Susan Phillips Bari (left) and Dr. Terry Neese

Accepting: Dr. Terry Neese, Co-Founder and CEO of Institute for the Economic Empowerment of Women
Presenter: Susan Phillips Bari (left) , Founding President, WBENC

Serial entrepreneur, wife, mother, grandmother, pilot, mentor, public policy advocate and national political strategist are words that describe the many hats Terry Neese wears. She founded Terry Neese Personnel Services in the 1970s at a time when there were very few women who owned businesses. With very little money and no business plan, but a treasureload of passion, her firm has found jobs for over 30,000 individuals.

She has networked and advocated for women and minorities in numerous capacities across the globe for over 30 years, including serving as the national president of the National Association of Women Business Owners, co-founding Women Impacting Public Policy, founding GrassRoots Impact and serving as an active member of Women Presidents’ Organization. Neese even formed and served as director of the fi rst small business division of the Oklahoma State Chamber of Commerce, while retaining ownership of her fi rms. The U.S. House Committee on Small Business and U. S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship also call on her to testify on behalf of women business owners on a regular basis.

Growing up in a farming community, she never thought much about politics. However, in 1990 she became the first woman in Oklahoma to be nominated for lieutenant governor. She has served three presidents in varying roles. “We all need to be more active in the public policy arena in order to improve the environment for women business owners to succeed,” Neese said. “It’s all about the fact that if you run a business and are not involved in politics, then politics will run your business. It’s also about holding elected offi cials accountable to do what they said they were going to do during their campaign about making business flourish. If they don’t, then you must give them their performance reviews at the ballot box.”

However, perhaps Neese’s most important work today is as founder of the Institute for Economic Empowerment of Women. The nonprofi t organization provides education and mentoring for women entrepreneurs in Afghanistan and Rwanda. She works closely with U.S. Secretary Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush to produce results-driven empowerment to women in these countries with the PEACE THROUGH BUSINESS program. She is quick to say this wouldn’t be possible without the support of dedicated philanthropists in this country. According to Neese, living in a global marketplace necessitates networking with other WBEs in foreign countries. “We must try to do business with each other and understand import/export issues,” she said. “We also need to know the leadership on Capitol Hill who chair the Foreign Relations Committee in both the U.S. House and Senate. We must also be knowledgeable about governments in other countries and what our government is doing to improve the global marketplace for women business owners.”

As WBEs seek the answer to success, sometimes the simplest answer is still the best, Neese explained. “The most innovative measure that a company, whether for profit or not for profit, can provide is quality customer service. For IEEW, our customer service is making sure our funders are getting a return on their investment, which is to ensure we are educating and mentoring women in thirdworld countries to be self-suffi cient in a free enterprise system,” she said. “We also have customers that are American mentors across the U.S. Our customer service promise to them is to make sure we engage them in our efforts to teach about a free enterprise system; and in doing so, American women have a greater love for the system we enjoy in the U.S.”

IEEW is also reaching deeper into the rural areas of these third-world countries as it trains students to become trainers themselves. “It is important that each of our students embrace the notion that they are responsible for themselves and that united together they have greater opportunities to enact real change,” she said. “Our fi ve-year plan is to have a large pool of Afghan and Rwandan women who are conducting their own business education classes and are networking with American women business owners to engage in global enterprise.”