Continuing our series celebrating 50 years of women at Darden, this week we feature Veneka Chagwedera (MBA ’13), a woman who turned her kitchen hobby into an entrepreneurial enterprise.

Veneka Chagwedera — Buy a Bar, Feed a Child

Veneka Chagwedera (MBA ’13)

While working for a Southeast Asian nonprofit, Veneka Chagwedera (MBA ’13) started making healthy energy bars to keep her going during her field trips to remote areas. When she returned to the United States to begin business school, she continued experimenting with ingredients, with the aim of crafting a satisfying snack bar without preservatives or added chemicals.

Chagwedera soon realized her “kitchen hobby had business potential.” With a grant from the University of Virginia i.Lab Business Incubator (housed at Darden) and support from
Darden alumni and faculty, she launched NOURIBAR as a Second Year student in 2012. Having never run a business before, she relied on the guidance of several entrepreneurial faculty experts, including Professors Saras Sarasvathy and Jeanne Liedtka.

Read Veneka entire story in the latest issue of the Darden Report.

To learn more about resources and opportunities Darden provides specifically for women, please visit the Women at Darden page on our website.

Continuing our series celebrating 50 years of women at Darden, this week we recognize Katie Bisbee (MBA ’04), a woman whose desire for social impact had a bigger impact on her classroom than she initially realized. An excerpt from her story is below:

Katie Bisbee — Marketing With a Big Heart

At the age of five, Katie Bisbee (MBA ’04) was serving meals at soup kitchens with her family. “Social impact has always been in the forefront of my mind. My parents taught me that is how you should live your life,” she said. This sentiment has stayed with Bisbee, who turned her passion for helping others into a career.

Katie Bisbee (MBA ’04)

She was several years out of college when she started working at a nonprofit and quickly realized her limiting factor. “I figured if I wanted to make an impact in the social sector, I had to have a really strong business grounding,” she explained. She promptly applied and was accepted to Darden.

As a First Year student, Bisbee worried that her class contributions were subpar, but she quickly began to notice the opposite: Her nontraditional background as a marketer actually added value to the classroom dynamic. “I think I offered a fresh set of eyes that was helpful for my classmates. I asked questions other people probably wouldn’t think to ask because they knew the material so well,” she recalled.

Read Katie’s entire story in the latest issue of the Darden Report.

To learn more about resources and opportunities Darden provides specifically for women, please visit the Women at Darden page on our website.

Continuing our series celebrating 50 years of women at Darden, this week we recognize Susan Sobbott (MBA ’90), a woman who decided to replace work/life balance with work/life integration. An excerpt from her story is below:

Susan Sobbott – Integrating Budgets and Ballet Shoes

“Yesterday, my daughter Leah asked if she could come to work with me, so I brought her in,” said Susan Sobbott (MBA ’90) of her 9-year-old. “Leah sharpened about four boxes of pencils and sat through some meetings with me. She said she had the ‘very best day.’ Last night, she asked what time we were leaving for work this morning.”

Susan Sobbott (MBA ’90)

As president of Global Corporate Payments at American Express, a wife and a mother, Sobbott knows about the challenges of managing a family and a career. At home, she raises her two children, Leah and Jeremiah, with her husband, Keith.

In her current position, she is responsible for all of the products that serve the company’s corporate payment clients around the world, including the Corporate Card and Corporate Purchasing Solutions. A leader in the corporate payments arena, American Express operates in nearly 200 countries and serves 62 percent of Fortune 500 companies. Since she started working for the company more than 20 years ago, Sobbott has established herself as a leader who spearheads creative marketing strategies, uncovers pockets of untapped growth and cares deeply about her customers.

Read Susan’s entire story in the latest issue of the Darden Report.

To learn more about resources and opportunities Darden provides specifically for women, please visit the Women at Darden page on our website.

Continuing our series celebrating 50 years of women at Darden, this week we recognize Karen Yelick (MBA ’81), CEO of Indego Africa, a nonprofit in Rwanda. An excerpt of her story is below.

Karen Yelick — From Corporate Capitalism to Conscious Commerce

“I ran what was called the War Room — conflicts clearance for investment banking, and it was a 24/7 job,” recalled Karen Yelick (MBA ’81), a mother of three. After 24 years with Merrill Lynch (which Bank of America acquired in 2009), in 2011 she decided to transition into the social sector. “I had always wanted to do something in the social enterprise space related to women and education. It was time,” said Yelick.

She found “the perfect fit” with Indego Africa, a nonprofit that partners with Rwandan women artisans to sell their handmade products in the United States market. Profits from sales coupled with donations fund education programs for the artisans. “I wanted to join a group that was on the verge, to help take it from a startup to the next level,” said Yelick, who is now Indego Africa’s CEO.

Karen Yelick (MBA ’81) transitions from Wall Street investment banker to CEO of a Rwandan nonprofit.

Read Karen’s entire story in the latest issue of The Darden Report.

To learn more about resources and opportunities Darden provides specifically for women, please visit the Women at Darden page on our website.