Women in Business

The Woman's Business Council- Southwest is excited to announce the 2018 Austin Insights keynote speaker, Stephanie Breedlove. Breedlove is the co-founder of Care.com HomePay, formerly known as Breedlove & Associates.

The Women's Business Counci l- Southwest kicked off our 2018 Austin programming with Women Entrepreneur's Exchange. Local business owners gathered at the offices of VMware to hear a panel of Sustaining (Corporate) Members answer questions about their supplier diversity programs and procurement processes. Photo courtesy of Demand Lighting The panel featured supplier diversity professionals from Capital Metro , Dell Technologies , Pearson , and VMware . Some tips from the panel included: Register as a vendor with Capital Metro and become familiar with their DBE program. Learn more here . Stay

Meet the panelist of the Women's Business Council- Southwest's first Austin event of 2018: Woman Entrepreneur's Exchange! The event will feature supplier diversity professionals sharing their perspective on how WBEs can successfully utilize their certification to gain traction with corporate clients. If you have ever wondered how your business can stand out when responding to RFPs or struggled to think of innovative ways to market your WBE certification to corporations, this event is for you! Join us on January 24, 2018 from 3:00 to 4:30pm at the Offices of VMware. Click here for more details

The Women's Business Council- Southwest hosted another successful Austin Insights event at the Canyon View Events Center . 100 women business owners and Sustaining (Corporate) members came together to network and hear a keynote speech by Mojdeh Gharbi, Vice President of Marketing & Operations at Certain Affinity . Gharbi's keynote speech focused on how her unique career path led her to become the Vice President of Austin's largest indie video game company which now has over a billion dollars in sales. She went into detail about how she worked both hard and smart, built a great team, and took

"The best reason for another WBE to get certified is all the possibilities to grow & develop their business through collaboration & new channels of business opportunities either with other WBEs or Sustaining Members." Melinda Zito O'Brien is the CEO & Chief Energy Strategist of Energy Utility Group (EUG). In her 4 years as a certified Women Business Enterprise (WBE), Melinda has effectively utilized the Women's Business Council- Southwest network to create new business opportunities for EUG and value for her clients. Melinda currently serves on the 2017 Austin Committee. Read the full case

“The opportunities that WBENC presents are many – opportunity for personal growth, mentorship, comradery, inspiration, to practice persistence and patience and lastly, the opportunity to get a corporate contract.” Marie McGrath is the CEO of Demand Lighting. Since she joined the Women's Business Council- Southwest in 2014, Marie hit the ground running by developing relationships with fellow WBEs and Sustaining members alike. Demand Lighting has benefited from the network Marie has grown through the Council. Marie sits on the Austin Committee and won Regional Volunteer of the Year at the 2017

Jill Burns and Kelly Gasnik, co-founders of Austin Cocktails and WBE members, are finalists in the Product Innovation category of the 2017 Woman's Way Awards. The Woman's Way Awards are hosted by WBE member, Austin Women Magazine, each year to recognize outstanding and influential women-owned and -led businesses in Austin. Over 150 companies applied, yet only 43 finalists made the cut in each of the 13 categories. The Woman's Way Awards will be held on Thursday, May 4 at the JW Marriott Austin. Click here to read more about Jill, Kelly, and their journey to success.

"All of our products bear the Women-Owned logo. In fact, My Brother's Organic Tortilla Chips was one of the first food products to have the image on the packaging when WBENC rolled it out in 2015." Helen Lampkin, founder of My Brother's Salsa , has been a certified Women's Business Enterprise (WBE) and Women's Business Council - Southwest (WBCS) member since 2011. Based in Bentonville, Arkansas, My Brother's Salsa is a family operated business with ten varieties of all-natural salsa made with choice ingredients. In 2016, she decided to get more involved with WBCS by joining the certification

“ I made the most of my certification by getting involved right away…[it] gave me the opportunity to meet amazing people- WBEs, corporate and government professionals that are mentors, friends and customers today.” Patti Winstanley, President of Aztec Promotional Group, has been a certified Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE) and member of the Women’s Business Council – Southwest (WBCS) for over 10 years. She is involved with the Council in many ways including serving on the Women’s Enterprise National Forum and several WBCS committees. She is the recent winner of the WBE Advocate of the Year

2017 Woman Entrepreneur's Exchange Women business owners in the Austin region gathered at the offices of sustaining member, VMware, for the Women's Business Council-Southwest's first Woman Entrepreneur's Exchange. The afternoon kicked off with remarks from Pamela Bryant, Chief Supply Chain Officer of Hanger, Inc. , on how WBEs can get involved with their supplier diversity department and featured a keynote by WBCS member and CEO of Charlie Bravo Aviation , René Banglesdorf. René's presentation, "4 Ways Women Can Rise Above the Status Quo", focused on steps women can take in order to crush