by Eva Glassman | Jan 29, 2025 | Blog, Featured
By Doris Meister | Wilmington Trust | Member since 2017
Creating a culture where healthy debate is the norm doesn’t just prevent groupthink; it enables the organization to remain adaptable and responsive to change. CEOs must balance assertiveness with openness, listening to diverse opinions and creating an environment where all voices feel heard. In doing so, leaders can build stronger, more innovative organizations capable of navigating today’s rapidly changing business landscape.
In this recent article for Forbes, C200 Member Doris Meister explains how CEOs must be aware of the risks of echo chambers and maintain a balanced approach to leadership.
Read the full article here.
by Eva Glassman | Jan 22, 2025 | Blog, Featured
By Sophia Velastegui | Fmr. Aptiv | Member since 2023
Too often, AI is viewed narrowly as a tool for efficiency. When integrated with the right leadership and strategy, AI has the potential to transform entire organizations.
In the latest Forbes article from C200 member Sophia Velastegui, the power of AI is redefined—not as a passing trend or technical fix, but as a strategic lever for driving long-term growth and innovation. Here are three key takeaways from this article that every business leader should consider:
- AI as a Strategic Lever, Not Just a Tool
AI should be seen as a force for growth. By shifting the mindset from mere technical application to a strategic asset, leaders can drive innovation and decision-making that accelerates organizational transformation.
- Leadership Alignment Drives Success
For AI to have its full impact, it must be embedded at the heart of the business strategy—not siloed in IT departments.
- Fostering a Culture of Experimentation
AI adoption requires a shift in mindset. Encouraging a culture where experimentation is valued and failure is seen as a learning opportunity will help to harness AI’s potential.
Read the full article here.
by Eva Glassman | Dec 23, 2024 | Blog, Featured
Dear C200 Community,
It has been an incredible 2024. I’m so grateful for the community that surrounds this organization and our mission to advance women in business. Thank you to all of you who show up for C200 and for one another.
2024 has shown us a lot about the state of women in business at large, and that C200 has a unique solution to these issues. While we’ve made steady progress in the way of representation for women entrepreneurs and senior executives, we’ve learned from research released this year that those gains are stagnating at best, reversing at worst.
What’s more, the fight for gender parity in the workplace is only half the problem. Even if we do achieve it, will the workplace truly be equal if there is no support for women along the way? That lack of support (e.g., lack of professional development resources, community, childcare access, etc.) is why women feel so lonely and isolated in their careers, despite increased representation at the top. If we are solely focused on achieving 50-50 parity, we overlook the lived experiences of women in the workplace, limiting our abilities to see the issues they face and the solutions they need.
What C200 offers is more than a network or mentorship opportunities. We are not a transactional organization—we are transformational, providing an intimate community for women business leaders where they can be vulnerable and bring their authentic selves. Within every engagement opportunity at C200, there is a transformative experience that happens for everyone present. Sometimes, these are small but powerful moments that are hard to capture, but they are essential to how C200 thrives and what more women in business deserve to have. I’m thrilled that C200 welcomed over 50 new Members to our sisterhood in 2024, showing that we are still needed and sought out in the landscape.
The theme of transformation will continue in C200’s work in 2025, with goals to expand the organization through our Membership experience and Advancing Women Programs. Everything we do is about advancing women in business—whether that be in the traditional sense of helping women get that next position or facilitating conversations that shift mindsets.
The need for community never goes away, and it’s clear that C200 is needed now more than ever. To continue creating our one-of-a-kind, priceless moments for more businesswomen, we need donations from our community. We want to offer all women in business even more chances to gather, connect, and learn together. Please consider donating or spreading the word to those who can. With your help, the possibilities for connection are limitless.
Thank you for everything. I’m excited to usher in 2025 and all the wonderful things we’ll accomplish. I hope you’ll join me and the rest of us there.
Myla Skinner
CEO, C200
by Eva Glassman | Dec 19, 2024 | Blog, Featured
By Alexandra Lebenthal | Rockefeller Capital Management | C200 member since 1995
C200 has long championed the importance of women in leadership, but the challenges they face—especially in securing funding—remain significant. Despite making remarkable strides, women-led businesses still receive just 7% of venture capital, and research shows they’re less likely to be approved for loans due to biases against women business leaders.
This stark imbalance not only highlights the barriers women entrepreneurs continue to face but also underscores the untapped potential of women-led ventures. The perceptions and biases that limit access to networks and funding are slowly being challenged, opening doors for more women to access the capital they need to grow and thrive.
In this Forbes article, C200 member Alex Lebenthal explores the progress being made and the exciting opportunities that lie ahead for women in deal-making and entrepreneurship. It’s time to rethink how we invest in women and support their extraordinary contributions to innovation and business growth.
Read the full article here.
by Eva Glassman | Dec 2, 2024 | Blog, Featured
The march forward to gender parity is always changing.
At C200, the holiday season is one of our favorite times of the year, because it encapsulates the beautiful intersection of celebration, giving, and community—all things that are front and center in our mission is to inspire, celebrate, support, and advance current and future women entrepreneurs and corporate, profit-center leaders.
As we celebrate and cherish our communities during the holiday season, it is also a time to pause and reflect on the year as it comes to an end and a new one begins. What did we accomplish this year? Where did we fall short, and how can we continue to be better? How can we let those we care about know that we love and support them?
As an organization dedicated to empowering women and changing the business landscape, C200 asks these questions year-round, as the march forward to gender parity is always changing.
This year, we’ve continued to see record numbers of women in leadership positions. However, we also know that resources and community for women at the top are scarce; so many women entrepreneurs and executives report feeling lonely and isolated. What’s more, we’ve seen studies come out this year, like McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace 2024 report, warning that companies are deprioritizing the advancement of women and diversity, equity, and inclusion in their strategies, as evidenced by the decline in professional development programs geared toward women and other minority groups.
Women’s networks and ways of achieving success in the current system require something different.
These trends are alarming to us. Businesswomen have unique professional journeys; the resources, community, and support they need to advance are different from what has traditionally worked for men. This is why so many women experience loneliness in the workplace, despite finding great professional success.
It’s clear that even if we do achieve total gender parity in the workplace, that doesn’t mean women will be equally happy or fulfilled in their professional lives. Women’s networks and ways of achieving success in the current system require something different.
Women don’t want to be simply accepted or represented in the workplace; they want to be supported—and be themselves.
Because of this, C200 is leveraging our strengths as one of the first movers for executive women organizations. Founded in 1982, we’re a network for the most successful professional women in the world, and we will continue our work to advance all women in business. We create communities that women need for their distinctive journeys—communities that acknowledge the complexities women face in the workplace and provide the access, intimacy, sisterhood, and bonds that are specific to the careers of women. We are thought leaders, market influencers, and champions of efforts that ensure women are represented, confident, and connected across all aspects of business.
Your financial support of our mission has never been more important.
As we enter the holiday season and this time for celebration, reflection, and giving, C200 is looking toward our members and wider community. In 2025 and beyond, we want to continue to offer the unique and transformative resources and opportunities that have influenced the lives of so many businesswomen over the decades. While our membership dues are critical to the endurance of our mission and efforts, there is so much more we need to accomplish that donations from individuals like you can help us achieve.
With companies scaling back gender parity initiatives and resources for professional women, your financial support of our mission has never been more important. Whether you simply spread the word or donate, please keep C200 in mind this holiday season. Your small donation or word of mouth makes a huge impact on our ability to advance women in business.
Where would any of us be without community? At C200, ours is changing the face of business, one woman at a time.
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