Putman delivers her acceptance speech at the Summit General Session as BrandSource’s Arlene Soto, JoAnne Keen and Jackie King look on.
By Alan Wolf, YSN
Women in Business (WIB), BrandSource’s six-year-old professionals’ organization for ladies in the appliance, furniture, mattress and consumer tech sectors, bestowed its Cornerstone Award to Mary Putman, Vice President of Marketing & Brand for GE Appliances (GEA).
The honor, presented to Putman at AVB’s just-concluded Summit 2020 event in Las Vegas this week, lauds her efforts to bring a woman’s perspective to the appliance industry and to help crumble the glass ceiling in society.
“News flash: women are the target consumers of appliances,” she told a packed ballroom at the Summit’s General Session. “We need to make appliances more beautiful — both physically and emotionally attractive.”
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Putnam joined GEA more than two years ago following a successful 14-year stint at Procter & Gamble, where she worked on major consumer brands including Olay, Safeguard, Nice’N Easy, Secret and Ivory.
“When I came to [the appliance] industry … I decided to trust one of my greatest gifts as a woman,” she said. “My gut.”
Putnam said she believes in the power of women to drive positive change in business, and that by listening, sharing and leading, women are becoming a dynamic force throughout the corporate world, and especially in the appliance business.
Women in Business was created in 2014 to address the issues of women’s empowerment, education and inspiration. It regularly meets at BrandSource events to explore such topics as finding, connecting and networking with other female professionals; successfully building leadership teams; earning recognition in a male-dominated industry; bridging the gender gap in one’s professional life; and finding comfort and satisfaction in one’s personal life.
YSN is published by BrandSource parent company AVB Inc.
