Million Dollar Woman Breakfast Symposium

Join us for the 11^th Annual
Million Dollar Woman Breakfast Symposium
Register Here
Held each year since November 2005, this event showcases “Million Dollar Women” who have started their own businesses and have achieved gross revenues of over a million dollars. The event includes four accomplished panelists who will share their unique success stories and experiences. This annual Symposium will motivate and empower entrepreneurial women to aspire to success in their fields.
Million Dollar Woman Breakfast Symposium Panelists:
– Nancy Batista-Caswell, Caswell Restaurant Group, Proprietor
– Dareth Colburn, Designer, CEO & Founder, USABride
– Lisa Nickerson, Principal & Founder, Nickerson Companies
– Lorie Skolski, Principal & Chief Operating Officer,DMS design, llc
Keynote Speaker:
– Karen Andreas, Publisher, North of Boston Media Group
 

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Our Keynote Speaker: Karen Andreas

Regional Publisher
North of Boston Media Group
Karen Andreas is the regional publisher of North of Boston Media Group, which publishes eight newspapers – including The Salem News, The Eagle-Tribune, The Daily News of Newburyport and the Gloucester Daily Times – as well as the company’s affiliated websites and seven award-winning glossy magazines.
Andreas has made her profession in the media industry for more than 25 years. After leading The Salem News as its editor and then publisher, Andreas was promoted in 2013 to lead all of North of Boston Media Group’s publications. As regional publisher, she oversees not only the newsrooms but also all other departments, including advertising, circulation, production and finance.
Andreas has enjoyed a storied journalism career, spanning jobs from investigative reporter to lifestyles editor, managing editor and editor-in-chief. She also spent several years as executive editor and vice president of news for Eagle-Tribune Publishing Co. Her true passion is community news, focusing on all things local — from city and town halls to classrooms and high school sporting fields.
Andreas has received numerous industry awards over the years. Most recently she was named “Publisher of the Year” by the national Editor & Publisher magazine, the media industry’s leading trade publication. She received the 2014 North Shore Leadership Award from the Anti-Defamation League, and she has also received the prestigious Judith Brown Award from the New England Society of Newspaper Editors. This award “recognizes the accomplishments and pioneering spirit of an outstanding woman in journalism from the six-state region.”
Andreas is also quite active in the community, serving on numerous boards, including the Northern Essex Community College Foundation board, North Shore Chamber of Commerce board, Salem State University Board of Overseers and the Salem Partnership board, to name a few.
A graduate of the University of New Hampshire, Andreas is a longtime resident of Danvers, where she lives with her husband and two teen-age sons.

Presenter

Nancy Batista-Caswell

Nancy Batista-Caswell
Caswell Restaurant Group, Proprietor
Few among us can say they found their career and calling in one, but this culinary management alumna of Johnson + Wales University always knew that her goal was to be a self-styled restaurateur—and would hold every detail from concept to operations close at hand. Informed by her upbringing in a food-centric Portuguese family, Nancy Batista-Caswell applied early operations training under the tutelage of acclaimed restaurateur and prolific cookbook author Chef Chris Schlesinger and has never looked back. Buoyed by a reputation as a leader among contemporary culinary visionaries, Nancy received the 2016 SmartCEO Boston Future 50 Award, and holds the titles of FSR Magazine “Rising Stars 40 Under 40” 2016 and StarChefs ‘Rising Star Restaurateur’ for Coastal New England– a wide swath of exciting dining that includes Maine, New Hampshire, coastal Mass. and the Islands, and Rhode Island.
Her Caswell Restaurant Group, the banner under which Nancy develops, builds, and operates, has earned attention by a variety of media like USA Today, Wine Spectator, Taste of the Seacoast, and Boston Globe. Both of her restaurants debuted with Boston Magazine’s ‘Best of Boston’ nods, and Ceia’s top Zagat ratings rival any Top 20 Restaurant List in the country. However, don’t look for any laurels resting in her office, as Nancy cultivates a team that strives to sustain this excitement with bold menu innovations like New England’s first and only 15-course (Culinary Opus) dinner, wine dinners featuring world-renown winemakers, and secret diner reports to ensure that excellence is an unwavering standard.

Presenter

Dareth Colburn

About Dareth Colburn, Designer, CEO & Founder, USABride

For the past 20 years, Dareth Colburn has channeled her passion for all things bridal into the ecommerce company known as USABride. As a single mother determined to break into the industry, Dareth left her career in banking and began selling five tiaras and five veils from her apartment. Today, USABride features ecommerce and wholesale divisions as well as a retail storefront with a selection of over 1,000 accessories that ship to brides around the world. Passion for design, attention to detail and love for connecting with brides in person, on the phone and through social media are core values for her and her team and propel the business forward. And there’s no stopping this trajectory of growth, Dareth will continue to launch new collections for USABride each spring/fall season and has plans to unveil a couture line in 2017.

Presenter

Lisa Nickerson

Lisa Nickerson
Principal & Founder, Nickerson Companies
is the true definition of an entrepreneurial businesswoman.
Having started her first company when she was 15 years old
and earning The Nashua Telegraph’s 91 Progress’ Entrepreneur of the
Year at 17 years old, Lisa has become very well-known and respected
in the Real Estate industry. As founder and principal of Nickerson PR,
an award-winning, full-service communications agency that offers an
integrated blend of public relations, social media, digital content, creative
services, and events expertise, as well as Nickerson Real Estate
Partners, Lisa Nickerson is at the company helm. With almost 30 years
of entrepreneurial experience, she is the driving force behind the success
her Nickerson companies have reached. Lisa continues to oversee
business operations and drive business growth for not only her own
companies but all her clients as well.
Today, Lisa is a multiple-industry award winner, a well-respected,
sought-after speaker, and a devotee of professional and community service.
She and her team most recently won Banker and Tradesman’s Best
Public Relations Firm and multiple PRISM awards for 2016.

Presenter

Lorie Skolski

Lorie K. Skolski
Principal & Chief Operating Officer,
DMS design, llc
Lorie co-founded DMS in 2006 with her husband Dan who manages the design side of the business. Lorie manages the operations and business side of DMS which includes the following functions: Accounting, Legal, HR, IT, Marketing, Business Development and staff management. She complements the architectural business by bringing her vast knowledge of creating processes, efficiencies and proven sales and marketing plans and techniques.

Lorie works closely with the project managers to quantify progress on every engagement and to track the various metrics associated with the timely and successful completion while creating efficiencies throughout the project. She brings high-caliber client management experience along with the ability to understand client issues and identify the best solutions.

Lorie has previously started two other consulting firms. In 2008, she co-founded ZeroPoint Risk Research, a data security firm in Boston. ZeroPoint worked with dozens of Fortune companies with a specialty in financial services. ZeroPoint had international clients as well as national work throughout the United States. ZeroPoint was merged with a larger consulting firm in 2014.

Lorie also founded in 2014, Staffing & Operations Solutions, LLC (“SOS”), a business consulting firm in Beverly. SOS had several clients on the North Shore that Lorie consulted on business processes and business plans. SOS is now in dormant status as Lorie has committed her time to growing DMS.

Lorie’s previous experience includes executive consultative business development roles specializing in business operations. She has extensive experience in relationship building, client management, problem-solving, and implementing solutions. Lorie’s industry focus has been manufacturing, technology and life sciences companies. She has worked with many Fortune 1000 companies as well as companies in the middle-market.

Lorie is currently on the Board of Directors for the North Shore Technology Council and has been involved with the Council in various roles for the last 9 years. Lorie has also had membership level involvement with the following organizations: Financial Executives International, International Accounts Payable Professionals, Institute of Management and Administration, Institute for Professionals in Taxation, Association of Computers in Taxation.