By: Sandra Jones

January 17, 2005, Crain's Chicago Business

Chicago's biggest public companies remain slow to promote women to the highest levels of their organizations, according to a study to be released this week by the Chicago Network.

Among the most surprising findings: There are no longer any female CEOs or chief operating officers among Chicago's top 50 public companies.

And 32 of the 50 companies have no women among their top five earners. ''That's a depressing number,'' says Victoria Medvec, executive director of the Center for Executive Women at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.

Since the Chicago-based research and advocacy group began its annual census in 1998, only two women have appeared on its list of CEOs: former TruServ Corp. CEO Pamela Forbes Lieberman and former Kraft Foods Inc. co-CEO Betsy Holden, who made the 2003 list, released last year. Since then, both women have been forced out of the top job.

The Chicago Network, a group that measures executive women's progress at Chicago's 50 largest public companies based on revenue, calls the pace of change ''unacceptable'' and calls for Chicago CEOs to actively pursue plans to promote more women to the boardroom and the executive suite.