Majority female exec team emphasizes unity

As Iowa’s first coeducational college and one of the first coed colleges in the nation, Cornell was a pioneer in empowering women. Now, for the first time, we also have a majority female executive team.

Cornell’s leadership team is led by President Jonathan Brand and includes four vice presidents:

• Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Ilene Crawford ’92
• Vice President for Enrollment Management Wendy Beckemeyer
• Vice President and Chief Operating and Chief Financial Officer Kelly Flege
• Interim Vice President for Student Affairs and Special Assistant to the President John Harp

This discussion (condensed for the Cornell Report) among the women VPs about Cornell’s leadership style is one example of their impact on campus and communications. 

WB—There aren’t a lot of institutions where the president is very open to the agenda being created by the people who are attending the meeting, where he then helps write the minutes. He’s very much a working president. The dynamic is different from other campuses where the structure feels very formal.

KF—And just as Wendy described Jonathan as a working president, I would describe that across the board to the whole executive team.

WB—We are committed to supporting each other. One of the things I haven’t always seen in higher ed or corporations is the energy to support everyone on the team, as opposed to it being a competition. I think that is a compliment to the level of confidence in our own abilities and in each other.

IC—I would agree with that. We work as an executive team in ways that are about the gains of the institution as a whole, and model across divisions what healthy relationships look like, and that it need not be competitive. In fact, it’s important that it’s not competitive in order for us to continue to advance as an institution. It’s very common in times of uncertainty for vice presidents to retract and carve out what their territory and resources are and fiercely protect those from each other. We haven’t done that. We have the ability to transmit our energy to our teams and then have that flow out across the institution; that matters and makes a difference.

KF—In order for Cornell to be successful, the five of us need to model the right behavior as we lead the institution. We’re going to lunch together, and our interaction is any day and every day and not bound by the times we’re formally meeting. 

WB—There’s a humanistic element to our interaction as a group. It is a trust that we have in each other to be ourselves. That is part of the magic of the group. Less shielding and more openness and trust. It’s just how we feel when we’re together. I would definitely say I’ve been more casual and open with this group than with any other team. Women have struggled with both the confidence and the invitation to be themselves for fear of being seen as too emotional or too controlling, and in this group—because there is appreciation around the table and in our lives for one another—we’re able to be more open and more warm. It allows us to be our true selves and perform at our highest ability level.