DyNAMC Dispatch September 2016 Issue 6 | Page 16

It was his wife Yvonne that inspired Jerome E. Chairman, Chairman of the California State Board of Equalization, to start the Connecting Women to Power Conference. Yvonne is the founder of a non-profit that increases women’s access to educational opportunities; but she saw a need in business development, too. “Our underlying goal is to teach them to comply with existing state laws, regulations and policy,” Chairman Horton said. “We were trying to fill a void about some concerns we were hearing at the Equalization Board, and that my wife Yvonne was hearing. We thought the way we could help is to try to get more Californians to start business, create jobs and generate revenue.” “Yvonne and I were talking about challenges. She said ‘Let’s see if we can put on a conference that focuses on empowering women, and men are invited, to grow personally and professionally,” Chairman Horton told DyNAMC. “At the time women were becoming a dominant force in small businesses, but their per capita income was not as high as the men. Even though they were opening more businesses, the success wasn’t there.” Women face several challenges in starting businesses, Chairman Horton said, including access to capital, access to decision makers and access to support and networking. So the pair designed the Connecting Women to Power Conference, an educational and inspirational event to give women the power, the resources, the strategies and techniquesto succeed. The other thing that’s a challenge women face is access to the decision makers. When there are fewer women decision makers, you don’t “Access to capital is a major challenge,” Chairman Horton told DyNAMC. “The skills and the knowledge on how to access capital is a challenge for small businesses in general, and most of the capital venture investors are men.” “Having them all connected was a very, very inspiring, powerful force. Just to see that many people focusing on uplifting, building power and positioning themselves for success was extremely gratifying.” Chairman Horton