"My dad was an independent certified public accountant," said Ilene Gordon, President & CEO Alcan Packaging. "When he realized I enjoyed math, he'd give me assignments like putting his time sheets on spreadsheets. At dinner, he'd talk about problems clients were having growing their businesses."
Ilene planned to major in math and to become a high school math teacher because "there weren't many jobs for women who liked math," she said. "You could be an actuary, computer programmer or math teacher."
The summer before her senior year at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, however, Ilene changed her mind after her first teaching experience at private school with bright students, "I didn't feel as challenged as I thought I would. The problems were instructive but they weren't big enough to keep me challenged."
When Ilene returned to school that fall, she enrolled in three MIT graduate business courses as electives and applied to the graduate business school. She aced all three courses and was accepted into MIT's MBA program the following semester.
Now, she is 55, president and chief executive of France-based Alcan Packaging, with 30,000 employees worldwide at 129 facilities. She divides her time between its Chicago and Paris offices.
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Alcan Packaging is a world leader in value-added specialty packaging. It delivers multi-material innovative solutions to customers around the world for the food, pharmaceutical, beauty and tobacco markets. Led by Ilene Gordon, president and CEO, Alcan Packaging is headquartered in Paris, France. With 129 facilities and 30,000 employees in 31 countries, it generated US$6.2 billion revenues in 2007. For more information, please visit http://www.alcanpackaging.com/.
For further information, please contact:
Alcan Packaging, Paris
Colette Chauvière
Tel.: +33-1-57-00-28-26
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