A couple of days ago I was surfing on Facebook when I came across a post from Caterina Della Torre – founder of Dol’s – on a horrible advertisement on photovoltaic (click here to see the advertisment).

I was commenting on the above mentioned adv suggesting that the only way to impact such attitudes is to focus on what companies care about: money and profit. I thought about the most recent compaign from Diesel (Be stupid), that irritated me so much that it convinced me to cancel Diesel from my list of potential brands in case I need to purchase a pair of jeans.

I am sure that being outraged because of a communication campaign or a specific policy is not enough to put pressure on companies’ attitudes and behaviour: we have the power to make things happen by simply deciding not to purchase products that are publicized in a way we feel is offensive for women and their dignity.

Is there a similar experience you would like to share with us? Which was the advertising campaign that irritated you most?

But most important of all, do you think that PWA Milan should take an active role on this and support a moral persuasion initiative against companies that don’t respect our dignity?

Read the article in Il Mondo about mentoring, where PWA’s own mentoring program that will be launched on May 19th is presented.

Read the article (in Italian, pdf) here.

by Kristina Tool

What can companies do to not lose valuable resources when employees take time for maternity leave? What can women do to remain competitive in the workplace if they take time away from the office for maternity leave? PWA hosted a panel of speakers on February 17 at the Grand Hotel et de Milan and generated a list of tactics that both women, and the companies who value them, can use to continue to benefit both business and women.

The panel was comprised of Barbara Cominelli, Strategic Planning Director at Tenaris Dalmine, Lynn Chasson, EU Controller at Arvin Meritor and Mara Caverni, Partner at Price Waterhouse Coppers – Private Equity Leader.

Questions about returning to work post maternity leave initiated a discussion in which    the panelists spoke candidly about their experiences. Barbara Cominelli explained that a successful maternity leave begins with planning what to delegate, what to reduce and which responsibilities to keep control of while away. 

Lynn Chasson related how her experiences away from work varied with each of her three children. With more than ten years of work experience, she had risen up the corporate ladder and did not want to lose her place while growing her family. Due to company restructuring during her first two pregnancies, she was unable to return to job. During her 3^rd pregnancy she was without work and post pregnancy faced the challenge of getting back into the job market and achieving her pervious level. She started small and actively pursued opportunities through her networks, eventually working for a previous boss who knew that having a family did not interfere wither abilities to perform her job.

Mara Caverni provided a perspective, not as a mother, but as a partner who did not want to lose two strong employees who left for maternity leave. In each case she was able to shuffle her teams and shift their responsibilities to manage projects while these women were away. It was not always seamless but with open communication and a commitment to stay in touch, Mara and her team were able to manage this temporary shift with great success.

All panelists agreed that good planning and outside help were essential to making this work. The discussion opened up to an active Q&A period from the audience, generating more suggestions about what both companies and individuals can do to have a successful maternity leave. Many from the audience contributed to help formulate a list of actions, including Maria Grazia Bizzarri, HR Manager Corporate Function Vodafone. Maria Grazia shared information about Vodafone’s culture of recognizing the value which diversity in the workplace contributes and how they actively cultivate an atmosphere which supports women, something that we hope more companies will begin to do.

With the goals of supporting women and bringing more value to business, the evening’s event produced the following tactics:

COMPANIES:

• Allow flexible schedules
• Allow part time work
• Enable employees to redefine roles and duties
• CEO and top executives must demonstrate support for diversity and set up business to allow women to return
• Educate the employees; produce written guidelines to provide all employees with strategies on how to work successfully with colleagues on maternity leave
• HR to maintain contact and provide guidance during transition
• Make it a goal to manage people by objectives met, not simply physical presence in the office.
• Provide coaching to employees on leave
• Evaluate process in place to manage maternity leave and share success of established programs

 INDIVIDUALS:

• Plan leave in advance
• Decide which duties you can delegate, reduce, keep
• Stay in touch with work
• Strategies to return:
  • Start small, freelance in current field
  • Use professional and social networks
  • Use personal coach to validate your value
• Have support at home
• Don’t stay away too long
• Choose good companies and supportive bosses
• Be clear with your boss and company about your intentions
• Don’t lose your ambition

It’s with pleasure that we share the information below on EuropeanPWN Oslo member, Magali Rouyer Johnsen who is the recipient of an IE EPWN Scholarship (read the post).   She will receive 20.000 Euros toward her academic program at IE Business School.  

On behalf of the EuropeanPWN Federation we congratulate Magali! President Council EuropeanPWN

Magali writes to all Presidents

“Thank you so much for all your congratulations. I am awed to be part of such a wonderful organisation and would like to thank you all at EuropeanPWN!  Special thanks go to Jennifer who has been giving me her unconditional support since July 2009 and to Marijo who has brilliantly negotiated this great scholarship!  I will be using the week-end and the next few days to plan for this incredible opportunity! Warm and excited greetings from Oslo!”   Magali

Our PWA member Barbara Cominelli is one of the “40 under 40″ chosen by the business magazine Economy.

She was also chosen Donna Manager 2009 by Aldai/Federmanager and awarded last month (Amazzoni Donne del lavoro 2009). Congratulations!

If you want to read the article (pdf, in italian) click here.

You may have already heard about the flagship event we have planned for our members this year, but for those of you who haven’t, we are excited to unveil PWA Milan’s Mentoring Program.

The PWA Milan Mentoring Program is the first of its kind for our association, and is spearheaded by Valerie Ryder, Director of Professional Development. Between 20 and 30 members will have the opportunity to participate as Mentors or Mentees in the initial period of the program, meeting for a minimum of one hour per month for six months. The launch will take place in May and the first edition will last through November of this year.

Why Is Mentoring Important?
Mentoring plays a critical role in the advancement of women professionals in all sectors. Lack of mentoring, exclusion from networks, and absence of women role models are cited as the key barriers to career advancement for women. A mentoring relationship can provide structure for the development of individual skills and leadership abilities.

How Does Mentoring Work?
A mentoring relationship is based around the Mentor sharing her professional experience and knowledge with a Mentee. It is not advice, coaching or counseling. It may address specific personal projects, business successes or general conditions in the mentee’s profession. For more information the definition of mentoring, please see the related article entitled “What Is Mentoring All About” here.

The success of mentoring depends directly on the engagement of both parties and responsibility of both for their own progress, which are demonstrated in concrete actions. The success is measured as the achievement of the initial goals and the satisfaction of the Mentee and Mentor with the mentoring relationship.

Mentor as Role Model
Many of you are mentors and might not even know it! All of us have accomplished various goals, overcome barriers, reached career heights, and have general life and professional experience. As women we tend to downplay our successes and perhaps not realize what we have to offer to others in terms of our professional and personal experiences. Perhaps someone could benefit greatly from the wisdom and knowledge you’ve gained through your experience. Think of a role model or mentor in your life that has inspired you in some way – what became possible for you because of this person? Imagine how it would feel to be a role model for an aspiring mentee?

The importance of having a role model and someone to look up to can not only be inspiring, but absolutely necessary for some who may not believe it’s possible for them to achieve their goals. Mentoring can offer the pathway for women to have professional role models they need to ignite them towards increased professional success.

Apply for the Mentoring Program

Keep an eye out for upcoming communication about how to apply as a Mentor or Mentee in the Mentoring Program. In the meantime, if you would like to participate or would like to have more information, contact us at professional@pwa-milan.org
• Valerie Ryder, Mentoring Program Leader and Professional Development Director
• Monique Svazlian, Mentoring Program Team Member

The Presidents and leaders of the 17 City European Professional Women’s Network (EuropeanPWN) elected a new Board on Jan 22, 2010. The two day General Meeting was hosted in Barcelona, part of the federation since 2008. In addition to formal elections, the leaders exchanged ideas and insights on EuropeanPWN’s evolving vision, strategy and priorities for 2010 and beyond in response to significant growth in the number of networks, activities and strategic partners across Europe.

If you want to read more click here.

2009 is over – one of the toughest we have probably ever experienced in our times – and the new one has just begun, for which we already have high expectations.

Before introducing the objectives we would like to attain in 2010, let’s provide an overview of PWA Milan’s past year. We have reached a number of achievements that we are quite proud of:

• Increased our visibility and credibility as an international professional network focused on the development and enhancement of women’s careers: in 2009 PWA Milan was mentioned more than a dozen times in the media;
• Organized many successful events, such as “Women in Finance” in collaboration with Korn Ferry International with more than 150 participants, and the “Ready-for-Board Women” initiative with over 200 attendees; and
• Became a point of reference on issues related to women on boards of directors, as we were the pioneers in carrying out a promotional initiative entirely based on merit.

At the same time, we continued striving to improve our array of regular events. We introduced a more interactive and structured format for our networking aperitivi, to facilitate and increase the possibilities of making new connections. We offered a series of skill-building workshops facilitated by our PWA coaches, and sponsored many stimulating events, conferences and initiatives.

We have also created an important new page on our website, devoted to our members’ events. Members can promote their activities and events, and thanks to our newsletter mailing list, reach out to more than 600 women.

The concrete consequence of these activities and efforts is significant growth in membership: we ended 2009 with close to 200 members (+ 19 % compared to 2008). Further, we have increased the number of local corporate members – welcome and thank you to Accenture, and many thanks again to Sodexo and Latham & Watkins. Our most sincere congratulations go out to our Corporate Member Maria Cristina Storchi, Equity Partner of Latham & Watkins, for being listed in the first edition of the official Ready-for-Board Women directory.

As for 2010, the new Board has already begun its efforts to add more value and benefits to membership in PWA, and to increase PWA’s visibility to attract more members. The key projects the Board aims to focus on in 2010 are:

• Continue developing the Ready-for-Board Women initiative, with two fundamental goals: attain a higher number of PWA members in the directory, and support the growth of the number of women in general on Boards of Directors of companies in Italy;
• Launch the first-ever PWA Milan mentoring program, in response to the oft-cited need for today’s professional women to have access to more mentors and female role models in order to reach even higher levels;
• Define, share and begin the implementation of PWA Milan’s Strategic Plan, actively involving our membership in the process of shaping the future of the association.

We will also offer more structured networking events, to assist our members and guests in successfully building and widening their network. We are determined to organize beneficial and well-attended speaker meetings with inspiring presenters and panel members, thereby providing more occasions to learn new skills and share best practices.

In order to ensure the possibility of member involvement in developing PWA Milan and in sharing our objectives and actions, we will add two members-only, extra events (in addition to our General Assembly). These will represent the occasions to discuss the association’s Strategic Plan and, together, better plan for the future of PWA.

We hope you will support us in this challenging path: as individuals we have the possibility to make things change, but as a group we have the power and visibility to make things happen. Be part of it!

We are glad to introduce the new PWA Milan Board:

 President – Monica Pesce

 Vice President – Maria Lassila

 Treasurer – Giulia Ghetti

 Corporate Members Director – Viviana Cavalli

 Events Co-Directors – Hema Mali and Kristina Tool

 Membership Director – Lucia Fracassi

 PR & Marketing Director – Marcelle Sartori Milagres

 Professional Development Director – Valerie Ryder

If you wish to support the board on specific activities or special projects, please contact us

PWA members, please find below the key dates related to the election activities that will be taking place over the next few weeks.

KEY DATES

• 3 November: deadline for candidate submissions
• 4 November: candidate biographies available in the Members’ Area and “Meet the Candidates” at the Networking Aperitivo
• 12-26 November: email voting period
• 30 November: election results announced

Voting will be held by email and a quorum of the membership must be reached during the voting period for the elections to be considered valid. During the voting period the Board may contact members via email and/or personally to ensure that a quorum is reached. Proxies will not be accepted during Board elections.

INFORMATION FOR PROSPECTIVE CANDIDATES

Only current PWA members can be elected to the PWA board.

If you’re interested in being a candidate for a position on the 2010 PWA Board of Directors, please notify PWA Elections Committee co-Chairs Leslie Strazzullo and Bernadette Lynch, by sending an email to pwa@pwa-milan.org. Please put the word “Elections” in the subject line and indicate in the email the position for which you are submitting your name as a candidate. The closing date for candidate submissions is 6pm on 3 November 2009.

In the email, we also request that you include:

• A short biography, preferably with a picture. Biographies may include such information as your personal background and your association with PWA
• Your motivation behind why you want to become a Board member
• Your goals/vision for the organization for the coming year

Candidate profiles will be posted in the Milan Group area of the EuropeanPWN website (www.europeanpwn.net) by 4 November 2009. At the PWA aperitivo on 4 November, you will have the opportunity to meet in person the candidates.

Candidates (and all members in general), are invited to read through the PWA Internal Regulations in the Milan group area of www.europeanpwn.net to better understand the internal management of the organization. In addition, in the Milan group area of www.europeanpwn.net you can read a short summary of the board positions and their respective responsibilities.