The World's Most Powerful Black Women Business Leaders for 2013

A few weeks ago Forbes Magazine published its 2013 annual list of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women. Among the 100 women featured are 11 Black, of whom 3 are Africans. The notable list include political leaders, corporate executives, heads of non-governmental organizations, top government functionaries and a first lady. These are the 11 black women who matter the most. 

Michelle Obama First Lady, U.S.A
President Barack Obama’s wife continues to leverage her platform as America’s first lady to fight childhood obesity and promote healthier eating and lifestyles. She is more popular than her husband by far, with 67% of American citizens viewing her in positive light as opposed to her husband’s 47%. But it’s easier to be loved by a lot of people when you spend more time smiling on TV than running the country. This year she has appeared on Jimmy Fallon and Katie Couric’s shows. She even announced the Best Picture for the Academy Awards. Michelle Obama is a Harvard grad and former corporate attorney.

Oprah Winfrey Media Mogul, U.S.A
In 2011, Oprah ended The Oprah Show, her highly successful syndicated talk show, after a 25 year-

stint. The richest African-American and queen of talk still remains one of the world’s most respected media moguls. Her cable channel, the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), wobbled at first but has improved its performance thanks in part to a lucrative deal OWN secured with Comcast CMCSAlast year to earn subscriber fees and increase the number of households that carry it to 83 million. Also, a string of immensely popular exclusive TV interviews such as disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong and gay NBA player Jason Collins gave Oprah’s network a boost. Oprah is one of the world’s most philanthropic women. She has given away over $400 million over the course of her career, including spending an estimated $100 million on the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa.

Ursula Burns CEO of Xerox, U.S.A

Under Burns’ leadership, Xerox has transformed its image as a manufacturer of printers to a full-fledged services business. In 2010, Xerox acquired business process outsourcing firm Affiliated Computer Services (ACS). Xerox now gets half of its revenue from service businesses like managing electronic ticket transactions, road tolls and parking meters. Ursula Burns started at the bottom as a summer intern at Xerox in 1980. She joined the company fulltime one year later after obtaining her Masters’ Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University. She became Vice-President in 2000 and was named CEO in 2009.

Beyonce Musician, U.S.A
Jay-Z’s wife keeps making money, raking in millions from old hits as well as from business ventures such as her clothing line, House of Dereon, and numerous endorsement deals. Her $50 million contract with Pepsi gives her creative control of a massive ad and concert collaboration. Her 15-minute Super Bowl performance in February drew an estimated 104 million sets of eyeballs around the world. One of the best-selling musicians of all time, Beyonce has earned 17 Grammy awards to date.

Rosalind Brewer President and CEO, Sam’s Club, Wal-Mart Stores
Brewer is CEO of Sam’s club, a discount membership club and the 8^th largest retailer in the United States. The $56.4 billion (revenues) division of Wal-Mart has 6,200 locations in the U.S, Brazil and China and boasts over 47 million members. Brewer, 50, was appointed in January last year to head Sam’s Club. A former executive at Kimberly-Clark, she joined Wal-Mart in 2006 and previously served as president of the retail giant’s Eastern U.S. business division.

Joyce Banda President, Malawi

Banda spent her initial year in as Malawi’s first female president pushing for rapprochement with the international donor community while grappling with spiralling inflation. Malawi, one of Africa’s poorest nations, depends on foreign aid for roughly 40% of its revenue and Banda has been travelling the world over, persuading global financial institutions to restore the dollars and Euros frozen during the regime of her predecessor, Bingu Wa Mutharika. But her decision to devalue Malawi’s currency by 50% — to meet IMF conditions — has resulted in soaring costs for food and fuel and widespread protests.

Ertharin Cousin Executive Director, World Food Programme, United Nations, U.S.A
In April 2012 Cousin was appointed executive director of the world’s largest humanitarian organization. Her job entails overseeing a staff of more than 15,000 people in about 78 different countries in raising awareness and providing solutions for international struggles with hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition. In her first year on the job Cousin and her staff focused on fighting hunger brought on by drought in West Africa and civil war in Syria. Her agenda for the rest for the year is to transition from food aid to food assistance in an attempt to shift from handouts to self-sustenance.

Helene Gayle President & CEO, CARE, USA
In 2006, Gayle was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of CARE USA, a leading humanitarian organization which actively fights poverty in 87 countries. Last year, during a food crisis in West Africa’s Sahel region which left millions of people in need of emergency relief, Gayle led CARE on the ground in Chad, Niger and even Mali, helping more than 750,000 people with emergency assistance, providing access to food as well improving access to water, sanitation and hygiene. Last year alone, CARE reached more than 83 million people in 84 countries with a budget of $586 million, responding to natural disasters, climate change and other causes of global poverty.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Minister of Finance, Nigeria

Nigeria’s revered Minister of Finance and Coordinating minister of the economy oversaw a 6.5% increase in GDP from 2011 to 2012. Nigeria is the third largest economy in Africa with nearly $50 billion in foreign reserves. In 2011, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a seasoned economist and administrator, left her position as a managing director at the World Bank to take the job as finance minister of Nigeria at the urging of Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan. It was her second coming. Between 2003 and 2006 she had served in the same capacity under Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo where she helped secure a debt write-off of $18 billion from Nigeria’s creditors.

Risa Lavizzo-Mourey President, CEO, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Lavizzo-Mourey heads the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the largest healthcare foundation in the U.S. She became the CEO in 2003, a position which has her overseeing an estimated 800 grants, a $10 billion endowment and annual disbursements of $350 million towards improving health and health care. Lavizzo-Mourey is the first woman and the first African-American to head the foundation.

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf President, Liberia
Africa’s first female head of state won the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize for her work in promoting Liberian reconciliation and  in atoning for Liberia’s history of civil war. She was re-elected for a second term the same year, reneging on an earlier promise to run for only one term in office. But the Harvard-trained economist has done well. She successfully negotiated for debt relief from international creditors, including a $4.9 billion debt waiver from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

See FORBES for full story

Empowered Women Network hosts Business Seminar

The Empowered Women in Business Network continues to host its regular seminars teaching female students how to start and run their own businesses.  The program is funded in part with the Walmart Women’s Economic Empowerment Project Partnership grant.

The series of seminars began in January and runs through April 2013 with meetings on Wednesdays in the Conference Room of Evans Hall.

The Seminars are designed to students who are the first generation in college and come from economic disadvantage backgrounds. When asked why the seminars, Ariadne Pollitt, Project Director stated, "We realize that some of them must work to help cover their college expenses and sometimes assist families at home so we are providing them help on how to formally start and run their own business."

The young women in the program come with skills that could be turned into a business venture. These student-ran businesses, headed by females, include beauty supplies, hair dressing, nail designs, fashion designs and other personal cosmetics and jewelry, and tutoring.

The participants are empowered through seminars, workshops and other assistance that focuses on the procedures to registering a business and securing DBA’s, requesting an EIN Number, establishing a bank account, record keeping, creating a business plan, and other necessary steps that will help to make the businesses successful.

Other seminars include how to register copyrights, patents and trademarks if necessary. The participants have also been exposed to successful women entrepreneurs in various industries who could serve as mentors and guide them down the right path, among them included Tamra Lewis and Denise Armstrong and Rebecca Faison, Director of the SBDC.

"We are filling a  need to help improve the quality of life for the women and thei families."

Enactus provides opportunities for students to grow professionally while helping others in the community.

Yes, You Can Sheryl Sandberg’s ‘Lean In’

Congratulations to Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's no. 2 executive executive and outspoken voice on the obstacles women face in the corporate world, on the publishing of "Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead."  The book which goes on sale on March 11, offers a blueprint for change. Proceeds will go to LeanIn.org, the nonprofit she's started to help women pursue their goals.

Yes, You Can - Sheryl Sandberg’s ‘Lean In’
By Anne-Marie Slaughter - New York Times
Published: March 7, 2013
 
When I was an assistant professor at the University of Chicago Law School in the early ’90s, I tried to explain to a prominent senior colleague why I had not yet managed to write one of the 10 or so articles required to get tenure in three years. He listened to me, then said, “Journals don’t publish excuses.”

 It’s a lesson that comes through loud and clear in Sheryl Sandberg’s new book, “Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead.” Her point, in a nutshell, is that notwithstanding the many gender biases that still operate all over the workplace, excuses and justifications won’t get women anywhere. Instead, believe in yourself, give it your all, “lean in” and “don’t leave before you leave” — which is to say, don’t doubt your ability to combine work and family and thus edge yourself out of plum assignments before you even have a baby. Leaning in can promote a virtuous circle: you assume you can juggle work and family, you step forward, you succeed professionally, and then you’re in a better position to ask for what you need and to make changes that could benefit others.

No one who reads this book will ever doubt that Sandberg herself has the will to lead, not to mention the requisite commitment, intelligence and ferocious work ethic. Sandberg has been the chief operating officer of Facebook since 2008. At 43, she has already had a storied career: research assistant to Lawrence Summers at the World Bank; management consultant at McKinsey; chief of staff to Summers at the Treasury Department; and six and a half years at Google, where she rose to the post of vice president of global online sales and operations. She has also made it to the top of the notoriously male-dominated world of Silicon Valley, where the paucity of women among the ranks of computer scientists and engineers is still all too visible.  See More on Sanberg

The Forgotten Entrepreneurial Class

Obama, Romney, And The Forgotten Entrepreneurial Class
By Robert Safian
Fast Company



Election rhetoric focused on struggling small businesses completely ignores the tidal wave of creative, innovative startups sweeping the country. Fast Company's Editor in Chief bears witness to the groundswell.

Are the presidential candidates living in the same America that I am? Apparently not.

I don’t know what statistics Obama and Romney look at when they are assessing the state of small business in America--and I really don’t care--because they are missing something. And it is big.

Read more here:  The Forgotten Entrepreneurial Class: Generation Flux

The World's Most Powerful Black Women Business Leaders 2012

Forbes has listed the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women 2012.
Cheryl Isaac, Contributor 

Listed among the 100 most powerful women in the world, are eleven of the most powerful black women who, despite their unique backgrounds, have one thing in common: Business Leadership.

Leading the list at #7 First Lady Michelle Obama. The now 48-year-old First Lady Michelle Obama was once a “gutsy” 13-year-old Michelle Robinson who traveled for miles—scared and alone—from her Chicago home, to attend the integrated high school, Whitney Young, says her English teacher, Dagny Bloland, to biographer, Liza Mundy.

Next at #11 Oprah Winfrey. In 2012, Ms. Winfrey still tops Forbes Highest-Paid Celebrities List. There’s only so much one can say about the woman who has transformed the face of the media, changed the scope of Daytime Talk Show TV, showcased the downtrodden, and been a beacon of hope for African Americans and women.

Followed at #17 Ursula Burns In 1980, she was a summer mechanical engineering intern at the Xerox Corporation. In 2009, Burns became its chief executive—making her the first black woman to run a major U.S. corporation.  In 2011, Fortune ranked her #8 on its 50 Most Powerful Women in Business list.

Then at #32 Beyoncé Knowles. Being the “World’s Most Beautiful Woman” was not the only new accomplishment for Beyoncé. This year, Beyoncé had her first child, Blue Ivy, and just a few months after, the businesswoman and singer was “Back To Business” with a four-night-sold-out concert.

And at #50 Rosalind Brewer Just this year, Brewer made history as chief business leader of Sam’s Club; which makes her the first African American and woman, to hold the position of CEO at one of Wal-Mart’s business units.

At #52 Helene Gayle dives headfirst into issues that affect women and girls around the world. As CEO of Care USA, Helene Gayle is overseer of the organization’s day-to-day business matters,  championing the fight for global poverty by directing programs to tackle issues which help further global poverty: Such as malnutrition, maternal mortality, and AIDS.

At #69 Ertharin Cousin.  The twelfth Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme, started her career within social services, and even entered the world of politics; serving as White House Liaison for the Clinton Administration in 1994.

#71 President Joyce Banda. President Banda, Malawi’s first female president and the founder of the Joyce Banda Foundation International, recently told BBC news Africa that she views business as a tool of empowerment:
“I am a servant of the people,” she said. “My mission in life is to assist women and youth, gain social and political empowerment through business and education.”

#81 Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.  Up from #87 on the list last year, Okonjo-Iweala heads the business affairs of Nigeria as the country’s chief financial diplomat.  Last year I suggested that perhaps Iweala had left her post at the World Bank for political posturing. This year she was short-listed for World Bank leader. The sky’s the limit for this political leader who possesses such a solid business and economic background.

#82 President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Down a few spots on the list this year, the President of Liberia also faced a challenging reelection year. A 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Winner, and a women empowerment advocate, President Sirleaf has an expansive business and economic background; having had leadership roles in the World Bank, United Nations Development Programme, and Citibank.

#90 Risa Lavizzo-Mourey. The first woman and African-American to act as President and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the business-educated Mourey oversees millions of of dollars in grant money that goes toward improving health care.

Go to Forbes Most Powerful Black Women Business Leaders for more information.

See Also: Previous post: Why The Next-Gen Woman Needs A Voice in Politics
Cheryl writes about global entrepreneurship, next-generation business leaders, and economic empowerment for women and girls worldwide. You can find her on twitter or on her blog making business personal.

How To Change Careers Completely--And Write Yourself A Happy Ending

Dayna Lorentz

How To Change Careers Completely --And Write Yourself A Happy Ending

By Adam Bluestein
August 31, 2012

Fast Company

This is the dramatic story (yeah, yeah, just go with it) of how former lawyer Dayna Lorentz found her true calling in the emotionally turbulent realm of the YA novel.

Dayna Lorentz was an up-and-coming young lawyer in New York City when she realized her passion lay elsewhere. Unlike most people, she did something about it, going back to school--yet again--for an MFA in creative writing. Just a few years after starting on this new path, Lorentz’s trilogy for young readers called Dogs of the Drowned City, about a group of dogs surviving in the wake of a Katrina-like hurricane in Miami, was published by Scholastic in the spring. 

A month later, Penguin published her young adult novel No Safety in Numbers, about a bioterror attack in a suburban shopping mall; Kirkus Reviews called it an “engrossing thriller.” Now living with her family and dogs in Vermont, Lorentz spoke with Fast Company about her learning process, the necessity of extending stories beyond the page, and how the YA category is saving the book.

Read more here:How to Change Careers Completely

The World's 100 Most Powerful Women 2012

Click on Link for the Gallery

Caroline Howard, Forbes Staff

 For nine years FORBES has ranked the 100 most powerful women in the world. These are the women who adhere to the traditional classifications of power (political and economic might) and those who have risen to the top of the social and cultural landscape. It is our annual snapshot of women who impact the world.

This year the list features eight heads of state–including our No. 1, German Chancellor Angela Merkel (plus one monarch who just celebrated her Diamond Jubilee), 25 CEOs who control $984 billion in revenues and 11 billionaires personally worth nearly $80 billion. We feature some dozen entrepreneurs and 10 celebrities who do more than look good: they’re philanthropic do-gooders and entrepreneurial go-getters. For the rest of the story click on The Most Powerful Women In The World