Dress for Success: Who We Are: Board of Directors

Who We Are | Board of Directors

Dress for Success Worldwide Board of Directors

Niki Leondakis
Dorria Ball
Elena Kiam
Clarice Kennedy
Frank Aquila
Bobbi Brown
Maureen Case
Doug Checkeris
Donna Griffin
Carla Hendra
Mary Ivers
Debra Kelly-Ennis
Dottie Mattison
Robbin Mitchell
Kim Van Der Zon

Niki Leondakis Chair
Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants

The chief operations officer of Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, Niki Leondakis oversees operations, marketing and human resources for the company's 39 boutique hotels and restaurants. Ms. Leondakis is a key player in the creation and development of the company's mission statement and culture. In 1998, Ms. Leondakis formed the Mentor Program, aiding in the development and advancement for young women and men in Kimpton's restaurant division. She launched the Diversity Initiative and is an active leader in the company's social responsibility efforts.

Passionate about the advancement of women in the workplace, Ms. Leondakis focuses her time on helping them progress to upper management positions. Today, she is a mentor for not only women at Kimpton but also those outside of the company.

Prior to joining Kimpton, Ms. Leondakis worked for the Ritz Carlton Hotel Company in Marina Del Rey, California, Atlanta and San Francisco from 1985 to 1993.

Ms. Leondakis has received numerous industry awards, including recognition by Nations Restaurant News in April 2002 as one of 30 Women Power Players. Every year from 2002 to 2005 the San Francisco Business Times named her one of its Most Influential Women. In August 2002, Travel Agent magazine named her one of the Most Powerful Women in Travel.

An avid contributor to the community, Ms. Leondakis is also an active board member for the National Restaurant Association and serves on the advisory board of the USF Hospitality Management Program. Ms. Leondakis holds a B.S. degree in hotel, restaurant management and travel administration from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

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Dorria L. Ball Vice Chair
Kraft Foods, Inc.

Dorria L. Ball is the senior director of Human Resources, Beverages, for Kraft Foods, headquartered in Tarrytown, NY. In this role, Ms. Ball and her team are responsible for developing and leading the implementation of all human resources strategies and activities in support of all Beverages Business Unit functions from marketing to manufacturing. Kraft is the largest food company in North America and the second largest in the world, with net revenues exceeding $34 billion, 90,000 employees worldwide and operations in 70 countries.

Ms. Ball began her career with Kraft over 18 years ago in Sales Management, where she held numerous assignments of increasing responsibility, calling on customers and leading teams. She transitioned into human resources in 1994 and has since held a variety of human resources generalist and specialist assignments across a number of functions and business sectors. Most recently, Ms. Ball was the Senior Director of Global Diversity and Work Life, where she was responsible for developing and implementing the Global Diversity and Work Life strategy for Kraft Foods worldwide.

Ms. Ball is one of the founding members of ASCENT, and was formerly on the Conference Board's Council on Workforce Diversity , the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund advisory board, the steering team of the William J. Clinton Foundation's Harlem Small Business Initiative, and the Boston College Global Workforce Roundtable Steering Committee. In addition, Ms. Ball is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority and the Abyssinian Baptist Church.

Ms. Ball is a native of Indianapolis, a graduate of Indiana University and a resident of Westchester County, New York.

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Elena Kiam Treasurer
lia sophia

Ms. Kiam is senior vice-president of lia sophia, a direct selling, fashion jewelry company that has selected Dress for Success as its not-for-profit partner. Like Dress for Success, lia sophia's mission is to connect women to their dreams and to help them gain significant financial independence; lia sophia does so by giving women the opportunity to establish their own businesses. Nationally based, lia sophia is one of the fastest growing direct selling companies and currently has over 15,000 sales advisors. lia sophia is known for its elegant, well-priced jewelry as well as its more fashion forward collections designed for press, celebrities and tastemakers. It is the only branded fashion jewelry company that is routinely featured in the national fashion magazines and the weekly entertainment publications, due in part to its celebrity following.

Ms. Kiam oversees the company's marketing and public relations efforts including its valued partnership with Dress for Success. Through this partnership, lia sophia is working to expose Dress for Success' clients to another career possibility as well as to encourage its own base of sales advisors to give back to their communities through Dress for Success.

Prior to lia sophia, Ms. Kiam had a 14-year career at J.P. Morgan primarily in the Asset Management/Private Banking division, where she was responsible for advising private companies and high net worth individuals on a range of financial matters. She helped establish J.P. Morgan's' businesses in Colorado, Texas and other western states prior to the company's opening offices in these areas.

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Clarice Kennedy Secretary
Resources Global Professionals.

Clarice Kennedy is the senior director of Information Management for Resources Global Professionals, www.ResourcesGlobal.com. NASDAQ: RECN.

Ms. Kennedy brings 20 years of experience in the technology industry and in this role manages the strategic development of the Information Management practice, specifically in the areas of business (IT) governance, business process transformation and program and project management.

Prior to joining Resources, Ms Kennedy was the founder and CEO of CCN, Inc., a technology staffing firm. During the last two decades, she guided its growth and expansion into a full-service provider of technology services and talent management solutions for some of the world's leading companies.

Ms. Kennedy began her career as a systems programmer, then transitioned into a network engineering role supporting European traders at Security Pacific Bank, now Bank of America. Two years later, the entrepreneurial 24-year-old founded CCN and strategically fulfilled the emerging need for IT services as North American companies began widespread deployment of personal computers across the enterprise.

Ms. Kennedy is a member of Columbia University's mentoring program within the Executive Master of Science in Technology Management degree program, offered by Columbia's School of Continuing Education. She serves on the New York Leadership Board of Women in Technology International (WITI) and is an active board member for the New York Society of Information Managers (SIM).

Ms. Kennedy holds a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science from Buffalo State University, Buffalo, New York. She lives in New York with her husband and her three greatest accomplishments - her children, Dylan, Connor and Aidan.

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F rank Aquila
Sullivan & Cromwell LLP

Frank Aquila has been an attorney at Sullivan & Cromwell since 1983 and a partner of the firm since 1992. He has served as the partner in charge of legal recruiting and is currently one of the partners responsible for associate matters. Mr. Aquila's practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, takeover defense, strategic alliances and corporate governance matters for a broad range of leading international companies. He serves as regular advisor to global leaders such as Amgen, British Airways, Diageo and InBev. He can be regularly seen and heard discussing M&A activity and trends on CNBC TV, Bloomberg Radio, Bloomberg TV and Fox Business News. In demand as an author and lecturer on M&A and corporate governance, Mr. Aquila received The Burton Award for Legal Achievement 2005 in recognition of his article, "Back to the Future! Recent Hostile Bids Make Takeover Defenses Relevant" (The M&A Lawyer, April 2004).

Mr. Aquila has been featured twice in The American Lawyer, "Daddys Weekend on the Phone" (January 2002) and "Supersonic Lawyers" (May 2004), and once in The Wall Street Journal, "Business Trips Leave Little Time for Luxuries" (May 31, 1996). Mr. Aquila is chair-elect of the board of trustees of The NALP Foundation for Law Career Research and Education and is a member of the board of advisors of the Salvation Army of Greater New York.

Mr. Aquila is a native of New York City and a graduate of Columbia College (Columbia University) and Brooklyn Law School.

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Bobbi Brown
Bobbi Brown Cosmetics

In 1991 Bobbi Brown started a makeup revolution with a handful of lipsticks and a simple philosophy: Women want to look and feel like themselves, only prettier and more confident. Her dream came true when she debuted her line of cosmetics just 10 brown-based lipsticks at Bergdorf Goodman in New York City.

Ms. Brown's love affair with makeup started at an early age when she discovered her mothers collection of cosmetics. Driven by her passion, Ms. Brown went to learn the art of theatrical makeup at Emerson College in Boston, then headed for New York City to work as a professional makeup artist.

Tackling the challenges that face any novice in her industry building a portfolio from scratch, making contacts Ms. Brown found that her biggest frustration was the lack of flattering makeup products. A chance meeting with a chemist at a magazine photo shoot changed everything. The chemist made the lipstick following Ms. Browns exacting specifications and the result was Brown Lip Color, a pinky-brown shade. Nine other brown-based lipstick shades followed soon after, and Ms. Browns set of lipsticks was complete.

Take one look at the Bobbi Brown line today and it is clear that Ms. Browns mission remains the same to give women options. As a working makeup artist, entrepreneur, wife and mother of three, Ms. Browns approach strikes a chord with consumers it is about achieving and maintaining balance, cultivating a positive outlook and loving yourself the way you are.

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Maureen Case
The Estee Lauder Companies

Maureen Case was appointed President, Specialty Groups Worldwide, for the Estee Lauder Companies in January 2006 and currently heads three of the company’s most innovative brands: Bobbi Brown, La Mer and Jo Malone. In addition to heading global business operations for each, Ms. Case has also been responsible for recognizing, developing and implementing strategic brand building openings that have spurred their tremendous growth.

Ms. Case has been a leader at Bobbi Brown Cosmetics for nearly a decade, joining the brand in 1999 as Vice President, General Manager, Bobbi Brown International. Within a year she stepped up to the role of VP Global Marketing, Bobbi Brown Worldwide and by 2001, expanded her responsibilities considerably through her promotions to Senior Vice President, Global Marketing.

Ms. Case was named General Manager, Bobbi Brown Worldwide and the following year, as President, she proceeded to strategically structure and position the brand for further global and regional growth. Since joining the brand, sales have quadrupled and Ms. Case has expanded it into more than 15 key markets including Russia and China. She continues to oversee the company’s development through such means as alternative distribution via QVC and free standing stores. All in all, Ms. Case remains instrumental to Bobbi Brown’s continued double-digit growth.

Ms. Case boasts more than three decades’ of experience in the cosmetics business. She began her career in beauty in 1975 when she joined the finance arm of the Estee Lauder Companies. In 1979 she transferred to the New York headquarters as Regional Finance Manager for the Travel Retailing Group. Promoted to Executive Director, Marketing, Travel Retailing, Estee Lauder International, Inc. in 1989, Ms. Case made significant contributions to the growth of the Travel Retailing operations, which doubled in sales during her tenure.

Ms. Case sits on the board for Dress for Success as well as the Emerson College Board of Overseers, and is an active member of Cosmetic Executive Women. She is an avid scuba diver, enjoys snow-skiing and practices yoga. Ms. Case lives in Manhattan with her family.

Doug Checkeris was named CEO of MediaCom U.S. in the fall of 2007. Since signing on as head of the agency's U.S. operation, Doug's focus has been leading MediaCom's strategic reinvention. During the period that Doug has held this position, the agency has achieved several successes, including deepened relationships with - and several significant new assignments from - a diversity of clients, consolidation of the GlaxoSmtihKline media business under MediaCom, stewardship of the WPP Dell account and the continued holistic integration of digital media into the core of the agency.

Mr. Checkeris began his career at MBS in Canada 25 years ago as a media trainee. He joined the MBS management committee in 1986 and was named managing partner in 1996, one year before MBS joined forces with MediaCom to form The Media Company, MediaCom's Canadian operations. In 2003 he was named president and CEO of The Media Company and during his tenure he was instrumental in the company's placement as #1 for several successive years on RECMA's ranking of Canadian agencies. Throughout his career, he has successfully pitched and run a broad range of clients spanning virtually every category, some of which include: TD Canada Trust, BMW Canada, Procter & Gamble, Nokia, Staples, Warner Bros., LVMH, GlaxoSmithKline and Rogers and Michelin.

Mr. Checkeris' involvement on the community level includes serving on the boards of the arts-focused Canadian Fringe Festival and Canadian Stage Company and participating in the charitable groups Reach for the Rainbow, an organization that enables disabled children to attend summer camp, and Mothers Trust Foundation, which helps children in need. He also led MediaCom Canada's strong participation with the United Way. Since coming to the U.S., Mr. Checkeris has embraced MediaCom's participation with Dress for Success, spearheading a volunteer day at the Brooklyn, NY warehouse and establishing an internship program with the organization.

When he's not working, Mr. Checkeris enjoys spending time with his wife and two children, competing in Masters Lacrosse and Basketball and pursuing his admitted obsession with Ski Racing. He also plans to run in the charity-based JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge and ride in a 200K, 3-day bike ride to benefit a leading Canadian cancer institute.

Donna Griffin
Citibank North America

Donna Griffin is the senior vice president and national human resources director for Citibank North America. Having been with Citigroup for over 32 years, Ms. Griffin began her career in St. Louis, Missouri while attending college and then moving into a number of managerial positions in the areas of Credit Policy and Operations Control for the Consumer Sales Finance and Mortgage Divisions.

Ms. Griffin relocated with Citibank in 1982 to San Francisco, California, where she began her career in human resources. Over the subsequent 17 years, she oversaw Employee Relations, Recruiting, Training, Compensation and Benefits.

After relocating to New York during the summer of 2000 she was appointed to her current role, where she directs a team of 140 human resources professionals to support Citibank North America's Retail Branch network of 1,000 branches and 18,000 employees across the U.S., Puerto Rico and Canada. She directs all aspects of Citibank's people initiatives, including developing talent, managing performance, rewarding results and creating an environment where people want to work to build their careers. In her current capacity Ms. Griffin has proudly worked with Dress for Success' job fairs to support our clients in their employment transitions.

Dedicated to giving back to the community, Ms. Griffin has been involved with Habitat for Humanity, March of Dimes, United Way, AIDS Foundation and the American Cancer Society.

Ms. Griffin holds a BS in business education from the University of St. Louis-Missouri. Recently married 25 years, Ms. Griffin enjoys all health and fitness activities, home decorating, wine tasting and dogs-she is the proud owner of Snowball, a 7-lb. Maltese.

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Carla Hendra
Ogilvy & Mather North America

Carla Hendra was named Chief Executive Officer of Ogilvy North America in 2005 and in 2007 was appointed Chairman of Ogilvy New York, the flagship of Ogilvy & Mather's global network. With responsibility for Ogilvy's key business units: Ogilvy & Mather Advertising, OgilvyOne, OgilvyAction, OgilvyPR, OgilvyHealthworld, and Redworks, Ms. Hendra oversees the Ogilvy network's largest operations.

She has been the driving force of digital at Ogilvy for 13 years. Her focus on digital innovation resulted in OgilvyInteractive being named one of the world's leading digital marketing agencies in North America by Forrester Research in 2007 and 2009, based on pioneering digital work on behalf of clients such as IBM, American Express, TD AMERITRADE, Unilever, SAP, Kraft, Cisco and Time Warner Cable.

Ms. Hendra joined Ogilvy in 1996 as part of Steve Hayden’s legendary “Team Blue,” which served the IBM account globally. She was appointed President of OgilvyOne New York in 1998, following her successful leadership of IBM’s digital and demand generation business. Ms. Hendra assumed regional leadership of the integrated Ogilvy & Mather Group in 2005. During her management tenure, OgilvyOne and OgilvyInteractive have won more awards than any other agency in their category for innovation and results in digital and direct marketing. In 2004, Ms. Hendra launched the Verge conference, Ogilvy’s global digital summit series, and hosts this thought leadership event each year in the U.S. She speaks frequently on digital innovation at conferences such as Web 2.0, the adTech and the National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE).

Ms. Hendra served as the first-ever female jury chair of the Cannes Advertising Festival when she presided over the 2001 Cyber Lions. She was selected one of Working Mother magazine’s “Advertising Working Mothers of the Year” in 2004, and named Advertising Woman of the Year by AWNY in 2005. Ms. Hendra received the YWCA’s “W” award, given for eliminating racism and empowering women, in 2008. She has served terms on both the 4A's Board of Directors and the DMA Board of Directors; currently she is a member of the Digital Board for the 4A's.

Ms. Hendra became a David Rockefeller Fellow of The New York City Partnership in 2006 to further Ogilvy's involvement in important civic and educational issues. She is active in several organizations promoting inner city education, including PENCIL and Schools That Can. Ms. Hendra was elected to the Board of Directors of Dress for Success in 2007. She is a Director of Brown Shoe (BWS) a global footwear manufacturer and retailer and Unica (UNCA), a global enterprise marketing software company.

A graduate of the University of Chicago, Ms. Hendra resides in New York City with her husband and three children.

Mary Ivers

Founder, Dress for Success Cincinnati and 4^th Street Boutique

Mary Ivers started her business career in 1979 as an entrepreneur, co-founding, Software Clearing House. As this company grew over 15 years, Ms. Ivers learned how to expand an organization on a tight budget and also worked with many of the internal systems for managing clients, databases, mailing campaigns and websites- all skills that would later prove useful in managing a Dress for Success affiliate.

In 1999 Ms. Ivers founded Dress for Success Cincinnati (making 2009 their tenth anniversary). Ms. Ivers is passionate about every woman being able to achieve her dreams. This Dress for Success affiliate operates a large facility (8,000 square feet) in downtown Cincinnati that serves women throughout the Greater Cincinnati area with a Professional Women’s Group and a Career Center.

Ms. Ivers has introduced several innovative fund raising concepts in Cincinnati. She created the 4^th Street Boutique as an Earned Income Venture to sell excess clothing in its thrift store, contributing the proceeds to the Dress for Success affiliate. This concept worked so well that it earned an Honorable Mention competing at the Yale School of Management National Business Plan Competition in 2004.

The affiliate has won several awards from World Wide, including the Brand Champion Award in 2005, the Sisterhood Award in 2006 and the Founders Award in 2007. Community awards include being a finalist in both 2006 and 2008 for the ONE Award for nonprofits – comparable to the Baldridge Awards for business.

Ms. Ivers has been personally recognized for her efforts in Cincinnati with several awards including the Leadership Cincinnati Alumni Award, and Enquirer Woman of the Year. Ms. Ivers' greatest source of pride is being a mother of four and her greatest reward has come from the joys of building a supportive, tightly knit family.

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Debra Kelly-Ennis
Diageo

Debra Kelly-Ennis currently serves as president and CEO of Diageo Canada. Diageo is the world's leading spirits, wine and beer company, and Canada is Diageo's seventh largest market. Prior to this, Ms. Kelly-Ennis served as chief marketing officer of Diageo North America, where she oversaw all marketing activities for Diageo's array of brands including Johnnie Walker, Tanqueray, Smirnoff and Guinness. She joined Diageo in April 2005 from General Motors subsidiary Saab USA where she served as president and chief operating officer.

Under her leadership as CMO the marketing department at Diageo flourished, resulting in the creation of award-winning advertising, breakthrough digital work, large-scale portfolio programs and a step change in the company's multicultural marketing expertise and activities. One of her personal achievements has been pioneering a groundbreaking venture between Ciroc vodka and entertainment and lifestyle icon Sean "Diddy" Combs.

As president and COO of Saab Cars USA Ms. Kelly-Ennis led the division to set U.S. sales records for new and used cars, as well as parts and accessories in 2003. She is a recipient of the Women's Automotive International Professional Achievement Award in 2003 and is very proud to have led General Motor's United Way marketing campaign in 2002. Since 1997 Ms. Kelly-Ennis has served as a member of the Pulte Corporation's Board of Directors where she chairs the governance committee and serves as a member of the audit committee.

Ms. Kelly-Ennis earned a bachelor's degree from University of Texas, an MBA from the University of Houston and completed the executive leadership program at Harvard Business School.

She has been married for nearly 25 years to Timothy Ennis and divides her time between New York City and Palm Beach.

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Dottie Mattison
Wal-Mart

As senior vice president and general manager of the Apparel strategic business unit for Walmart Stores US, Ms. Mattison is responsible for overall apparel strategy, assortment strategy, brand strategy, private label product development and sourcing for merchandise categories including Ladies, Shoes, Jewelry, Accessories, Intimates, Mens, Kids, Baby Apparel, Baby Consumables and Baby Furniture. She is also the lead of the Textiles Sustainability Network within Wal-Mart.

Ms. Mattison joined Wal-Mart in March 2006. Before joining the Wal-Mart Stores U.S. team, Ms. Mattison was the vice president and chief merchant of Walmart.com.

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Robbin Mitchell
Polo Ralph Lauren

Robbin Mitchell is currently senior vice president, chief of staff at Polo Ralph Lauren (PRL). Ms. Mitchell is responsible for working across all businesses and brands on a worldwide basis synchronizing global management activities, fostering business process improvements and helping to streamline key decision-making.

Prior to this role, Ms. Mitchell was senior vice president, Supply Chain Business Process Integration, managing Polo's largest global business initiative, which involved implementing a new Global ERP System across all global wholesale brands, including menswear, childrenswear, womenswear, footwear and accessories in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. This initiative included re-engineering current business processes and implementing a common business and operational infrastructure across all divisions. Ms. Mitchell began working for PRL in 2001 as vice president, Wholesale Replenishment for the Polo Brands Wholesale Division, where she managed all aspects of the men's wholesale replenishment business.

Ms. Mitchell's career in the apparel industry has spanned more than 15 years; she has previously held positions at both the Tommy Hilfiger Corporation and GFT USA, which encompasses brands such as Giorgio Armani Le Collezioni Men's and Women's, Joseph Abboud, Calvin Klein Men's Apparel and Valentino Men's and Women's.

Ms. Mitchell's apparel experience includes her involvement with McKinsey & Company, Inc. as a retail practice consultant, where she focused on product development reengineering, global supply chain management, and global sourcing and production management. Before entering business school, she spent two years at The Boston Consulting Group and two years in the mergers and acquisitions department at Lehman Brothers, where she concentrated on the retail industry.

Ms. Mitchell has served as both a keynote speaker and panelist at the 2004 and 2006 annual User Conference of Logility & Company, a global industry leader in planning, forecasting, logistics and supply chain software. She was also named one of the top 25 Visionaries by Consumer Goods Technology magazine in 2006.

Ms. Mitchell received her BA from Stanford University and was awarded an MBA from Harvard Graduate School of Business.

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Kim Van Der Zon
Egon Zehnder International

Kim Van Der Zon currently serves as a partner in the New York office of Egon Zehnder International. Egon Zender International is the largest privately-held search firm in the world, with more than 300 consultants located in 63 wholly-owned offices in 36 countries. The firm specializes in senior level executive search, board consulting and board director search, and talent management. Ms. Van Der Zon's expertise is in CEO/president/general manager and board of director searches, working primarily with global Fortune 500 clients both domestically and internationally.

Prior to joining Egon Zehnder, Ms. Van Der Zon served as vice president, corporate marketing for Bank of Montreal in Canada. In this role, she provided strategic marketing leadership to the $250 billion national financial services institution. Previously, she spent more than four years in senior management positions at LaBatt/InBev, including director or new business development, where she led new business initiatives. Kim also has strong packaged goods marketing experience, including P&L responsibilities, which she established in her six years at Proctor & Gamble.

Ms. Van Der Zon earned an MBA from the University of Toronto, and an undergraduate degree in business administration from Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada. She is from Toronto and has enjoyed living in New York City since 1998.

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Dress for Success Worldwide :: 32 East 31st Street 7th Floor :: New York, NY 10016

Ph: 212.532.1922 | Fax: 212.684.9563