Opportunity

I have been fortunate to have several challenging opportunities during the last 18 years working on Wall Street in sales & trading in leveraged finance, marketing in securitized products and co-founding a company and becoming an entrepreneur. I have been invited to speak about working on Wall Street and about entrepreneurship at the Harvard Club in New York for 85 Broads, at UCLA several times at the Anderson School and in conjunction with undergraduates through 85 Broads, at UCLA/USC Women in Business events, at the Broad Advantage in Los Angeles, at the 54th Annual Management Conference at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business as part of Professor James Schrager's New Venture Panel and at several Harvard University Undergraduate Women in Business events in Los Angeles and San Francisco. 

New Venture Panel at the 54th Annual Management Conference at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business 

After every event women approach me with their own stories of how playing golf has helped them in their careers. Often some women share their desire to learn how to play because they know that they can better network with their colleagues and clients if they played golf. I have heard very similar anecdotal stories year after year and so I am now starting to reach out and meet the unmet need in golf instruction. There also seemed to be a similar chord struck over and over, I would hear from very professionally accomplished women with tough jobs and big responsibilities who would tell me that getting up on the first tee in front of others from the office was intimidating. Something just didn't seem right to me; these women were not shy on the trading desk, in the board room or in the courtroom, but the first tee was a source of concern and ultimately the reason for women opting to not attend corporate golf events.

Inspiration 

The inspiration for Beth Andrews Golf began with an experiment I did in 1998. I had just moved from the Deutsche Bank corporate bond sales and trading desk in New York to our new Chicago Office.  Keith Cooper, Dean Chamberlain and I decided to have a golf event to celebrate the opening of the office. I was eager to further network with my Midwest region clients now that I was situated in their backyard instead of on the desk in New York.

As I sent out the invitations I got on the phone and encouraged some of the women to come out for the event. Several women expressed interest but said that because they were beginners, they did not want to play with the guys. Although they valued the networking opportunities this event would offer, they were still hesitant. 

Finally, I decided to create two foursomes of women. The idea was not to separate them but rather to put them together where they felt comfortable. That way they could gain experience by participating in a corporate event and ultimately have confidence to play in the future for business. Six women signed up and had a great day out on the course. The dinner that followed allowed time for them to build relationships with other portfolio managers and with people they conducted business with every day.  

Into Action

After playing in a Wall Street event in Las Vegas in early 2007 with 40 investment bankers (all happened to be male), I decided it was time for Jerome and I to act on this inspiration, to reach out and help women improve their game and ultimately elevate their business networking through golf.

Beth Andrews
Founder
Beth Andrews Golf