WITI Women | Laurie McCartney
Laurie McCartney
Founder, President and CEO babystyle
Laurie McCartney has spent the bulk of her career in the retail,
consumer products, publishing and investment banking fields.
McCartney worked in The Walt Disney Company's Strategic Planning
department for four years, where she was responsible for evaluating
and selecting new business initiatives and expanding and
repositioning existing assets.
While at Disney,
McCartney worked on the expansion of the Disney Store, oversaw the
U.S. and European Consumer Products businesses, launched and
expanded book and magazine publishing initiatives, formulated
Disney's education strategy, participated in the integration of
Capital Cities/ABC and helped reposition and market Disneyland
Paris. McCartney also led the department's training program for MBAs
and BAs and recruited new hires.
In addition to her experience at
Disney, McCartney was previously vice president of corporate
strategy at Simon and Schuster, a segment producer at Good Morning
America, a reporter and business development executive at Worth
Magazine, and a member of the Mergers and Acquisitions department of
Morgan Stanley. The launch of Worth magazine and several family
ventures have given McCartney several years of experience with new
businesses.
McCartney holds an MBA with distinction from the Harvard
Business School and a BA with Honors, Phi Beta Kappa, from the
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Laurie McCartney answers these questions:
1. What was your first job in technology?
2. Who has been your most significant mentor? Why?
3. What has been your greatest challenge and what strategies
did you use to overcome obstacles?
4. Who has been the most influential person in your life?
Why?
5. What lessons have you learned that would be valuable to
women beginning their careers in technology?
6. What strategies do you use to maintain balance in your
life?
7. What new technology do you believe will have the most positive
impact on the world in the next 20 years? The most negative impact?
On the lighter side:
1. If you could have dinner with any 2 people (living or not),
who would they be?
2. Define success in 10 words or less.
3. If you could only subscribe to 3 magazines, what would
they be?
4. What was the last book you read?
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