#SmealWeeklyRecap featuring Dr. Mary Kay Plantes, '73 ECON

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 podcast apps and become a subscriber to get updates on our releases!

Sign up for Smeal Alumni Career Services' bi-monthly e-newsletter at this link!

Alumni Feature: Dr. Mary Kay Plantes ’73 ECON, Board Member, Economist and Strategy Consultant  

Dr. Mary Kay Plantes ’73 ECON is a strategy consultant, Board member, and Economist (MIT, Ph.D.) and a proven catalyst for organizational differentiation, transformation, and growth. A creative systems thinker and collaborator, she has spent her career guiding leaders to innovate business models, shape culture, improve strategic leadership, and accelerate strategy execution. Kay started her career as an academic and government economist but quickly moved into industry. As Director of Marketing, then Director of Strategy and Business Development for a global medical equipment company (since sold to GE), Mary Kay and her team played a crucial role in advancing anesthesia safety through safer equipment and creating the Anesthesia Safety Foundation. Plantes Company, her niche strategy consulting firm, works with companies across industries and from start-ups to established leaders. Her breadth of experience has helped management teams break long-held industry and company paradigms to discover unique growth opportunities. Mary Kay is the co-author of Beyond Price: Differentiate Your Company in Ways that Really Matter. The book provides a step-by-step guide for business model innovation and the leadership work required. She also blogs regularly on strategy, leadership, and economic policy topics. Kay serves on Boards in the healthcare industry, where she acts on her passion for improving healthcare value and preventing avoidable harm by its providers. She also serves on boards of privately-held B2B manufacturing companies.

Mary Kay’s career advice: Her suggestion for careers and companies is to have a vision and a deeper purpose for your work. Vision sheds light on opportunities otherwise hidden, while purpose drives you forward – even during the most challenging times.

Resources for the week!

• Articles relating to the Economy, Food Industry, Supply Chain, and Sustainability: 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! Do you know how many jobs were added in February? Why did our economy grow faster than China's? Is the economy leaving mid-sized business behind? Will COVID vaccines kill food delivery service growth? What are venture capitalists banking on in the new era of hyper-convenience? Is supply chain tech delivering for venture capitalists? What valuation will the worldwide supply chain management industry reach by 2026? Why are luxury bands embracing secondhand resale sites? What has Unilever found out about short-term sustainability costs? What will going green mean for workers' skill transformation? View the articles at the above link to find these articles and more.
• Smeal Lifelong Learning Webinar - This week we had a #masterclass with Smeal supply chain professor and Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Education, Dr. Felisa Preciado Higgins titled, Food Supply Chain Resilience: Reflections on Availability and Access. If you did not get to attend, please view the recording on Smeal's Facebook page.
• Congratulations to our recent Smeal alumni #lifelonglearners!

1. Nicholas Boyer '18 MKTG earned a completion certificate in Introduction to Data Analytics issued by Coursera.
2. Deb Fiscella '85 Q B A earned her Content Marketing Certification from HubSpot Academy.
3. Ed Hanlon '98 MIS is certified in Cloud Core issued by IBM.
4. Karan Kalaria '17 MAcc is a Certified Information Technology Professional (CITP?) issued by American Institute of CPAs.
5. Marissa Presser '13 MKTG is certified in IBM Explorer Project Management Office Foundational issued by IBM.
6. Jesse Swank '14 SCIS is Certified SAFe? 5 Agilist was issued by Scaled Agile Inc.
7. Nicole Uzo '18 CIENT finished the course “Using Tableau to Discover Powerful Business Insights” through LinkedIn Learning.

Smeal #Lifelonglearning Webinars - Secure your spot today!

The webinars are LIVE on Wednesdays at Noon ET. Everyone is welcome! Date Change!

Exploring Lifelong Learning Options for the Business Architecture Professional featuring Dr. Brian Cameron, Associate Dean for Professional Graduate Programs and Clinical Professor for Supply Chain Management - April 28 #backbypopulardemand

Transfluence: Leading with Transformative Influence in Today’s Climates of Change featuring Walt Rakowich ’79 ACCT Author, Leadership Speaker and Former Executive of Prologis, a global real estate company that was near collapse when he took over as CEO in 2008 - May 5

Cybersecurity Comes of Age featuring Susan Lo '04 FIN, Senior Manager, Darklab (Cloud + Cybersecurity), PwC Hong Kong - May 19

Tools and Techniques: Grounding the Steps of Entrepreneurship featuring Dr. Jeanette Miller, Assistant Clinical Professor, Associate Director of Farrell Center for Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship - June 9 - Date Change!

Strategy & Negotiation: Tips from Smeal ACS Coaches featuring Dr. Jennifer Nicholas and Doreen Glenning, Smeal Alumni Career Services Career Coaches - September 8th #backbypopulardemand

Have a great weekend! ???? #WeAre