IBM, PepsiCo tops for minority women
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- May
- 23
Two of Westchester County’s biggest corporations have won kudos from Working Mother magazine or their efforts to attract, retain and promote minority women.
Armonk-based IBM Corp. and Purchase-based PepsiCo Inc. are among 20 companies that appear on the 2007 Working Mother Best Companies for Multicultural Women list. The contest was open to U.S. companies that filled out a questionnaire about their efforts to aid women employees who are African-American, Hispanic, Asian-American or Native American. The magazine, in its fifth year compiling the list, sees improvement for women of color, with the number of minority women in management positions increasing 16 percent between 2003 and 2006.
PepsiCo’s chief executive officer, Indra Nooyi, is a native of India. Among PepsiCo’s 60,634 U.S. employees, 1,237 are women of color and 445 are in leadership positions. The magazine cited PepsiCo’s Women of Color Multicultural Alliance, which provides a forum for minority women to raise concerns and develop skills.
Among IBM’s 131,150 U.S. employees, 10,959 are women of color and 775 are in leadership roles.
The magazine cited IBM’s recruitment efforts and noted that minority women made up 7 percent of new hires last year. Brewster resident Anita Rice, IBM’s manager for multicultural and women’s initiatives, said Big Blue has an array of leadership and networking programs for minority women that helps them find other people like themselves for inspiration. A 29-year IBM veteran and African American, Rice said she personally mentors other IBMers and has benefited from mentoring that encouraged her to take risks and strive to succeed. “What you end up finding out is that every multicultural woman has a story about where she started in the company and where she is today, and any opportunity to network is an opportunity to gain from someone else,� Rice said.
Although IBM does not have any minority women at the senior vice president level or above, there are several vice presidents in the ranks, including Westchester County employees Maria Azua, vice president of technology and innovation, and Lauren States, vice president of client value initiative.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007 at 6:03 pm by Julie Moran Alterio.
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