Office of External Communications

Houston, TX 77204-5017 Fax: 713.743.8199

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 10, 2004

Contact: Angie Joe
713.743.8153 (office)
713.617.7138 (pager)
ajoe@uh.edu

HOUSTON, Nov. 10, 2004 – The group that BusinessWeek magazine calls “the most high-powered organization you’ve never heard of” is holding an outreach seminar at the University of Houston Nov. 12 for female students pursuing an MBA.

The Committee of 200 (C200) and UH’s C.T. Bauer College of Business will present “Women at the Top: Leading Your Company. Leading Your Career.” It is the second of two C200 outreach seminars held this year.

C200 members are either entrepreneurs who own and run companies that earn at least $15 million in annual revenues or corporate executives who are CEOs or senior executives leading operating divisions with direct impact on annual revenues of $250 million or more.

“Given the large proportion of women enrolled in the Bauer College of Business, UH is the perfect host for our area’s outreach conference,” said C200 Southwest region chair Karen Pitts, co-owner and co-CEO of Link Staffing Services Corp. “Our members have overcome the obstacles and barriers of the glass ceiling, and we hope to share our learning experiences with future business leaders.”

Nearly 20 members of C200 will speak during the conference’s three sessions: “Fast Tracking Your Career” will focus on skills such as assertiveness and networking women need to advance their careers; “Leadership: A Balancing Act” will provide real-world leadership training; and “Industry Insiders” will feature some of the nation’s top business women who will share their insights into trends and the reality of industry and entrepreneurship.

Keynote speakers are Henrietta Holsman Fore, director of the U.S. Mint, and Bonnie McElveen-Hunter, U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Finland.

Three scholarships will be given at the conference. The C200 Scholar Award, a $25,000 scholarship, will be presented to a first-year woman graduate student at the Bauer College of Business. MassMutual Financial Group will also award two $6,250 scholarships.

Conference underwriters are MassMutual Financial Group and Strategic Financial Group, Inc.

“Women continue to play a more prominent and valued role in business,” said Susan Sweetser, MassMutual second vice president for women’s markets. “MassMutual is excited to underwrite this conference and award two scholarships to deserving students.”

Twice yearly, C200 co-sponsors one-day Outreach Seminars for women MBA students. Seminars rotate among the nation’s top business schools, including Harvard University, Columbia University, Duke University, University of Michigan and Thunderbird. Outreach seminars provide a free flow of ideas and give students the opportunity to have a dialogue with C200 member panelists.

C200’s founding members include Katherine Graham of the Washington Post; Sherry Lansing of 20th Century Fox; Patricia Cloherty of the U.S. Russia Investment Fund; Christie Hefner of Playboy Enterprises and Muriel Siebert, of Muriel Siebert & Co.

The organization started in 1982 with a handful of the most powerful women in business gathered in Los Angeles. Their immediate goal was to raise funds for the National Association for Women Business Owners (NAWBO), a network dedicated to women entrepreneurs. Beyond raising $200,000 for NAWBO, the small group of women ultimately conceived a larger agenda: to create a national network that would capitalize on the experience of women at the top echelons of business. Since that time, C200 has emerged as a powerful catalyst for changing the face of business today.

Based in the U.S. with international members in Europe, Asia and Latin America, the C200 boasts more than 445 women members who represent 80 plus industries, including manufacturing, technology and finance. Entrepreneurs form 70 percent of the total membership while corporate executives make up 30 percent of the membership.

For more information about the conference, go to http://www.bauer.uh.edu/wib/index.html. For more information about the C200, go to http://www.c200.org/.

About the University of Houston
The University of Houston, Texas’ premier metropolitan research and teaching institution, is home to more than 40 research centers and institutes and sponsors more than 300 partnerships with corporate, civic and governmental entities. UH, the most diverse research university in the country, stands at the forefront of education, research and service with more than 35,000 students.

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