Robin Sterneck
President
GE Commercial Insurance Healthcare, GE ERC

A biology and French major who earned an MBA and went on to investment banking on Wall Street, Robin Sterneck became president of the health care segment at ERC in 2001. She manages the delivery of risk management solutions and reinsurance claims services to health care providers. She says she’s there due to her “great team, a supportive family, and a sense of humor.”

Sterneck also knows that the saying, “Chance favors a prepared mind” is true—that it’s preparedness that puts you over the top. The president of GE ERC credits her with not only motivating her team, but “re-energizing our relationships with hospitals across the U.S.” Another applauds her abilities of leading and driving change—challenging tasks in today’s climate.

Sterneck and her family of four children all do community work, including walking for medical research, running for breast cancer, and she points (happily?) to her dunk tank sitting for United Way, all in 2002. She says that the real report cards on one’s life don’t come out until you’re about 75 years old, and when hers does, she hopes it says she made a difference . . . and that she made people feel good about themselves while doing so.

Marilyn Tromans
CFO & Vice President of Finance
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City

Marilyn Tromans has been on a direct path to where she is. Even as a child in Clinton, Missouri, she was always interested in numbers. After graduating from MU, where she liked the orderly and clear process of accounting (“Not like it is in real life,” she says), she went to work for the accounting firm, Ernst and Young. Then she went to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City in 1983 as Controller, named as Vice President of Finance in 1997 and Chief Financial Officer in 2001. The company serves over 800,000 customers in a 32 county area in both Kansas and Missouri and its revenue was over $830 million in 2001.

She was recently elected to the post of Treasurer for the local chapter of The Financial Executives Institute, a national organization which influences policies in finance. Tromans is married and loves to travel with her spouse, going on a couple of big trips each year. She gardens, reads, and walks her two dogs.

She sums up her career modestly: “I have just tried to do the best job possible.” Good at avoiding the limelight, she says, “What you see is what you get.” It’s clear she’s honest, intelligent, and diligent.

Kathy Walker has been a vice president in various guises for Sprint since 1995. Her latest promotion last March elevated her to directing the design, engineering, operations, and performance management of Sprint’s domestic and international voice, data, and Internet networks. She’s also responsible for the design and engineering of Sprint’s Web hosting environment and technology planning. In a nutshell, if Sprint sells it, her teams builds it, installs it, and even fixes it if necessary.

Kathy says she’s lucky enough to work for a company that values her passion for her beliefs and outspoken in her outspokenness. More than that, says M. Jeannine Strandjord, Senior Vice President of Finance in the same group, says she is “. . . an approachable and absolutely dependable leader” who is also an “entertaining partner.”

Her other interests are many. Besides work, she loves to cook and garden. She wants to continue to lead at Sprint and on a personal level, wants to attend cooking school in Europe which includes a total culture immersion. When she has time to relax, she tries to re-create the recipes on the Food Channel with the precision that her engineering background demands—providing her both humbling experiences and creative stalling tactics when guests are involved.

On the list ten years ago, Judy Whittaker has worked for Hallmark since 1972. She’s in charge of all legal matters of the $4 billion social expressions company, Crown Center Redevelopment Corporation, Hallmark Entertainment (TV movies) and Crown Media (Hallmark Channel in the U.S. and abroad).

Whittaker’s breadth of involvement has not only grown at the corporate level. She is on the board of two public companies and has been a leader at several not-for-profits including Brown University, Legal Aid Society, De La Salle Education Center, Big Brothers and Sisters, and was a founder of the Central Exchange. She’s a passionate advocate of Legal Aid because it saves lives from abuse and poverty. Education for disadvantaged children is another passion.

Never conscious of professional aspirations, she says now she just wants to become a scratch golfer, contribute to world peace, and end hunger—none of which she can achieve, but she can try. Although she was selected “Miss Philadelphia Beach” in 1957, her more recent Lifetime Achievement Award from UMKC law school is far more treasured. She believes you should “. . . work at what makes you happy because that unleashes your energy to produce, energizing others to multiply the effect.”