Watchdog for women’s business/financial equality Linda C. Drake will speak at Kent State University on April 17 as part of the university’s Charles J. Pilliod Lecture Series. Drake, chair and founder of TCIM Services Inc., a successful entrepreneur and Kent State alumnus, will discuss “The Status of Women Leaders, from Executives to Entrepreneurs,” at 6:30 p.m. in Cartwright Hall Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.

Drake will share recent data from three vanguard gender-based studies on business and financial advancement. Findings delve into the differing success strategies of women and men and barriers to women’s corporate ascendency. In addition, Drake’s remarks will illuminate choices that can be career boosters — or limiters — for females. She will shed light on the characteristics of the most successful female entrepreneurs, and examine a compelling portrait of the female millionaire and how she achieved this status.

“This lecture will reveal important implications regarding gender-based differences in leadership, success and earning power,” says Gregory P. Hackett, Goodyear Executive Professor of Business at Kent State, whose office provides the lecture series. “No matter what hat you’re wearing – employee, team member, manager, employer or family member, now or in the near future, you will need to understand and work to counteract this gender inequality. It will hinder your own advancement, limit your company’s growth and success or restrict your family’s potential,” he adds. “Our speaker will assert that women and men have differing thought processes, approaches, expectations, pressures and needs. To fully leverage the capabilities of all members of the organization, these differences must be understood by both men and women,” Hackett says. 

Drake’s company, TCIM Services Inc., is an information services company in Wilmington, Del. TCIM provides business process outsourcing for customer service, technical help desk support, database management and quality assurance for Fortune 500 companies. Drake is a magna cum laude graduate of Kent State, with a bachelor of science degree in education, and she also holds a master of arts degree in communications from the University of Massachusetts.

The Pilliod Lecture Series has continuously been presented since 1983, bringing distinguished business speakers to Kent State University twice each academic year. The objective of the lecture series is to address topics of interest and importance to both the academic and business communities. The lectures are made possible by The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company's continuing financial support of the Office of the Goodyear Executive Professor.

The lecture series is named in recognition of Charles J. Pilliod, the retired chairman of the board and chief executive officer of The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. During Pilliod's 42-year tenure at Goodyear, he was instrumental in the 1973 creation of the Goodyear Executive Professorship at Kent State University, in addition to many other educational initiatives. Following his Goodyear career, Pilliod served as the United States Ambassador to Mexico from 1986 to 1989.