Women's Business Enterprise National Council Board Announces New Directors

Contact:

Lynthia Romney

RomneyCom L.L.C.

914-238-2145

 

 

Washington DC –April 15, 2008– The Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), the leading advocate for and authority on women’s business enterprises (WBEs) as suppliers to corporate America, announced the appointment of four new members to its Board of Directors. 

 

The new directors will serve up to three-year terms with a distinguished group of corporate business leaders and business owners who are certified as women's business enterprises, and who, together with executives of WBENC's Regional Organization Partners, comprise the 57-member WBENC Board of Directors.

 

Cheryl Stevens, WBENC Board Chair and Vice President of Supplier Diversity, Energy Future Holdings, said, “We are fortunate to be able to call upon the collective expertise of this extraordinary board, and to know that, as individuals, each is committed to advancing WBENC’s mission. Ensuring opportunities for women business owners is more important than ever before since these business owners represent not only a rapidly-growing group of businesses in the U.S., but also a significant consumer market.”

 

The nominations were confirmed at the WBENC Spring Board meeting held on

March 20, 2008:

 

Nancy Allen is the President and CEO of the Women’s Business Development Center, the Florida Regional Partner of the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, which certifies WBEs and opens the door for national contracts and produces networking opportunities with powerful and successful women business owners. The Center’s clients include 350 Nationally Certified Women Business Enterprises. 

 

Born in Haiti and raised in South Florida, Ms. Allen is bi-lingual in English and French and is fluent in Creole and Spanish. She has been working in the fields of international, community and economic development for over 20 years. She holds a Masters Degree in International Affairs and International Economics from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

 

Susan M. Repka is Executive Director for the Women’s Business Enterprise Alliance where she has served in many capacities for over ten years, including the role of Certification Manager since 2001, leading the certification process of all women business enterprises (WBEs).  In 2005, Ms. Repka was named Assistant Director in addition to her duties as Certification Manager. 

 

While serving as Certification Manager for WBEA, the organization has grown from 200 members to 640 to date.  Considered an expert in the certification, Ms. Repka pioneered some of the processes still currently in place and used around the country. Prior to joining WBEA in 1997, she worked in the College of Business at Prairie View A & M University.

Mary G. Tacher is Vice President and Acting General Counsel at J. C. Penney Company, Inc., where she oversees the Company’s legal activities and corporate legal department.  She also serves as Secretary of the Audit Committee for the Company’s Board of Directors, and Chair and Founder of WINGS (Women’s Initiative Networking Group for Success) which is the Women’s Affinity Group at JCPenney.

 

Prior to JCPenney, she served as an associate at Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue, in Dallas, and at Blackwell, Walker, Powers, Flick & Hoehl, in Miami. Ms. Tacher has participated in numerous prestigious executive leadership programs including the 2007 Tuck Executive Education at Dartmouth; the 2006 JCPenney Retail Academy; the 2006 JCPenney Winning Together – Leading Together program; and the 1999 JCPenney Leading in a Changing Environment program. She is a Volunteer Attorney for Legal Aid of Northwest Texas. She attained a J. D. with honors from The University of Texas School of Law and a B. A. from Southern Methodist University.

 

Sharon Castillo is Principal and Founder of SB Services, Inc., a national management consulting firm focused on business process improvement and benchmarking initiatives. Within this context, SB Services’ has a core expertise in working with Fortune 500 corporations to strengthen their supplier diversity initiative. The firm currently reviews members of the Billion Dollar Roundtable on an annual basis and facilitates the Women’s Business Enterprise Council’s annual search for the Top Corporations in America. The firm is known for documenting the Business Case and positioning Supplier Diversity to support key corporate and/or organizational strategies. The company recently partnered with WBENC in releasing unprecedented research that shows how supplier diversity initiatives can influence female purchasing behavior at the consumer level.

 

Early in her career, Ms. Castillo worked at several companies including Allstate Insurance Company where she served on the Board of the Opportunities Industrialization Centers of America (OICA) and the League of Latin American Citizens (LULAC), She has published numerous articles on supplier diversity program development. Ms. Castillo has a B.A. from Loyola University; and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA). Ms. Castillo is a member of the Illinois Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Institute of Supply Chain Management, the Balanced Scorecard Initiative, and serves on the Advisory Board of Athena, which facilitates the growth of emerging small businesses.

 

“WBENC is truly fortunate to have new board members with such outstanding qualifications. They bring expertise to the board that will help guide WBENC in its second decade,” said Linda Denny, President & CEO.