Chicago Women in Business Alumnae Network (CWIBAN)
The University of Chicago Booth School of Business
The University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Join Booth women around the world for casual summer brunches in this popular annual events series. Enjoy good food and great conversation, as alumnae meet up in their hometowns from Hong Kong to Boston. Interested in hosting an event in your city? Please email Manisha Varshney.
The ninth annual Booth Women's Week, which connects prospective and admitted female students with alumnae across the globe, is set for the week of May 6th. CWIBAN partners with the Office of Admissions for this unique Chicago Booth event series and we need your help to make it a success! To host a small, informal Women's Week gathering for prospective students in your hometown, please contact event chair Jill Nisson '04 773.220.8155.
Chicago Booth is thrilled to host the 3rd annual Chicago Booth Women Connect Conference (BWCC) on Friday, October 4, 2013 at Gleacher. The Conference is a wonderful opportunity to showcase the intellectual capital and talent of the female Booth community and is open to all women in the Chicago community. The Office of Admissions is looking for session proposals whose themes are relevant to an audience of professional businesswomen at different stages of their careers. You can learn more and propose a session here. For any questions, please email boothwomenconnect@chicagobooth.edu.
For those in the Chicago area, an inaugural Women Business Owners Symposium will be held Friday, March 29th, 8:30a-3:00p (725 W Roosevelt Rd). The event is hosted by the State of Illinois and Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity and features a wonderful line up of speakers. Admission is free, as is on-site day care. You can register or learn more here.
This popular alumnae tradition is back! Enjoy good food and great conversation in cities around the world throughout the holiday season. Currently, Teas are scheduled in Boston, New York, Washington DC, Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. If you would like to host in your city, please contact Gila Vadnai-Tolub '11 by October 20th. A more extensive list of locations and details to register for the events will follow.
Graduate Women in Business (GWB), the part-time women's group, is organizing a new series called Career Chats. The goal is to offer interested students exposure to alumnae working in a variety of industries and help GWB members discover new opportunities or insights valuable to making informed career decisions. GWB will host informal 1 to 1 1/2 hour discussions with one or two alumnae and five students per session in the Gleacher center. Alumnae living outside Chicago are invited to participate through video conference. No matter what industry you work in, when you completed your degree, or where you live GWB members would love to hear from you!
If you're interested in leading a session, please send a brief bio of your professional background and your availability (date, time, and whether you are Chicago or remote) to either Jessie Yu or Lavanya Kumara. The series will run from mid-October to mid-December and possibly early next year, depending on alumnae response.
Help recruit the future of Booth. Alumnae are encouraged to share their Booth experience in information sessions for prospective students of all programs in cities around the world this fall. To learn more and sign up in your city, please visit the Shape the Class website.
This popular alumnae tradition is back, as 13 cities host summer gatherings for Booth women. We'll enjoy good food and great conversation at brunches and dinners around the world. Come on your own or bring a friend. Cost is pay your own way; some cities require online prepayment. Please RSVP to our alumnae hosts! Also, if you'd like to host in your city, contact Stephanie Terifay Bediee '09. For complete event info, including locations, costs, registration, and host contacts, please visit our events page.
Booth classmates turned business partners, Ruchi Talati, '11, and Jennifer Parkes, '11, founded Catch22Dating, the online dating service targeting successful graduates and young professionals across the U.S. Determined to pursue their shared goal of entrepreneurship, they utilized the Booth network and education, especially the benefits of rigorous quantitative analysis, to launch the company. Ruchi and Jen cite passion and discipline as key factors for success. Read more online. This profile is part of our Career Development Series, illustrating career paths and strategies for success among our fellow alums.
View photos from Women's Week 2012
The eighth annual Booth Women's Week held in May broke records for global participation of prospective women students and alumnae! The events series unique to Chicago Booth included 30 host cities around the world, from Bangkok to Boston. Individual alumnae hosted informal gatherings in their hometowns with the goal of sharing information about our alma mater and attracting the best students in the world. Women's Week attendance jumped by over 50% from last year.
Booth Women's Week 2012 host cities included: Atlanta, Bangalore, Bangkok, Beijing, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Hong Kong, Houston, Kiev, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Moscow, Mumbai, New Delhi, New York City, Rio de Janeiro, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Fe, Santiago, São Paulo, Seattle, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Tokyo, Washington, DC
Thanks to our alumnae volunteers, prospective and incoming students responded with positive feedback. "I was deeply impressed by the charm and talent of the alumnae I met at the event, and it is my hope to be a proud Booth alumna one day, too," wrote a Tokyo attendee.
From Los Angeles, another prospect wrote, "Talking to you for 20 minutes helped me clarify my MBA goals, so much more than my weeks of research have done."
At Women's Week events, the topics ranged from the personal to the professional. Alumnae provided real-life answers on the Booth curriculum, interaction with faculty, career development resources, student body culture, the social environment, financing the MBA, opportunities for spouses and children within the Booth community, getting settled in the city of Chicago, and more. They also discussed life after business school, including career progression, work-life balance, and alumni communities around the world.
Women's Week is a partnership between the alumnae of CWIBAN and the Chicago Booth Office of Admissions. With questions or comments, please contact event co-chairs Stephanie Dow, '08, or Zina Markevicius, '02.
The 2012 events series was highlighted by Clear Admit: MBA Admissions Portal in its April 25 post. Read more > Also check out the new newsletter for prospective women students published by the Office of Admissions, sharing news about Booth women doing great things!
Professor Marianne Bertrand was the first female Booth faculty member elected to the prestigious American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Also elected in April was Professor Luigi Zingales. They joined nine other Booth faculty who are already members. The 2012 nominations included Jeffrey Bezos of Amazon and Bob Iger of Disney, among over 200 business and academic leaders.
Professor Bertrand joined the Booth faculty in 2000, and this spring, she is teaching the course, "The Firm and the Non-Economic Environment. "Bertrand is an applied microeconomist who has done research on racial discrimination, CEO pay and incentives, the effects of regulation on employment, and household finance, among other topics. Her research has been published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, theJournal of Political Economy, the American Economic Review, the Journal of Finance and several public policy journals." Congratulations, Professor! Read more >
By Elizabeth Oates, '13
Chicago Booth recently partnered with The Committee of 200 (C200), an organization comprised of the world's most successful women entrepreneurs and corporate leaders, to host a forum for students and alumni. The forum, on March 30, was sold out, with more than 150 Booth women in attendance and 35 members of C200 who spoke in panel sessions and mingled with students throughout the day. The last time C200 was at Booth was in 2006.
Winners of C200 scholarships were announced at the luncheon. Seven finalists were introduced, and then the three winners were announced. Gale Bowman, '12, Shang Chen, '12, and Sarah Press, '13, will receive $10,000 each and have access to mentoring opportunities with C200 members.
Morning panel sessions addressed topics such as entrepreneurship, mentoring, and negotiations. "Hear what people are saying and think about your value in terms of their needs and desires, and custom design yourself to do that," said Larraine Segil, partner emeritus and former owner of Vantage Partners. Her consulting firm evolved out of the Harvard Project on Negotiation. In terms of how to negotiate in business without compromising relationships, Segil suggested affirming the business needs and the personal side in parallel. How to do that? First give positive affirmation of the relationship and then counter with the business needs that you are responsible for.
Afternoon sessions dealt with managing perceptions and finding a balance. Sara Akbar, CEO of Kuwait Energy Company, told a compelling personal story about the risks in managing perceptions. She was perceived as a crazy woman when she fought to work in the oil fields. However, by working in the oil fields she was able to develop the reputation she desired as a great engineer. Later she became known as a hero for being the only female firefighter when the Iraqis set the oil wells on fire in Kuwait.
Lynn Shanahan, CEO of the C2Group and President of Marimekko North America, provided advice on managing impressions with peers and management. "Have clarity about yourself: your mission, positioning, goals," said Shanahan. "Understand management and peer goals to create a great team. Have steadiness, calmness, and the ability to make a decision. Everyone should have the same view on the path you are taking."
At the closing session, Dean Sunil Kumar thanked the C200 members for their mentoring, for their support through scholarships, and for serving as role models to the women of Chicago Booth.
The event was organized by C200 in partnership with a student planning committee of Tyler Akeson, '13, Monica Ganley, '12 , Katy Simonis, '12, Stine Solibakke, '12, Caroline Watkins, '12, and Donna Wu, '12.
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