Aligning intention with Action: Inside the Kellogg Global Women’s Summit
By Claire Zulkey
Wearing a purple sweater, former Kellogg professor Oprah Winfrey Zoomed into the Global Hub recently to join Dean Francesca Cornelli for a fireside chat at the sold-out Kellogg Global Women’s Summit. In a wide-ranging and inspirational conversation spanning lessons from her iconic career in media and philanthropy, Winfrey shared memorable anecdotes involving a few friends: Maya Angelou, Beyonce, and Toni Morrison, to name just a few. But only one name came up repeatedly: Rosalind Bordo.
Rosalind Bordo ’00 MBA, was one of Winfrey’s students when “The Color Purple” actress taught Dynamics of Leadership here in the late ’90s. In front of the roughly 650 alumni and student attendees, Bordo stood and thanked Winfrey for her class’s effect on her. Bordo had come to business school in 1998 feeling “safe” in her then-consulting job at Deloitte, she says. Not long after getting her MBA, Bordo remembered Winfrey’s classroom lessons about aligning intention with action. Bordo decided to shed her fears, and she left her consulting job to launch a business. She later wrote Winfrey a letter expressing her thanks. Today, she is the co-founder of Dwellsy, a marketplace for home rentals.
Winfrey was nearly speechless. But it turned out she had a surprise for the Kellogg alumna, too. “Rosalind, I remember the letter that you sent me almost a decade after I taught that class,” Oprah told Bordo on the virtual call, in front of the sold-out crowd. “I have a box of sacred letters. And your letter is in it, in the same box with Nelson Mandela’s. It’s so, so great to see you.”
After the thunderous applause calmed, Winfrey and Dean Cornelli began their fireside chat. During their discussion, they reiterated the importance of making decisions with careful intentionality. The conversation capped two energizing days of Kellogg alumni networking, learning, laughing and catching up. The Summit was planned to be “part stimulating thought leadership, part supercharged community building.” It also turned out to be a call to action: to take a risk, to surround yourself with different kinds of people and to skip the impostor syndrome.
Day 1: Discussing diversity, women’s empowerment and the ‘croissant’ mentality
The Summit was open to all Kellogg alumni and students. Day one started with welcomes from Cornelli and Ann Drake ’84 MBA, a Global Advisory Board member and longtime supporter of women’s development at Kellogg whose financial support made the event possible. Cornelli emphasized that a practical value of the Summit was for alumni to “activate a diverse network” as has been proven vital for success, according to Kellogg faculty research.
Diversity matters to alumni in 2024 as much as it ever has, and the topic came up repeatedly over the next two days. In a panel titled “Untangling the Knots: Bias, Women and Cultural Evolution,” Kellogg professor Lauren Rivera pointed out, “This is the most diverse set of Fortune 500 CEOs ever, yet it’s still 94% white and 90% male.” Ginny Clarke ’84 MBA noted, “The default has been around pedigree, and not everyone has had the same opportunities. There is no correlation between where you went to school and how competent you are.” Clarke, the former director of executive recruiting at Google, now runs a leadership development advisory and business. She called for the women present to “rebuild the system in a way in which it serves everyone.”
Afterward, panelist Lizette Williams ’07 MBA, global head of vertical solutions marketing at Meta, described the Summit as “transformative.” “Not only did I get to discuss the complexities of bias in workplace culture during my session, but I also got to engage with some incredible women. These women were leaders in their respective fields who brought knowledge, experience and passion to driving women’s leadership forward.”
During a panel called “Together We Rise: Women Empowering Women,” Julie Castro Abrams ’89, founder of How Women Lead, talked about a phase of life called “middle-escence.” “You hit this moment of discernment where you realize, ‘I’m not willing to work in that way or for those people or for that cost anymore.’ We are happier if we’re doing things with other women and having an impact.’” At the end of the panel, Ellen Taaffe ’97 MBA, professor and director of Women’s Leadership Programs at Kellogg, gave this networking tip to attendees: “Be a croissant, not a bagel.” Meaning, that when you’re in a crowd, don’t stand with others in a closed circle, but instead open up and form a semicircle to include others nearby. That “croissant” mentality imbued both days of the Summit, with attendees often turning to each other to introduce themselves and make new connections.
Day 2: Economic policy, building your brand and amplifying your message
The second day of the summit began with the panel “Empowering Women: How and Why Economic Policy Matters,” which ended with a standing ovation. Associated Press Global Business Editor Cara Rubinsky ’99, TIAA CEO Thasunda Brown Duckett, KPMG US Chief Economist Diane Swonk and Professor Janice C. Eberly addressed COVID’s economic impact on working women. They discussed the challenges women face trying to re-enter the workforce after stepping out, the economics of care, hybrid workforces and the importance of pursuing and promoting diversity in the workplace. “I think we sometimes have to remind ourselves that we cannot be sorry,” declared Duckett. “We cannot opt out. We are still shattering glass ceilings. But we don’t want to just shatter the ceiling; we want to shatter the whole freaking building,” she said to applause.
At the panel “Building Your Brand: Creating Influence and Impact,” Stephanie A. Gallo, ’99 MBA, talked about how the decision to drop her family founder’s name from their 90-year-old wine brand was “pretty emotional.” Tara McNally Montgomery, head of content and executive producer at Harpo Productions, discussed the challenges and lessons she learned through transitioning what was once “The Oprah Winfrey Show” into the OWN network and OWN as a brand. Polished Nickel Capital Management CEO Carol Lavin Bernick talked about changing the culture of Alberto-Culver, the beauty brand founded by her parents, which includes brands like Tresemmé, Nexxus, V05, St. Ives, and the Sally Beauty Supply chain.
They also addressed the many challenges of being a working mother. Montgomery talked about how hard it was to decide to continue to rise in her job while her husband became the “available” parent, but once they decided together, she says, “My energy shifted. I stopped getting mad about all the things that I was missing: weddings, high school reunions. I stopped getting mad because I made the decision.”
Yet another panel focused on the impact of effective communication. The panel “The Art of Being Heard: Amplifying Your Message” featured entrepreneur Ada Osakwe ’11 MBA, former Waze CEO Neha Parikh ’07 MBA, and Independence Point Advisors CEO Anne Clarke Wolff ’89 MBA, with professor Suzanne Muchin. “It was wonderful being back at Kellogg for this impactful gathering,” said Osakwe, who is also an investor and board director, and is based in Nigeria. “We shared openly and connected deeply on our desire to show up powerfully in all the spaces we occupy. I left each session with clear tools and tactics to implement in all facets of my life. I’m so fortunate to be part of such an incredible global community of remarkable women.”
Victoria Medvec, executive director of the Center for Executive Women, shared strategies on effective negotiations, before attendees took their lunches to another slate of panels. In front of the White Auditorium’s stunning view of Lake Michigan, professor Gina Fong along with Esther Choy ‘09 MBA, CEO of Leadership Story Lab shared tips for delivering high-stakes speeches. Choy shared her acronym for a good speech: making sure that it’s I.R.S.: an intriguing beginning, with a riveting middle and a satisfying end.
Meanwhile, a trio of championship winning coaches — Northwestern women’s lacrosse coach Kelly Amonte Hiller, softball coach Kate Drohan and field hockey coach Tracey Fuchs — later chatted about the rise of women’s sports with Christen Brennan, a pioneering sports reporter and member of Northwestern’s board of trustees. Liz Livingston Howard, professor and executive director of the Kellogg Center for Nonprofit Management, particularly enjoyed the panel. “Christine Brennan did a fabulous job asking them to share keys to their amazing success in this auspicious time in women’s sports,” she said. “Kelly summarized the feeling of the day for me, saying, ‘Each of us can point to a woman who mentored and helped us.’” One particularly rousing moment from the panel came after an audience member asked about taking on discrimination against girls’ school sports in her Wisconsin town. Brennan, recommended she get the story in front of the local news, even spelling out the name of her contact at a regional newspaper there.
Summing up the energy and momentum of the event, Dean Cornelli urged those in attendance to support one another and pay it forward. She mentioned her own experience with breaking barriers, becoming first woman to become a full professor at the London School of Business.
“You are thankful for people who open the road for you,” Cornelli said, reflecting on that time in her career. “And that's so important that that's what we can all do. We have a room full of amazing women here who achieve success and will go on to achieve even more success. What we also need, however, is to own the space and make sure that we can open more and more doors for other women.”
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