Women in the News
PINK knows you love to see women succeed as much as we do! Check out these newsworthy (and history-making) women:
PINK IN THE NEWS
Senator Datuk Armani Mahiruddin has become the first female deputy speaker of the Dewan Negara, the Senate of the Malaysian Parliament. She was nominated by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak in the middle of 50th anniversary celebrations.
Before joining the Dewan Negara in 1995, Armani taught schoolchildren for 17 years. Armani explained that her appointment to the high post was recognition to women.
"Thanks to god. Just my good luck that the Malaysian parliament celebrates its Golden Jubilee this year," she added.
The Women, Family and Community Development Minister said it was timely and in line with the policy to have at least 30 percent women in decision making posts. "I am confident that Senator Datuk Armani has the ability and experience to serve with dedication and excellence," she said in a statement.
PINK IN THE NEWS
Cynthia Good, PINK's fearless CEO and Editor-in-Chief, appeared on FOX Business earlier today to talk about PINK and her strategies for leading the premier magazine for professional women. Today also marked PINK's fourth anniversary, a triumph in the current publishing market. When asked about struggling industry, Cynthia replied, "It's a great opportunity to be really flexible and to meet the needs of our readers and our advertisers."
Citing her three-prong business system of magazine first, events second, and online content third, Cynthia explained how the past four years have flipped that process, with online interaction becoming the most important. The Little Pink Book best demonstrates the changes in PINK; the daily e-Note reaches out to readers on a virtual level, offering little tips and helpful links to help women "find more success in your work and your life," stated Cynthia.
Click here to watch the full video clip, and here to sign up for Little Pink Book.
THE WELCH WAY: NOW ON TV
Congratulations to business guru Suzy Welch on the release of a brand-new reality TV show called "It's Everybody's Business with Jack and Suzy Welch." Sponsored by Microsoft, the 20-minute online episodes features the couple traveling to businesses and refining their strategies to promote better revenue and efficiency.
"[S]tarting a small venture inside a large company is a big challenge. So Jack and I have come to Hertz headquarters to help this team take the next steps forward," Suzy says in the first show's opening minutes. "We call it a workout, and our job is to facilitate a candid conversation with the Connect team, surfacing ideas and desires."
Suzy was the editor of the Harvard Business Review, and her latest book 10-10-10: A Life-Transforming Idea, is a multiple-week New York Times best-seller dealing with life strategies and business choices. The couple also co-authored Winning, a #1 Wall Street Journal and international bestseller. PINK Magazine featured Suzy on a cover earlier this year, along with listening to her speak at the May 4th conference, "The Winning Formula." Suzy manages all this with 4 children undertow, marking her as a truly phenomenal woman. Visit her blog, The Welch Way, for more information.
GABON ELECTS 1ST WOMAN PRESIDENT
Senate Speaker Rose Francine Rogombe was sworn in Wednesday as Gabon's first woman president. As interim president, she will reign for a transitional period after the death of former President Omar Bongo Ondimba on Monday.
"I swear to devote all my strength to the good of the Gabonese people, with the aim of promoting its well-being and protecting it from all harm, to respect and defend the constitution and a state of law, and conscientiously to carry out my duties and to be fair before everyone," Rogombe said.
Located in west central Africa, Gabon is a republic with a president and a prime minister- and is one of the most prosperous countries in the region. Rogombe served as junior minister for the promotion of women and human rights between 1975 and 1990 and rose to her previous position last February.
INTRODUCING HER HONOR
President Obama recently announced his pick for the next Supreme Court justice: Sonia Sotomayor, a New York federal appeals court judge. If approved by the Senate, she would be the first Hispanic and the third female justice. Sotomayor started in the Bronx projects, deciding from a young age "to be like Nancy Drew," investigating crime and law. After graduating from Princeton University and Yale Law School, Sotomayor started her career as an assistant district attorney and quickly rose through the ranks. For the next month, Sotomayor will cruise Capitol Hill, meeting the Senators and undergoing political debates and interviews under the wing of veteran Judiciary Committee member Sen Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.). The Senate decision is expected in August or September.
Read this Little Pink Book for more info on the historical nominee.
FROM ONE WOMAN CEO TO ANOTHER
Anne Mulcahy, chairman and CEO of Xerox since 2001, will pass the CEO baton to Ursula Burns, current president of the company, on July 1. Burns will become the first African-American woman CEO of a Fortune 500 company.
Burns joined the company in 1980 as a summer intern, gathering leadership and team-building experience for the next 20 years. Mulcahy named Burns president in 2007, immediately (and publicly) grooming her to become her successor.
"Ursula takes on the leadership role the old-fashioned way," said Mulcahy. "She has earned it. And, for that, she has my deep respect and confidence."
The retiring CEO will remain as chairman of the board. "It has been a privilege leading Xerox," says Mulcahey. "The decision to move on is made easy only in the fact that Ursula Burns is so well positioned to take Xerox to the next level."
ZERO CLUB NO MORE
Fifth Third Bancorp has appointed Marsha C. Williams to its board of directors, effectively removing the company from PINK's "Zero Club," a list of those firms in the Top 500 without a woman on the board.
Williams, currently the only woman on Fifth Third's 15-member board, is senior vice president and CFO for Orbitz Worldwide Inc. "Marsha brings deep corporate governance experience to the board and has a broad understanding of financial issues, which is especially important given the climate of the industry," said Kevin T. Kabat, chairman, president and CEO of Fifth Third Bancorp.
LONG LIVE LILY LEDBETTER
On Thursday, January 29th, President Obama signed the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law, giving individuals more time to file complaints about discriminatory pay. Ledbetter,70, finally saw the fruits of her struggle for equal wages for women that started with the case Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. After working for Goodyear for 19 years, Ledbetter discovered through an anonymous letter that men who did the same job were making almost twice what she did in a month. However, she was told that no compensation would be paid to her because law previously stated that claims could only be filed 180 days after an employee's wages are set. The new law says the 180-day period starts over every time an employee receives a paycheck.
YAHOO! – ANOTHER WOMAN CEO
Who is Carol Bartz? She is a breast cancer survivor, a Midwestern girl and former president and CEO of Autodesk (which she grew from $285 million to $1.5 billion). But best of all, she is the new CEO of Yahoo! The high-profile promotion is on the tips of tongues on Wall Street, as investors are crossing their fingers that Bartz will uplift Yahoo's dwindling fortunes. She currently sits on the boards of directors for Cisco, Intel, NetApp and the Foundation for the National Medals of Science.
NO MORE PLAY FOR HEFNER
After nearly two decades at the helm of Playboy Enterprises, Christie Hefner has announced her decision to step down from the top position in her famous father's company. Hefner joined Playboy in 1975 and became CEO in 1988. She oversaw the policy, management and strategies of Playboy Enterprises, Inc. "Last month marked my 20th anniversary as CEO; just as this country is embracing change in the form of leadership, I have decided that now is the time to make changes in my own life," she says. Hefner will remain on board until January 31, 2009 to train Jerome Kern, the interim non-executive chairman.
DRIVING BUSINESS
General Motors (GM), the world's largest automaker, recently appointed Grace Lieblein, former global vehicle chief engineer for front wheel drive trucks, to president and general manager of GM de Mexico in December. Lieblein is not only GM's first woman to serve in this capacity; she is also General Motors' highest ranking Latina executive. "We are very pleased to have an extraordinary leader like Grace taking on this key assignment," says GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner. "With her extensive engineering and product development background, combined with strong business acumen, Grace is the ideal person to help GM maintain and enhance its leadership position in Mexico."
FOLLOWING HER HEART
Beginning January 1, Nancy Brown will become the first woman CEO in the history of the American Heart Association (AHA), founded in 1924. Brown has served as the AHA's chief operating officer for the last seven years under CEO Cass Wheeler. "Most organizations that lose a CEO like Cass Wheeler would be concerned about their transition," says David A. Josserand, chairman of the AHA board. "But the promotion of Nancy Brown to CEO is a celebration of her leadership and Cass's commitment to preparing the AHA for succession."
GOV. SARAH PALIN NAMED MCCAIN'S RUNNING MATE
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a Republican, has become only the second woman ever to hold a major party's vice presidential nomination. "It turns out the women of America aren't finished yet, and we can shatter that glass ceiling once and for all," she said following Republican candidate John McCain's surprise announcement today. Palin accepted her place on the ticket 24 years after Geraldine Ferraro's unsuccessful VP bid – and just days after Sen. Hillary Clinton officially ended her historic run for the presidency. As a first-term governor elected in 2006, with only 14 years of prior experience in local and state politics, Palin has limited her public stance on issues to those affecting Alaska, America's largest state but one of its most sparsely populated.
HAMMER IT OUT
Bonnie Hammer, until recently president of NBC Universal's USA Network and Sci Fi Channel, has been promoted to NBC president of cable entertainment and cable studio. USA Network, the No. 1 basic cable network since 2007, has amassed almost 3 million viewers since Hammer took over in 2004. "To say the channels under Bonnie are working is a huge understatement," says Jeff Zucker, the chief executive of NBC Universal. "Right now USA's track record is unparalleled anywhere else in television." Now Hammer, a native of Queens, N.Y., who's worked for Universal Television since 1989, will have even greater power to promote her "Characters Welcome" brand – USA's newest marketing scheme – as "the best media brand out there, period, across all platforms," she says.
WOMAN TO THE RESCUE
After more than three months of political turmoil, Haiti, one of the world's poorest countries, has elected a new prime minister. Michele Pierre-Louis, 61, the nation's second female prime minister, will succeed Jacques-Edouard Alexis, who was removed from office in April during a violent uproar over the country's ever-increasing food prices. Amid the conflict preceding her election, many social conservatives opposed Pierre-Louis based on rumors that she is gay. "I have already said that it was slander and lies," she told Radio Caraibes, a local broadcast. "I hope that this debate will be closed and we will move on to serious things." For Pierre-Louis, that means opening customs to increasing foreign aid, food and supplies, and improving government accountability to the people.
SHE'LL PICK YOU UP
Since its inception 51 years ago, Enterprise Rent-A-Car has had only four presidents, each a member of the founder's family. But this year, Pamela Nicholson will become the first woman and first nonfamily executive to take the position. Nicholson has climbed the ranks at Enterprise since 1981, when she was hired as a management trainee on a $12,000 salary. Since then, she has worked as senior vice president of North American operations, executive vice president and chief operating officer. "She has a highly pragmatic and intelligent understanding of how to move a business forward," says Ward M. Klein, CEO for Energizer Holdings Inc., for which Nicholson serves on the board of directors. She also sits on the board for the Humane Society of Missouri and is a member of the board of trustees of the St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association.
A CHARMING FAREWELL
After serving for more than 15 years as president and CEO of Charming Shoppes Inc., the formidable Dorrit Bern has turned in her resignation. According to Alan Rosskamm, who will serve as the interim CEO until Bern is permanently replaced, "Dorrit and the board agreed that now is the appropriate time for a change in leadership of the company." Over the past decade, Bern and her team have worked to reorganize the entire structure of the Charming Shoppes company, and their efforts have led to a 300 percent profit increase since 1995. The company, which only recently acquired the Petite Sophisticate brand, dominates the plus-size apparel industry. The popularity of Charming Shoppes' plus-size brands, Lane Bryant and Catherine's, has made Bern's company the second largest women's specialty plus-size retailer in the country. Inspired by her work for women, Bern created the "Voices" campaign in 2002, which recognizes female leaders throughout the country. In 2003, Bern established Figure Magazine, a bimonthly lifestyle magazine for plus-size women that now has more than 500,000 subscribers nationwide.
SALUTING DUNWOODY
After more than 35 years of service in the U.S. Army, Lt. Gen. Ann E. Dunwoody received her fourth star, making her the first woman in any service to reach top rank. (Currently five women in the military wear three stars.) On June 23, President Bush nominated Dunwoody for the position of deputy commanding general of the U.S. Army Materiel Command, where she will be responsible for the Army's materiel preparedness. According to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, "Her 33 years of service, highlighted by extraordinary leadership and devotion to duty, make her exceptionally qualified for this senior position."
This is an exceptional accomplishment for Dunwoody, who, like all women, was legally unable to work in combat. "This nomination only reaffirms what I have known to be true about the military throughout my career," Dunwoody says. "The doors continue to open for men and women in uniform."
A GENERAL CHANGE
For the first time in Australia's 157-year history, the country will be led by a female governor general. On April 14, Australia's prime minister, Kevin Rudd, announced that the new governor general would be Quentin Bryce, a successful lawyer, academic and women's activist. The mother of five take office in September. Rudd says, "Ms. Bryce was chosen for her commitment to rural and regional Australia, women's rights and indigenous people."
IN THE VICTORY LANE
On April 20, 2008, Danica Patrick became the first woman driver in history to win a major race when she finished first in the Japan Indy 300. The 26-year-old Wisconsin native has finally reached her racing goal: to be a winner. With this victory, Patrick is able to silence the critics who have accused her of capitalizing on her beauty and perpetuating female stereotypes. She also proves that she deserves her spot on a first-rate racing team, as well as her share of high-end endorsements and respect in a male-dominated sport. Following her win, an emotional Patrick said, "I feel like a wuss crying, but it's been a long time coming." Wuss or not, Patrick has made sports history by capturing the checkered flag.
