In October the Chamber launched a new series of awards celebrating the strength, leadership and courage that characterize women who succeed in the business world.

The inaugural Chattanooga Nautilus Awards were presented, along with the ATHENA Award, during ceremonies in the Chattanoogan Hotel Ballroom.

"The purpose of the Chamber is to celebrate and support businesses in the Chattanooga area," said Kristi Haulsee, Chamber vice president for member/investor services. "We are pleased to recognize those individuals and organizations that are advancing or advocating for increased opportunities for women in business."

More than 50 individuals and companies were nominated for the first Nautilus Awards.

Awards and recipients are: The ATHENA Award, Rae Bond, executive director of the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Medical Society and Medical Foundation; Corporate Compass Award, G.R. Rush and Company; Lightkeeper Award, Sandi Brock, program director of the Southeast Women’s Business Center; Navigator of Entrepreneurship Award, Kary Klein, president of SmartHireHR; Pearl of Promise Award, Elizabeth Proctor, Red Bank High School senior.

The ATHENA Award, which has been presented in Chattanooga for nine years, is given to an individual who encourages women to realize their leadership potential, enjoys a successful career and participates in community service.

Bond, who received the ATHENA Award, was cited for her leadership in the Scenic City Women’s Network, the Coalition Against Domestic and Community Violence and the Tennessee Economic Council on Women Summit Planning Committee.

She was also recognized for her volunteer work on behalf of the Chattanooga Theatre Centre,Why kNOw Abstinence and the Widows Harvest Ministry.

Other finalists were Kary Klein, president of SmartHireHR; and Pam Ladd, owner of Custom Custodial.

The following awards comprise the new Nautilus Awards.

The Corporate Compass Award was presented to G.R. Rush and Company for flexible workplace policies and placing women at all levels in the company, including on the board of directors, where women hold 25 percent of the seats. Other finalists were EPB and Henderson Hutcherson & McCullough.

The Navigator of Entrepreneurship Award recognizes a woman business owner who encourages work-life balance among employees, demonstrates a pioneering spirit of entrepreneurship and serves as a role model for other women

Kary Klein, SmartHireHR president, was cited for transforming a temp agency into a full service human resources firm; for exceptional efforts on behalf of her clients and for nurturing her staff.
Other finalists were Dr. Carol Berz, CEO of Private Dispute Resolution Services; and Sheila Boyington, president of Thinking Media.

The Lightkeeper Award honors an individual who has made an impact on issues affecting women and/or girls through grassroots efforts. Sandi Brock received the award for coaching women who are trying to launch or grow a business, for founding the Women in Business Forum and for assisting with a summit that addressed issues affecting women economically.

Other finalists were Lisa Crawford, concierge of the Chattanoogan Hotel; Marj Flemming, owner of Launch Point Leadership; and Randall Hebert, dealership services manager of Henderson Hutcherson & McCullough.

The Pearl of Promise awards a $2,500 college scholarship to a female high school student with a strong aptitude in math and science and a career interest in a typically maledominated field. Elizabeth Proctor received the award for working toward a career in medicine, excelling in math and science and acting as a leader at Red Bank High, where she is president of her class, a Student Council member and a Girls State delegate.

Other finalists were Priya C. Boyington, Girls Preparatory School; and Elena Canler, Ooltewah High School.

The name Nautilus derives from the chambered nautilus, the sea snail that forms chambers as it grows. During its development, the nautilus builds new, larger chambers and seals off the old.

"Oliver Wendell Holmes, who wrote the celebrated Chambered Nautilus poem, saw the growth of the mollusk and its spiral shell as representative of the intellectual growth of humans," Haulsee said. "The nautilus shell seems an appropriate symbol for the strength, leadership and courage that women must demonstrate for success in the business place."

And The other Winners Are....

Preparing Society For Women Leaders (The following are excerpts from remarks by Heather Holloway, chair of the Nautilus Awards Committee and emcee of the awards luncheon.) The Center for Women’s Business Research reports that today there are 10.4 million privately-held, women-owned firms in the US. These companies account for 40 percent of all businesses in the country. They generate $1.9 trillion in annual sales and employ 12.8 million people nationwide. Clearly, women have made considerable progress in the business world over the past generation. As recently as 1965 the Harvard Business School had never graduated a female. Today 40 percent of all business school graduates are women. Despite these advances, women have not yet achieved parity with men in the business world. Consider the top of corporate America. It is an almost exclusively male domain. Among Fortune 500 companies for 2006 there were only 10 women CEOs. Last year there was only one. In 2005 women held just 14.7 percent of Fortune 500 board seats, a figure that has risen since 1995 at the sluggish rate of 1/2 of one percentage point a year. Discrimination and sexual harassment, while abating, remain workplace issues for many women, and equal pay for equal work is still a huge issue. In 1963 when President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act into law, women on average were earning 59 cents in wages for every dollar men were paid. Four decades later, they earned 76 cents on the dollar. At that rate, it will be 2042 before we achieve pay parity.  Women, also, as Harvard Business School Professor Nancy Koehn points out, are often in the minority in industries, a circumstance that creates challenges for them. They must make their way in organizations that frequently lack role models willing to teach them how to lead. At the same time, balancing career and family obligations creates additional challenges for women. Here’s how Dr. Koehn describes what we as a society need to do to better prepare women for leadership roles in business: "We would like young women to learn from an early age about the excitement, challenges, opportunities, and rewards of business.We want them to have a greater sense of the extraordinary challenges of leadership, its ecstasies and its agonies.We want them to say with the exuberance of an eight-year-old, ‘I want to lead a company’; and with the assertiveness of a 16-year-old, ‘I have an idea for a business venture.’ Finally, we want women business leaders today to think creatively about how to help women who are younger or behind them on the leadership and developmental ladder."