Keynote Speaker - Mary Lou Quinlan

This year we are delighted to have author, television correspondent, and marketing expert, Mary Lou Quinlan, as the keynote speaker for the 2012 Handcrafted Soapmakers Guild Conference.

• CEO/Founder Just Ask a Woman
• Named the "Oprah of Madison Avenue" by The Wall Street Journal
• Bestselling Author, Just Ask A Woman
• Correspondent, CBS Early Show

Women tell Mary Lou Quinlan things that they wouldn't tell other people. In fact, in the last five years, over 5,000 female consumers have confided in Mary Lou in such a personal way that the Wall Street Journal named her "the Oprah of Madison Avenue." She has spent her 30-year career in marketing and communications - first at Avon, then as EVP at DDBNeddham and finally, as CEO of N.W. Ayer & Partners for clients like Continental Airlines and P&G. Mary Lou was named 1995 Advertising Woman of the Year by Advertising Women of New York and received the 1997 Matrix Award from New York Women in Communications.

As founder of strategic marketing company Just Ask a Woman, Mary Lou has advised dozens of corporations, including Procter & Gamble, GlaxoSmithKline, Citigroup, Best Buy, IKEA and Yahoo. Her findings were captured in the bestselling marketing book, Just Ask a Woman: Cracking the Code of What Women Want and How They Buy (Wiley, 2003). Her next book, Time Off for Good Behavior: How Hardworking Women Can Take a Break and Change Their Lives (Broadway Books, 2005) has been featured in The New York Times, The New York Post, USA Today, Business Week, People and on the CBS Early Show. She is a nationally recognized speaker on issues relating to women, their careers and their consumer lives. She now writes a monthly column on women and work, called "Quinlan & Answers" for MORE magazine.

Mary Lou currently resides in New York City.

Book Signing

Ms. Quinlan will be available to sign books after her keynote presentation.