Nonetheless, there are some good reasons to celebrate successes. Here are a few things you can do.
Small celebrations help you recognize how all the little things you do daily add up to something more significant.
Nonetheless, there are some good reasons to celebrate successes. Here are a few things you can do.
Small celebrations help you recognize how all the little things you do daily add up to something more significant.
![]() |
©2025 Laurel J. Delaney. All rights reserved. |
![]() |
©2025 Women Presidents Organization Chicago. All rights reserved. |
The Summit took a clear-eyed look at the forces shaping business today and tomorrow. From the broader state of the economy to the evolving role of tariffs, interest rates, inflation, and the Federal Reserve, we’ll examine the questions that matter most to business leaders. Are current policies pushing us toward recession—or resilience? How might rate decisions in 2025 and beyond affect growth? And what happens if politics enters the Fed’s decision-making? Join us for an engaging discussion on what lies ahead and how you can prepare for it.
Panelists discussed:
It was a thought-provoking, engaging and informative program.
Big thank you to Lisa A. Byrne, MBA, Senior Vice President | Financial Advisor, Portfolio Director Group, RBC Wealth Management and Rachel D. Irons, CFP®, ChFC®, Senior Vice President – Wealth Management, Financial Advisor, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™, UBS for moderating our panel discussion on "Navigating the Unknown: Economic Strategies for Women CEOs."
And to the panelists – Kristin Roesch, Vice President Blackstone Investment Strategy; Charlotte Noels, Vice President Blackstone Private Wealth; Scott Becker, CFA, Calamos, Senior Vice President, Head of Portfolio Specialists; and Katrina Schmaltz, CFA®, CPA, Managing Director, Portfolio Strategist, Nuveen – thank you for sharing your expertise with us.
See you at our 23rd Annual Summit in 2026!
![]() |
©Women Entrepreneurs Grow Global®. All rights reserved. |
Learn how you can execute on your priorities during uncertain times.
Which is why Porcher wants to bring the intention back to buying Black – and she’s got just the directory to make it happen. This past Juneteenth, Porcher debuted Buy From a Black Business.
Like any good habit, recognition thrives with consistency.
Here are a few thoughtful ways to reignite the power of recognition in your workplace – this month and beyond.
Here are 13 useful prompts for ChatGPT, along with methods for fine-tuning them to get high-quality results that help grow your business.
As WPO members will tell you, the founder’s journey is often oversimplified, the path from a scrappy startup to a profitable business frequently boiled down to a few moments of inspiration that make founders look like magicians. As this article says, the narrative glosses over the frequent moments of uncertainty that founders go through.
Learn more and remember to focus on what matters.
Many businesses today are grappling with declining revenues, stagnant pipelines and reduced conversion rates, making the need for transformation even more urgent.
As this power shift accelerates, businesses must rethink their branding, marketing and customer engagement strategies to remain relevant today.
Here are six key strategies that Ali Payani believes can help businesses navigate today's uncertainties and emerge stronger.
Women President Organization (WPO) members are also demonstrating a range of leadership strategies under pressure. Their responses along with the U.S. CEOs, reflect not only the complexity of executive leadership but also the deep interconnection between business strategy and geopolitics.
As President and CEO of the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) for more than a decade, Pamela dedicated her life to lifting women business owners up to unimaginable heights and building bridges through every connection she made.
Our condolences and love go out to Pamela's family at this sorrowful time.
Rest in Power (RIP) dear Pamela. May the lord receive you in the same fashion you received us – with energy, enthusiasm and care.
Maria was the CEO of a rapidly growing tech startup in the genomics space. She was curious, confident, open to new ideas, and comfortable being challenged by her team—all qualities that had helped her build the company from nothing into a 30-person organization with millions of dollars in venture capital funding and a consumer-facing product about to be released. And yet, even as things seemed to be going exceptionally well, key leaders were starting to leave—and the board brought in a clinical psychologist to figure out what was going on.
When Maria received feedback, she said, "“My ability to make decisions is a strength. And they’re good decisions! I don’t see the point of going around in circles once I know the answer!”
Well not everyone is perfect. Learn more of how Maria's strengths turned into weaknesses. Every gift has a curse.
Despite facing systemic barriers and discrimination, women, like many WPO members, have continued to break through glass ceilings and pave the way for future generations.
Explore and celebrate these women entrepreneurs who have left a lasting impact in our business world.
We are proud of longstanding WPO Chicago member Ellen Wheeler and wish her many more accolades in the future for her important work.
Learn more on Foley’s 2025 Chambers rankings - https://lnkd.in/g9G5ExdS
New partners Jesse Neil, Brent Bowman, and Jon Gaston join the firm from Holland & Knight LLP. The group advises clients on a variety of regulatory, transactional, and tax issues. Additionally, two Foley litigation partners, Kevin Hyde and Lauren Loew [WPO Chicago II chapter member, pictured], will work from Nashville to help establish and grow the office.
Read the news release here. Our congratulations to Lauren! We are so proud of you.
![]() |
©2025 Laurel J. Delaney. All rights reserved. |
“Their leadership demonstrates the profound economic and societal impact of women at the helm. With a strong commitment to innovation, purpose, and people, these companies exemplify the essential role women-owned and led businesses play in building a more sustainable and inclusive economy. This recognition is more than a milestone—it’s a powerful affirmation of the transformative influence women have in shaping modern business.”
In times of national grief or uncertainty, music has often been the thread that stitches people back into community.
Some of our greatest American leaders knew this. Long before neuroscience could explain it, presidents were turning to music to steady a nation, calm collective nerves, and kindle hope.
Today, on Memorial Day, I invite you to use music to connect across generations and reflect with purpose.
As the new tariff regime reshapes the global business landscape, resilience should be at the top of every executive’s and business owner's agenda.
Learn more here by reading the full report.
So how do you tell great stories, particularly great business stories? Here’s how to make your narratives more persuasive.
![]() |
Oh, and you might still be able to attend if you move on it now. We have 16 Chicago members attending and I can't wait to connect and learn together.
The program takes place from May 7-9, 2025 at the Hyatt Regency Hill Country Resort and Spa.
See you in San Antonio!
And so a side business becomes a multimillion-dollar business. It's called Quiet Town.
CR is for everyone involved in commercial creativity, anywhere in the world. They share insight and inspiration across disciplines and borders, connecting brilliant minds to make brilliant things happen.
Learn more how creative thinking and design make businesses and brands more successful, dynamic and engaging for audiences.
What they discovered along the way was there wasn't an event that brought together different buyers, suppliers and vendors focused on luxury weddings.
So Grinnals and Arce established a conference to do just that: Engage! Summits, now a multimillion-dollar brand.
Find out more here.
Smart, driven women, like WPO members, always support other smart, driven women.
That’s why many generative AI platforms allow you to create custom AI assistants: what ChatGPT calls a “custom GPT,” Claude calls a “Project,” and Google Gemini calls a “Gem.” These assistants store elements of a prompt that you might want to use over and over so you don’t have to include them every time you ask the platform to help you with your recurring tasks and challenges.
A word of caution, though: Don’t overwhelm agents with an excess of information. With too much context, your agent may be a jack of all trades, but a master of none.
![]() |
©2025 Women Entrepreneurs Grow Global®. All right reserved. |
At SUCCESS® magazine, they celebrate women through their annual Women of Influence awards campaign, recognizing trailblazing women who are not only shaping the present but are also laying the groundwork for future difference-makers to thrive.
Discover who these women are here.
These changes have raised alarm bells for businesses relying solely on social media to drive sales. If a social platform goes down, so does any business heavily reliant on that platform. With the shifting reality of social media, developing a marketing strategy that doesn’t rely on social media is the safe option.
Try your hand at reducing your dependency on social media with a new marketing strategy. Here are some ideas.
These celebrated founders know all too well the challenges business owners need to overcome to grow flourishing companies--and the role persistence plays in success. These seven Inc. board members analyzed Inc.'s Female Founders list and highlighted stand-out honorees who they believe exemplify the key principles of entrepreneurship.
We need to focus on empowering women with the resources, strategies, and mindset shifts to break through this threshold and increase that number. Once you breakthrough, WPO is the organization to join to keep growing. All WPO members generate more than one-million in annual revenue. Average revenue of member companies is $15.7 million.
More women making $1 million in business means more wealth, influence, and opportunity for women to lead and inspire future generations of entrepreneurs.
With a workforce of around 8,000 and a global sales and services organization operating in more than 140 countries, Kaeser is one of the world’s leading manufacturers and providers of compressed air solutions and services.
Together with SAP, Kaeser wanted to improve data quality and optimize its core business processes. “AI was on our radar screen back then, but it wasn’t our starting point,” recalls Dr. Norbert Enge, chief business consultant for SAP Business Transformation Center.
The proportion of SAP Business AI in Kaeser’s data project rose from less than 10% in the first year to over 30% in the third. Today, the team is now 100% focused on SAP Business AI and has developed 12 specific use cases targeted at adding value for customers.
Discover more at the Fast Company article.
Be careful how you approach this. You don't want a rush to nowhere.
So what’s coming in 2025? We’re going to ignore the obvious here: You can bet that agents and smaller, more efficient, language models will continue to shape the industry. Instead, here are five alternative picks from the MIT Technology Review AI team.
The question becomes: How you plan to strengthen your people in 2025?
To learn more, access the entire article here.