Newsletter
of the Washington College Department of Business Management |
Spring
2000
Meeting
challenges: From Chestertown to "inside the beltway"
So what does Liz Likens do for an encore? The 1996 graduate seemed
to do everything during her four years in Chestertown: she was
a member of the swim team, student activities coordinator for
the Student Affairs Office, SGA treasurer, SGA president, recipient
of senior thesis honors from the Business Department, and recipient
of the department’s highest award.
Today, Liz lives and works in Bethesda, Maryland, where she’s
also head of the WAC national capital alumni chapter. Since graduating
from Washington College Liz has worked at the Association
for Financial Professionals, an organization that represents
the treasury and finance profession, provides education and resources
to CEOs and CFOs of major corporations, and develops industry
standards. “We’re very web-oriented,” Liz says
of AFP. “We try to provide as much information as possible
via the internet. The Association philosophy is that our biggest
competitor is time: the best way to stay in touch with our members
is the internet.”
As
AFP’s Meetings and Exhibits Manager, Liz is responsible
for putting on trade shows, conferences, and other events for
the finanical industry. It’s a fun job, Liz says, because
of her diverse clients: typically, she works with and coordinates
space providers like city or convention centers, service providers
like investment banks and treasury banks, and AFP members. She
credits her business major coursework with helping prepare her:
“I learned a lot about working in teams, especially in senior
year when I had to work on a semester-long group project, present
the project to the whole class, and get a common grade.”
Her study of organizational behavior at Washington College has
also come into play. Liz notes that AFP’s president stresses
the importance of on-going learning: “We’re working
to change our culture, moving away from a culture of vertically-organized
silos to collaborative cross-functional teams.”
Liz has strong views about how Washington College prepared her
for her career: “The best thing that I got out of my major
was not the technical business skills, but the skills to speak
intelligently, think intelligently, and write intelligently.
They know what they’re doing at Washington College. The
writing center, the thesis—I got a lot of preparation.”
Writing a senior thesis was a lot of work, but it “was probably
the best thing that happened to me—having to synthesize
all the kinds of analysis I’d learned in different courses,
having to write a thesis, and having to present it.”
Looking back, Liz does have a bit of advice: “I wish I’d
become a bit more technically savvy, and I wish I’d taken
more English classes.” Those may sound disconnected, but
Liz feels each is important in the contemporary work world. Technology
is changing rapidly, and the ability to learn and use it is critical.
At the same time, she says that having some literature background
“makes you more well-rounded—provides more depth to
who you are.”
Above all, Liz sees her Washington College degree as having taught
her a critical business skill—how to communicate effectively.
“The skills I learned have proven vital. One of the reasons
I’ve stayed and moved up at AFP is that I’ve been able
to communicate what needs to be done and how it needs to be done
effectively.
“Most of my job is communication over the phone or in writing.
The essence of my job is make the forum happen—to bring
people together so they can exchange information and ideas, whether
in person or virtually. If I can’t communicate and understand
clearly, it’s not going to happen, and I’m not going
to be successful.”
Given Liz’s track record, that seems unlikely.
Liz Likens can be reached at elikens@afponline.org.
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