I was invited to present my career overview to a group of MBA candidates at Georgia State's Robinson School of Business. This documents my journey from Corporate America to owning my own business, with side trips as a midlife Peace Corps Volunteer and part of a successful dot-com start-up, WebMD.

1. Leadership Speaker Series!
Confessions of a
Presented%by%The%Graduate%Business%Associa,on%
Corporate Refugee
Nancy
Chorpenning
Managing Director,
C-Suite Advisors
“My Journey from Corporate America to
Owning My Own Business”
by Nancy Chorpenning, C-Suite Advisors
Date% Thursday,*October*25 *2012*
Time% 7:30PM*–*8:30PM*
th
Loca,on% Aderhold*Learning*Center,*Room*223*
The%GBA%welcomes%Nancy%Chorpenning,%Managing%Director%for%
Atlanta>based%business%advisory%firm,%C>Suite%Advisors.%%She%
Leadership Speaker Series
has%20+%years%of%experience%providing%Fortune%500%companies%
with%strategic,%opera,onal%and%marke,ng%solu,ons.%%
Presented by The Graduate Business Association
Specifically,%Nancy%was%an%integral%part%of%the%management%
team%that%developed,%launched%and%managed%%the%WebMD%
plaNorm.%%She%has%also%worked%with%Time%Warner%and%Times%
Mirror.%
Nancy%is%a%graduate%of%Northwestern%University’s%Kellogg%
Thursday, October 25, 12
Graduate%School%of%Management%and%the%GBA%looks%forward%to%

2. Confessions of a
Corporate Refugee
Timeline
Lessons
Dreams
Thursday, October 25, 12

3. “Managed Up”
Thursday, October 25, 12

4. Publishing
Publishing Market Contraction
Medical Pub 1975 - 80 US companies
Medical Pub 2012 - 1 US company (McGraw Hill)
Times Mirror (LA Times & Chandler family) bought YBMP
in 1965; merged with Mosby in 1989; Mosby-YearBook
acquired by Harcourt General in 1998; in 2000 Reed
Elsevier
Times Mirror (2000 Tribune takeover by Sam Zell -
pensions in danger)
Little, Brown (founded in 1837) acquired by Time, Inc.
1968; Professional Publishing acquired in 1996 by
Wolters-Kluwer
Thursday, October 25, 12

5. Publishing
Mentors
Lessons
B School
Information Products
Thursday, October 25, 12

6. Stop the World...
“I’m too OLD to be a Peace Corps Volunteer!”
Thursday, October 25, 12

7. Thursday, October 25, 12

8. Thursday, October 25, 12

9. Papua New Guinea
Thursday, October 25, 12

10. 2008
Presidential
Inaugural Parade
Washington, DC
Thursday, October 25, 12

11. DotCom Era
1997-2000
Dot-Com Boom, Dot-Com Bubble,
Internet Bubble
Overlooked traditional metrics (e.g., P/E
ratio) in favor of confidence in technology
Healthscape → Healtheon (1996)
Healtheon-WebMD (Jim Clark meets Jeff
Arnold) IPO 1999- $7B Merger - $120/
share - $20B market cap
Thursday, October 25, 12

12. Alliances &
Departures
WebMD Physician Website
Bringing offline online
Parting of the Ways
Thursday, October 25, 12

13. Sabbatical #2
“It feels like I’ve been in an abusive
relationship.”
Friends and Colleagues
Start-Over Start-Up
The Meaning of Partnership
Thursday, October 25, 12

14. Discovering Small
Business
Corporate Kool-Aid
Actual statistics
Passionate People
Women-Owned Businesses
Thursday, October 25, 12

15. LIVING!
Thursday, October 25, 12