Sources of Inspiration

In school we learn reading, wRiting and 'rithmetic, but what do we learn about resilience? Not much. And in today's economy, resilience is more important than ever.

Here's an inspirational primer of role models - some of America's most powerful women. They've bounced back from retirement, demotions and job loss, health challenges and business challenges. They've tapped courage to take big jobs within and outside of their fields of expertise. Hats off to you all!

Brenda Barnes "retired" from Pepsi to spend more time with her children. She was subsequently chosen to become and is currently, CEO of Sara Lee.

Carol Bartz retired from Autodesk in 2006, and was recently named CEO of Yahoo! While at Autodesk, she bounced back from breast cancer (she learned her diagnosis shortly after becoming CEO) and a radical mastectomy. She also successfully navigated Autodesk through the dotcom boom and bust. Read more of Carol Hymowitz's excellent profile here.

Carly Fiorina, who was fired by the HP board and has created life as an advisor, director, author and speaker outside of corporate employment.

Reported on by the Barbara Haislin for the Wall Street Journal:

Erin Callan, demoted in June as Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s chief financial officer, joined Credit Suisse Group to lead its investment bank's global hedge-fund business. Ms. Callan is a Credit Suisse managing director.

Mary Minnick, a Coca-Cola Co. veteran, left in February 2007 after being passed over for the company's No. 2 job. Ms. Minnick, who was president of marketing, strategy and innovation at Coca-Cola, is a partner at Lion Capital LLP, based in London. She became a partner in May 2007. Lion Capital is a private-equity firm focusing on investing in consumer businesses.

Read more here.

And tapping courage to make big moves are:

Kathy Murphy, who was the CEO of U.S. Wealth Management at ING just joined Fidelity Investments. She’s the new president of personal investments at Ned Johnson’s ever-so-secretive empire.

Paula Reynolds, the CEO of Safeco who sold her company to Liberty Mutual for $6.2 billion earlier this year, is now vice chairman and chief restructuring officer at AIG (AIG).

Lorraine Bolsinger is the new president and CEO of GE Aviation Systems. Bolsinger led General Electric’s (GE) Ecoimagination initiative these past three years. So now, are green avionics on the way?

Cece Sutton, who headed retail and small business banking at Wachovia until Wells Fargo’s (WFC) recent buyout, moved to Morgan Stanley (MS). Sutton is aiming to build Morgan’s retail operation as the investment bank morphs into a commercial bank.

The Fortune 500, meanwhile, has a new female CEO: Laura Sen, president and COO of BJ’s Wholesale Clubs (BJ), will become CEO on Feb. 1. BJ’s stock, btw, has outperformed not only the S&P but Target and Wal-Mart (WMT) too over the past five years. That’s a feat!

One more big appointment announced just yesterday: Karen Mills is President-elect Obama’s choice to head the Small Business Administration.

Thanks to Patricia Sellers, editor at large, for publicizing these moves on her FORTUNE blog here.

UPDATE: also from Patricia Sellers blog. Now up to 14! "The Fortune 500, meanwhile, has a new female CEO: Laura Sen, president and COO of BJ’s Wholesale Clubs (BJ), will become CEO on Feb. 1. BJ’s stock, btw, has outperformed not only the S&P but Target and Wal-Mart (WMT) too over the past five years. That’s a feat!"

Posted by: Susan Colantuono
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