Women’s Foodservice Forum Brings Industry Leaders to Chicago for Fifth Annual Executive Women’s Summit
Programming covered hot topics including economic impact, financial acumen, and networking strategies
CHICAGO (September 12, 2008) — The Women’s Foodservice Forum’s Fifth Annual Executive Women’s Summit took place in Chicago on September 7-9, bringing 160 women business leaders from across the country together to advance their personal career goals and foster connections with other executive-level professionals. Based on member input, this year’s Executive Women’s Summit programming was further elevated to focus on strategic business decision making and navigating the current economic conditions impacting the foodservice industry.
New to this year’s event was the Summit Forum, a panel featuring foodservice industry experts who discussed how to better manage and overcome the obstacles presented by today’s challenging economic environment. The panelists included esteemed women leaders from within the foodservice and financial industries including Sally Smith, president and CEO of Buffalo Wild Wings, Clarice Turner, president and COO of Papa Murphy’s Take ‘N’ Bake Pizza, Michelle Cherrick, co-head consumer banking for Thomas Weisel Partners, and Janice Meyer, managing director, consumer group, Morgan Stanley. The panel was moderated by Joan Vieweger, partner and executive vice president, Perspectives, Inc./The Consulting Group.
“The Forum was a terrific addition to this year’s event and the concept will continue to play an important role in our executive-level programming,” noted Linda Pharr, Chair and interim president of the Women’s Foodservice Forum. “Given our vision of achieving gender parity on senior teams and boards, we are committed to continually advancing relevant professional development opportunities for these senior leaders.”
Other dynamic speakers at the Summit focused on financial acumen, innovative networking and business strategy.
Marian Powers, adjunct associate professor of accounting and information management at Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University addressed “Decoding Financial Statements: The Secret to Making Smart Business Decisions.” Given her extensive background in accounting and financial analysis, Powers highlighted for attendees the very most critical elements of financial statement review and offered a variety of insights on assessing an organization’s financials from a C-suite and board-level perspective.
“Building Your Social Capital: Strategically Using Your Network” was presented by Holly Raider, client faculty liaison at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. Raider designs, plans and implements custom corporate education programs in leadership and organization change. During her presentation, Raider shared her leading-edge research insights into the importance of networks and building bridges in order to improve business performance.
The three-day event concluded with a program titled, “Business Strategy: Broadening Your Operational Perspective to a Strategic Perspective” led by Sonia Marciano, clinical associate professor of management and organizations, New York University Stern School of Business. Marciano’s session engaged attendees in dissecting a selection of strategic priorities including competitive advantage, the value chain, commoditization, innovation and performance tracking.
“Attending the WFF Summit was a great experience. The programming was targeted at just the right level and we got a lot of information we’ll certainly use when we return to the office,” said Laurie Burns, senior vice president, Darden Restaurants and president of Bahama Breeze. “The format of the event also offered many great opportunities to network and make connections,” she added.
The Summit attendees also learned about the Women’s Foodservice Forum Board Readiness program which is designed to provide WFF executive members with training and support to achieve a board seat on a public, corporate, private or not-for-profit board. The soon-to-be-released online executive leadership competency assessment tool was also previewed.
Sponsors of this year’s Summit included American Express, Aramark, Brown-Forman, The Coca-Cola Company, Dunkin’ Brands, Ecolab, General Mills Foodservice, Kraft Foodservice and Sodexo.
About Women’s Foodservice Forum
The Women’s Foodservice Forum is the premier leadership development community for collective
insights and connections that empower women in the foodservice industry to envision and achieve
their highest potential. With more than 3,700 members from all segments of the foodservice
industry, including restaurant operations, manufacturing, distribution, publishing and consulting,
Women’s Foodservice Forum is committed to helping elevate women leaders. Through highly beneficial
keynote addresses and workshops at the Annual Leadership Development Conference, Executive Women’s
Summit, Regional Connect events, mentoring and more, Women’s Foodservice Forum provides members
with the tools needed to make a positive difference in their careers. For more information about
Women’s Foodservice Forum, please visit the website
www.womensfoodserviceforum.com.
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