In the 14th annual list of top businesswomen in the Commonwealth, many Terriers were included, representing Boston University’s large spectrum of undergraduate and graduate schools.
Released on Friday in The Boston Globe Magazine, the list was created as a partnership between the magazine and the Commonwealth Institute, a nonprofit organization that works to provide support for local female business leaders. In choosing the women who were featured on the list, the Commonwealth Institute evaluated the revenue or operating budget of the business, the number of in-state full time employees, workplace and management diversity and a variety of other factors, the article stated.
Anne Bailey Berman, president and CEO of market research and consulting company Chadwick Martin Bailey, was one of the list’s featured Terriers. In 1981, Berman earned a master’s degree from BU’s School of Management, now the Questrom School of Business.
She co-founded Chadwick Martin Bailey with another BU alum and said her education at BU provided her with many of the skills necessary to launch the organization.
“I met some wonderful people that I have relationships with to this day,” Berman said. “BU provided us with theoretical learning, as well as practical learning, which are extremely important for men and women to have.”
Naomi Prendergast, a 1982 School of Public Health graduate also featured on the list, oversees a non-profit senior care organization in Lowell. She was one of SPH’s first graduating classes.
“[BU] students are in the cradle of brainpower,” she said. “The mentoring programs are wonderful and give real life exposure to people who have had ideas and implemented those ideas.”
Prendergast said the ability to learn from her professors and other students in an experiential learning environment provided her with skills that could translate into her career.
“The program gave me a great variety of information that was helpful,” Prendergast said. “I’ve been able to apply that knowledge and evolve with the times.”
Berman, who returned to the Terrier community as an adjunct professor in 1983, said students should value their time in the classroom.
“Soak it up and learn everything that you can learn,” she said. “Learn the value of learning and how you should never let it stop.”
Jeanette Clough, CEO of Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, received her bachelor’s degree in nursing from BU, and she said she looks back at her experience as a student in Boston with pride.
“I tried to use my time [at BU] in a way that would let me learn and absorb because I knew that one day, I wanted to move into leadership positions,” Clough said. “The more you can absorb and experience and the more initiative you put into [your education], the more you’ll get out of it.”
Clough also said the mentorship she received from others as an undergraduate student at BU helped her navigate her developing career.
“When you’re learning, you’re watching others and looking for role models,” she said. “When you get into leading or managing positions, you think back to those role models and employ those strategies that they used to be successful, which prepared me for eventual leadership roles.”
All three women said the rankings are not only accomplishments for their own companies but also recognition for women in the business field.
“It’ll be wonderful when we don’t need a list,” Prendergast said. “Women are so accomplished in all sectors, regardless of their field, and there is an enormous scope to their responsibilities.”
Clough added that the awards emphasize the diversity of women in leadership positions across the state.
“A diverse workforce benefits everyone by including the views of others in planning and strategizing,” she said.
Other women on the list with BU ties include Patricia Canavan, president of United Personnel Services; Dafna Krouk-Gordon, founder and president of Toward Independent Living and Learning; Carol Leary, president of Bay Path College; Patricia Maguire Meservey, president of Salem State University; Christina Severin, president and CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Care Organization; and Craigie Zildjian, CEO of Avedis Zildjian Co.
