Ilene S. Gordon

Last updated
Ilene S. Gordon
Born1953
Nationality American
Alma mater Massachusetts Institute of Technology
OccupationBusinessperson

Ilene S. Gordon (born in 1953) [1] is an American business executive. She became CEO, president, and chairman of Ingredion (formerly Corn Products International) in May, 2009 and became the 21st female CEO of a Fortune 500 company when Ingredion's sales reached $6 billion for the first time, in 2012. [2] As of 2014 she was one of only 24 women who were CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. [3] She retired from the position in 2017.

Contents

Early years and education

Gordon earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1975, graduating Phi Beta Kappa, [4] and a Master of Science degree from the MIT Sloan School of Management in 1976. [5] [6]

When she attended MIT, the male-female ratio of undergraduates was 10:1. [1] Her intention was to become a high school math teacher, but meeting other women at MIT who were preparing to become professionals led her to change her course, pursue a master's degree, and go into business. [2]

Career

After graduating from Sloan School of Management in 1976, Gordon went to work as a consultant for Boston Consulting Group. When the company decided to expand one year later Gordon volunteered to relocate to Europe. [1] She was a strategy consultant based in the Boston, London and Chicago offices, until 1980. [7]

From 1980 until 1982 Gordon worked at Signode, a packaging company specializing in materials handling. [7] In 1982 she joined the Packaging Corporation of America, a division of Tenneco Inc, where she had a mentor who advised her to go into management. [1] [7] As the first female officer of Tenneco, she was the vice president of operations from 1994 to 1997 and the vice president and general manager of the Folding Carton Business from 1997 to 1999. [1] [8] Gordon's worked at Tenneco for 17 years. [6]

In 1999 Gordon joined Pechiney as senior vice president, Pechiney Group and president, Pechiney Plastic Packaging, Inc. Pechiney was acquired by Alcan in 2003 and Gordon held various leadership positions until landing her first role as president and CEO at Alcan Packaging, based in Paris, in 2006, just before the company was acquired by Rio Tinto in July 2007. [9]

Gordon first joined Ingredion Incorporated as the CEO, president and chairman, previously called Corn Products International, on May 4, 2009. [5] [6] Since taking over at Ingredion she re-branded the company and implemented a new corporate strategy, diversifying it from a focus on high fructose corn syrup to making food ingredients more broadly. The company went from a $2.2 billion market cap to over $5 billion with increased sales to $6.5 billion, bringing it onto list of Fortune 500 companies. [1] She retired from her position in 2017. [10]

Other affiliations

In addition to Ingredion, Gordon serves on the board of directors of International Paper and is on the board of trustees of The Conference Board and a member of the MIT Corporation, the institute's board of trustees. She is a director of World Business Chicago (a non-profit economic development organization) and the first female chairman-elect [11] of the Economic Club of Chicago. She is also a member of the board of The Executives' Club of Chicago and The Chicago Council on Global Affairs. [7]

In the past, she has served on the boards of five public companies, and she was the first female director of each: Arthur J. Gallagher & Company, United Stationers Inc., Outboard Marine Corporation, Sunstrand Corporation and Zenith Electronics. [7] [12]

Awards and recognition

Gordon was recognized as one of the 50 most powerful women in business in 2011 in Fortune magazine's ranking, coming in the 42nd position. In 2012 she was ranked 43 in the Fortune list of 50 most powerful women. [13] The National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) recognized Gordon as the Director of the Year in September 2013. [14]

Personal life and family

Gordon is married and has two children, [8] whom she had when she was in her late twenties. [1]

See also

Related Research Articles

MIT Sloan School of Management Business school of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The MIT Sloan School of Management is the business school of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT Sloan offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree programs, as well as executive education. Its degree programs are among the most selective in the world. MIT Sloan emphasizes innovation in practice and research. Many influential ideas in management and finance originated at the school, including the Black–Scholes model, the Solow–Swan model, the random walk hypothesis, the binomial options pricing model, and the field of system dynamics. The faculty has included numerous Nobel laureates in economics and John Bates Clark Medal winners.

Rio Tinto Alcan is a subsidiary of Rio Tinto, based in Montreal. It was created on 15 November 2007 as the result of the merger between Rio Tinto's Canadian subsidiary and Canadian company Alcan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christie Hefner</span> American businesswoman

Christie Ann Hefner is an American businesswoman. She was chairman and CEO of Playboy Enterprises from 1988 to 2009, and is the daughter of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ursula Burns</span> American businessperson

Ursula M. Burns is an American businesswoman. Burns is mostly known for being the CEO of Xerox from 2009 to 2016, the first among black women to be a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, and the first woman to succeed another as head of a Fortune 500 company. She additionally was Xerox's chairman from 2010 to 2017.

The Sloan Fellows program is the world's first mid-career and senior career master's degree in general management and leadership. It was initially supported by a grant from Alfred P. Sloan, the late CEO of General Motors, to his alma mater, MIT. The program was established in 1930 at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Later it was expanded to the Stanford Graduate School of Business (1957), and London Business School (1968). Considered to be one of the most prestigious management training programs in the world, it targets experienced leaders who have demonstrated success either within organizations, or independently as entrepreneurs. Notable alumni include Kofi Annan, former United Nations Secretary-General and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, John Browne, Baron Browne of Madingley, former chairman and CEO of BP and member of the British House of Lords, and Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indra Nooyi</span> Indian business executive

Indra Nooyi is an Indian-American business executive and former CEO and the Chairperson of PepsiCo. She made $31 million in her final year at PepsiCo in 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Safra Catz</span> Israeli-American business executive

Safra Ada Catz is an American billionaire banker and technology executive. She is the CEO of Oracle Corporation. She has been an executive at Oracle since April 1999, and a board member since 2001. In April 2011, she was named co-president and chief financial officer (CFO), reporting to founder Larry Ellison. In September 2014, Oracle announced that Ellison would step down as CEO and that Mark Hurd and Catz had been named as joint CEOs. In September 2019, Catz became the sole CEO after Hurd resigned due to health issues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marissa Mayer</span> American business executive and engineer, former CEO of Yahoo!

Marissa Ann Mayer is an American businesswoman and investor. She is an information technology executive, and co-founder of Sunshine Contacts. Mayer formerly served as the president and chief executive officer of Yahoo!, a position she held beginning in July 2012. It was announced in January 2017 that she would step down from the company's board upon the sale of Yahoo!'s operating business to Verizon Communications for $4.8 billion. She did not join the newly combined company, now called Verizon Media, and she announced her resignation on June 13, 2017. She is a graduate of Stanford University and was a long-time executive, usability leader, and key spokeswoman for Google.

Maggie Wilderotter is the former chief executive officer of Frontier Communications, from November 2004 to April 2015; then executive chairman of the company until April 2016. During her tenure with Frontier, the company grew from a regional telephone company with customer revenues of less than $3 billion to a national broadband, voice and video provider with operations in 29 states and annualized revenues in excess of $10 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susan Cameron</span> American businessperson

Susan M. Cameron is an American businessperson who is the former chairman, president, and CEO of Reynolds American, Inc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heather Bresch</span> American business executive

Heather Manchin Bresch is an American business executive. In 2012, she was named as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Netherlands-based pharmaceutical company Mylan, becoming the first woman to run a Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company. Bresch retired in 2020, upon the closing of Mylan’s combination with Upjohn. Bresch has been a central figure in two controversies: a 2007 accusation of inflating her resume with an unearned MBA degree, and as the CEO of Mylan during the 2016 controversy over pricing of the company's EpiPen products. In 2015, she was listed as #22 in Fortune magazine's “Most Powerful Women” list.

Gregory David Wasson is an American businessman. He is the co-founder and president of Wasson Enterprise, a family-based investment office, the executive chairman of Innventure, co-founder of CoolerScreens, and the former president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Walgreens Boots Alliance. Prior to the merger of Walgreens and Alliance Boots, Wasson was president and CEO of Walgreens, the US's largest retail community pharmacy chain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ingredion</span> American ingredient manufacturer

Ingredion Incorporated is an American multinational ingredient provider based in Westchester, Illinois, producing mainly starches, non-GMO sweeteners, stevia, and pea protein. The company turns corn, tapioca, potatoes, plant-based stevia, grains, fruits, gums and other vegetables into ingredients for the food, beverage, brewing, and pharmaceutical industries and numerous industrial sectors. It has about 12,000 employees in 44 locations, and customers in excess of 120 countries.

Ann Marie Fudge serves on a number of corporate boards, including those of General Electric, Novartis, Unilever and Infosys, as well as on several non-profit boards. She is former chairman and CEO of Young & Rubicam Brands, a global network of marketing communications companies. In 2010, Fudge served on President Barack Obama's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ginni Rometty</span> American business executive (born 1957)

Virginia Marie "Ginni" Rometty is an American business executive who served as executive chairman of IBM after stepping down as CEO on April 1, 2020. She previously served as chairman, president and CEO of IBM, becoming the first woman to head the company. She retired from IBM on December 31, 2020, after a near-40 year career at IBM. Prior to becoming president and CEO in January 2012, she first joined IBM as a systems engineer in 1981 and subsequently headed global sales, marketing, and strategy. While general manager of IBM's global services division, in 2002 she helped negotiate IBM's purchase of PricewaterhouseCoopers' IT consulting business, becoming known for her work integrating the two companies. As CEO, she focused IBM on analytics, cloud computing, and cognitive computing systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lisa Su</span> American electrical engineer and CEO of AMD (born 1969)

Lisa Su is a Taiwanese-American business executive and electrical engineer, who is the president, chief executive officer and chair of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). Early in her career, Su worked at Texas Instruments, IBM, and Freescale Semiconductor in engineering and management positions. She is known for her work developing silicon-on-insulator semiconductor manufacturing technologies and more efficient semiconductor chips during her time as vice president of IBM's Semiconductor Research and Development Center.

Mark Frissora American business executive (born 1955)

Mark Paul Frissora is an American business executive. He has been the CEO and president of The Hertz Corporation, and was the CEO and president of Caesars Entertainment until 2019.

Debra Ann Crew is the president of Diageo North America. She is also a board member of Mondelez International, and the former president and chief executive officer of R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. She previously held senior management positions at PepsiCo, Mars, Incorporated, and Dreyer's.

Diane Hoskins American business executive and architect

Diane Hoskins is an American businessperson and architect who currently serves as a Co-CEO of Gensler, the world's largest revenue-generating architecture firm, alongside Co-CEO Andy Cohen. She is also on the board of directors for Boston Properties. Hoskins has been covered by The Washington Post Magazine, Fortune, Business Insider and other news sources as one of the most influential and powerful women in business.

Clotilde Delbos is a French businesswoman who has been the deputy chief executive officer (CEO) and chief financial officer (CFO) of Renault since 1 January 2021. She was the CEO of Mobilize brand till 2020.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Goudreau, Jenna (18 March 2013). "The CEO Of $5 Billion Ingredion Reveals Her Secret To 'Having It All'". Forbes. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  2. 1 2 Harlow, Poppy (17 July 2013). "'I'm living my dream' says Fortune 500 CEO Ilene Gordon". CNN. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  3. ↑ Fairchild, Caroline (3 June 2014). "Number of Fortune 500 women CEOs reaches historic high". Fortune. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  4. ↑ Cornelis, Tommy (5 September 2013). "Today's CEO Leader in STEM: Ilene Gordon of Ingredion Incorporated". STEMblog. Archived from the original on 11 November 2014. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  5. 1 2 Foote, Sarah (15 March 2013). "MIT Sloan alumna shares thoughts on leading Fortune 500 firm". MIT News. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  6. 1 2 3 "ingredion inc (INGR:New York)". Bloomberg Business Week. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 "Ilene Gordon: Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Ingredion Incorporated" . Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  8. 1 2 "Alcan appoints Ilene Gordon president of Global Packaging group". PR Newswire. 6 November 2006. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  9. ↑ Pellet, Jennifer. "Alcan Packaging CEO Ilene Gordon: Passion for Packaging". Chief Executive. Chief Executive Magazine. Retrieved 5 May 2015.
  10. ↑ "Ingredion CEO Ilene Gordon to retire". Crain's Chicago Business. September 18, 2017.
  11. ↑ first female chairman-elect
  12. ↑ Harris, Melissa. "Ilene Gordon named first female chair of Economic Club of Chicago" . Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  13. ↑ "50 Most Powerful Women in Business FORTUNE's annual ranking of America's leading businesswomen". Fortune. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  14. ↑ "NACD Releases 2013 List of Most Influential Leaders in Corporate Governance". CNBC. 4 November 2013. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.