Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Bay Business Journal article on Women’s Exchange:
Exclusive: Women’s Exchange plays ‘matchmaker’ for female talent, board openings
Apr 20, 2015, 12:14pm EDT
Print Editor-Tampa Bay Business Journal
A casual meeting at Starbucks has blossomed into an initiative by a group of Tampa Bay’s leading female business executives to find a seat at the board table for more women.
Now, the Women’s Exchange Forum is launching its website,www.womenexchange.org, a tool to identify potential candidates who are qualified for positions on corporate, nonprofit and government boards. It will allow Women’s Exchange to develop a pool of qualified candidates and a list of openings.
“Women will be able to go on the website, sign up and as we get to know them and their wants and desires, we can match it to a board or committee that can use their time or talents,” said Sandy Murman, chair of the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners and a founding member of Women’s Exchange.
Murman and three other founding members — Karen Seel, Pinellas County Commissioner; Maruchi Azorin, owner of Villa Rosa Distinctive Linens in Tampa; and Bridgette Bello, president and publisher of Tampa Bay Business Journal— were sitting at Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) having coffee when they started talking about how to increase female presence on all types of boards.
While research by Catalyst and other organizations has shown that companies with a higher female board presence outperform other firms, women make up only about 17 percent of corporate board membership. Too often, Bello said, women downplay their own assets and positive qualities. “They need other women pulling them along,” affirming and encouraging them, she said.
The Women’s Exchange was established in 2013, with the organizers challenging themselves to use their influence and networks to encourage more women to achieve success in leadership roles throughout Tampa Bay, Azorin said in a written statement. To engage more than just the women they knew personally, they established the website, which is a database that provides “robust opportunities” for involvement, said Renee Dabbs, principal at The Voyageur Co. and a member of the Women’s Exchange board.
The website provides the resources that women across the state have been saying they need, said board member Deborah Cox-Roush, owner of C&L Creative Solutions of Florida. “This is a resource to help women engage in the appointment process. It raises much-needed awareness that the vacancies are there,” she said.
It also allows women to find organizations that women can identify as ones they want to make a difference in by getting involved, said Trimeka Benjamin, president of OrangeTheory-fresh ideas and a Women’s Exchange board member. She donated company time and resources to create the website, and while the emphasis for now is on filling local positions with women in the Tampa Bay area, she and others would like to see it go national.
“The sky is the limit,” Dabbs said. “I travel across the country and have exposure to women in various positions, and consistently they tell us this is what they need.”
When Dabbs speaks to groups, she finds many women already serve on nonprofit boards, but fewer are on corporate boards or government boards. “I want to see that dynamic change, so the women running the nonprofits in our community are sitting on other boards as well,” she said.
The organization already has helped a handful of women get board posts, and while the group doesn’t have specific quantitative goals, Murman said most public sector agencies put out quarterly lists of available appointments. “If we act on those lists and get a significant number — between five and 10 appointed each quarter — that’s potential 40 women each year we are helping to get ahead.”
