Nearly 500 people recently convened at the Hilton Anatole to learn from some of the region’s top women executives at D CEO’s second annual Women’s Leadership Symposium.
The half-day event featured speakers including Nicole Smith, chief marketing officer of the WNBA’s Dallas Wings team; Terri Von Lehmden, talent acquisition general manager at Toyota; Suzy Batiz, Poo-Pourri founder and CEO; and Mina Chang, CEO of Linking the World.
Roslyn Dawson Thompson, president and CEO of the Dallas Women’s Foundation, kicked off the event with an overview of the state of women in the state and nation and identified key areas of opportunity. Attendees learned that powerful things can come in small packages and about the importance of negotiating relationships versus transactions from Rita Kosnik, visiting professor of negotiations at the Neeley School of Business’ Executive MBA program at Texas Christian University. “Being a good detective, counselor, and dealmaker makes a good negotiator,” she said. “Women have all those traits.”
Tara Jaye Frank, who launched P3T Group Inc. after spending years in the corporate arena, told attendees how to reimagine their skills and step up as their own leader. Shama Hyder, founder and CEO of Marketing Zen, hit the stage with energy, explaining what it was like to start her company at only 23 years old. The social media entrepreneur stressed the importance of leveraging perceived weaknesses as strengths and not waiting for permission to get things done. For Laura Maxwell, senior vice president of supply chain at the Frito-Lay division of PepsiCo, taking the road less traveled was her key to success. She emphasized using doubt as fuel for the future and described how she applied her personal experience in boxing to business: “Read their elbows, not their hands,” she said. “In business, predict and anticipate.”
The event wrapped up with words of wisdom from Allie Beth Allman, president and CEO of Allie Beth Allman & Associates. Allman, who built her company from the ground up, still abides by her small-town values and told the audience to always protect their business reputation and keep a good sense of humor, even when failure hits. “If you have never failed, you have never worked hard,” she said.
