“We want to mirror the people we serve,” says Jenne B. Dobard, Operations Business Support Consultant for the South Central Region of Nationwide Insurance. Nationwide has been the recipient of numerous awards for their commitment to diversity and inclusion, such as the LATINA Style Top 50 Award and being named one of the Top 40 Best Companies for Diversity by Black Enterprise magazine.
Dobard finds it refreshing to work for an organization that champions diversity. And as one of the largest insurance and financial services companies in the world, Nationwide has the ability to reach out into the communities and provide support, resources, and much needed funding to activate those communities.
And one of the beneficiaries of their efforts is women business owners. “Studies have shown that businesses with a higher number of women executives or are women-owned, outperform competitors on key financial metrics, including profit and return on assets,” Dobard recalls. “At Nationwide, an integral part of our mission is supporting the development and growth of our women business owners, such as Ashlee R. Wright, Principal Agent at The Wright Agency, a Nationwide insurance office in Brentwood, TN.
“But our desire to help goes beyond our agents,” she continues. “We also work to become a trusted resource for other women in business, helping them protect what they love and have worked so hard to build.”
For Dobard, partnering with organizations like NAWBO is vital to the success of the community of women business owners because it creates mentoring programs and networking opportunities that showcase what success looks like. “Young women need to see those positive examples,” says Dobard. They need to learn from women who’ve managed a household and still built a thriving business. They need to be challenged by those who’ve worked during the day while attending school at night, and still managed to develop a plan for their business. These lessons, Dobard feels, hold the answers to some of life’s hardest tests.
As a platinum-level corporate partner of Nashville NAWBO and presenting sponsor of the inaugural Celebrating Women Awards, Nationwide is setting the bar high and Dobard couldn’t be more excited. She looks forward to creating even more opportunities to celebrate the achievements of women, not only within the community of women business owners, but within the business ecosystem itself.