited: http://www.forbes.com/profile/gail-kelly#comments

31 Days of Notable Women- Irene Rosenfeld, brilliant business woman

Irene Rosenfeld, CE at Kraft Foods,USA

Education: BA/BS,Cornell University; PHD, Cornell University; MS,Cornell University

Her $26.3 million compensation package in 2009 made Rosenfeld the nation’s second-highest-paid female, after Yahoo’s Carol Bartz. She earned it, drawing fire early this year after announcing plans to acquire British candy maker Cadbury. Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway owned 9.4% of Kraft, voted against the deal, calling it “dumb.” When Rosenfeld refused to back down, Buffett retaliated by selling 33.1 million Kraft shares (one-third of Berkshire’s stake). Who was right? Kraft’s second-quarter revenues rose 25.3% to $12.3 billion, boosted largely by Cadbury’s business in Europe and in developing markets.

Source cited: http://www.forbes.com/profile/irene-rosenfeld

31 Days of Notable Women-Wendy Steele, woman inventor

Wendy Steele and Bob Root are the founders and inventors of Keys Soap

Keys Soap first announced the introduction of its new line of all-natural, chemical-free therapeutic liquid bath and hand soaps in March 29, 2005. Keys liquid soaps are holistic, soothing, therapeutic soaps for people with sensitive, allergic or affected skin. They contain only pure ingredients with no man-made chemicals or fragrances. Our soaps do not contain skin irritants like SLS, parabens, propylene glycols or DEA.

Source: http://www.keys-soap.com/soapstory.html

31 Days of Notable Women-Sarah Severn, Env Director for Nike

Sarah Severn, Director of Horizons, Corporate Responsibility, Nike Inc
Global Director of Corporate Responsibility Horizons Nike, Inc.

Sarah Severn has an extensive background in consumer research and advertising prior to joining Nike where she has spent the last 14 years in a variety of roles. Originally recruited in 1993 to establish a consumer insights department in Nike’s European headquarters she moved into an environmental role and in 1995 relocated to World Headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon as Global Director of the Environmental Action Team. From 1995 to 2000 she led the company’s early efforts to integrate sustainability into the business, from operations through to product design and manufacturing.

In June 2000 Sarah was appointed Director of Sustainable Development. In this role she focused primarily on stakeholder engagement, corporate responsibility reporting and the identification of emerging issues. In 2005 Sarah took on the newly created role of Director of Horizons within the Corporate Responsibility team. The Horizons function has responsibility for “looking long” and identifying future trends, opportunities and issues at the intersection of business and sustainability. For the past 10 years she has lead Nike’s efforts around climate change and is also now focused on developing Nike’s climate change advocacy strategy.

Source: http://www.focusthenation.org/node/1182

FREE “Connecting Women to Power” Business Conference- March 30th

This free conference is being sponsored by the State Board of Equalization on March 30th at Carson, California.

Register Now for the FREE “Connecting Women to Power” Business Conference on Wednesday, March 30, 2011 from 8:30am to 6:30pm.

The keynote speakers will be: Janice Howroyd, CEO of the Act One Group; Maria Marin, International Motivational Speaker and Negotiation Expert, and Rosario Marin, Former Treasurer of the United States.

Seminar location: California State University, Dominguez Hills, 1000 E. Victoria Street, Carson, CA 90747

Register online at: http://www.boe.ca.gov/sutax/wsched.htm
or by phone: 888-847-9652