January 28, 2010 • Cost: $80
Steinberg Conference Center
The Wharton School,
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA

Monica McGrath, Wharton adjunct associate professor of management, has served as academic director for numerous Wharton programs for women. She will discuss the major stages of a woman’s career, and will address how women can build a successful and fulfilling life with a focus on life-long learning.

BUSINESSWOMEN'S DIALOGUE
Dr. McGrath’s address will be followed by small group discussions and networking groups where you can voice your ideas and propose strategies for dealing with the challenges facing professional women today. Break-out groups will address the following topics:

    * The MBA degree—asset or detour?
      Wharton has just seated the largest percentage of women (40 percent) in its MBA class. Many of us, however, still see a business degree as an expensive detour in our career. Should we encourage, mentor, and advocate for a business degree for women? What skills do we need that we feel should be addressed in an MBA curriculum?

    * Women and Self-Promotion
      In a recent survey on careers, 97 percent of women and 79 percent of men believe men and women focus their behavior differently as leaders. Specifically, 88 percent of surveyed women believe men lead by “promoting themselves and their abilities.” It seems many men believe this as well, since 60.9 percent of men believe men work harder than we do at “promoting themselves and their abilities." Should we work harder at self promotion? If so, how?

    * Perceptions of business women as mothers
      Based on a 2007 study, 70 percent of the public thinks it is more difficult to be a mother today than it was 20 or 30 years ago. And, according to this survey, 56 percent of all Americans think mothers are doing a worse job today than mothers did then. Is this true? Is this because more women are working full time? What should we do to address the perception that we are good or bad mothers?

    * The mostly inaccessible C-suite
      Among the largest companies in the U.S., women make up 58 percent of those holding bachelor degrees, 30 percent of most Executive MBA classes, and 40 percent of the leadership workforce; only 15.4 percent of the top executives and 2.4 percent of the chief executive officers are female (Hopkins, O’Neil, Passarelli & Bilimora, 2009). What is keeping us back from these jobs? What can we do about this?

PANEL DISCUSSION
A panel of women alumnae will discuss the challenges they face as they move through the stages of their own career, and the learning opportunities presented in every phase.

KEYNOTE LUNCH
A keynote luncheon address by a Wharton woman of note will inspire and challenge participants to understand the issues facing women worldwide, and the importance of using a collective voice for change.
NETWORKING
After the lunch address, you will have time to connect and reconnect with your peers.

 FEATURED SPEAKERS

	Allyson Alimansky (WG '01) is Director on the Capital Services team within the Prime Services group at Credit Suisse, where she works with institutional investors to help hedge fund clients raise capital. Prior to joining Credit Suisse, Allyson was the Director of Business Development at hedge fund D.B. Zwirn & Co., where she built and managed the marketing and investor relations teams. Allyson holds a BA in Politics from Princeton University, and an MBA in Entrepreneurial Management from The Wharton School.
	Mary Gross (WG '02) is the Director of Career Management Services for the Wharton MBA Program for Executives, charged with developing and delivering career services focused on the unique career needs of mid- to senior-level executives. Mary has held senior human resource roles in various organizations including Merrill Lynch and Bank of America. She is currently a doctoral candidate in Organizational Psychology at Rutgers, and has earned an MBA from The Wharton School and a BS in Accounting from the University of Maryland. In addition, Mary was co-author of Back in the Game, a research study on the challenges faced by professional women returning to the workforce.
	Gloria V. Rabinowitz (WG '78) is President & CEO, GCM Group LLC., a technology development, strategy, and marketing company. Before founding the GCM Group, she worked for the DuPont Company holding executive level positions across DuPont Strategic Business units for over 22 years. Currently, she is Managing Director of Golden Seeds Philadelphia Forum, an angel investor group providing early stage and growth capital to women entrepreneurs. Her professional and community involvement includes: President, Wharton Alumni Club of Philadelphia; Trustees Council of Penn Women; Board of Directors and Mentoring Program Chair, The Forum of Executive Women; Women Inventing Next (WIN) Advisory Board; PhillyStartUpLeaders; and Founder of the Women’s MBA Network of Philadelphia. Ms. Rabinowitz has her MBA in Finance from The Wharton School and her Masters in Information Science from The University of Michigan.
	Veronika Sonsev (WG '05) is VP of Global Business Development at Jumptap, responsible for crafting deals with publishers and technology partners. Before joining Jumptap, Veronika was Senior Director in AOL's Wireless Group responsible for business development and strategic planning. Veronika has a BA in Economics from American University and an MBA from The Wharton School. She is actively involved with Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO), an organization that helps minority students from NYC public schools gain admission to college.

Register online today! Or please contact us by Jan. 15th to reserve your space:

Wharton Executive Education
1.800.255.3932 (U.S. or Canada)
+1.215.898.1776 (worldwide)
execed@wharton.upenn.edu (e-mail)