Women's Initiative - Stephen M. Ross School of Business

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Deborah M. Gage President and CEO, GTESS Corporation	Women's Council President MBA '86

		As a veteran health and technology industry leader, Ms. Gage has founded and led several businesses in the healthcare payment systems and informatics sectors. Throughout her career, Ms. Gage has been heavily involved in many facets of the healthcare industry, ranging from the operation and management of large healthcare companies to the establishment of new ventures to improve the healthcare system. Prior to GTESS Corporation she was Founder, President and CEO of Solution Point, a venture-backed business she founded to provide marketing information systems to healthcare organizations. Ms. Gage has also held high-level management positions at CareStream Corporation (a division of FoxMeyer) and was an early team member, Vice President and General Manager for more than eight years at The MEDSTAT Group (now Thompson-MEDSTAT). Ms. Gage is actively involved in professional healthcare organizations and is a regular speaker at conferences and financial forums. Ms. Gage has an MBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, and a B.A. in economics from the University of Michigan.

Patricia A. Gorton President, Global Innovation Training	Women's Council - Chair of the Networking Committee MBA '01

		Patricia Gorton is the owner of Global Innovation Training and the creator of Anatomy of a Risk training curriculum. She has a unique optical view on innovation given her business experience as a founder of a dot.com that raised $90 million, as well as her career as an entrepreneurial executive at Citigoup, where she launched over five products to new markets and customers. She combines this expertise along with her MBA from the University of Michigan and a passion for powerful training techniques to deliver deep-learning, high-impact leadership programs. The mission of her business is to help companies create breakthrough innovation and accelerate the path to growth.

Marci Carris Vice President & Assistant Treasurer, Nextel Communications	Women's Council MBA ‘83

		Marci is employed by Nextel Communications as Vice President and Assistant Treasurer. In her current role, Marci is responsible for rating agency, bank relationships, credit, collections, and cash receipts. Prior to her current assignment, Marci was Vice President of Customer Finance Services for Nextel from August 1998 to August 2002. Prior to joining Nextel, she was with Ameritech for 11 ½ years. While at Ameritech, her responsibilities included over three years in consumer and small business collections, and four years in Strategic Planning. Marci’s last position at Ameritech was Director of Financial Analysis, where her responsibilities included due diligence work on the planned Ameritech/SBC merger. Prior to joining Ameritech, Marci worked for Peterson and Company Consulting as an Executive Consultant. Marci has a BBA in accounting (1978) and an MBA in Strategy and Finance (1983) both from the University of Michigan.

Dr. Lucy J. Reuben Visiting Professor in Finance/Management, Duke University	Women's Council MBA ‘74

Dr. Lucy J. Reuben is currently a Visiting Scholar at Duke University. She is also Professor of Finance at North Carolina Central University, where she served as Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. Previously, she was Dean and Marshall B. Williams Professor at the School of Business of South Carolina State University. Other appointments were as Associate Professor of Finance at Florida A&M University, Commonwealth Visiting Associate Professor of Finance at George Mason University and Assistant Professor at Duke University. Dr. Reuben is a participant in the AASCU Millennium Leadership Institute, and she has been a Kellogg MSI Leadership Fellow, a Nissan Fellow at the University of Chicago, a Visiting Scholar at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and an Ayres Fellow at the American Bankers Association's Stonier Graduate School of Banking. At the Ford Motor Corporation, Dr. Reuben served as the Finance Staff Coordinator for several Asia-Pacific affiliates. In addition, she has studied at the University of Ghana (West Africa) and participated in seminars at the Harvard Business School, the University of Pennsylvania and other institutions.

Dr. Reuben has taught and written in various areas of finance and minority business enterprise development. She is co-editor of a book on black economic development, and she has authored or co-authored more than two dozen academic articles, technical reports and other publications. Dr. Reuben has appeared in television and print media, including The Wall Street Journal and Black Enterprise magazine.

Dr. Reuben has conducted seminars and made presentations in the U.S. as well as in the Caribbean, South Africa and Mexico. She has provided financial analyses in legal and regulatory cases and given expert witness testimony before various legislative and judiciary bodies including the U.S. House of Representatives and the District of Columbia Public Service Commission. Dr. Reuben has served as a consultant to numerous business and economic development organizations.

A graduate of Oberlin College, Dr. Reuben earned the Ph.D. and M.B.A. (With Distinction) degrees from the University of Michigan. She has pursued postdoctoral studies in banking, research methodology, and related fields and holds lifetime memberships in the National Association of Black MBAs, the National Council of Negro Women and the NAACP.

Roslyn B. Payne President, Jackson Street Partners Ltd	Women's Council BBA ‘68

Roslyn B. Payne, a licensed real estate broker in California, has more than 30 years of real estate development, finance, and investment banking experience. She founded Jackson Street Partners, Ltd. of San Francisco, a real estate venture capital company where she serves as the principal. She also owns Dover Corporation, which provides equity capital for residential developers.

Payne was president of the Federal Asset Disposition Association and served on its board of directors for a period of two years ending February 1988. FADA was created by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board to manage and sell the most difficult loans and properties from failed savings and loan institutions.

Prior to this, Payne was an executive with Genstar where she served as a group vice president of the land and housing division. Payne also served as a senior executive in a various real estate divisions including Genstar Pacific Development Ventures, Sutter Hill Ltd., and Genstar Mortgage Company. She originally joined Genstar in 1981.

She was with Eastdil Realty, an investment banking company with offices in New York and San Francisco, for 10 years and served as a vice president and shareholder for several years until leaving the firm in 1980.

Payne’s current activities include being a member of the Urban Land Institute. She is a former president of the San Francisco Chapter of Lambda Alpha International as well as the Bay Area Mortgage Association. In addition, Mrs. Payne is a member of the California Transportation Commission’s Airspace Advisory Committee and a member of Women’s Forum West. From 1997-1999, she chaired the Community Parks Task Force committee for the San Francisco Recreation and Park Assessment Project. She continues her involvement with her interest in San Francisco by serving on the board of the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association.

Education is an area of special interest to Payne. She serves on the Visiting Committee of the University of Michigan Business School where she chairs the Women In Leadership Council. Payne is a Vice President of the Harvard Business School Alumni Association's Board of Directors and is on the Leadership Council for the UC San Francisco Center of Excellence for Women’s Health.

She was selected 1989 Member of the Year by the San Francisco Chapter of Lambda Alpha International and received the 2003 Bert F. Wertman Alumni Service Award from the University of Michigan Business School. Payne has a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Michigan and a Masters of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.