The Minnesota Chapter of Women Corporate Directors (WCD) held an event in November at the Minneapolis Club, cosponsored by the Minnesota Business Partnership. It was entitled “Excellence in the Boardroom: Governance During Economic Uncertainty & Market Volatility.” Speakers included Dorothee Blessing, Global Co-Head of Investment Banking at JPMorgan, and Corie Barry, CEO of Best Buy, which is of course a MN-based Fortune 500 company. More than 200 people attended — “about half of them men,” said Barb Stinnett, our CEO, who noted the topic of “change is constant” ran throughout. (Barb is pictured at left in the photo along with, left to right, Paula Skjefte, Co-Chair, MN Chapter, WCD; Dorothee Blessing of JPM; and Erin Dwyer, CEO of WCD.)
Not surprisingly, the subject of AI was a central topic as well. “What it was yesterday is not what it is today, nor what it will be tomorrow,” said Barb, “and the human element will remain critical.” Other subjects addressed during the session included 1) DEI: “it’s gone, we lived through it, we learned from it, and need to embed it into what we do every day”; 2) remote work, which the JPM exec noted is definitely a changing focus at her company – “and we’re learning”; and, finally, 3) digital currency was called out as something we need to learn and live with.
“It was a very emotional and worthwhile event,” said Barb, and she thought the talk by JPM’s Dorothee Blessing “was fantastic!” In addition to Best Buy’s very talented CEO being in attendance (and also speaking), there were three or four other Fortune 500 CEOs in the audience, said Barb, who serves on several boards.
Women Corporate Directors (WCD) is the world’s largest membership organization and community of women corporate board directors. It is a trusted community of directors serving on more than 8,500 public and private boards around the world. For more about the Minnesota Chapter of Women Corporate Directors, see their LinkedIn page here.
And do feel free to reach out to Barb for more about the event, by emailing hi@timmarongroup.com.
