Four Alumnae Talk about Obstacles, Opportunities for Women Entrepreneurs

Four alumnae talked about “Women Entrepreneurs: Unique Challenges and Opportunities” April 28 in the Oechsle Hall auditorium for the final seminar of the 2002-03 CIRCLE Entrepreneurship Series organized by four senior economics and business majors.

Free and open to the public, CIRCLE events are supported by the Hunsicker Fund, which promotes the study of entrepreneurship at Lafayette.

Susan Averett, associate professor and associate head of economics and business, moderated a panel comprised of Shirley Blackall ’72, owner of Blackall Associates Inc., a company that produces award-winning collectable dolls; Francine Carb ’80, who launched Main Line AlphaGraphics and was recognized as one of “Pennsylvania’s Best 50 Women in Business” in 1999; Caroline Zimmerman ’86, president of Foodtemps, the leading temporary agency serving the foodservice industry; and Robin Wiessmann ’75, founding principal and former president of Artemis Capital Group, Inc., a national, women-owned investment banking firm acquired by Dain Rauscher Inc.

The women talked about their obstacles and achievements en route to becoming successful entrepreneurs.

“While we have already presented the various opportunities entrepreneurship holds, we realize that the majority of our speakers have been men,” says Kelly Meiers of Telford, Pa. “We believe it is important to encourage our entire student body while revealing that all one needs in entrepreneurship is the right mindset to excel. We thought that presenting a panel of successful women entrepreneurs would benefit women students, whom we hope will learn from these speakers and further women’s progress within business.”

The other organizers of CIRCLE, now in its third year, are Kathy Ferretti of Easton, Pa.; Shivani Malhotra of Bangalore, India; and Kate Dickie of Swampscott, Mass. They are advised by Rosie Bukics, Thomas Roy and Lura Forrest Jones Professor of Economics and Business, and Sheila Handy, assistant professor of economics and business.

Previous CIRCLE talks this school year were given by Martin Guitar Company chairman and CEO Chris Martin, March 26; Reading Bakery Systems owner E. Terry Groff ’68, Nov. 19; and local business consultant Dale F. Falcinelli, Oct. 22.

Blackall was one of the first ten women to graduate from Lafayette after transferring to the College. She graduated summa cum laude with honors in economics and business and membership in Phi Beta Kappa. She received an MBA with high honors from Boston University in 1975. She then held jobs at Philco Ford in Blue Belle, Pa., Gillette in Boston, Mass., and Gorham, a division of Textron in Providence, R.I., respectively.

Blackall left her position as marketing manager of Gorhan’s gift division in 1985 to start Blackall Associates Inc. One of her first projects was developing a line of dolls for Marie Osmond for the cable-shopping channel QVC. Since 1998, Blackall’s Masterpiece Dolls have been featured on Home Shopping Network, and they are included in a similar cable television program in Europe. Blackall has also developed gift lines and doll collections for celebrities such as Maureen O’Hara, Susan Lucci, and Gloria Vanderbilt.

Carb graduated from Lafayette with a degree in economics and business, and earned an MBA in marketing from St. Joseph’s University. Prior to launching Main Line AlphaGraphics, she was CEO of Markitects, Inc., a strategic marketing communications agency she founded in 1994. Previously, she was marketing manager at Unisys Corporation, where she pioneered a strategic marketing process that later became known as “Markitecture.” This process was critical in enabling Unisys to launch over 60 software products in one year. Since then, she has updated her process to assist nearly 100 companies in marketing a variety of products and services. At Main Line AlphaGraphics, Carb leads marketing and business development. She also remains active with Markitects, developing marketing strategies for its clients.

An active member of the Philadelphia area business community, Carb serves on the board of Elmwood Park Zoo and the Technology Resource Alliance, and is a former board member for National Association of Women Business Owners, Entrepreneur’s Forum of Philadelphia, Greater Philadelphia Venture Group, and Monument Family of Mutual Funds. She is a former instructor at Villanova University.

Zimmerman graduated from Lafayette with a degree in economics and business, and earned an MBA in finance at American University. Since 1993, her duties as president of Foodtemps have included recruiting and managing all part-time and full-time staff, and supervising day-to-day operations, including client relations and accounting and payroll management. She served as director of operations from 1988-1992, with overall management responsibility for the company’s Maryland office.

Prior to 1988, Zimmerman served as director of marketing for Software Creations Inc., a start-up software firm. She also worked for W.R. Grace & Co. in New York, developing software systems to manage corporate debt portfolios and analyze the firm’s pension and profit sharing plans. Zimmerman serves as a food industry consultant in the specialty food market and has spoken at the National Association of Specialty Food & Trade.

Wiessmann graduated from Lafayette cum laude with a degree in government and law. She was a member of its Board of Trustees from 1991-1996 and is chair of Women in Leadership at Lafayette. She earned a law degree at Rutgers University School of Law and is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar.

In 1990, Wiessmann founded Artemis Capital Group, Inc., a national, women-owned investment banking firm specializing in municipal and other fixed income securities. It became one of the leading firms in the municipal industry, having ranked among the nation’s top ten underwriters for six consecutive years.

A 23-year veteran of the financial industry, Wiessmann is among the most senior-level executives in municipal finance, having 16 years of experience as an investment banker and four as an issuer. Her public and private sector experience includes extensive work with state and local legislative and executive bodies. In 1994, she served two years as chair of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Financial Advisory Board.

Now a financial services consultant, Wiessmann was in the senior management group of Dain Rauscher Inc., the largest investment banking firm situated off Wall Street, from January 1999 through July 2001. She served on both its Operating Committee and Management Committee, and was manager of East Coast fixed income banking. Preceding her tenure as a founding principal of Artemis Capital, Wiessmann was a vice president at Goldman, Sachs & Co. in New York, where she was manager of the Mid-Atlantic region. Prior to that, she was both a deputy managing director and deputy director of finance for the City of Philadelphia.

Wiessmann is a director of International City Managers Association Retirement Corporation’s Board, a $16 billion retirement fund where she is chair of the Investments Committee. She is a member of the Bond Market Association’s Executive Committee, the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Advisory Council, and the Financial Women’s Association of New York, and is a trustee for the New York Citizen’s Budget Commission.

Wiessmann is a Rockefeller Fellow of the New York City Partnership. She has also been a Leadership Trustee of the Women’s Campaign Fund, and a member of the Advisory Committee for the Women’s Campaign Research Fund’s Leadership 2000 program, the Women Executives in State Government’s Sponsor Advisory Council, and the American Association of University Women. In addition to being a frequent speaker on professional topics, she has written articles published in a variety of industry publications.

Wiessmann received a 1996 Civic Spirit Award from Women’s City Club of New York for her efforts to advance the status of women in the business community and in 1999 was given the Breaking the Glass Ceiling Award from Women Executives in State Government. She was featured as a “Business History Maker, Among Twenty,” in Crain’s New York Business magazine’s tenth anniversary issue.