Aug 14, 2007
Profiling the OutputLinks Women of Distinction
OutputLinks founded the Women of Distinction program in 2002 to recognize the many contributions, achievements and successes of stellar women in the output industry. The Women of Distinction program was initiated to recognize outstanding women who have contributed to the development and enhancement of the high volume transaction output (HVTO) Industry. Selection of this unique group of women is based upon industry experience, leadership skills, and participation in HVCO associations and events.
The objective of this Women of Distinction Profile Series is to:
---Provide the global recognition they deserve;
---Provide an archived record of their success journey accessible via the OutputLinks, Google, Yahoo and other web search tools.
---Let our readers learn more about successful HVTO leaders;
---Let industry “Newbies” see HVTO as a profession where they too may achieve success.
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Woman of Distinction Profile:
Clare Woodman
Chief Operating Officer
MegaSpirea International Inc.
OutputLinks Profiles Woman of Distinction Clare Woodman of MegaSpirea International
Clare Woodman loves to cook. Whenever she can she enjoys walking to the local market with her two sons, Henry, 10, and Giles, 7, to purchase fresh ingredients with which to make some magic in her kitchen. She loves to experiment with different kinds of food---Malaysian being a longtime favorite after visiting Singapore on her honeymoon. Always ahead of the trends, Clare notes that Malaysian restaurants are rapidly becoming among the hippest places to eat in New York City and Los Angeles.
Clare Woodman
“I’m very intrigued by the results you get when you blend different spices and ingredients together,” says Woodman. “There’s a kind of calculated risk involved but when you get it just right it’s a tremendous pleasure.”
Woodman, an OutputLinks 2006 Woman of Distinction award winner, has always sought outlets for her creativity, winning eight patents in her 18-year career at mail giant Pitney Bowes, culminating with her being named Inventor of the Year in 2003. After leaving the company in 2005, she’s once again ahead of the pack as chief operating officer for one of the most exciting new companies to recently enter the high volume transaction output (HVTO) market, MegaSpirea International.
“When I first heard of the concept of dynamic envelope creation I realized that it can dramatically improve the way businesses communicate with customers, which is the ultimate goal of HVTO,” says Woodman. “And I knew that to bring the concept to life wouldn’t be easy, but I also knew that I had the talent, the vision and the experience to smooth out the bumps and stretch the limits of the technology, and I couldn’t stay away.”
The Pioneering Spirit
From the time she was little she wanted to be an engineer; one might say it’s in her DNA. “My father is an electrical engineer and he loved his work. It’s not a coincidence that three of my six siblings are engineers. As an engineer you work out solutions to problems. It’s more than an occupation it’s a way of approaching life with all its challenges,” says Woodman.
Always one to pick out her own path, when it came to college she chose Swarthmore, the celebrated Pennsylvanian liberal arts college, instead of a more technically-oriented school. “I liked the idea that Swarthmore taught you how to think, rather than teaching you what to think as other schools seemed to do. It was the right choice for me.”
Love, Trans-Atlantic Style
“It’s kind of funny how things go full circle,” says Woodman. “MegaSpirea is very much an international company---I make frequent trips to France and spend a lot of time flying over the Atlantic. Every time I do it I think back to when I first started at Pitney Bowes and I met a handsome English fellow named Adrian Ruck on the factory floor in Danbury. I was really knocked off my feet. We commenced a trans-Atlantic relationship, which had my family scratching their heads a bit. But between his visits to the States to work on the machines and my trips over there, we managed to see each other enough to really fall deeply in love. One thing I remember very well was that he was working in Ankara, Turkey at the start of the first Gulf War and was one of the last people to get out before the shooting started the next day, right next door in Iraq. I actually flew to the UK the a day later to make sure he was OK---and I was one of 10 people that were on this jumbo jet flying overseas. Most people weren’t willing to fly at the time. That’s love, right?”
By the time they’d known each other for a year---a year filled with him finding excuses to extend his work trips to the US and with her visiting the UK on every three day weekend and holiday she could manage, the two were engaged. “When we got engaged, he was able to extend his visit to Danbury for 2-3 weeks.” Adrian moved to USA in April, 1992 and the two were married that August.
“So now I’m back to a trans-Atlantic lifestyle. MegaSpirea has an office in the Alsace-Lorraine region of France, which as a cook is a very interesting place to visit. They have a very unique cuisine. It’s either French with a German flavor to it or vice versa. For instance, they are very proud of their sauerkraut, which they cook in white wine. I love visiting the restaurants in Colmar. The wines tend to be white and very sweet. Every night after the show floor closed at IPEX, we drank a very characteristic Alsatian white sparkling wine to celebrate. The good stuff, as we say here in the States.”
Celebrating Diversity
“One consequence of being a cook, of course, is that you tend to value diversity,” says Woodman. “Food is a big part of culture and there are so many different cultures to explore. We live in Norwalk, Conn., which is one of the more ethnically diverse towns in Fairfield County, Conn.. My sons have play dates with children whose parents are from Latin America, who are African-American, who are Asian…and I think in the world we live in today, with a Global economy, we need to promote more cross-cultural understanding. What better way to do it than cooking and tasting each other’s food. I participate in the PTA’s Pot Luck dinner every year and have gotten involved in the school system in that way. I contribute German food because my grandparents came from Germany, or English treats to celebrate my husband’s heritage.”
Driving for Success
Clare Woodman readily credits her drive to succeed as part of her training as a businessperson. While at Pitney, she took advantage of a nice perk they offered and got herself an MBA from the University of Bridgeport.
“One thing I learned is that a business person has a moral duty to make the business succeed. Sometimes, you have to put feelings aside and put the right team in place to do a job; you have to keep the team lean and focused, you have to clarify objectives, you have to devise a plan to get where you need to go and you need to execute that plan with extreme prejudice.”
Ms. Woodman also finds herself in the unique position of working with some of her former managers from Pitney Bowes who have signed on to help her with tasks that range from designing the next generation Mailliner to creating a rock solid business plan. “It is gratifying to think that I learned enough from these well-known industry experts to be able to be able to convince them to join in this new project, starting with just about nothing but a concept and prototype.”
Woodman relishes the emergence of this entrepreneurial side of her character. MegaSpirea International has been capturing the imagination of many leading players in the HVTO industry. “We have amazing potential as an organization and offer a unique value proposition. The basic idea is that by creating envelopes dynamically we can promote all the implications of just-in-time inventory and lean manufacturing in the operation, that we offer greater security the processing of sensitive documents, and that the extra carrying space on the outside of the envelope can be used for marketing.”
A Small World
One of the things Clare Woodman loves about the HVTO industry is that it’s such a small world. “You really do get to know people well in this industry,” she says. “There are a lot of events and the same players seem to show up at every one of them.” One of her favorite stories took place at XPLOR 1998 in Nashville, Tennessee. After working at the booth readying an inserter system for the show until 2 am, she and a colleague were waiting for a cab. “As you can imagine, there weren’t many taxis at that hour, so we shared a cab with a man who was going to the hotel next door to ours. He was from Norway and spoke pretty good English---better than my Norwegian---and after a while it turned out that he knew my husband Adrian from a conference they both attended a decade earlier. What other industry could this happen in?”
The Simple Life
Despite the success of MegaSpirea International and the travel and the time she spends in airports and hotels, Woodman is sure to reserve time to spend with her husband, Adrian, who is still an engineer with Pitney Bowes (albeit based here in the States now), and their two sons.
“My son Giles wrote me a Mothers Day card in his kindergarten class last May that was so cute I will keep it on my desk forever. He drew a picture of me and the first line was, ‘my mom Clare likes to work and fix things.’ And then he wrote how we like to go for walks and play video games. When you see it put like that in the handwriting of a small boy, you realize how precious it all is. Physically I’m pretty small, so someday soon he and his brother are both going to be taller than me. But for now I’m enjoying watching them grow. And while they are growing I’m growing, too---as a wife, mother, engineer and businesswoman.”
For more on MegaSpirea International, click here.