Breaking Through: Stories and Best Practices From Companies That Help Women Succeed

When women succeed, we all win.

Praise for BREAKING THROUGH

"Martine Liautaud, one of France′s pioneering female investment banking executives and entrepreneurs, and an alumna of the Stanford Executive Program, has put together a wonderfully inspiring book. It highlights the success of the Women Business Mentoring Initiative, which has mentored around one hundred CEOs to date, in bringing women executives to positions of top–level organizational leadership. The book reports voices of mentors and mentees that provide deep insight in the process involved in helping female executives reach their full potential for making leadership contributions. While celebrating success achieved to date, the book also drives home hard the need for even greater efforts to accelerate future progress along the success trajectory."
ROBERT A. BURGELMAN, Edmund W. Littlefield Professor of Management

"Breaking Through will give you both energy and hope, and convince you that success in business is not a gender matter. It is a question of talent and courage. And women have plenty of both. Through lively accounts of female entrepreneurs and senior executives, Breaking Through shows us that mentoring and sponsoring are decisive tools for women′s success."
ISABELLE KOCHER, CEO, ENGIE

"Mentoring revealed my entrepreneurial drive and gave me the confidence to successfully develop my business in Europe and then in the United States. Read this book to boost your business tools."
MARTINE DE RICHEVILLE, Entrepreneur and founder, Svelt Coaching

"As Martine Liautaud writes, ′Women do not lack courage in life.′ Breaking Through offers a collection of powerful voices and concrete insights to help women gather that courage and translate it into professional success. It is a valuable addition to any professional woman′s bookshelf."
ANNE–MARIE SLAUGHTER, President and CEO, New America

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Preface

Part I Overview

Chapter 1 Women and the New Economy

The New Economy: Opportunities for Women

Women in Corporates and Finance

Women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics)

Chapter 2 Mentoring and Sponsoring: The Keys to Success

Mentoring and Sponsoring Women Employees

Mentoring and Sponsoring Women Entrepreneurs

Part II Voices of Women Business Leaders

Chapter 3 Obstacles to Success and Solutions for Overcoming Them

The Obstacles

The Solutions

Chapter 4 Role of Women in the Global Economy

Interview with Irene Natividad, Founder and President of Global Summit of Women

Chapter 5 Career Strategies for Women

Interview with Professor Margaret Neale, Adams Distinguished Professor of Management at Stanford Graduate School of Business

References

Chapter 6 Inclusive Leadership

Interview with Deborah Gillis, President & CEO of Catalyst

Chapter 7 Improving the Place of Women in the Economy

Interview with Audra Bohannon, Senior Partner at Korn Ferry s Leadership and Talent Consulting

Chapter 8 Overcoming Women s Obstacles

Interview with Christiane Bergevin, Executive Vice–President at Desjardins Group

Chapter 9 Women s Spirit of Enterprise

Interview with Valérie Bernis, Executive Vice President at ENGIE

Part III Designing Mentoring and Sponsoring Programs

Chapter 10 Mentoring by ENGIE

Interview with Gerard Mestrallet, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ENGIE

Mentoring by ENGIE , A Structured Program to Train Women as Leaders

Chapter 11 Oracle Women Leadership (OWL) Mentoring Program

Interview with Leopoldo Boado, Chairman of Oracle Spain

Oracle s Mentoring Program and Intercompany Experience

Chapter 12 VivaWoman! Program

Interview with Maurice Levy, Chairman of the Board of the Publicis Groupe

At Publicis Groupe, The Main Aim of Mentoring is to Retain Talented Staff

Chapter 13 MixCity and Women s Leadership Initiative

Interview with Marie–Claire Capobianco, Head of BNP Paribas French Retail Banking

BNP Paribas as a Proactive Supporter of Women in Business: A Mentoring Program

Chapter 14 Women s Initiative Network and Reverse Mentoring Program

Interview with Karen Peetz, President of BNY Mellon

Interview with Jean Wynn, Managing Director and Chief Administrative Officer of BNY Mellon s Office of the President

Part IV Mentoring Program Success Stories

Chapter 15 BNP Paribas Corporate & Institutional Banking (CIB)

Interview Tabitha Coombe (Mentee)

Interview with François Freyeisen (Mentor)

Interview with Siobhan Roche (Mentee)

Interview with Constance Chalchat (Mentor)

Chapter 16 ENGIE

Interview with Mathias Curnier (Mentor)

Interview with Paola Vezzaro (Mentee)

Chapter 17 Oracle

Interview with Nicoleta Apostol (Mentee)

Interview with Giovanna Sangiorgi (Mentor)

Interview with Paula Craythorne (Mentee)

Chapter 18 Publicis Groupe

Interview with Michele Gilbert (Mentor)

Interview with Charlotte Guillabert (Mentee)

Chapter 19 BNY Mellon

Interview with Regina Meredith–Carpeni (Mentor)

Interview with Yoon Park (Mentor)

Interview with Jeff KUHN (Mentee)

Part V Ways to Help Entrepreneurs to Succeed

Chapter 20 Mentoring and Sponsoring Programs

Mentoring Women Entrepreneurs

Interview with Emilie Creuzieux, Founder of Monbento (Mentee)

Interview with Jean–Jacques Berard, Co–founder of Executive Interim Management (Mentor)

Interview with Muriele Roos, Founder of Femme Majuscule (Mentee)

Interview with Eve Magnant, VP at Publicis (Mentor)

Interview with Jane Chen, Co–founder of Embrace (Mentee)

Interview with Abigail Holsborough, Founder of RouteMap (Mentee)

Interview with Clara Shih, Founder of Hearsay Social (Mentee)

Chapter 21 Networking

Dell Women s Entrepreneur Network (DWEN)

ASTIA A Different Kind of Network Performing in a Different Kind of Way

The Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women Initiative

Chapter 22 Training

Women Entrepreneur Program in Stanford

MARTINE LIAUTAUD is an investment banker, entrepreneur, and investor specializing in mergers and acquisitions and financial engineering. A recipient of the Chevalier de la Légion d′honneur, she is chair of Liautaud et cie, which specializes in mergers and acquisitions, financial engineering, and consultancy to major French groups, as well as founder of Women Business Mentoring Initiative, a non–profit supporting women entrepreneurs. She recently set up the Women Initiative Foundation (www.women–initiative–foundation.com) to promote and boost the role of women in the business world.