History

Janet Hanson joined the Fixed Income Division of Goldman Sachs in 1977, became a Vice President in 1981, and was named the first woman Sales Manager in the firm's history in 1986. Following her 14-year career with Goldman Sachs, Janet founded "Milestone Capital Management" in 1994 -- an investment management firm which today manages over $2.5 billion in assets for institutional clients. Of the $2.3 trillion money market fund assets manage in the United States, Milestone Capital remains the only woman-owned firm in the country to specialize exclusively in the management of institutional money market funds. In May of 2004, Janet joined Lehman Brothers as a Managing Director.

In 1999, Janet founded 85 Broads, a global, online network of over 4,100 current and former Goldman Sachs female professionals and MBA students/alumnae from the leading graduate business schools. With members who work for or run over 450 companies around the world, 85 Broads has become the model for numerous other corporate/alumnae networks and has been cited in a landmark study by Catalyst for its Best Practices in "creating internal and external networks for women and people of color."

Janet is regularly invited to speak at corporate engagements, networking events, and at the leading graduate business schools. Recent speaking engagements include the Paris Professional Women's Network, the Professional Businesswomen of California Conference, Marriott International Women's Leadership Conference, Wharton Women in Business Conference, the Harvard Women in Business Conference, the Columbia Women in Business Conference, the Deloitte & Touche Women's Networking Event, the Deutsche Bank Women on Wall Street Conference, and the Forbes Executive Women's Forum.

Broad2Broad, is 85 Broads’ unique, network-based co-mentoring partnership with current women MBAs from a select group of the leading graduate business schools. Co-mentoring is a term we use to describe the connection between women in our network and women in graduate business school which we believe is and should be viewed as a relationship of equals -- in essence a collaboration built on respect for the contribution made by both younger and older generations of women.

All B2B members are invited to remain in the network upon graduation so they in turn can become “co-mentors” for the new incoming class of women MBAs at their respective business schools. Women currently enrolled at Berkeley - Haas, Carnegie Mellon - The Tepper School, The University of Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Darden, Duke, Harvard, INSEAD, Kellogg, London Business School, Michigan, MIT, NYU, Stanford, Tuck, UCLA, USC - Marshall, Vanderbilt - Owen, Wharton, and Yale are eligible for membership. Over 2,100 women MBAs have joined Broad2Broad since its inception in 2000.

Each academic year 85 Broads invites the incoming classes of women at our selected schools to join Broad2Broad through the assistance of each school’s women’s organization and designated Broad2Broad chapter heads. Throughout the year, 85 Broads sponsors on-campus, informal co-mentoring events in partnership with each respective women's organization, as well as help to sponsor and participate in annual women's conferences and events. Additionally, each of our B2B chapters has a unique page on the 85 Broads website which allows for an efficient, easy way to connect with both members of the network and B2B alumnae through our website’s advanced search capability.

Broad2Be is an innovative co-mentoring initiative developed to link women at some of the nation’s leading undergraduate schools with women in Broad2Broad and the 85 Broads network. The mission of Broad2Be is to develop a strong co-mentoring partnership with the next generation of future women leaders. 85 Broads piloted the Broad2Be program at Dartmouth College with the Undergraduate Women in Business, in partnership with the Tuck Women in Business. In the fall, we will be inviting the current undergraduate women at Brown, Bryn Mawr, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Harvard, London School of Economics, Middlebury, MIT, Northwestern, Princeton, Tuck - Bridge Program, Tufts, UVA, Wharton, Williams, Wellesley, and Yale to join the Broad2Be network.

Broad2Be members are invited to remain in the network upon graduation so they in turn can become “co-mentors” for the new incoming class of women at their respective schools. Throughout the academic year, 85 Broads sponsors on-campus, informal co-mentoring events in partnership with each respective women's organization, as well as help to sponsor and participate in annual women's conferences and events. Additionally, each of our Broad2Be schools will have a unique page on the 85 Broads website which will allow for an efficient, easy way to connect with members of the network through our website's advanced search capability.

Most importantly, Broad2Be members have access to a rapidly growing membership base of over 5,000 women worldwide! Through 85 Broads’ password-protected online network site, members can post their profiles and search the member database; identify new business, career, recruiting, and philanthropic opportunities; develop new relationships with co-mentors and role models; launch entrepreneurial ventures; and work in partnership to create the network services and relationship contacts of greatest value to the 85 Broads community.

Tufts Broad2Be was formed in the Fall of 2004 and immediately grew to be a successful student organization, holding their first Broader Business Views conference in partnership with 85Broads and Career Services, resume nights as well as interview tips. Due to their diligent work, in the first year of the club's existence, Tufts Broad2Be received the "Best Student Organization of the Year" award as well as the "Best New Organization of the Year" award. This was the first time in Tufts history that a new student organization received both awards.