Starting and running businesses, making the big corporate decisions, balancing work and family — it's nothing new for women in business. If they weren't doing it all, women wouldn't own 30% (6.7 million) of the businesses in America.

But what's really noteworthy is that the businesses owned by women are growing at a faster pace than U.S. businesses overall. According to the National Women's Business Council, employment at women-owned companies increased by 24% last year, while general business employment growth was 12%.

More than half of all private companies in Oregon are owned by women. Women are ascending new heights and achieving new firsts. Women Inc. celebrates those achievements.

THIS YEAR WE HIGHLIGHT three venues where women are leaving a notable mark: the engineering labs of Oregon State University, the ranches and fields of rural Oregon, and the highest office of state government.

In Salem, we descended on Gov. Ted Kulongoski's official digs to shine our bright lights on the cadre of smart, capable women the governor relies on every day to crunch his numbers, reform his troubled agencies and get his message across to politicians and the public.

In Eastern Oregon, we gathered a flock of women agricultural leaders at the Wilde Ranch outside Keating. The group quickly began comparing notes: What's happening to land prices, who grew up with who else's cousin, how to keep wolves off the range. And the women compared family histories, many stretching back to the late 1800s and a journey on the Oregon Trail.

In Corvallis, we turned the spotlight on a university engineering school ranked fourth in the nation for its percentage of women faculty — a notable success as universities scramble to attract more women professors, researchers and students to this heavily male-dominated field.

ALL THAT JUST BEGINS to highlight the impact women leaders have on Oregon's economy.

Inspired by a study from the Center for Women's Business Research that showed the Portland-Vancouver metro area ranked No. 1 in the nation for women-owned businesses, Michele Larsen launched the Northwest Women's Directory last year. The 2005 version nearly doubled in size and hit bookstores, cafés and libraries around Portland metro last month. "We have a ways to go to reach parity," says Larsen, whose Purple Turtle Press is based in Vancouver. "One of the easiest ways to do that is to support other women."

The women of Yolo Colorhouse, a Portland paint company, partnered with Rodda Paint this year to launch a line of environmentally friendly interior paints in a palette of earthy tones, fulfilling a mission of making the world a place of better color and better health. The colors, designed by Virginia Young and Janie Lowe, give Rodda a line similar to the Divine Color line offered by Miller Paints — whose founder, Gretchen Schauffler, lives in Lake Oswego.

After a decade of success as CEO of the Portland-based historic home decorating destination Rejuvenation, Mary Roberts, a former Hanna Andersson exec, is taking a year off. On her watch, Rejuvenation grew from one store with $7 million in sales to two stores (the Seattle outpost opened last year) with $28 million in sales and more locations on the drawing board. What's next? "I will definitely work again," she says, "I'll do whatever my muse tells me."

Meanwhile, another group of women is looking for the region's next hot business. The 2-year-old Women's Investment Network, formed by the Oregon Entrepreneurs Forum, has a roster of 65 investors ready to put money behind promising startups. "We like women-owned businesses, but we're not exclusive," says chairwoman Sydney Joyner, an organizational development consultant based in Camas, Wash. The group is an anomaly in the male-dominated private investment world and is looking for ways to increase its reach statewide.

Down the Willamette Valley, another woman is sitting in a position of financial leadership. Karla Chambers, co-owner of Corvallis-based Stahlbush Island Farms, was appointed a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. An influential voice on sustainable farming (Stahlbush raises more than 15 crops for food service and export markets), Chambers has been tapped regularly by the Fed, most recently to serve on the board of the Portland branch from 2003 to 2004.

In Medford, Brooke Cutler Ashland is trying to raise her region's financial profile after being frustrated by what she sees as a lack of interest from Portland-based decision makers. Ashland, who is CEO of Cutler Investment Group, submitted a proposal to the Oregon Investment Fund, which was launched last year with $100 million from the state employees pension fund. Ashland proposed forming a private equity fund to provide capital and oversight for Oregon companies looking to do business in Asia, something that her firm has done for non-Oregon clients for several years. "The business model is very attractive for the Northwest," Ashland says. But she didn't hear back from the folks at the Oregon Investment Fund. Her solution? "We're going to launch the fund anyway. We know the deal flow in the state."

Ashland isn't the only woman shaking things up down south.Southern Oregon University president Elisabeth Zinser is overhauling the liberal arts university's image and partnering with a smattering of businesses and institutions along the way. "It's all about partnerships for us," Zinser says. She's pushing for financial support to build a new educational building in Medford, a physical manifestation of the close ties SOU has forged with Rogue Community College. She's planning to build the facility around a business center.

Just across the California border, Jacqui Krizo of Tulle Lake runs www.klamathbasincrisis.org, the go-to site for monitoring irrigation issues in the Klamath Basin since 2001, which is regularly accessed by farmers, activists and policy wonks. Krizo's family has been farming in the region since 1949. In addition to farming (1,000 acres of organic horseradish and barley) and webmastering, Krizo recently added "filmmaker" to her resume. She's set to release Klamath ESA this spring, a documentary film about the congressional hearings held in Klamath Falls last year to talk about water and endangered species issues.

Over on the coast, it's career change time for a pair of biologists, Lisa Keyte and Elaine McCracken. Both former employees at the Oregon Coast Aquarium — Keyte designed the aquarium displays while McCracken ran the youth volunteer program — they've started Cape Foulweather Coffee Company in Lincoln City, which will distribute fresh roasted beans to shops in Salem and along the coast. Keyte promises she'll be back at the aquarium as a volunteer. "I love the animals," she says. "I'll go back and play."

Watch for www.carpeviewem.com, a new website, to launch next month, the work of Bend-based Monica Lee. The journalist and filmmaker is working with Bend Capital Partners to produce the site, which will feature photographs of Bendites in their natural habitats. Says Lee, "It's like a cross between Craigslist and People magazine. I'm a documentary filmmaker so I think ordinary people have interesting lives."

The Oregon Health & Science University School of Nursing in La Grande has a new hotshot. Anne Greenlee was hired last fall and is raising grant money for a research center to study the effects of pesticide exposure on reproductive health. "I don't want to just stay in my lab and publish papers," Greenlee says. "I want to get the science to the people who can use it."

At Portland State University, Melissa Appleyard and three colleagues won a National Science Foundation grant to run a three-year program called Lab2Market. It has the goal of launching 12 new technology ventures, taking innovation from university labs and building businesses around it.

And at the University of Oregon, a group of MBA students are making sure the Women's Sports Symposium at the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center makes it to 10. The ninth annual event last month featured representatives from the WNBA, Nike and Coke. "There's a real place for women in sports business," says Merryn Roberts, marketing manager for the April event. "It's not just a boy's club."

[SIDEBAR]
THE GOVERNOR'S DREAM TEAM
Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski has chosen brilliant minds for his closest advisers. Collectively, they have more than 80 years of experience in finance, law, political campaigns and the interaction of state government agencies.

Brenda Rocklin, who first met the governor in 1992 when she was his assistant attorney general, has proven an effective turnaround agent, serving as director of the Oregon Lottery prior to being tapped last summer to lead the troubled SAIF Corporation. She also helps run the board of trustees for the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS).

On the campaign front, Lisa Grove, who says Gov. Kulongoski ambushed her over breakfast at the Bijou Café in Portland to convince her to work for him, managed his successful 2002 bid for governor. Paige Richardson, who managed John Kerry's 2004 Oregon campaign, will lead the governor's re-election effort.

In his own office, Gov. Kulongoski relies on Theresa McHugh, his budget wizard turned chief of staff, to keep the office running. She manages the frenzy of day-to-day business, freeing up the governor for the pursuit of big-picture goals. MardiLyn Saathoff, former general counsel for Tektronix, speaks for the governor on economic development and gives legal advice on such hot topics as same-sex marriage and land-use regulation after Measure 37. Erinn Kelley-Siel, who first met the governor in 1998 when she interviewed to clerk for him while he was an

Oregon Supreme Court justice, advises the governor on child, family and senior care issues.

[SIDEBAR]
AT HOME ON THE RANGE
Anyone who pictures ranchers as Marlboro Men hasn't been to Oregon. Here, our agricultural industry is dependent on strong, innovative women who do it all.

"There are two types of wives in this business," says Karen Wilde, a rancher and history museum curator from Olex. "There are 'A wives' who cook and do the books but don't mess up their manicure. Then there are 'B wives' who break bulls, deliver calves and move pipe. We're B wives."

Count in Wilde's cousin, Christie Wilde, who spent time presiding over the irrigation district board in Baker Valley in the late '90s before turning her attention back to the family's 350-head cattle ranch.

Sharon Beck, in addition to riding the range on her ranch in Cove, is the voice of the Oregon Cattlemen's Association on the raw topic of wolves roaming the state. Beck argues eloquently that the new Oregon wolves, starting to migrate into the state from Idaho, shouldn't be protected as a native species — because they're not. She asks: "Why would you want to introduce conflict?"

Robyn Holdman is supporting agriculture in a different way, following her family's century-old tradition of wheat farming by selling Northwest Country Products, a line of pancake mixes and related products designed to market Oregon's soft white wheat in a new way.

Country Natural Beef, known mostly by its Oregon Country Beef name, continues to forge new markets, promoting high-quality beef directly from member ranches. Patti Pickard, who joined the co-op in 1998, says the co-op is continuing to recruit ranches to keep up with demand.

Alice Trindle runs horsemanship clinics on her ranch in Haines but also heads up Eastern Oregon's tourism effort, which is looking for the kind of visitor that will take the time to appreciate the region's unique beauty. "There's a spirituality about this valley," Trindle says.

Myrna Morgan and her daughter Heidi are active in the Baker County Cattlewomen's Association. Heidi Morgan says she'll always love ranching. "You get out there to gather cows and you see country that no one else sees."

[SIDEBAR]
GIRL GEEKS MAKE GOOD
When the College of Engineering at Oregon State University was recognized earlier this year for having one of the highest percentages of women faculty in the country, Terri Fiez, department head for electrical engineering and computer science, was caught by surprise. "We didn't know until it came out in the press," says Fiez, who took time away from recruiting a new researcher to pose for our photographer with her colleagues. "I think it says a lot — that it just happened."

The engineering school's drive to become one of the top 25 engineering programs in the country has attracted scores of new researchers and professors, among the best in the country, many of them women.

Belinda Batten, department head for the mechanical engineering department, returned to OSU two years ago after a stint at Virginia Tech. "I missed the innovative and collaborative environment you find here," Batten says.

Cherri Pancake, an anthropologist turned computer scientist, heads up the Northwest Alliance for Computational Science and Engineering and sits on the front lines of discovery. "A lot of what happens now in science labs that's really interesting happens too fast or too small for a human being to track." That's where Pancake's Web-based software comes in.

In an effort to attract even more women to the field, Ellen Momsen, director of the school's women and minorities in engineering program, leads an effort to get freshman women hooked on engineering with more than 200 of them involved in engaging research projects this year. Says Momsen, "We're trying to get them connected right away."

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Copyright 2005 Oregon Business magazine