For any woman who thinks she’s been discriminated against, not able to reach her goals or attain as much as any hard working male counterpart, she missed a spectacular talk by Andrea Jung this week, at the lavish and very exciting Monmouth Conservation Foundation Lunch & Shop annual holiday event.
Jung, the former Chairman and CEO of Avon Products, gave the several hundred guests at the day long program, a brief history of her upbringing, from the time her grandparents arrived in the United States from China penniless but hardworking and made it possible for her parents to succeed as well as teaching her that with determination and hard work she could always achieve.
Jung has, as a graduate of Princeton University y, and now a member of the University’s board, and now as CEO of Grameen America, a non-for-profit organization that provides crucial microloans to entrepreneurial women who are launching business ventures. She has also served on other corporate boards, including Apple, Unilever, GE and Wayfair, as well as the NY Presbyterian Hospital and the NJ Council on the Green Economy. She has been recognized as one of America’s most accomplished business leaders which comes as no surprise when you hear her talk.
In her address, Jung made it clear that anyone wanting to succeed should “Follow your Compass, not your clock,” meaning keeping your eye on your goals without worrying abo9ut the time it takes to achieve them. She cited how she was passed over twice before becoming CEO at Avon, and how she turned down two offers to become the CEO of two other major companies to stay where she felt she would be most successful and where her position would fit in with her family obligations as well. Jung said Connie Chung has always been a hero to her, and Steve Jobs advice to fall, but always “fall forward” as necessities in achieving success. Jung recalled a poster of a plant she received which she still has advising women to “Bloom where you’re planted.”
The annual event raises funds for the Conservation Foundation to enable the non-profit organization to continue its goals of preserving open space, and farmland, creating parks, teaching environmental sustainability and safeguarding both waterways and wildlife.
Major sponsors of the event are Montecalvo & Bayshore Family of Companies, Monmouth Medical Center Foundation, Jane and Tim Orr, Monmouth University, Cups& Cakes, The Shadow brook, Sickles Markets, Triumph Brewery, individual donors like Robin and John Klein, Tricia and Bob Maguire, Janice and Shannon Martiak, Kathy Smith and Carol Stillwell, along with even more very generous and conservation-conscious families who wished to remain anonymous. Sickles Market provided some gorgeous poinsettias and the Shadow brook, in addition to looking so festive, gorgeous, and old-world elegant, put out a spectacular dessert sampler.
County Commissioner Lillian G. Burry was there for the event with a table full of friends, not only showing her support for conservation but her pride in the Monmouth County Parks system and all it does to preserve open space and recreational and historical sites in which Monmouth County can be justifiably proud.
And the shops that set up displays and offered sales, 20 per cent of which they also donated to the Foundation, ranged from the very special Sickles Market….hard to believe they have been around for well over 100 years and still family owned and operated to meet the needs and wants of families for all ages, and Old Mill Pond Farm with its honey, jams and jellies, to Francine’s Outrageous Kitchen with a toffee sauce with bourbon that’s too delicious to talk about, and Pleasant Valley Lavender with everything from cosmetics to sachets. There were jewelry shops, baby accessories and clothing, designer dresses and down products including fur throws, and Ocean County’s Tamarack skincare products, a great company started by a mom and daughter because of a special need within their own family. The Monmouth Conservation Foundation certainly makes it easy and fun to shop!
