The Women’s Economic Resource Center (WERC) will host Yodit Mesfin at their first luncheon of the new year Thursday January 17th at the Tuscan Grille in Manistee beginning at 11:45.
Yodit Mesfin is currently the Program Manager for the Michigan Women’s Marketplace, an initiative of The Center for Empowerment and Economic Development, a non-profit organization based in Ann Arbor. She is also founder of “All for You”; a company dedicated to the empowerment of women through professional image consulting.
Yodit was educated at Eastern Michigan University where she studied Marketing and Public Relations. Her career began with Honeywell, Inc. where she was promoted to many positions including Customer Service Manager for Michigan and northern Ohio. Her responsibilities included measuring service performance and identifying customer retention strategies. While managing Operations of the local service center, she acted as a one of three satellite managers for the Honeywell’s national Customer Monitoring Center in Minneapolis, MN. While in this capacity she played a fundamental role in the implementation of a multi million dollar national software conversion.
In 2000, she accepted the position of Closing Department Manager for Edward Surovell Realtors. Responsibilities included managing Real Estate Closing services for 10 offices and over 300 agents. Her duties included serving as a liaison for services to the agents, balancing a multi-million dollar escrow fund and management of the Closing department and its staff.
An entrepreneurial spirit at heart, Yodit has been the visionary for several start up businesses. In 2003, Yodit founded All For You an Image Consulting firm. The company’s mission is to empower women who have struggled with personal branding in the chaos of their professional success, absence from the work force, or lack of employment in general. In many cases, their personal image had been put aside and replaced by their professional pursuits. This resonated with Yodit. Slowly she has built a business based on trust and honesty. She is not afraid to tell her clients the truth about their images, and the messages those images send.
By 2004 she had decided to pursue this endeavor full time. While in that pursuit, she learned about CEED and its service to women and minorities in Michigan. It was a natural fit. An alumni of CEED’s business class, she began volunteering at CEED. In 2004, CEED utilized Yodit’s event planning background and hired her as a consultant for the 4th Annual Michigan Women’s Business Conference and Expo. In early 2005, she was offered the position of Program Manager for the Michigan Women’s Marketplace (www.miwomen.com). The Marketplace is a statewide online women’s business community. In addition to the speaking about the Marketplace and women’s issues, Yodit works with other non-profit organizations to support and advocate for their mutual customer; the woman business owner.
Yodit is a drum major for women business owners and a dedicated entrepreneur with a vast skill set and a dynamic personality. The luncheon is open to anyone interested in learning more about tools available to women in business.
To register for the WERC Thursday, January 17, 2008 luncheon, see the WERC web site at www.manisteewerc.org or send an RSVP to [email protected]
The cost for the luncheon is $10 payable at the door. Doors open at 11:30.
WERC is organized to support the professional development and leadership of women and girls in Manistee County and the surrounding areas. Luncheons are held the third Thursday of each month.