To celebrate Mother’s Day this year, we asked member, Deborah Linggi to write a guest blog post describing how her mother has impacted how she approaches her life and her business.
I’m so proud to say that Sylvia Riveness is my mom. Born on June 2, 1936, she’s the real deal who lived through the “Mad Men” era. Even with a double-degree — which in itself was a huge feat and pretty uncommon for woman back in the 1950s, particularly in the South — there simply weren’t opportunities. Become a wife or, if you wanted to enter the workforce, teacher or secretary was about it.
She became a legal secretary and, as a six-foot beautiful blonde, she encountered what we call today “sexual harassment.” The term wasn’t coined back then and the behavior was simply what woman had to put up with as the norm.
I’m so proud that she (and other gutsy women) paved the way for women today. While we certainly haven’t achieved true equality yet, we’re a heck of a way off from just a generation ago.
I take from my mom her quizzical mind, love of reading and writing, and the notion that it’s never too late to start over to find your true happiness.
Happy Mother’s Day everyone!
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With close to 20 years direct communications experience, Deborah has a proven track record in successfully creating, directing and executing global communication programs to help achieve business objectives. Having served in internal (focused on employees and managers), external (media relations, industry analyst relations, speaking engagement programs) and executive communication roles, within corporate, agency and nonprofit environments, she provides her clients with a truly integrated communications perspective.
She has developed and implemented strategic and highly-complex communication strategies, including mergers and acquisitions, business shifts, introduction of new strategic initiatives, crisis communications and workforce reorganizations. Former employers and clients include such industry leaders as Alcatel-Lucent, Apple, HP, Illumina, Motorola, OfficeMax and Qualcomm.
