Blythe McGarvie
CEO, Leadership for International Finance, Professor at Harvard Business School
Blythe McGarvie has operated profitable business units and managed employees in business endeavors from China to Chile, France to Finland. She has been CFO of a Fortune 500 company in the US and of a leading consumer goods company in Paris. Her best-selling book, Shaking the Globe: Courageous Decision-Makers in a Changing World provides entrepreneurs and executives with research and action ideas to overcome obstacles in a competitive and interconnected world. She is the author of Fit In Stand Out: Mastering the FISO Factor: The Key to Leadership Effectiveness in Business and Life. This book has reached wide distribution in the U.S. and published outside the U.S. McGarvie is renowned for her perspective on leadership decision-making, corporate governance and worldwide economic trends. She has a pulse on developing leaders and responding effectively to changing situations as a result of her extensive corporate experience and her service on several boards.
Blythe McGarvie has operated profitable business units and managed employees in business endeavors from China to Chile, France to Finland. She has been CFO of a Fortune 500 company in the US and of a leading consumer goods company in Paris. Her best-selling book, Shaking the Globe: Courageous Decision-Makers in a Changing World provides entrepreneurs and executives with research and action ideas to overcome obstacles in a competitive and interconnected world. She is the author of Fit In Stand Out: Mastering the FISO Factor: The Key to Leadership Effectiveness in Business and Life. This book has reached wide distribution in the U.S. and published outside the U.S., including in Spanish, Indian and Russian language versions.
McGarvie joined the faculty of Harvard Business School where she teaches Financial Reporting and Control to first-year MBA candidates as well as in-field and executive education classes. For ten years before joining HBS, McGarvie served as Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Leadership for International Finance, offering a global perspective for clients seeking profitable growth by providing leadership seminars for corporate and academic groups.
She serves as a member of the boards of directors of Accenture, Viacom, Wawa and LKQ and formerly served on the boards of Travelers Insurance, Pepsi Bottling Group and Lafarge NA. In 2012, she accepted the invitation to join the Audit Committee Learning Network, a group of Audit Committee Chairs of American and European companies with revenues of $10 billion or more. In 2012, 2010 and 2008, NACD/Directorship selected McGarvie as one of the Top 100 Most Renowned and Influentials in Corporate Governance. In December 2009, McGarvie received an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Old Dominion University.
McGarvie is renowned for her perspective on leadership decision-making, corporate governance and worldwide economic trends. Past academic appointments include: Senior Fellow for Northwestern University’s Kellogg Innovation Network, a faculty member of Duke CE and Visiting Leader at Shanghai-based CEIBS. Prior to founding the LIF Group, McGarvie was a pioneering CFO, and in 1995, was one of only ten female CFOs in the Fortune 500. McGarvie was Chief Financial Officer of BIC Group, a French company traded on the Euronext, famous for its pens, lighters and shavers. For five years prior to to joining BIC, McGarvie was Senior Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer of Hannaford Bros. Co., a Fortune 500 company, acquired by the Delhaize Group in 1999. Her international experience includes being based in Paris, France for BIC Group and as Chief Administrative Officer – Pacific Rim of Sara Lee Corporation, based in Chicago, where she was responsible for the finance, strategy, information systems and human resources functions for the personal product business in Asia, Australia and South America, growing the division from $124 million to $600 million in sales over a three-year period ending in 1994.
McGarvie is a Certified Public Accountant. She earned an MBA from Northwestern University’s J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management, who selected her for the Schaffner Award in 1992, presented annually to an alumnus (a) who is pre-eminent in his or her field and who provided outstanding service to Kellogg. She earned an Advanced Professional Director certification from the American College of Corporate Directors in 2012. Separately, she is a member of numerous non-profit organizations including the Lyric Opera of Chicago Board of Directors, The Chicago Network, NACD (National Association of Corporate Directors) and CIVIC Institute.
McGarvie joined the faculty of Harvard Business School where she teaches Financial Reporting and Control to first-year MBA candidates as well as in-field and executive education classes. For ten years before joining HBS, McGarvie served as Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Leadership for International Finance, offering a global perspective for clients seeking profitable growth by providing leadership seminars for corporate and academic groups.
She serves as a member of the boards of directors of Accenture, Viacom, Wawa and LKQ and formerly served on the boards of Travelers Insurance, Pepsi Bottling Group and Lafarge NA. In 2012, she accepted the invitation to join the Audit Committee Learning Network, a group of Audit Committee Chairs of American and European companies with revenues of $10 billion or more. In 2012, 2010 and 2008, NACD/Directorship selected McGarvie as one of the Top 100 Most Renowned and Influentials in Corporate Governance. In December 2009, McGarvie received an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Old Dominion University.
McGarvie is renowned for her perspective on leadership decision-making, corporate governance and worldwide economic trends. Past academic appointments include: Senior Fellow for Northwestern University’s Kellogg Innovation Network, a faculty member of Duke CE and Visiting Leader at Shanghai-based CEIBS. Prior to founding the LIF Group, McGarvie was a pioneering CFO, and in 1995, was one of only ten female CFOs in the Fortune 500. McGarvie was Chief Financial Officer of BIC Group, a French company traded on the Euronext, famous for its pens, lighters and shavers. For five years prior to to joining BIC, McGarvie was Senior Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer of Hannaford Bros. Co., a Fortune 500 company, acquired by the Delhaize Group in 1999. Her international experience includes being based in Paris, France for BIC Group and as Chief Administrative Officer – Pacific Rim of Sara Lee Corporation, based in Chicago, where she was responsible for the finance, strategy, information systems and human resources functions for the personal product business in Asia, Australia and South America, growing the division from $124 million to $600 million in sales over a three-year period ending in 1994.
McGarvie is a Certified Public Accountant. She earned an MBA from Northwestern University’s J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management, who selected her for the Schaffner Award in 1992, presented annually to an alumnus (a) who is pre-eminent in his or her field and who provided outstanding service to Kellogg. She earned an Advanced Professional Director certification from the American College of Corporate Directors in 2012. Separately, she is a member of numerous non-profit organizations including the Lyric Opera of Chicago Board of Directors, The Chicago Network, NACD (National Association of Corporate Directors) and CIVIC Institute.
Topics:
- Global Citizenship: Succeeding in a New Culture
Two-thirds of the world's purchasing power and 95% of the world's consumers reside outside US national borders. The top 25 US companies made 43% of their revenues abroad in 2004. Leaders must learn how to take advantage of this increasing globalization. Understanding the truth about American jobs and who are the business winners and losers will allow executives to navigate their careers and their company. - Financial Accuity Matters
Finance is the language of business, in any industry. You can turn opportunity into strategic insight if you have financial acuity. Clearly, this is an under-developed skill given the financial scandals and disruptions of recent times. Keying into Google the phrase "financial scandals" yields 175,000 hits; the word "bankruptcies" yields 500,000 hits; and "accounting fraud" yields nearly 1 million hits. You must know what attributes define a company that will sustain profitable growth and be a great place to invest your time or your money. You must develop your own financial acuity even if your job is in marketing, operations, sales, or human resources if you want to thrive in business today. - Courageous Decision-Making
Many Americans fear that the global economy will cost them their jobs and purchasing power and that, in turn, will force a reconsideration of American values. It is one thing to lose jobs to Indochina because employers located there can hire 14-year old children and women cheaply, provide no health care, avoid safe workplace standards, hire and fire at will, and face no liability for environmental depredation. Yet, it is another to consider a twenty-first century America that must scale back its labor practices and deregulate to make America competitive once again. These fears are based on legitimate concerns but McGarvie's goal is to lessen them and the reactionary protectionist policies they engender, by demonstrating that global business changes offers opportunities to Americans. At this seminar, McGarvie shows the six stops to connect the globe in a changing world; illustrates how business can redefine success in an interconnected world; and how to make better decisions by using untapped resources and fostering the entrepreneurial spirit in organizations of any size.
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