Sponsors help women reach executive ranks

Jane M. Von Bergen, Inquirer Staff Writer

Posted: Tuesday, October 15, 2013, 2:01 AM

 Mentors can dispense sage wisdom over endless cups of coffee, but it takes a sponsor's relentless advocacy to propel a woman to a seat on a corporate board and a desk in a corner office.

That's the message that will be presented Tuesday when the Forum of Executive Women releases its annual report on women in business leadership.

"Sponsorship goes beyond mentoring," said Nila G. Betof, president of the businesswomen's association. "Sponsorship is where the sponsor puts his or her capital on the table in advocating for a woman."

"Sponsorship is like mentoring on steroids," said Deanna Byrne, a partner in the Philadelphia office of PricewaterhouseCoopers L.L.P. She credits one of her sponsors for positioning her to land her current assignment providing accounting services for one of the company's Fortune 500 clients.

The forum has been studying the influence of women on the leadership of the region's publicly traded companies since at least 2005.

In that time, there has been progress, but not enough, leaders say.

For example, women held 12 percent of board seats in 2012 (103 out of 829), a 30 percent increase since 2005. There is also a higher percentage of female executives - 12 percent in 2012, up 33 percent from 2005.

Significantly, women also are commanding more money. In 2012, one in 10 of the top earners (50 of 491) were women, up 67 percent from 2005.

But a third of the region's top 100 publicly traded companies have no women on their boards.

One in five companies have no women board members, no women executives, and no women among the company's top earners.

Only six of the 100 chief executives are women, and only eight companies have three or more women on their boards.

"The progress continues to be very, very slow," said Betof, chief operating officer of the Leader's Edge/Leaders by Design, a Bala Cynwyd company that grooms executives to advance their careers.

The issue of female corporate leadership is attracting more attention. Catapulting the topic onto talk shows and radio programs was Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, a book by Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook.

In September, Mayor Nutter signed a law that will require companies doing business with Philadelphia to disclose the number of women in their executive ranks.

"Female employees who work hard and play by the rules are often overlooked when it comes to the 'big' assignments and large promotions," said P. Edward Lovelidge, managing director of PricewaterhouseCoopers in Philadelphia.

"It is relationships with sponsors that can make the difference," he said.

Titled The Power of Sponsorship: A Call to Action, the forum's report lists companies and their female executives (or lack of them), and tells the stories of sponsors and their protégés.

For example, F. William McNabb 3d is the chief executive officer and chairman of the Vanguard Group of Mutual Funds - the top job in one of the nation's top financial companies. Martha G. King is a managing director at Vanguard and head of U.S. financial intermediaries - one of the company's top positions. She heads Vanguard's second biggest line of business.

McNabb and King are related, but not in the family sense. Shortly after King began at Vanguard as a college hire, McNabb recognized her as a potential leader, and took aggressive and substantial measures to sponsor her rise through the company. Their relationship is now 25 years old.

McNabb sponsored King to head institutional sales for the western region, though she wasn't the obvious choice of the selection committee, the report said. He also transferred her back early to the company's headquarters to lead the institutional investment only business. That was a large, integrated business unit, compared with her earlier more-focused responsibilities.

"Someone did it for me, and I have an absolute obligation to do it for others," McNabb said in the forum report.

Helen F. Giles-Gee president of the University of the Sciences, described how she sponsored Emile "Mel" Netzhammer, now chancellor of Washington State University, Vancouver, when Giles-Gee was president of Keene State College in New Hampshire.

She hired him as provost and then assigned him to chair a finance committee. Netzhammer would have preferred a more academic assignment, but ended up with important skills.

Giles-Gee nominated Netzhammer for his current job.

 

---

jvonbergen@phillynews.com

215-854-2769

@JaneVonBergen

www.inquirer.com/jobbing

 

Source: http://www.philly.com/r?19=961&43=166721&44=227757391&32=3796&7=195342&40=http://www.philly.com/inquirer/front_page/20131015_Sponsors_help_women_reach_executive_ranks.html
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Exhibit to show Connally's clothing when JFK shot

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Your eyes instinctively seek the holes in the vintage 1960s black wool men's business suit. The white cotton dress shirt with now-faded blood stains more vividly illustrates the horror of a half century ago.

Emergency room staff at Dallas' Parkland Memorial Hospital removed the clothing from seriously wounded Texas Gov. John Connally, in the rush to save his life from the same burst of gunfire that also had left President John Kennedy mortally wounded.

Texas state archivists now have readied the suit and shirt worn by Connally that day as the centerpiece of an exhibit to mark next month's 50th anniversary of Kennedy's assassination.

It will be the first public display since 1964 for the clothing Connally wore Nov. 22, 1963, during Kennedy's visit. Connally and his wife gave the clothing to the state archives.

"It makes an impact, it's pretty dramatic and it kind of gives you pause," Sarah Norris, conservator at the Lorenzo de Zavala State Archives and Library where the exhibit opens next week, said Tuesday. "It creates the sense of immediacy about what happened that day."

John Anderson, preservation officer at the archives, said the display tells an important aspect of a well-known story.

"For Texans, this is something that maybe gets forgotten by some of the rest of the world, that Gov. Connally was shot at the same time," he said, noting that Connally's chest wound could have been fatal.

"The first thing that jumps out at you is the damage," said Norris, who has been assembling the exhibit for several months. "The most dramatic is the shirt."

The white Arrow brand shirt, size 16 with a 35-inch sleeve, has faded over the years and the now-brown blood stains and spatters cover nearly all of it. There are bullet holes in the shirt's chest, back shoulder and right cuff. Three buttons are missing, presumably due to emergency medical responders ripping the garment away to reach Connelly's chest wound.

The damage to the three-button Oxford Clothes suit from John L. Ashe of Fort Worth is less pronounced.

Nellie Connally had it cleaned before it was presented to the state archives, Anderson said, so there's no evidence of blood. But the coat has bullet holes that match those on the shirt, plus a hole on the left leg just above and toward the inside of the knee.

The items will be displayed through Feb. 14 in the library lobby in a glass case that will allow visitors to see them from all sides.

Connally and his wife were in the jump seat of the open convertible limousine, Kennedy and wife Jacqueline were in the back seat. Connally died in 1993. He was 75. His wife died in 2006 at age 87.

Arguably the most famous clothing from that infamous day is the blood-stained pink suit worn by Jacqueline Kennedy, who died in 1994. It's with the National Archives in Maryland and never has been displayed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/exhibit-show-connallys-clothing-jfk-shot-210915107.html
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U.S. fiscal talks stumble as lawmakers race against clock

By Richard Cowan and Thomas Ferraro

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Negotiations in Congress to end the fiscal impasse sputtered on Tuesday, leaving both chambers grasping for a way to reopen the government and raise the country's borrowing authority with a Thursday deadline drawing near.

The Senate halted discussions on its own plan, as it waited for the fractious Republican-controlled House of Representatives to come up with an alternative proposal ahead of the October 17 deadline, when the U.S. Treasury says the government will reach its borrowing limit.

Senate leaders had been close to a deal that would reopen the government and raise the debt limit until early 2014, while the initial alternative plan proposed by House Republican leaders failed to gain enough support in a closed-door meeting for the House to proceed.

"There are a lot of opinions about what direction to go. There have been no decisions about exactly what we will do," House Speaker John Boehner told reporters after the meeting.

"We're going to continue to work with our members on both sides of the aisle to try to make sure that there is no issue of default, and to get our government reopened," he said.

The disarray among House Republicans raised questions about what the House will be able to pass. Conservative House members, driven by support from Tea Party small-government activists, have demanded changes to Obama's signature healthcare law as part of any budget deal.

Those demands sparked the shutdown that began with the dawn of the new fiscal year on October 1, temporarily throwing hundreds of thousands of government employees out of work.

If Congress fails to reach a deal by Thursday, checks would likely go out on time for a short while for everyone from bondholders to workers who are owed unemployment benefits. But analysts warn that a default on government obligations could quickly follow, potentially causing the U.S. financial sector to freeze up and threatening the global economy.

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell halted talks while House Republicans tried to sort out what they would support, Richard Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, told reporters.

"We were on track and Boehner stepped in," he said. "McConnell is waiting on Boehner and Boehner is waiting on his caucus."

After Durbin's comments, markets got increasingly nervous about the prospects of a last-minute deal.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.55 percent in late afternoon trade. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was trading down 0.4 percent.

The House Republican proposal initially floated on Tuesday would have funded the government through January 15, and raised the $16.7 trillion debt ceiling by enough to cover the nation's borrowing needs through February 7, similar to the Senate plan, aides said.

But unlike the Senate, it would include a two-year suspension of the medical device tax included in Obama's healthcare law, and a requirement that members of Congress and the administration be covered under the law.

The House version also would not allow the U.S. Treasury to renew its extraordinary cash management measures to stretch borrowing capacity for months, which had tentatively been allowed under the Senate plan.

The White House and Senate Democrats quickly rejected the House draft plan as not workable.

'PARTISAN ATTEMPT' TO APPEASE TEA PARTY

Reid said the Republican plan was "partisan attempt to appease a small group of Tea Party Republicans who forced the government to shut down in the first place."

"I am very disappointed with John Boehner who once again tried to preserve his role at the expense of the country," Reid said.

But Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona, who has blamed House Republicans for the shutdown, blasted the White House and Senate Democrats for promptly rejecting Boehner's latest plan.

"I urge my Democratic colleagues, let's sit down and work this out," McCain declared, his voice rising. "Let's get this resolved."

"To categorically reject what the House of Representatives and the speaker are doing - and I think he is pretty courageous in what he's doing - in my view is not serving the American people," McCain said.

Obama was due to meet with House Democratic leaders at 3:15 p.m. (1915 GMT) to discuss their options.

Before the House action, Reid had said he was optimistic about reaching a final deal this week.

"There are productive negotiations going on with the Republican leader. I'm confident that we'll be able to reach a comprehensive agreement this week in time to avert a catastrophic default on the nation's bills," Reid said on the Senate floor.

Ratings firms have not yet revealed any plans to downgrade U.S. government debt.

Marie Cavanaugh, S&P's managing director for sovereign ratings, said on Tuesday during a panel discussion hosted by Democratic Representative Maxine Waters, "Standard & Poor's thinks that the current impasse over the debt ceiling and the continuing resolution is unlikely to change our rating, which is AA+ with a stable outlook."

Numerous polls show Republicans have taken a hit in opinion polls since the standoff began and the government shutdown October 1. A Washington Post/ABC News poll released on Monday found that 74 percent of Americans disapprove of the way congressional Republicans have handled the standoff, compared with a 53 percent disapproval rating for Obama.

Another survey released by Gallup on Tuesday showed American confidence in the U.S. economy fell another five points last week as the government shutdown continued.

The crisis is the latest in a series of budget battles in recent years that have hurt consumer confidence and weighed on the economy. A Monday estimate by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a think tank, said the uncertainty from the frequent showdowns had boosted the unemployment rate by 0.6 of a percentage point, or the equivalent of 900,000 jobs since late 2009.

(Additional reporting by David Lawder, Susan Heavey, Amanda Becker; Writing by John Whitesides; Editing by Karey Van Hall, Grant McCool and Tim Dobbyn)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-senators-hint-possible-fiscal-deal-tuesday-004610122--sector.html
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Top Senate Democrat 'confident' of deal this week to avoid default

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on Tuesday he was confident that Senate Democrats and Republicans can reach a comprehensive fiscal agreement this week that avoids a U.S. default on debt and other obligations.

"There are productive negotiations going on with the Republican leader. I'm confident we'll be able to reach a comprehensive agreement this week in time to avert a catastrophic default on the nation's bills," Reid said on the Senate floor.

"The Republican leader and I will keep our members informed as to how negotiations are going. And I express my appreciation to everyone for their patience," Reid said.

(Reporting By David Lawder; Editing by Bill Trott)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/top-senate-democrat-confident-deal-week-avoid-default-142757316--business.html
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All Aboard! Stocks Fast Tracked to Profit After Government ...

Brian Belski of BMO Capital Markets has reassuring words for those losing faith in elected officials: "The government will be turned on again, ladies and gentlemen." When that blessed day comes there is going to be a flood of economic activity taking place as merchants nationwide try to make up for lost time. Despite that ramp in demand, the number of shippers will remain the same as it was before the shutdown. In economics too much demand for a limited service is called scarcity. In the language of investing, scarcity means pricing power and profits.

As Belski sees it, the industry poised to benefit most from scarcity for both the short and long term is the railroads. No matter what happens with the shutdown their aren't enough railway shippers to meet demand. The industry has been consolidating since 1959, most notably with Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK-B) 2009 acquisition of Burlington Northern. That means good things for the remaining players.

Related: What's it Like to Be Backed by Buffett?

To be sure, trucking and air cargo has picked up a lot of rail demand, but not all of it. The economy is cyclical on the margins, but from building supplies, to coal and natural gas, the macro trend of American manufacturing has reversed. The country is growing again almost despite the best efforts of Washington, D.C. The rails benefit from that recovery.

Whatever earnings risk there is in the current quarter will be unwound once the country gets cranked back into action. With QE presumably extended thanks to the appointment of Janet Yellen, Belski is optimistic about the outlook for these companies.

Under QE, so far the economy has been on an extremely slow rate of positive growth. That's a QE friendly (i.e., no taper) environment. Whatever you think of the stimulus program, Belski says it's an "exquisite" set up for industries like the rails.

Belski doesn't offer specific names but the group is pretty well concentrated. Union Pacific (UNP), CSX Corp. (CSX), Canadian National Railway (CNI), and Norfolk Southern (NSC) are the most likely plays.

More from Breakout:

Retailers’ Warning to Congress: You’re Killing Christmas!

Wall Street Isn't Buying Obama's Doomsday Scenario: Najarian

Why Janet Yellen Means Easy Money Is Here to Stay

Source: http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/breakout/aboard-stocks-fast-tracked-profit-government-shutdown-112929003.html
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Perry group launching national anti-Washington ads

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- A nonprofit aiming to help Gov. Rick Perry gear up for another possible presidential run announced Monday he is appearing in a national advertising campaign blasting Washington while promoting GOP leadership in states around the country.

Amid the federal government shutdown and a looming debt-ceiling crisis in Congress, Americans for Economic Freedom on Tuesday will begin airing 10 days of 30-second spots on CNBC, Fox News and MSNBC. It also will have ads on the nationally syndicated radio shows of Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin.

Americans for Economic Freedom spokeswoman Sara Marie Kinney would not say exactly how much the campaign would cost, only that it involved a "high six-figure media buy."

The ads suggest that while the gridlock in Washington is hurting the economy, conservative governors are balancing budgets, creating jobs and cutting taxes. The television versions show President Barack Obama addressing Congress while Perry says in a voice-over: "Washington needs to change. But the president keeps playing politics."

A beaming Perry then appears flanked by the Texas Capitol and continues: "When I look around this country, there's another story. Conservative governors are reforming taxes and regulations, helping small businesses grow. Cutting and balancing budgets."

As images cut to people at work Perry says: "We need more of that, and less of Washington."

"This is Rick Perry trying to play politics," Texas Democratic Party Gilberto Hinojosa said Monday. "They created the mess and now they're trying to blame Barack Obama for what their own people in Congress did."

Americans for Economic Freedom is using $200,000-plus left over from a political action committee that raised millions during Perry's failed 2012 presidential bid. Perry announced the creation of the group meant to raise his national profile last month, during a trip to Missouri to lure job-creating firms from that state to Texas.

The group's CEO is Jeff Miller, a former chief financial officer for the California Republican Party, and includes board member Marc Rodriguez, chairman of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and a fellow Texan. Also on the board are St. Louis beer baron August Busch III, economist Art Laffer and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, whose endorsed Perry in 2012 after dropping out of the White House race himself.

Appearing on conservative radio host Mike Gallagher's radio show Monday, Perry said of Americans for Economic Freedom: "These are some folks that wanted to highlight the differences in policies between the states, and identify what works to create jobs, freedom and opportunity."

He talked about how mobile the American population now is, adding that over the past decade, New York and California have led the nation in lost personal wealth per-capita, while traditionally more conservative states like Florida, Arizona and Texas have seen personal wealth per capita spike.

Perry said the U.S. should let "the states be where the real competition is. Not Washington being the be-all, end-all nanny state that they are today."

Hinojosa countered that Texans and voters across America "are tired of these games."

"I doubt very seriously that anyone will take him seriously on a national campaign in the event he decides to run for president," Hinojosa said.

The governor isn't seeking a fourth full term in office next year but hasn't ruled out a second run for president in 2016.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/perry-group-launching-national-anti-104718999.html
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Former 'Dancing' pros expecting a baby boy

Celebs

Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
TODAY

7 hours ago

Angela Weiss / Getty Images file

Former 'Dancing with the Stars' pros Edyta Sliwinska and Alec Mazo are expecting a baby.

Talk about a baby who's likely to have some graceful genes. Former "Dancing With the Stars" pro Edyta Sliwinska, 32, who is married to former "DWTS" pro Alec Mazo, 35, is expecting the couple's first child, she confirmed on Twitter last week.

Sharing a photo of herself with a slight baby bump, Sliwinska tweeted, "There it is, my little secret. Less than 2lbs little :)."

Sliwinska told People magazine that the baby, due in January, is a boy. "We’ve been together for 13 years; married for six," she said. "We were both so ready for it, and we’ve been planning on this for the past couple of years."

When congratulated on Twitter by former "DWTS" celeb dancer Natalie Coughlin, who danced with Mazo on his last season, Sliwinska replied, "Thank you! Can't wait to be a mommy." And Mazo thanked fans by tweeting, "Thanks to everyone for the warm wishes regarding the new family addition!"

Both dancers were on "Dancing With the Stars" when it debuted in 2005. Sliwinska danced for 10 seasons and Mazo for five. Mazo and celebrity partner Kelly Monaco were the show's first-season winners.

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/former-dancing-stars-pros-expecting-baby-boy-8C11391279
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