Barbara Guterman

Barbara Guterman is a seasoned entrepreneur, a passionate business executive, and a veteran community organizer with a desire for creating powerful change. She is a devoted wife and mother to three grown sons who share her passion for business and for giving back. As a consummate entrepreneur for over 33 years, Barbara has launched companies and managed businesses in a multitude of industry segments including telecommunications, retail, franchising, manufacturing, fine jewelry and in internet-based start-ups. Her experience ranges from small business to large scale public corporations and covers many areas of expertise including, management, operations, sales, investor relations, public relations, community relations and external affairs. Her ability to see the big picture and to do whatever needs to be done to achieve that goal is what sets Barbara apart from others.

At the young age of 23, Barbara saw an untapped market opportunity in the telecommunications industry and co-created one of the nation’s first competitive local phone companies. At the age of 30, Barbara’s company was the first in her industry to go public and was regarded by Wall Street as a” leading edge” company. Under her team’s leadership, the company raised over $80 million dollars and grew to over 5000 employees, providing competitive local and long-distance voice and data services to customers nationwide. She was widely recognized for these achievements and was featured in the September 1995 edition of Forbes magazine as a “Woman with a Mission”. Barbara has the distinction of being the first person to don the cover of Readers Digest, where she was highlighted as a distinguished woman entrepreneur. In addition, she was recognized as Ernst and Young’s 1997 Florida Entrepreneur of the Year, for her efforts in building Intermedia Communications. Barbara received her bachelor’s degree in Telecommunication from the University of Florida in 1985 and an MBA from the University of South Florida in 1993, where she was also named USF’s Entrepreneur of the Year in 1993.

SPEECH TOPIC: FEARLESS, FOCUSED & FLEXIBLE: AN ENTREPRENEURS GUIDE TO BEING UNSTOPPABLE

In this talk, Barbara shares stories from her 30 plus years of entrepreneurial success. She learned through these business experiences how to take action in the face of fear and rejection, how to possess an unstoppable singular focus, and the importance of being flexible when needed.