Bayer Healthcare Wins Healthcare Businesswomen's Association ACE Award for Corporate Programs Advancing Women's Careers

FAIRFIELD, N.J., Sept. 21, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Healthcare Businesswomen's Association (HBA) is pleased to announce that Bayer HealthCare's Women's Leadership Initiative (WLI) is the winner of the 2011 HBA ACE Award. HBA created the award to recognize corporations' efforts to strengthen the advancement, commitment and engagement of women's careers in the healthcare industry. The ACE Award will be presented on November 10, 2011, at the HBA's 2011 Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C.

Bayer HealthCare's Women's Leadership Initiative (WLI) fulfills the required criteria for leadership programs that perform, specifically demonstrating excellence in business performance, stewardship, execution, sustainability and measureable results. Bayer HealthCare proves why internal corporate initiatives that support women are no longer just a "nice to have" – they are "a must" to realize better business results.

Background on the Winning Initiative
The WLI was established and grew organically as a grassroots effort to foster women's leadership at Bayer. It was not a company mandate or directive, rather it is an initiative that took hold as a result of a significant amount of time, energy and resources put forth by a small number of leaders. Today, the values of the WLI are becoming an integrated way of doing business for the organization—helping to shape organizational "thinking" with tangible and highly supported programs.

Bayer HealthCare's WLI has a clear mission to "ignite the power of diversity by cultivating successful women leaders to strengthen business results." The program provides networking opportunities, educational and mentoring programs, tools and other resources for female managers within the company. Its objectives are to identify talent within current organization while attracting top female talent; foster the advancement of women through targeted personal career plans, leadership skill building programs and support networks; and cultivate an environment and build competencies to ensure that high performing women have compelling reasons to stay and grow with the company. 

The initiative has grown significantly throughout the past two years to become a value added resource for women within the company and is demonstrating clear success and business value in assisting women to move into more senior leadership positions within the company.

"Bayer HealthCare's WLI clearly demonstrates a strong commitment to fostering the leadership development of women, which will have a direct impact on the healthcare industry," said HBA President Deborah Coogan Seltzer. "We are proud that the ACE Award is recognizing this effort."

A panel of industry leaders judged entrants against five criteria: measurable results and impact on target population; degree to which it supports the overall business; stewardship, or depth of commitment to the program; effectiveness of the execution; and built-in sustainability. The judges cited Bayer's strong business case focused on developing female employees and making a contribution to the community it serves.

Judges for the ACE Award were Tamar Howson, partner at JSP Partners and 1999 HBA Woman of the Year; William S. Sheldon, former president and COO of Eisai Inc., current member, board of trustees, Lakeland College, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and the HBA's first Honorable Mentor; Lynn Gaudioso, president at Ivanhoe Strategies and 1996 HBA Woman of the Year; Carolyn Buck-Luce, global pharmaceutical sector leader, Ernst & Young and 3BC co-chair; and Laurie Cooke RPh CAE, and HBA chief executive officer.

The ACE Award builds on the HBA's leadership role in recognizing women in the healthcare industry and creating high-profile role models. The HBA Woman of the Year Award, which recognizes an outstanding woman in the industry, is presented each May at a luncheon in New York City attended by more than 2,000 industry executives. Also honored at the Woman of the Year event are the Honorable Mentor, a male industry leader who supports the HBA mission; the HBA STAR winner as well as over 100 Rising Stars, high-potential women leaders at HBA Corporate Partners.

About the HBA

The Healthcare Businesswomen's Association (HBA) is in its fourth decade as a global not-for-profit organization dedicated to furthering the advancement of women in healthcare worldwide. With 15 chapters throughout the U.S. and in Europe, the HBA is headquartered in New Jersey with offices in Philadelphia and Research Triangle Park. The HBA provides educational opportunities for women and men to develop cutting-edge healthcare industry knowledge and leadership skills; recognizes outstanding women and men in the industry; provides opportunities for networking; creates greater visibility for women in the industry; fosters mentoring relationships and serves as a conduit and sponsor for research on career advancement issues. HBA has over 6,000 individual members and over 130 Corporate Partners. It is widely recognized as the catalyst for leadership development of women in healthcare worldwide. For more information, visit www.hbanet.org.

SOURCE Healthcare Businesswomen's Association