Welcome back to Campus Chronicles! As schools are still on winter break and MBA student newspapers have fallen silent, this week we’re doing things a little differently by featuring three schools’ takes on conferences regarding women in business:
In early October, INSEAD held its first annual Women’s Leadership Conference. Hosted on the school’s Fontainebleau campus, the event kicked off with a welcome dinner and keynote speech on the evening of Thursday, October 7th. The following day was packed with a series of keynote speeches and panels. Keynote speakers included Paul Laudicina, Managing Officer and Chairman of the Board at A.T. Kearney, INSEAD Dean J. Frank Brown, INSEAD Professor Herminia Ibarra, and Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, CEO of 20-First Consultancy. The conference’s four panels, Key Leadership Skills, Industry Focus, Global Leadership, and The Balancing Act, also featured a set of distinguished speakers such as Barbara Martin Coppola, Director of Marketing for Google France, Charlotte Ransom, Partner at Goldman Sachs, and Wei Chen, COO of the Hermes brand Shang Xia. The conference ended that evening with a cocktail reception and networking event.
The following week marked Wharton’s 12th Annual Wharton Women in Business Conference, which was held on Friday, October 15th at the Park Hyatt Philadelphia. This year’s conference, entitled “Perspectives on Success: Visionary Leadership in a Changing World,” brought keynote speakers Marge Breya, Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Solutions Group at SAP AG, and Amy Schulman, Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Pfizer. The event featured seven different panels, covering a wide variety of topics such as Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace, Defining Success in Finance and Consulting: The Evolving Role of Mentorship, and Service-Oriented Leadership: Societal Benefit through a Business Lens. A career fair and networking reception marked the end of the conference.
Looking ahead, Harvard Business School will be holding its 20th Annual Dynamic Women in Business Conference on Saturday, February 5th. The event will begin with a morning keynote address by Beth Comstock, Senior Vice President of GE, followed by two panel sessions of six panels each. After a networking lunch, Susan Smith Ellis, CEO of (RED), will deliver the afternoon keynote address, after which the third panel session will be held, again featuring six different panels. The day’s panels will cover a diverse array of topics such as Boardroom Confidential – What It Takes to Become a Director, Managing Teams in a Global Context, and Career Paths in Venture Capital and Private Equity. Gail McGovern, CEO of American Red Cross, will give the closing keynote address.
Read the full article: Campus Chronicles: Conferences on Women in Business