2016 Session | Change Agent or Co-Conspirator? A Fireside Chat on Obtaining Power, Influence and Driving Healthy Advancements in the Workplace

Gender exclusion is still prominent in today’s work environments putting women in a challenging position – for obvious reasons around the lack of equity– but also for those trying to exist in a corporate landscape as they climb the ladder and try to make a name for themselves as a leader in a boys club. This intimate fireside chat will bring you up close and personal with Margaret McKenna – the first woman Deputy White House Counsel, the first president of Walmart foundation and the first woman president of Suffolk University. McKenna has forged the path of firsts and has also been a change agent in her different roles, from leading an effort to appoint more women and people of color to Federal judgeships, to prioritizing hunger as the signature issue for the Walmart foundation and driving governance change at Suffolk University. She has moved from government to the university life to the largest company in the world. How did she obtain these positions? How did she learn to navigate such different environments? What lessons did she learn about creating positive change? Led by leadership expert Sue Hodgkinson, we will answer these questions, and you will leave inspired to take action and walk away with actual strategies to influence and obtain the distribution of power and control necessary to drive positive change and make strides towards equity and partnership.