Hobart and William Smith Colleges

10 April 2009 Inaugural Leader-in-Residence Lecture

On Thursday, April 16 and Friday, April 17, the Colleges will welcome their first Leader-in-Residence lecturer: JoAnn Heisen P12, former chief information officer at Johnson & Johnson and first woman on Johnson & Johnsons executive committee.

Throughout her two days on campus, Heisen will offer her expertise as a corporate leader to the entire HWS community. At 3 p.m. on Thursday, April 16, she will hold a Diversity in Leadership workshop in Coxe 7. Later that evening, she will give her Leaders-in-Resident talk, titled The Importance of Corporate Leadership in Uncertain Times at 7:30 p.m. in the Seneca Room at the Finger Lakes Institute.

The following day, Friday, April 17 at 1:15 p.m. in Stern 103, Heisen will hold a Women in Leadership workshop co-sponsored by the HWS Womenomics group. Heisens lecture and visit to campus are also sponsored by the Centennial Center for Leadership.

Prior to joining Johnson & Johnson in 1989, Heisen was the vice president of Corporate Affairs at Primerica Corporation and a member of their executive committee. She had earlier served as chief financial officer for Kenmill Textile Corporation and as a second vice president and commercial lending officer with The Chase Manhattan Bank.

In 2005, Heisen received the first Jill Ker Conway Women in Business Leadership Award, presented by Smith College. In 1994, she received Syracuse Universitys Distinguished Alumni Award and, in 1998, Marymount Manhattan Colleges Women in Urban Leadership Award.

Heisen is a past president of the Financial Womens Association of New York; was named Honoree of the Princeton YWCAs 1995 Tribute to Women in Industry; and was recipient of the 1996 Johnson & Johnson Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Award.

She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Womens Research and Education Institute (WREI), the Chair of the WREI Corporate Advisory Council, a member of the Advisory Board of The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University and a member of the Economic Club of New York. Heisen is a member of the board of directors of The Vanguard Group, Inc., and each of its 125 mutual funds. In addition, she is a member of the board of trustees for the University Medical Center at Princeton.

Heisen holds a B.A. in economics from Syracuse University.