KPMG Breaks the Glass Ceiling on LPGA Tour

By: Nancy Berkley


If you are watching LPGA Tour players this week at the KPMG PGA Women's Championship you may see some records broken. But one thing for sure is that you are also going to see Stacy Lewis hit a golf ball and shatter the "glass ceiling" of a corporate board room.

The image is a major advertisement for KPMG, a worldwide accounting firm and the lead sponsor for this week's LPGA "major" tournament at Westchester Country Club outside New York City. If you thought that the KPMG initials on the golf caps of Stacy Lewis and Phil Mickelson meant "Keep Playing More Golf," you were wrong.

The "glass ceiling" metaphor explaining why women are not in top corporate positions dates back to the 1980s. The term was reportedly coined in 1984 in an article by the editor of "Working Women Magazine." (Remember also "Ms. Magazine" and Gloria Steinem? For younger readers, think Cheryl Sandberg and Facebook and "Leaning In.")

KPMG is actually not new to the golf. The KPMG European division actively promotes its major golf advisory business. It also publishes very complete golf participation statistics for European countries. Yes, the percentage of female golfers in European countries is greater than in the United States.

During the tournament, KPMG is sponsoring the KPMG Women's Leadership Summit at the Westchester. It's a great opportunity to showcase the newly appointed female CEO of KPMG, Lynne Doughtie.

The Summit will feature speeches and discussions by successful women in corporate boardrooms, June 10 from 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. I have heard the KPMG female corporate executives speak (including the new CEO) and they have many insights into how women can succeed in the corporate world. The closing speaker at the summit is the former Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice.

KPMG's sponsorship of this LPGA Tour event is a dream-come-true for LPGA commissioner Mike Whan. Although "The Commish" is interested in building more fans for women's golf, a major priority has always been getting the best sponsors and especially those that match the "global" elements of the LPGA Tour and especially sponsors with global businesses.

KPMG is a winner-sponsor for several reasons. LPGA players provide the best pro-ams any corporation could wish for. One problem, however, is that most of the corporations send mostly men to those pro-ams. The truth, in my opinion, is that although there are more and more working women who do play golf - and some with single-digit handicaps - the pro-ams still seem to be a "guys" thing. The KPMG pro-am will be a very successful experience for male executives from all over the KPMG world-wide network.

But what about the female KPMG executives - problem solved! The KPMG Women's Leadership Summit offers KPMG women's executives their own forum. And better yet, the KPMG female executives can invite prospective clients - female leaders from many other corporations - to this event.

This tournament also marks a new relationship between the LPGA and PGA of America. You will notice on the tournament logo that this is a "PGA-sponsored" tournament. The LPGA Tour is not even mentioned. See my previous Cybergolf article that which covers this issue at http://www.cybergolf.com/golf_news/why_the_kpmg_pga_womens_championship_is_a_good_move_for_lpga.

I will be watching the tournament closely and I will check in with the Leadership Summit on the Golf Channel. In my years as a lawyer in New York City I worked with the accounting firms that are now merged into KPMG. I was often the only woman at the corporate table. In a few legal transactions, I led a team of men. As a senior corporate executive at Prudential Financial, I was also often the only woman. My rules were to sit in the middle of the table, don't wait to speak (thinking that you must have the most brilliant thing to say), and never underplay your own contribution.

And I always kept a sleeve of golf balls on my desk as a paperweight. Funny how many times the subject of golf came up.

Nancy Berkley, President of Berkley Golf Consulting, is an expert on women's golf and junior-girls golf. She is a frequent contributor to www.cybergolf.com/womensgolf. Her book, "Women Welcome Here! A Guide to Growing Women's Golf," published by the National Golf Foundation, is an industry reference on marketing golf to women and spotting trends within the industry. She offers information and advice about the golf industry on www.berkleygolfconsulting.com and is often quoted in national publications. Nancy is a member of the World Golf Foundation Women's Committee that launched www.golfforher.com a comprehensive new website for all women golfers at the PGA Merchandise Show in January 2015 in Orlando, Fla. She is a featured speaker at PGA Section meetings and at national conferences. She was a contributing editor of "Golf for Women" magazine and a founding advisor of "Golfer Girl Magazine." Her interviews with women in the golf industry now appear on www.golfergirlcareers.com. Nancy lives in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., and is a graduate of the University of Minnesota, Harvard University and Rutgers Law School. After a business and legal career, she decided to write about the game she learned and loved as a teenager. She describes herself as a good bogey golfer with permanent potential.