An Interview with Amy Sanderson
SSP Transformative Solutions
Founder and CEO
What made you decide to attend the annual meeting? I reconnected with Peggy Davies. I’m starting my own business and I talked to her about the networking opportunities within WISE. I also have a number of former co-workers who are members and past Top Women In Storebrands award winners. I’m a big fan of what the organization does.
What were your expectations going in? I really had no preconceived notions of what I was walking into. I knew that I’d see people I knew and I felt comfortable attending.
What did you take away from the meeting? My thought leaving the
meeting was how can men and women help women achieve their career goals? As Jonathan pointed out in his
presentation, there are so many preconceived notions and biases. How as a woman can you work through
that, or around that, or overcome it to achieve what you want to achieve? And, how do we as women help each other
to reach our goals?
Was there a particular contact that you were happy to make? I wasn’t coming into the annual meeting thinking about a specific contact
or what I could take from it. My
goal in being a part of this group is to give back and help others. I look at my membership from the
perspective of whatever I can give to WISE, I know it will come back to
me. Knowing that I can help the
organization, whether through mentoring or through committee volunteering, is
my motivation for joining.
Did the speaker make you think differently about your work or your personal outlook?
There were some “Oh my gosh” moments in Jonathan’s presentation for sure. Some of the statistics stood out, like how there are more CEOs named John than there are women CEOs in total. It made me a bit sad honestly. But, a key question presented itself… how many women want to be CEO? How do we help women who want to get into that big job? And, I thought how do we support women who don’t want to be a CEO, but can do amazing things being a direct report to a CEO or in other senior leadership roles? How do we help women be the best they want to be?
Is there something in particular you hope to get out of participating in WISE activities or being a member? I’m currently volunteering on a committee to direct the future of programing specific to talent management. I’m excited to learn more about the Mentor Circles program and dive into some of the webinar topics for 2020.