|
and opportunity for women who have good experience, who have perhaps pursued higher education or a leadership role and who are ready to take the next step in their career. Mary Pat points out that women are our number one customer in animal health if you consider the demographics of graduating veterinary students. She feels we're slowly starting to mirror our customers by having more female executive leaders such as Kristin Peck, EVP & President, US Operations, Business Development and Strategy at Zoetis and Sarena Lin, EVP & President, Corporate Strategy and Global Marketing at Elanco US. While these women have achieved significant roles in animal health there are still opportunities for improvement in leadership roles considering that the majority of graduate today are women.
We asked Mary Pat to reflect on her time as a member of the WILMAH board and she shared how much she enjoyed working with such smart, talented and hard working women. She felt it was inspiring to be around them and that the positive energy that came from the group was wonderful. She also described how impactful WILMAH's activities have been, especially the panel discussions that have connected industry leaders, men and women, with WILMAH members and supporters. Mary Pat feels it's important not to exclude men as they will be the mentors that help women get promoted since they still hold so many leadership positions today. She's pleased that the WILMAH community continues to include men and women.
Now that Mary Pat is no longer involved in animal health she is doing some consulting work for the private equity firm that she worked with when she helped take MWI Animal Health public in 2005. She is also currently serving as Chairwoman of the Twelfth District Economic Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. In addition, she is a board member for both Regence BlueShield of Idaho and AAA of Oregon/ Idaho and she serves on the Business Advisory Board of Zions Bank. She's having fun! After 31 years in animal health she says it's exciting and interesting to be looking at other industries.
When asked what parting advice she'd like to share with WILMAH she said women have to dream big. If you dream it, you can do it but if you're afraid to have an aspiration, you'll never get there. Stand up and take the risk. You may not succeed but if you aren't brave enough to try, you definitely won't. Even if you aren't successful from the challenge, you learn, grow, become more well rounded and are more prepared for the next time that you get tapped for an opportunity. Raise your hand, take that risk and you'll never regret it!
|
