With an ever-growing workforce, NetPlus finds it critical to empower all generations of leaders who will continue to drive the industrial and construction industry forward. In a male dominated industry such as ours, it’s especially important to give women the opportunity to discover their ambitions and hone their skills to lead.
This year, NetPlus President & CEO Jennifer Murphy was invited to speak on two panels highlighting fully empowered women who are leading with purpose in our industry today.
Catalyze 2025
In the spring, Jennifer spoke at Enable’s annual conference, Catalyze, alongside Kathryn Poehling Seymour, President & CEO of First Supply LLC in Milwaukee, WI. They offered their insights in a panel discussion titled, “Trailblazing Leadership: How Visionary CEOs are Reshaping Distribution” led by our 2024 Annual Meeting keynote speaker Dirk Beveridge.
As the fifth-generation stewards of their respective family businesses, the panelists questioned outdated leadership models and challenged their peers to lead with a people-first approach. Centering relationships, they reasoned, allows businesses to thrive in ways that inspire real purpose in their teams. Empowering women to build those business relationships and make connections is critical for their continued and growing success.
“When you are a woman in this industry, you do need a network of other people to help you,” Jennifer said on the panel, referring to the Women in the Industry Reception at the NetPlus Annual Meeting. “There are a lot of women who travel by themselves. We wanted them to be able to walk into this smaller reception with other women, meet people, then go into a larger reception and find someone they know.”
Women@Bosch
Over the summer, Jennifer visited the Mount Prospect, IL, chapter of the global women@Bosch resource group for their first ever panel event. This group strives to engage, educate, and empower women professionals and those that support them across the Robert Bosch Tool Company and within their local communities.
This women@Bosch invited five leaders in the construction industry — including NetPlus member Nina Labby, Merchandise Manager and NetPlus liaison at L&W Supply in Neenah, WI, and partner Linda Strasser, Vice President of Pro Sales at Bosch — to share their experiences.
“Half the battle is just knowing someone else is going through the same thing that you are,” Jennifer said at the event. “For myself, for so many of the women I know, and for the people across my team, everyone has very high expectations for themselves. There was never really any choice between being a really excellent mother and growing my business. I had to do both at the same time, and I had to do them both really well.” That’s something she said she sees in her team and in other women in the industry, as well.
Together the panel discussed challenges they face, stories of resilience and breakthroughs, strategies to overcome gender bias and stereotypes, and ways to encourage other women to pursue careers in predominantly male industries.
Women in the Industry Reception
The NetPlus team looks forward to the Women in the Industry Reception at the Annual Meeting every year. This time together, sponsored by Protective Industrial Products, offers the opportunity to foster a robust professional network of women in our industry and cultivate lasting friendships.
Each year, NetPlus makes a charitable gift in honor of the Women in the Industry Reception. This year’s gift will be made in memory of our friend and colleague Michelle Hampton, formerly Vice President of Administration and Operations at Beaver Industrial Supply in St. Louis, MO. Michelle’s life was tragically taken last autumn as the result of an armed robbery. She is deeply missed. Our gift will be directed to an organization she cared deeply for, the Foster & Adoptive Care Coalition of Greater St. Louis.
