MWN Announces Our National Board!

Kay Whitaker serves as the National Board Chairperson for the Mentoring Women’s Network Foundation and is also the Treasurer of Indianapolis Neighborhood Housing Partnership, which provides financial education, and other programs that lead to homeownership. Kay is a founding partner of One Torch Fund, investing in early stage companies with a “gender lens” – an approach that serves as a “viewfinder” for identifying opportunities to increase ROI by having a woman on the senior executive team with a meaningful equity stake in the company. As a senior executive, entrepreneur and successful investor, she has focused on growth companies and has experience in all the business life cycles in both private and public companies. Most recently she took First Internet Bancorp public by executing on a successful capital strategy culminating in an IPO. She co-founded the Indianapolis office of Grameen America, an international micro-financing program for women. As an investor, Kay consistently delivered top quartile performance in managing the Central Indiana Community Foundation endowment conducting due diligence and ongoing monitoring of its significant investment portfolio. She graduated from Indiana University with both her masters and undergraduate degrees in business.

Dottie Gandy is a seasoned professional with successful careers as an author, speaker, business owner, management consultant, facilitator and women’s advocate. Dottie is the founder of The Up to Something Group in Dallas, TX, whose members choose to be intentional about designing the lives they want – and create extraordinary results in the process and the co-founder of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO). She has successfully led teams, provided many keynote presentations and facilitated a wide range of business-related topics. She has chosen to “rewire” rather than “retire” by recently accepting her new role as the Market Director for the Mentoring Women’s Network in the Dallas, TX area.

Natalie Guzman is a Marketing, Public Relations and Business Development Executive successful at providing the vision, strategies and leadership required to build reputation and brand for the sixth largest contributing affiliate in company. She is an innovative strategic leader with experience transforming concepts into high impact results. In addition, Natalie has a proven record in development and execution of winning marketing strategies that drive profitability and growth while positively impacting the bottom line. She has notable success in developing programs that differentiate the organization from its competition.

Darla Beggs holds a degree from Scottsdale Community College, where she graduated with honors. Her broad business experience includes consulting with HR professionals to evaluate and establish effective managed care plans with a focus on cost effectiveness coupled with employee satisfaction and retention. Darla has held positions in account management, marketing, and benefits administration leadership. She has succeeded in balancing the needs of the employee population with cost-effective solutions for business clients to provide solutions that provide a “win-win” solution at every turn.

Howard J. Ross is a builder of innovations in the field of diversity and inclusion and a unifier of people, organizations, and causes. He is founder & Chief Learning Officer of Cook Ross Inc. and an advisor to major global educational, corporate, philanthropic, and governmental organizations. Through his unique combination of a personal and system-focused approach, Howard is an advocate for high-performing organizational cultures that advance people, performance, and profits. He is the author of ReInventing Diversity: Transforming Organizational Community to Strengthen People, Purpose and Performance.

Melissa Greenwell, Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, leads human resources, communications and corporate social responsibility initiatives for Finish Line Inc., a national specialty athletic retailer. Melissa has applied her expertise in the design and development of organizations in many industries to help create high performance companies. Her career includes senior human resource leadership positions with Sallie Mae, Brightpoint North America, JP Morgan Chase, Oak Street Mortgage and Made2Manage Systems.