WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP FORUM

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The Executive Leadership Council's (ELC) Ninth Annual Women's Leadership Forum was held at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minn. on July 10, 2012. More than 200 African-American women executives attended the event hosted by the Target Corporation. The event focused on "Potential, Purpose and Power," leadership development and increasing the representation of African-American women in senior leadership positions in corporate America.

The event spoke directly to ELC's mission and aspirational goals, an effort to promote corporate diversity. Over the next five years, the ELC will work with corporate America to add at least one African American at the CEO level or one to two levels below at each Fortune 500 company for a total of 500 and to increase the number of African Americans on the boards of publicly traded companies by 200.

The core program of the forum included off-the-record discussions, panels and keynotes featuring successful Black female executives and thought leaders. Group and panel discussions will cover such topics as:

Blind Spots: Are they Assets or Liabilities?

Retaining Your Personal Power

Well Being: 5 Essential Elements

Crisis Averted

The evening panel, Black Women on...Power, featured Linda Johnson Rice, Chairwoman, and Desiree Rogers, Chief Executive Officer, of Johnson Publishing Company. The discussion was moderated by Yanick Rice Lamb, Editor at Heart & Soul Magazine.

Members of the Planning Committee include Council members: Leilani M. Brown, Julia Brown, Susan Chapman, Kerry Chandler, Desiree Dancy, Cheryl Fells Davis, Akosua Barthwell Evans, Tracey Gray-Walker, Carolyn Green, Cindy Kent, Nicole Lewis, Valerie Lewis, Michelle Miller, Rhonda Mims, Kim Nelson, Subriana Pierce, Hilda Pinnix-Ragland, Kim Strong, Geri Thomas, and Laysha Ward.

All proceeds support the Ann Fudge Scholars Program, named in honor of the first woman chair of the Council and former CEO of Young & Rubicam Brands. Established in 2005, twenty-four $5,000 scholarships have been awarded to exemplary graduate and undergraduate Black women majoring in business.