News

Female CEO Ascension

Michele Buck is set to become Hershey Company’s CEO in March 2017, becoming the 28th female to head a Fortune 500 business.  Women are also expected to soon become CEO at other large corporations, including Tupperware, Kohl’s, Verizon, Aetna, Inc., Southern Company, and Abercrombie & Fitch.  Nearly all female CEO’s of large corporations ascend upwards through the ranks internally, rather than being selected from outside the firm.  For example, Adena Friedman runs Nasdaq Inc, where she began as an intern, and Patricia Stitzel began at Tupperware back in 1997 as a human-resources professional.  Regarding the glass ceiling, we still have a long ways to go in America, and progress is slow, but progress is in the right direction.  Amy Hayes, a consultant at Russell Reynolds Associates says: “Aspiring female CEOs must have had success multiple time to win that ultimate promotion; companies are more willing to take a risk on a man than a woman with a similar experience set.”

 

Source:  Joann Lublin, “More Women Are Winning CEO Job,” Wall Street Journal, January 18, 2017, p. B5.

Comments are closed