Three female panelists will offer personal perspectives and analysis of prospects for female entrepreneurs, as well as local sources of support.
Driving Directions:
DIRECTIONS: Take I-88 to Route 59, go North on Route 59 and turn right at first street (Westings Drive). From Westings, take an immediate right onto Calamos Court. Parking garage is on right. Go to CityGate Grille. Meeting room is down the steps below CityGate Grille.
Event Details
From the recent blockbuster best seller "Lean In" to Forbes touting 2014 as a "breakout year" for women entrepreneurs, much attention is being placed on gender issues and the special contributions and challenges of women in business. Is this a case of different lyrics but the song remains the same, played in various keys over the decades? Or has the wealth of different experiences and their related learning truly made "stand up and notice" the most accurate injunction for present developments.
Join us to hear three experts who have long addressed the ramifications of such questions and thrived in the process. Their presentations will offer both personal perspective and insights from aggregate analysis on the prospects for female entrepreneurs and the consequences of that future both for them and society at large. As a member of our March audience at our interactive forum, you will ideally come away with new ideas on important issues like:
• Female leadership and its potential advantages for business
• The choice of entrepreneurship and its expression over a woman's career
• Female entrepreneurship stereotypes and their validity or related gender bias
• Effective local sources of support for aspiring and current women business owners
Chicago Booth students and alumni and Entreprepreneurial Roundtable members - $15 until March 12, then @$20.
General public, $5 more.
Program
6:30 PM-7:00 PM: Networking with light refreshments
7:00 PM-8:30 PM: Panel Presentations with Q&A
8:30 PM-9:00 PM: After program personal questions and networking
Speaker Profiles
Waverly Deutsch (Speaker)
Clinical Professor of Entrepreneurship, Chicago Booth
Waverly Deutsch teaches Building the New Venture and created a complimentary simulation game, YourCo. She has won multiple teaching awards for her pedagogy. A full-time coach for the annual New Venture Challenge business plan competition since 2002, in 2012 she became one of the faculty coaches for companies in the Polsky Center Summer Accelerator Program. From 2006 to 2009, in conjunction with the University of Chicago's Collegiate Scholars Program, Deutsch pioneered and taught the intensive summer seminar "Elements of Entrepreneurship" in which promising Chicago Public School high school students turned an idea into a business plan in two weeks. Her research focuses on the execution issues entrepreneurs face as they grow their businesses, especially marketing, sales, operations and team building.
Deutsch is an active angel investor and advisor to start ups including Cygany, InterApt, SwingByte, and Multimedia Research Group, has been a board member for InContext Solutions, and founded WaveWords Consulting, offering strategic consulting for startups on business plans, funding strategy, technology architecture, marketing, and customer service. As managing director of NetFuel Ventures, an internet incubator, she raised seed capital and launched three technology companies before its merger with ARCH Development Partners. She also assists the not-for-profit venture I.C.Stars helping young inner city adults prepare for high tech careers. She previously worked as executive vice president of marketing and strategy for internet exchange company fob.com and with Forrester Research. Deutsch earned a bachelor's degree in computer science from the University of Pittsburgh in 1985 and received a master's degree in 1989 and a PhD in theater history in 1992 from Tufts University.
Michele M. Honomichl (Panelist)
Founder, Executive Chairman, and Chief Strategy Officer, Celergo
Celergo is the leading global payroll service provider managing local, offshore, and expat payrolls in over 100 countries for financial services, business services, technology, and oil & gas industry clients. As single point of contact for their global payroll needs, Celergo manages changes, calculations, compliance, funding and reporting through standardized global payroll processes to ensure visibility and compliance. As the CSO, Michele’s duties include thought leadership and setting the strategic direction for Celergo’s services, technologies and market expansion. Celergo is an Inc 500/5000 Company 2009 -2013 and was named as one of Chicago's 101 Best and Brightest Companies to Work For 2009 - 2011 and 2013.
Previously, Michele was a founder of GPSLink, and chief architect of the virtual relocation management model – a revolutionary web-based technology to help manage expatriate administration. She also worked at Ford Motor Company, supporting the creation of a world-class expatriate administration center and launched a global expatriate management system. Michele holds a BS in Finance from Michigan State University and an MBA from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University.
Michele has presented at HRMAC, SHRM, The Conference Board, and the APA on a variety of Payroll, HR, Expatriate, and Technology topics. Michele is also the author of Chapter 13, International Payroll in the Payroll Answer Book by Wolters Kluwer, 2007 through 2014 Editions.
Gail Zelitzky (Panelist)
Serial Entrepreneur and founder of “You’re in Business…I’m Your Coach
Gail has owned and operated 2 successful, multi-million dollar companies - a multi-state liquor store franchise and a worldwide catalog and e-commerce business. Since 2000, she exclusively coaches women business owners to embrace the twin drivers of business success: sales and marketing, to think sales from the inside out and become strong leaders in order to live the life they love. Her proactive, no-nonsense approach brings solid solutions to challenges faced by business owners. She consults, mentors, writes, is a public speaker, organizes workshops and teaches entrepreneurs how to rapidly improve their business and their quality of life
Gail is founder of Transformation Lab - a peer advisory group leading entrepreneurs into culture-changing growth, where she teaches participants to creatively pursue new strategies, change their perspective and, ultimately, increase revenue and profit.
Gail has served in multiple leadership roles in professional and trade organizations, including the National Association of Women Business Owners, Chicago Chapter (past president); Interise (senior instructor and support coach); Lincoln Park Chamber of Commerce (member, Executive Board and Board of Directors); and the Illinois Retail Merchants Association. She is pursuing her MAAPS degree in creative leadership at DePaul University’s SNL.