Brilliant New Women to Meet

A top the 48th floor of a new building in Hudson Yards with 240 degree glass views of New York City with the most mesmerizing crystal clear view of the Hudson River was where a centennial celebration of women’s suffrage was held on November 6th. The room glowed from gold and purple lights intermixing to create a spectacular aura as fanciful hors d’oeuvres and ‘suffrage’ drinks comprised of champagne, rose water and a lavender bud were passed. My two handsome sons, who don’t mind having a ‘pro-female’ mother, joined me and mingled with women of all ages. A tall cake topped with “100” was center stage for all to see. It was glorious.

Like any networking event, people mingled looking for others to talk to. I couldn’t take my eyes off a woman I thought was someone I knew from a Women TIES event in Skaneateles. I finally approached her and said, “Do I know you?” She responded, “I don’t think so, but tell me who you are?” So I shared my background and how I was invited to this exclusive affair. In turn she told me she had recently met New York State Lt. Governor Kathy Hochul and was invited to attend. After more ‘small talk’ about my career including the Women’s Athletic Network, the woman said to me, “I love sports too. I was the CEO of the Milwaukee Brewers once,” I thought to myself only in New York City on this night would I meet this amazing career woman.

The woman I met was Wendy Selig-Prieb, an attorney by trade and the only female president and chairman of a Major League Baseball Club. As part of management’s Labor Committee in 1994-1995, Selig-Prieb was the first woman to represent Major League Baseball in its collective bargaining with the MLB Players Association. She served on numerous other committees for Baseball and represented the Brewers at Major League meetings from September 1992- January 2005. She was an impressive in person as in her resume. She engaged with my sons even asking my oldest son about her orthopedic ankle injury. We walked away glad to have met each other.

I wish I had a chance to meet every woman in that room there to celebrate women’s history. What stories would each of them have? Who could I have met and the reasons why they were there and how they are making a contribution to women’s history in business? There are also women not at business events, like my sister Bre Chamberlain who fights for Fair Rent Portland to help her own community. I won’t know about all the women in the world making positive changes but I learned the simple lesson in reaching out to someone new and starting a meaningful conversation until we uncover more brilliant women to know, do business with and admire.

Today’s Wednesday Wisdom is to inspire you this month to meet as many new women as you can at our events or others and uncover the brilliant, innovative, intelligent women that exist in this world. It is time to come out from your small network of familiar faces and launch yourself into a new community of women you haven’t met yet.