Reston Limousine CEO & President Kristina Bouweiri offers her experience and perspective on these and other topics as a columnist for The Washington Post’s On Success panel. Kristina joins other Washington DC-area executives in sharing their advice and thoughts on thought-provoking topics.

Here are some excerpts from her columns:

On how life is full of surprises: “I’m light years away from the International Affairs major who once thought she’d be a Foreign Service officer, and I know I made the right choice!”

On the paparazzi and celebrities: “While I understand the media’s interest and the public’s desire to learn the details of the wedding of a former president’s daughter, the fact remains that Chelsea is a private citizen.”

On working as an employee vs as an owner: “Now that I am in my 40s, I look back at how hard I worked in my 20s and know I could never work those hours again.”

To read Kristina’s complete columns, please visit The Washington Post at http://views.washingtonpost.com/on-success/panelists/kristina_bouweiri/.

Founded by Kristina, Sterling Women provides a new networking opportunity for business women in the Sterling area and beyond. Each month a successful businesswoman from Loudoun County is invited to speak about her accomplishments.

This month’s featured speaker is Leesburg Pharmacy President and CEO Cheri Garvin, whom Kristina successfully nominated for the 2010 SmartCEO BRAVA awards.

A practicing pharmacist for over 20 years, Cheri oversees the company’s three employee-owned pharmacies which offer custom compounded medication, medical equipment, wellness screenings, immunizations and wonderful gifts. Cheri’s goal is to grow the business while providing a positive experience for each customer.

Cheri is a member of the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce, American Pharmacist Association, National Community Pharmacists Association, Virginia Pharmacist Association, Leesburg Daybreak Rotary Club, NAWBO and the eWomen Network.

The Sterling Women events begin at 11 a.m. with an hour of networking, followed by lunch and the speaker, and ending with another half hour of networking to end at 1:30 p.m. Cost to attend is $45, which includes the banquet lunch. To register, please visit www.sterlingwomen.org/register/.

July 29 The Future of Tysons Corner and the Dulles Corridor
7:15-10:30 a.m. The Ritz Carlton, Tysons Corner
Bisnow sponsors this networking event at which experts will discuss how the objectives of the Tysons and Dulles plans will materialize over the coming years. Cost to attend is $59; to register, click here to visit Bisnow’s events page.

July 30 Coffee, Tea, You and Me! Professional Networking
3-5 p.m. Panera Bread, 5774 Union Mill Rd., Clifton
Business coach Marvin Powell and The Centreville Community Foundation sponsor this free networking event at which Kristina will be the primary speaker. To register, click here.

Aug. 19   Washington Freedom: Women’s Networking Night
5:30 p.m. Maryland SoccerPlex, Boyds, MD
Kristina Bouweiri will be the keynote speaker at the Washington Freedom’s Women’s Networking Night, which begins at 5:30 p.m. Her presentation begins at 6 p.m., when she will discuss some of the challenges of being a female executive, her career paths and advice for aspiring business leaders. Wine and small plates will be served, sponsored by Barrel Oak. At 7:30 p.m., DC’s women’s soccer team takes on the Chicago Red Stars. Ticket prices range from $20 to $50 per seat. To purchase tickets, please contact Jaclyn Benjamin at 240-449-1620 or Jaclyn.benjamin@washingtonfreedom.com.

Sept. 14    Loudoun County CEO Panel
7:30-9:30 a.m. River Creek Country Club, Leesburg
The Leesburg – Greater Loudoun Chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management is sponsoring a dynamic and interactive panel discussion about how company executives work with human resource departments to maximize results for their organizations.The event begins with networking and breakfast, followed by the presentation at around 8:15 a.m. For more information, visit the group’s website.

Oct. 14    2010 BlogWorld & New Media Expo
Mandalay Bay Convention Center, Las Vegas
Billed as the world’s largest social media conference, the expo begins with the three-day Social Media Business Summit conference on Oct. 14 and continues with the BlogWorld & New Media Expo and Conference Oct. 15-16. Kristina will be speaking about her experiences on the “Small Business Think Big with Social Media” panel. The panel will be led by Shashi Bellamkonda, the award-winning director of Social Media and Strategy for Network Solutions.

Here’s an excerpt:

For me, the best business book of all time is “Good To Great” by Jim Collins. One critical point the author notes is the importance of hiring the right people to work for you. I have been in business 20 years and never really experienced what it feels like to have the right people working for me until the past several years. It makes all the difference. As the CEO, I can focus on the external and internal business relationships and my “team” takes care of everything else!

To read the complete article, please click here.

The 2010 BlogWorld & New Media Expo will take place at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas. It begins with the three-day Social Media Business Summit conference on  Oct. 14 and continues with the BlogWorld & New Media Expo and Conference Oct. 15-16.

Kristina was asked to speak about her experiences on the “Small Business Think Big with Social Media”  panel. The panel will be led by Shashi Bellamkonda, the award-winning director of Social Media and Strategy for Network Solutions.

Shown below is  new media marketer Chris Brogan interviewed at BlogWorld 2009 expo on “Why Blogs Help Others Find You Online.”

Kristina Bouweiri, third from left, at the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year finalists' party

“Entrepreneurship is especially vital as our nation recovers from recession,” Rene Salas, Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year Program Director for Greater Washington, said in the news blog GovCon Executive.com. “These finalists create jobs in our area, encouraging healthy growth, development and innovation in the local economy.”

Kristina and the other finalists were selected by an independent judging panel made up of regional business, academic and community leaders. The winners will be revealed at a gala event on June 24th at the Ritz-Carlton, Tysons Corner.

For a complete list of finalists for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year award in 2010, click here.

Heidi Kallett, CEO and President of fine stationery store The Dandelion Patch, will be the featured speaker at the event, which starts at 11 a.m. with an optional networking hour. Cost to attend is $45, which includes a banquet lunch.

Reston Limousine CEO and President Kristina Bouweiri launched Sterling Women initially to provide a new networking opportunity for businesswomen in the Sterling area. With the quality of the monthly speakers and interest from sponsors, the group has since grown to include women entrepreneurs from across Loudoun and even beyond.

For more information about Sterling Women and to register for the next meeting, please visit www.sterlingwomen.org.

The panel on using social media to expand business outreach is one of several sessions taking place at the Marriott Beijing City Wall Hotel. With leaders ranging from Vietnamese Vice President Nguyen Thi Doan to Morgan Stanley (China) CEO Wei Sun Christianson in attendance, translators will be providing services in English, French and Chinese.

The summit,  which is billed as the foremost international forum for exchanges of best practices that accelerate women’s economic progress worldwide, will be celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.

For more information about this summit, please click here to visit the 2010 Global Summit of Women’s Web page.

Kristina and the other 2010 Circle of Excellence Award winners will be celebrated at SmartCEO’s Business Awards on May 27 at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. Joining the Circle of Excellence recipients are all of SmartCEO’s past award recipients and SmartCEO’s pick for CEO of the Year.

Categories for which CEOs were nominated and honored include growth management, philanthropy, entrepreneurship, client relations, and strategic leadership.

“Circle of Excellence winners are not only selected and honored for their accomplishments, but for demonstrating success in applying a unique leadership attribute that significantly benefits their business and the community,” said Jaime Park, Publisher of Washington SmartCEO magazine. “We are honored to recognize Kristina Bouweiri as one of Greater Washington’s standout leaders.”

From left: Corinne Gavlinski, Cate Magennis Wyatt, Kristina Bouweiri and Andrea McGimsey

Wyatt also was the secretary of commerce and trade for Virginia, president of Remington International, vice president of Xerox Development and vice president of Weston Capital Corp. She now leads the four-state nonprofit corporation dedicated to sharing the heritage of an 180-mile corridor from Gettysburg, Pa., to Monticello.

Kristina founded Sterling Women to provide a new networking opportunity for business women in the Sterling area. At monthly luncheons, a successful area businesswoman speaks to the audience about her accomplishments.

From left: Kristina Bouweiri, Laura Lee Williams, and Cate Magennis Wyatt

For more pictures of the April 8th event, please visit LoudounTimes.com at http://bit.ly/cOFcAW.

Next month’s luncheon takes place May 19th at the National Conference Center in Leesburg.  Northern Virginia entrepreneur Mina Fies, who will talk about her Reston VA-based firm, Synergy Design & Consulting, which acts as a liaison between the designer and construction team.

“In previous jobs in the real estate industry I saw firsthand how tough it was for homeowners to remodel their homes,” Mina says. “They simply didn’t have the experience or expertise to know the right questions to ask, which designers and contractors to hire, and what a reasonable budget and timeline should be.”

So in 2008, Mina and her husband Mark — who has decades of experience in retail sales and operations management — created a company to remedy that problem.  “We try to take the drama out of the remodeling process by thoroughly vetting the contractors we work with,” she says. “We manage the project so our clients don’t have to.”

To register or for more information, please visit www.sterlingwomen.org.