46 BCBUSINESS MARCH 2016 TANYA GOEHRING
fter graduating from
Ha r va rd Bu si ness
School, Nanon de
G a s p é B e au b i e n -
Mattrick worked with
a male-dominated team in the
bra/girdle division of Playtex Inter-
national. "Okay, guys," she would
say, "you say the girdle doesn't
ride up. Who's worn it recently?"
That experience cemented her
conviction that every business
needs gender balance. Through-
out her career, which included a
decade as senior VP at Telemedia
Corporation, she saw the same
inconsistency. While women cur-
rently buy three out of every four
products purchased in North
America, they struggle to find
money for their own businesses.
Only eight per cent of venture capi-
tal funding, she points out, goes to
women.
After her family sold Tele–
media, she often fielded ques-
tions from entrepreneurs about
marketing, strategy or financing.
She enjoyed the process of work-
ing through these issues with new
W O M E N O F I N F L U E N C E : T H E P O W E R T O D I S R U P T
Holding
the Purse
Strings
MONEY MAKES THE BUSINESS
WORLD GO ROUND AND ROUND,
AS THE FOLLOWING FINANCIERS
HAVE PROVEN
b y M A R C I E G O O D
QUEEN BEE
Nanon de Gaspé Beaubien-
Mattrick champions women
entrepreneurs through
Beehive Holdings
