Women business leaders from the venture capital, fitness and technology industries will speak to CU-Boulder students on Friday, Nov. 9, as part of the Committee of 200 annual seminar.
The CU-Boulder Deming Center for Entrepreneurship and the Graduate Women in Business, both at the Leeds School of Business, will host this year's C200 Outreach Seminar, "Refining the Roadmap to Success." This seminar has rotated among the country's top business schools including Harvard, Columbia, Stanford and Wharton and attracts some of the country's leading women in business.
This year's event will take place at the Qwest building in the CU-Boulder Research Park. Nearly 250 C200 members, MBA students, Leeds School professors and local businesswomen are expected to participate in the seminar.
According to Kathy Simon, Deming Center director, hosting this event is a coup for CU. "We faced stiff competition from the leading business schools for this year's C200 seminar and we are grateful for the opportunity," she said. "The participants coming to CU for this event are among the nation's most influential businesswomen and it's an outstanding occasion for students, faculty and staff to meet such positive role models and to learn from their professional and personal experience."
"We are very pleased to have the Deming Center host this year's outreach seminar," said Judith R. Haberkorn, the C200 chair. "Not only is the center a leading entrepreneurial learning facility, but the CU Leeds School of Business also has a 37 percent female enrollment, which far surpasses the national average of only 30 percent. We believe CU is the ideal location to reach aspiring women who will in turn become mentors and supporters of future generations of women in business."
The event will feature keynote speakers Patricia M. Cloherty, a prominent figure in the venture capital industry and Sheila T. Cluff, an internationally known fitness expert. Breakout sessions will feature Henrietta Holsman Fore, director of the U.S. Mint; Jo Marie Dancik, regional managing partner, Ernst & Young; Barbara Mowry, former chairwoman and CEO, Requisite Technology; and Raydean Acevedo, CEO and president of Research Management Consulting. They will discuss career paths, personal skill development and crisis management.
Twice a year, C200 co-sponsors seminars for women MBA students to provide a free flow of ideas and to give students the opportunity to have a dialogue with C200 member panelists. The organization also brings issues facing women in business to the forefront including the importance of mentoring, encouraging young women and girls to pursue a career in business and the declining enrollment of women in business schools.
Two special C200 scholarship awards, sponsored by BMW, will be presented at the event. A $15,000 scholarship will be awarded to a first-year woman MBA student enrolled at CU and a $10,000 scholarship will be awarded to a second-year woman MBA student.
The Deming Center is a joint program of the Leeds School of Business and the College of Engineering at CU-Boulder. It supports the study of entrepreneurship, one of the most popular concentrations at CU's Leeds School of Business. The center helps aspiring business leaders prepare for the unique challenges of today's entrepreneurial economy. The CU MBA entrepreneurship program was ranked 16th among national entrepreneurship programs for the last two years by U.S. News & World Report.
C200 is an organization of pre-eminent businesswomen that capitalizes on the success, power and influence of women in the global economy. C200 exemplifies and promotes entrepreneurship and corporate leadership among women of this generation and the next. As a network of top business leaders, C200 is dedicated to redefining the face of business today.