#SmealWeeklyRecap featuring Alexandra Weber ’16 MKTG
It's Friday! Make sure and continue to #lifelonglearn with us and follow along as we showcase other featured alumni in 2021. All webinars are free and registrations can be found on the Smeal Alumni Events Calendar. For recordings of past webinars, visit our Smeal Lifelong Learning Webinar library. Additionally, here is the link to our Smeal Lifelong Learning Podcast episodes on our website. Don't forget you can also download them on Apple, Castbox, Spreaker or most popular podcast apps and become a subscriber to get updates on our releases!
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Featured Alumna: Alexandra Weber ’16 MKTG, Global Leadership Coordinator at DuPont
Alex joined DuPont in 2018 as a Global Marketing Specialist for the Tyvek? Medical and Pharmaceutical Protection business. Having had several internships and marketing agency experience in pharma, Alex was excited to support the Tyvek? business in planning for industry tradeshows, delivering pricing analysis, and collecting competitive intelligence for sterile medical device and pharmaceutical packaging applications of Tyvek?. Following her role as Global Marketing Specialist, Alex was named as the Global Leadership Coordinator for the Safety Solutions business in DuPont’s Water & Protection business segment. This role put her at the crossroad of eight industry verticals and supporting business functions for three of DuPont’s signature brands—Kevlar?, Nomex?, and Tyvek?. In her role, Alex works closely with the Vice President/General Manager for DuPont Safety Solutions and the supporting the global leadership team, taking on projects related to HR, IT, Marketing Communications, and other functional areas outside of the traditional marketing domain. Alex has leveraged her circle of influence in this role to spearhead planning efforts for the W&P’s first digital conference, which culminated in a three-day event in October 2020 that reached over 160 of her peers in North America and Latin America. Her ability to work closely with experienced leaders in Safety Solutions has helped Alex develop foundational leadership skills that helped her start a local chapter of the Water & Protection Young Professionals Network in Wilmington, Delaware. Alex’s driving force in her work is her deep belief in DuPont’s products and their unique characteristics, which enable their use in a multitude of worldwide applications. Some of the most notable applications include bullet-proof vests made with Kevlar?, flame-resistant garments made with Nomex?, and critical PPE made with Tyvek? used in the fight against COVID-19.
Alex’s career advice is to never stop learning. In her words, “creative and innovative solutions typically don’t pop-up out of nowhere—we often learn our way to them. Have the curiosity to ‘go down a rabbit hole’ every once in a while and see what you find; fully unpack what is in front of you and ask yourself what you can learn from it. It’s also hard to think outside of the box when you’re only exposing yourself to experiences inside the box! Inspiration can come from anywhere—be present in the world around you, network with individuals outside of your normal circles, try a new hobby—any new experience will force you to stretch your thinking.”
News and Resources
- Articles relating to inspiration, global locations, marketing and trade: Articles on these topics from publications like Business Insider, Harvard Business Review, Forbes, SCM Magazine, Vault, Fast Company, The Guardian, Gallup, Morning Brew, The Washington Post, New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Wired, The Economist, Entrepreneur Daily, Bloomberg and more! Would an athlete who lost her father and then a few weeks later had a epic race inspire you? What about an elementary school custodian who received his college degree? What do you think of China allowing their citizens to have a third child? Did you know that the National Geographic added a 5th ocean to the world map? Did you hear about the giant cargo carrier that got stuck in the sand? Does marketing still have a colorism problem? How did NBCUniversal and Twitter unlock global audiences? Did the blockage of the Suez Canal affect global trade? What's going on with Brexit? What do you think about the tariffs imposed on China? Check out the articles at the link above!
- Smeal Lifelong Learning Podcast - Releasing today, June 25, at Noon ET!
#34 The Trade Debate: Looking Back & Moving Forward
Alumnus trade expert and avid Smeal volunteer, William (Bill) C. Lane ’75 ACCT, ’79 M A was recently the Executive Director of the free trade advocacy coalition, Trade For America. Prior, Bill led Caterpillar’s global governmental affairs team retiring after a 40-year career which included being a top lobbyist in Washington D.C. In this episode, Bill discusses the changes in trade due to the pandemic and the future of globalization as well as the value of his Penn State education. #WeAre
"The lessons learned during this period of time are going to be studied and restudied.”– William (Bill) C. Lane
- Congratulations to our recent Smeal alumni #lifelonglearners!
- Lincoln Bartlett '09 ECON shared his knowledge by speaking at the Fixed Income Leaders Summit on the future of institutional trading and talent development.
- Bill Flederbach '91 METEO, '05 EMB moderated a panel of six experts at the Virtual Clean Air Summit.
- Justin Goldston, PhD '14 S C M attended The State of Cryptocurrency organized by the Government Blockchain Association.
- Ron Karpovich '94 FIN hosted a panel at the JPMorgan Conference on E-commerce and Fintech Forum, Disruptive Innovation.
- Jose Landaverde Mrochek '16 M I S is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) issued by (ISC)2.
- Kaitlyn Rakestraw '19 SC&IS earned her MicroMasters in Supply Chain Management from MIT.
- Taylor Salak '16 MKTG will be participating in the Network of Executive Women's 2021 Rising Stargs Program after being nominated on behalf of SC Johnson.
- Anuradha Tempe '20 MBA finished the course “Communication for Product Managers” through LinkedIn Learning.
- Dan Trushkov '14 SC&IS earned certification as an IBM Mentor and IBM AI Skills Academy Machine Learning Explorer both issued by IBM.
- John Waddell '14 SC&IS became a Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) issued by ScrumAliance.
Smeal Lifelong Learning Webinars - Secure your spot today!
The webinars are LIVE on Wednesdays at Noon ET. Everyone is welcome!
Strategy & Negotiation: Tips from Smeal ACS Coaches featuring Dr. Jennifer Nicholas and Doreen Glenning, Smeal Alumni Career Services Career Coaches - September 8th #backbypopulardemand
The Automatic Customer: Creating A Subscription Business in Any Industry featuring Jody A. Ruth, CPA and NACD Certified Director, ’83 ACCT, founder and CEO of Redstones and AccuMetrics, businesses that she has run successfully for over 18 years. - October 7th