Perry Yeatman

Perry Yeatman is co-author with Stacie Nevadomski Berdan of Get Ahead by Going Abroad:A Woman’s Guide to Fast-Track Career Success. She is an expert on women and international careers, and the senior vice president of corporate affairs at Kraft Foods. In this role, she is one of the top 50 executives and a key advisor to the CEO of the world’s second-largest food and beverage company. After stints in Singapore, Moscow and London, she returned to the U.S., where by the age of 36 she had become a senior executive in a Fortune 100 company and increased her annual compensation by more than twenty fold in just 10 years. She says, “I never would have gotten there had I not gone overseas.” She is an in-demand speaker for companies, conferences, and universities, and has spoken all over the world from Sydney to San Diego, from Chicago to New York. Yeatman can be booked individually or jointly with co-author Berdan (see Berdan’s full bio on this site).

In the ground-breaking Get Ahead by Going Abroad Yeatman and Berdan show that as companies expand their international operations, smart women who are prepared to “go global” by pursuing opportunities overseas can dramatically accelerate their careers, enjoying high-profile projects, bigger promotions, and impressive financial rewards.

Since women still face major obstacles breaking into senior ranks (according to a recent Catalyst census survey, it can take women 40 years to reach parity with men in corporate officer ranks), overseas experience is one of the best ways to fast track their careers and catapult them to success. A recent article in The Wall Street Journal recognized the trend of career advancement through working abroad and included advice from Berdan.

Yeatman and Berdan, who dramatically accelerated their own careers in this fashion, reveal the important career opportunity this trend poses for women. They share useful anecdotes from their own and others’ experience, and provide the go-to resource for women – single or married – at every level: young professionals seeking to break out from the pack, mid-career women interested in new challenges with increased responsibility, or senior executives in pursuit of positions in executive management. They give successful strategieson how to land the assignment, succeed in the job, and enjoylife abroad.

Prior to joining Kraft, Yeatman spent more than 10 years with two leading global communications firms, Burson-Marsteller and Shandwick Plc.  In 2000, she moved “in-house” as a Vice President of Corporate Affairs for Unilever North America.  In this role, she was responsible not only for corporate affairs but also for serving on the Unilever HPC-NA Board (the most senior management group within Unilever NA) and the Board of the Unilever US Foundation.  Her corporate affairs expertise is further enhanced by her breadth of international experience and in-depth understanding of business and leadership.  From 1990-2000, Yeatman lived and worked overseas – across more than 50 countries, based first in Singapore, then Russia and finally the UK.  In her various roles, she has served not only as a senior corporate affairs counselor, but also as a General Manager.

Yeatman’s work has received local, regional and national awards and recognition, including the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Silver Anvil and Gold Sabre awards. She is currently an active member of the Arthur W. Page Society and The PR Seminar (the two most influential and prestigious organizations for corporate communications professionals in America). In 2005, she served as an adjunct professor at the Lender School of Business at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut.  There she taught courses on globalization, ethics and diversity. Outside of work, Yeatman currently serves on the National Board of the Girl Scouts of the USA.

Yeatman received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Virginia. She resides in Wilmette, Illinois, with her husband and daughter.