Après’ Carolyn McGuire led an engaging panel discussion about workplace diversity and the resources available to professional women looking to return to the workforce or pivot their career.  The panelists included Lauren Mead, Julie Morton and Chrissie Pariso (bios below) all who discussed their experiences and the fabulous resources available to Booth alumni who are looking to return to the workforce.

Carolyn is the Chief Revenue Officer and Head of New Business Development at Après. Prior to joining Après, Carolyn worked for 17 years at Goldman Sachs where she was most recently a Managing Director in the firm’s Securities Division. There she led a sales team focused on structuring, marketing and selling commodity derivatives to global multinationals, pension funds, commodity traders, and industrial manufacturers. She earned an MBA from Wharton and graduated with honors from Rutgers University, majoring in Economics and Asian Studies. She too took a short career break and transitioned her skill set from investment banking to a fast growing start-up company.

Lauren Mead (Panelist) ’08

Head of Strategic Development, Free Market Ventures and (Re)Meter

Lauren’s primary focus at (RE)meter is to add value by thinking through strategic growth strategies, building a strong brand through concise communication, and helping build strategic partnerships for potential technology integrations. Lauren began her career in commercial banking at JP Morgan Chase where she gained experience with portfolio management, underwriting, and relationship management. She co-founded her own business in 2006 and from there worked as an independent strategy consultant for small businesses and startups. She has also worked as the Corporate Strategy Manager for Brooklyn Boulders, LLC where she focused on Business Development and Partnerships, and the CFO for Azeeza US where she built financial forecasts and budgets, and improved upon the overall business strategy. Lauren holds an MBA from University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Illinois.

Julie Morton (Panelist)

Associate Dean, Career Services and Corporate Relations Chicago Booth, Chicago Booth

Julie Morton is the associate dean for Career Services and Corporate Relations at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. In this role, she oversees corporate relations strategy and outreach and engages with firms that seek to interact with the intellectual life of the school. Morton leads Career Services activities for students in the Full-Time MBA, Evening MBA, Weekend MBA, and Executive MBA Programs, as well as for alumni. This includes career management programming and corporate recruiting relationships with firms looking to source talent from Chicago Booth.

Morton joined Booth in 2000. Immediately before that, she worked in retained executive search. She was also a financial services and strategy consultant at Bankers Trust (now Deutsche Bank) in New York. She spent several years doing strategy and turnaround consulting in central Slovakia and in Jakarta, Indonesia, and she worked for the CFO of Young & Rubicam in New York, in an internal strategy, finance, and operations consulting group.

Morton received her MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. Prior to attending Tuck, she served as the director of admissions at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. She has an undergraduate degree in international studies from Johns Hopkins University.

Chrissie Pariso (Panelist) ’08

Senior Portfolio Manager, Exelon Corporation

Chrissie is the Senior Portfolio Manager at Exelon Corporation and is responsible for investing in Private Equity across Exelon’s investment platforms. Prior to joining Exelon, she was at GE Capital in the Commercial Distribution Finance Group, managing loss reserves on $8bn of assets. Before joining GE, Chrissie was a Vice President at Sterling Partners, a mid-market private equity firm, responsible for investing and portfolio monitoring. Chrissie also worked at Dell Financial Services in the Treasury Department. She began her career as an investment banker with CIBC World Markets.

Chrissie received a B.S in Finance and International Business from Georgetown University and an MBA from The University of Chicago.

Other Information

Since 2002, the Chicago Booth Women’s Network (formerly known as the Chicago Women in Business Alumnae Network) is the worldwide organization of women graduates of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Our mission is to support our alma mater, facilitate a global alumnae network online and in person, and support women in business worldwide.  For more information, you can visit the Booth Women’s Network website: www.chicagobooth.edu/alumni/clubs/womens-network