Blythe McGarvie Biography

Blythe J. McGarvie has operated profitable business units and managed employees in business endeavors from China to Chile, France to Finland. An accomplished author and business thought leader, she was also a pioneering CFO, and in 1995, was one of only ten female CFOs in the Fortune 500. Renowned for her perspective on leadership, consumer markets, and worldwide economic trends, she brings energy and enthusiasm to her speeches, giving her audiences courage to thrive in trying times and to achieve financial success.

Raising the Courage Quotient. McGarvies best-selling book, Shaking the Globe: Courageous Decision-Makers in a Changing World provides entrepreneurs and executives with research and action ideas to overcome obstacles in a competitive and interconnected world. In the book, she explains that western business leaders must develop the courage to enter new cultures not as people holding an attitude of cultural or moral superiority, but with a perspective of common interest and mutual success.

McGarvie is also the author of Fit In Stand Out: Mastering the FISO Factor: The Key to Leadership Effectiveness in Business and Life, which has reached wide distribution in the U.S. and was published outside the US in Spanish, Indian and Russian language versions. Booklist called it A fundamental guide to choosing a path in the maze of corporate culturefrom someone who has been there and done it.

Cover Story. McGarvie has been featured in numerous national and international publications and media, including Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, CFO magazine, Fast Company, MORE magazine and CNBC. In December 2007, MORE magazine featured her international acumen in Going Global, reaching over 500,000 readers. Her business insights are featured in the Corporate Leadership column in Shattered magazine and she was the Your Move columnist in CFO Europe. Consumer Goods Technologys cover story named McGarvie a World Class CFO and Business Finances featured McGarvie in a cover story titled Financial Reporting how the best CFOs get it right the first time.

Facing the Global Competition. Since January 2003, McGarvie has been CEO and founder of LIF Group, offering a global perspective for clients seeking profitable growth and providing leadership seminars for corporate and academic groups. She has a pulse on developing leaders and responding effectively to changing situations as a result of her extensive corporate experience and her service on several boards, including Accenture, Pepsi Bottling Group, The Travelers Companies, Viacom, and Wawa. In 2010, NACD/Directorship selected Ms. McGarvie as one of the Top 100 Most Renowned and Influentials in Corporate Governance. McGarvie was recently honored as one of the Most Influential People on Corporate Governance and in the Boardroom by Directorship, and in December 2009, she received an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Old Dominion University.

After eight years as a chief financial officer and numerous requests to share her insights, McGarvie wrote a book called Fit In, Stand Out, Mastering the FISO Factor for Success in Business and Life, published by McGraw-Hill in September 2005. From 1999 through December 2002, McGarvie was executive vice president and chief financial officer of BIC Group, a French company traded on the Paris Bourse and one of the world's leading manufacturers of convenient disposable products.

For five years prior to joining BIC, McGarvie was senior vice-president and chief financial officer of Hannaford Bros. Co., a U.S. $3 billion supermarket retailer, acquired by the DelHaize Group in 1999. Her international experience includes being based in Paris, France for BIC Group and as chief administrative officer-Pacific Rim of Sara Lee Corporation, based in Chicago, where she was responsible for the finance, strategy, information systems and human resources functions for the personal product business in Asia, Australia and South America, growing the division from $124 million to $600 million in sales over a three-year period ending in 1994.

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