Ilene Gordon

Gordon-Bluestein offer several key pieces of advice to the audience, based on their own experience, on how to navigate the dual career-family environment. Lessons learned include the 48 hour rule and being Mr. Gordon-all focused on creating a supportive spouse- career situation. The authors have also been recognized as key bloggers on these subjects for Psychology Today. (Book called” Doubling Down: the Secret Sauce for Dual-Career Families.”)

Well governed companies tend to perform better than companies with weak or ineffective boards. Active, involved boards go above and beyond traditional roles of governance, shareholder advocacy, and compensation to help companies win the marketplace. They look into the future, get involved in the development of strategic plans, and challenge management. Ilene Gordon has been a corporate director at various companies for more than 30 years and currently serves on the boards of three public companies. In this presentation, she outlines the characteristics of effective boards and how they contribute to a company’s long term success.

Ilene Gordon attributes her success in the business world to her analytic capabilities she developed as a math major at MIT. Back then, the ratio of female to male students was 10:1. While more and more female students are studying STEM subjects, males still outnumber them. Females now earn only about 37 percent of undergrad STEM degrees, and not surprisingly, the gender gap persists in the workplace. Future U.S. economic growth and competitiveness largely rests on the innovations of industries that rely on employees with STEM expertise. If it persists, the STEM gender gap can put the nation at a competitive disadvantage and its female citizens at an economic disadvantage. This presentation will focus on factors that perpetuate the gender gap in STEM education and careers and identify actions to narrow the gap.

From a young management consultant in London to the CEO of a FORTUNE 500 company, Ilene Gordon strategically managed her career path to the corner office while raising a family. Her experiences managing male colleagues twice her age to commuting to Paris from Chicago to take advantage of an executive opportunity taught her a number of engaging and valuable leadership lessons that are useful to business leaders climbing the executive ladder.