Biography
BIOGRAPHY
Betsy Sanders enjoys a multi-faceted relationship with the global business community. As a director, consultant, mentor, speaker and writer, she partners with senior executives around the world, who are committed to leading meaningful companies and meaningful lives.
Betsy began to learn about leading winning-edge organizations when she joined Nordstrom as a sales apprentice in 1971. She credits providence with bringing her into this customer-committed environment, but it is her own passion for being of service that led to her pivotal role in that company’s development. Moving quickly through the ranks, she became Nordstrom’s first female store manager, which positioned her to open their initial store outside of the Northwest in 1978. She and her team made retail history as they built that business literally from nothing to $1 billion in annual sales over an eleven-year period, quickly becoming this venerable retailer’s largest and most profitable region. In the process of developing this business in partnership with their customers, they are widely credited with having set the industry and international standards for service.
At Nordstrom, Betsy dedicated herself to sustaining environments in which all involved could achieve their highest potential, creating the company of choice for associates as well as for customers. Since leaving Nordstrom, she has shared this same dedication with others who are truly committed to making a difference in their own lives and in the lives of those they serve. Eschewing quick fixes, she works with companies on recognizing and leveraging the fundamental assets of their organizations, resulting in enhanced revenues and profits, as well as market leadership.
Beginning in 1981, Betsy has expanded her direct business experience serving as a director of several public companies, including Wal-Mart, WellPoint, Wolverine Worldwide, Washington Mutual, Von’s Supermarkets, Sport Chalet and Denny’s. In addition, she sits on advisory boards for several privately held companies and serves as a personal mentor to several executives in various customer-focused businesses.
Her invaluable experience at Nordstrom, combined with her on-going service to this broad range of companies, has given Betsy exceptional credibility as a communicator of best business practices. Her book, Fabled Service, has been a sustained top-seller since its first printing in 1996. Now available around the world in several languages, it has become the handbook of choice for numerous established businesses and budding entrepreneurs alike.
While much of her work is within organizations, Betsy loves communicating her message personally, traveling all over the world as a speaker, trainer and facilitator. Her personal experience, coupled with her unshakable belief in the potential of each person in her audience, make any time spent with her an unforgettable experience. As in everything else she has accomplished in her life, Betsy’s focus is on the value her customers receive. Her message is encouraging – and challenging. She leads her seminars and workshops as she leads her life: committed to each person involved discovering their gifts as well as determining how most effectively to share them. She leads by example, speaking from her own remarkable experience with warmth, humor, intelligence, candor and integrity.
Much of Betsy’s drive comes from the persistently stark statistic that some 75% of Americans feel disengaged with their work life. Her vision is to contribute to turning this number on its head, in supporting everyone’s possibility of making a life while making a living. In balanced support of the health of the whole person, Betsy also works extensively with community, charitable and spiritual organizations. Her particular passion is supporting nurturing, safe, challenging environments for children and for honoring and nurturing the feminine, as well as for wise stewarding of personal and shared resources.  She brings her business acumen as well as her love and reverence for life to these and all endeavors.
Betsy earned an undergraduate degree in German, studying at the University of Munich, under the sponsorship of Wayne State University. She has an M.Ed. in Secondary Education from Boston University and a Certificate in Management from the University of Washington Graduate School of Business. She is a dedicated lifelong learner, holding certificates from numerous seminars and programs, all of which have added greatly to her understanding of the dynamics of highly-functioning, customer-focused organizations. Among the specific training and certifications she shares with her clients are the processes of Appreciative Inquiry; the cultural transformation tools and tools for building values driven organizations from the Barrett Values Centre; community building and processes of engagement from Heartland Circle. She also values the ongoing education and participation with learning communities such as the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, the Heartmath Institute, the New Voice of Business, the International Women’s Forum, the World Business Academy, and the Institute of Noetic Science.
In much of her practice, Betsy is in partnership with her husband Sandy. In addition to sharing a lifelong commitment to being part of ongoing growth and transformation, they have three children, who with their partners are themselves growing the family circle. For the past two decades, Sandy and Betsy have centered their busy lives in a small town in California’s Mother Lode, which provides the gracious environment for the welcoming retreat they have created for family, friends and clients. Thus Betsy’s personal life provides a nourishing source for all of her work with others.