A community of women encouraging each other to go for it — whatever ‘it’ is

For the past 15 years, the Broad College of Business has hosted the biannual Advancing Women in Business event, connecting current students, recent graduates and alumni through a networking session and panel discussion.  

This event is part of an overall strategy within the Broad College to champion women in the workplace, including the Dashney Women’s Leadership Accelerator, student organizations, curriculum and outreach. These efforts also align with the Broad 2030 strategic plan, which underscores efforts to forge and deepen relationships with diverse constituents and create a community grounded in mutual respect where everyone feels valued and supported.  

The latest event, on Oct. 2, was hosted virtually and in person at the MSU University Club and initiated a thought-provoking discussion about the experience of being a woman in business. 

“If there’s any time, money or energy left at the end of the day, then women will invest it in themselves, and so this was really about bringing together a community of women who could encourage, empower and enable each other to go for it, whatever their ‘it’ is,” Cheri DeClercq, assistant dean of graduate programs and strategic partnerships in the Broad College and the organizer of the event, said.

The event kicked off with a networking session, followed by a welcome message from new Eli and Edythe L. Broad Dean David Souder, who was attending the event for the first time after joining the college in July.

“The Broad College has a long history of advancing women in business, and I’m proud to be a part of this important mission,” Souder said. “As we move through the evening, I encourage you to connect with those around you, share your experiences and leave here with renewed energy to pursue your goals. We have so much to learn from each other, and by coming together, we can continue to shape a future where women in business thrive and inspire others.”

This year’s panel featured two MSU graduates: Debbie Thornton (B.A. Materials & Logistics ’86), retired managing director of technology at Accenture, and Michele Honomichl (B.S. Finance ’93), founder and CEO of CanDoIQ. 

Thornton spent her 35-year career at Accenture (previously Arthur Andersen), an international strategy, technology and consulting company operating across 49 countries and 200 cities. Over her tenure, Thornton built and managed teams of over 300 people across different countries and cultures. She was responsible for delivering $10-20 million of revenue from clients such as the United States Department of Defense, J.P. Morgan Chase, Allstate Insurance Company, Domino’s, and WellCare. During the panel, she shared with attendees three key learnings from her career:  

1. Leadership is everything.
2. To sit at the table, you must be credible, trustworthy and relevant.
3. Networks are something; relationships are everything.

Honomichl started her career at Ford Motor Company as an internal auditor, then moved to international service in Latin America and Europe, managing the expatriate program for over 2,000 Ford employees working outside of their home countries. She graduated with her MBA in entrepreneurship and finance from Indiana University in 1999 and founded her first company, GPSLink, a revolutionary web-based technology to help manage expatriate administration. In 2004, Honomichl founded another company, Celergo LLC, which managed local, offshore and expatriate payrolls in over 150 countries across multiple industries. Celergo was founded with only $10,000 and grew to over $40 million within a decade. The company was sold to ADP in 2019, and Honomichl retired for a short period in 2020 to spend time with her teenage sons and family. Later that year, she founded CanDoIQ, a company dedicated to teaching financial literacy through fun, targeted and interactive technology. One of her pieces of advice for attendees was to cultivate your “No List”: “‘These are the things I am not going to do anymore.’

“What it’s doing is it’s focusing your work and trying to push out the things that are not necessarily important,” Honomichl explained. “You will get asked to do lots and lots of things in your career that you just don’t have the time for. I think it’s a really, really good skill to know what is on your No List.”

DeClercq echoed the idea of a No List with a book recommendation: The No Club: Putting a Stop to Women’s Dead-End Work by Linda Babcock, Brenda Peyser, Lise Vesterlund and Laurie Weingart.  

Building off the message of cultivating the “No List,” the panel discussion continued with important messages about advocating for yourself in your career.  

“You need to manage your career. You can’t look at a boss, mentor or coach. They can give you input, but you need to manage your career,” Thornton said. “Are you happy? Unhappy? What kind of opportunities are you looking for? Who is going to steer? You. You’re in charge … and that’s a good thing!”

“I wish that more women back then, and even today, took advantage of those opportunities. Networking opportunities, meet with the CEO, learn about this or that, and so many women didn’t do it,” Honomichl said. “There is a lot of opportunity. Take advantage of it! I was always trying to push my people and give them opportunities to try new things. But if you’re not advocating for a bonus, a raise, a new opportunity just to network and do those things, you’re doing yourself a huge disservice.”

Echoing Souder’s message of the importance of coming together to shape a better future for women in business, Thornton said, “I’ve been very fortunate to have had women who have helped me, shared their story with me and helped me along, and I look at this as my chance to pay it forward. My goal for being here is if you all can walk away with an idea that might help you or one thing that might stick with you that you’ll think about next year or the year after. Then I’ve been successful.”