Today I had the great pleasure of joining our team of CalCedar women to attend the Advancing Women’s Leadership Conference at University of the Pacific here in Stockton.  This year’s event featured appearances by keynote speaker Sheryl Sandberg, COO at Facebook, as well as Bank of America – California President Janet Lamkin and classical music “maverick” Jade Simmons sharing their inspirational stories and words of advice to thousands of women and young girls from the Stockton and University of the Pacific communities.  This event, held every other year, and now in it’s third edition has included past speakers such as US Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Connie Rishwain, a Pacific Regent and past President of UGGs brand, and other inspirational women leaders from sports, business and the arts.

 

 

 

Today’s team at CalCedar’s Stockton location includes a number of women in key leadership roles within our corporate, Blackwing and Pencils.com business groups covering multiple arenas in sales, marketing, finance, warehouse, production and e-Commerce operations.  This marked the second time a CalCedar employee group has attended Advancing Women’s Leadership conference, this time with the company serving as a participating sponsor for the event.  Overseas at our Tianjin, China slat factory, in operation since 2001, women also play senior leadership roles in a variety of finance, administrative, sales and manufacturing positions.

  

Women have long played a wide variety of important roles, from the factory floor to the senior executive suite here at CalCedar.  In fact, during the challenging years of World War II, a special permit allowed the hiring of 42 women in the Stockton slat factory.  These women helped keep the doors open when many male employees were volunteering for military service overseas or moving to jobs in shipbuilding and other heavy industries in support of the war effort.  At peak production in the late 1980s and early 1990s the Stockton slat and firelog facilities had over 700 employees and women filled a high proportion of production level roles including in factory management, administration and even provided technical leadership in various research department roles.   Over the years, women leaders like long time Production Manager Jaye Bradley, (pictured), contributed their talents, caring approach and dedication.

To learn more about CalCedar’s career opportunities, visit our recently updated career page.