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Wednesday, May. 12, 1999

Brem meets with winning women

Elizabeth Dole among honorees in Washington

By JESSICA WEHRMAN
Scripps Howard News Service

   WASHINGTON -- Corpus Christi car dealer Marion Luna Brem has spent this week kicking tires with the likes of Elizabeth Dole, Labor Secretary Alexis Herman and actress Connie Stevens.
   Not that she has been trying to sell them a car. Brem, one of Working Woman magazine's Top 500 female business owners, is in Washington meeting with the other honorees as part of Working Woman's second annual congress for Top 500 members.
   Brem, owner of Love Chrysler Plymouth in Corpus Christi and Love Chrysler Dodge Jeep in Alice, is No. 250 on the list. Since Monday, her inclusion on that list has gotten her into a dinner with Herman and a chance to meet Stevens, also a Top 500 member, at a gala event. Tuesday night, she was scheduled to attend a gala with Elizabeth Dole.
   In between, she met a tough deadline for an upcoming book she's writing, attended briefings at the White House, and, oh, yeah, checked on that business she's running.
   But Brem wasn't complaining about her busy schedule.
   "It feels like a rendezvous of success," she said.
   Working Woman's list contains owners of lumberyard companies and beauty product businesses, scrap metal companies and pajama designers.
   It includes Oprah Winfrey (No. 79) and Joan Rivers (No. 258), neither of whom attended the conference.
   "This is a celebration of accomplishment," Brem said. "These women all rolled the dice at some point in their lives."
   Brem began selling cars at age 32, when, newly divorced, she needed money to battle cancer and feed her two young sons. By age 36 she was president and CEO of Love Chrysler Plymouth.
   Her story, she says, is not unlike many of the other stories she has heard at the congress.
   

Success stories

   One woman she met this week, Brem said, began running her husband's computer company after he suffered a stroke.
   "When she came in, she didn't know how to turn on a computer," she said. "Now, she's tripled the net worth of the company."
   Being on the list has not just brought her credibility in her business, she said. It's sparked friendships with several other businesswomen. Brem, who was 216 on the list last year, is attending the conference for the second time. She sends other 500 members Christmas cards, and has chatted on the phone with last year's 500 members since that conference. Many returned to the list this year.
   "We definitely feel a sisterhood," she said.
   

How to get on the list

   To be included in the list, a business must be owned and run by a woman. For a private company, no individual can own a larger share of the business than the woman. When a company is public, the woman must own 5 percent or more of the outstanding stock and be the largest individual shareholder. The owner must also actively participate in running the business.
   Executive Editor Laura Goldstein said Working Woman lists the companies by revenue. Creating the list also requires searching mammoth databases, mailing out loads of questionnaires and conducting intensive research with a staff of three.
   "There are lots of lists out there -- the Forbes 400, the Fortune 500, but if you look at the lists, you don't see a lot of female-owned businesses," Goldstein said. "But there are women running huge multimillion-dollar businesses."
   

The top of the list

   Working Woman lists Brem's annual revenue at $45.7 million and her workforce at 120 employees.
   No. 1 on the list is Pat Moran, CEO of JM Family Enterprises. That company includes the country's largest Toyota distributorship; Petro Chemical, which makes car maintenance products; and several finance, leasing and insurance companies that serve car dealers nationwide. That company earned $6.2 billion in 1998.
   Scripps Howard News Service writer Jessica Wehrman can be reached at (202) 408-2705 or by e-mail at wehrmanj@shns.com
   

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  © 1999 Corpus Christi Caller Times, a Scripps Howard newspaper. All rights reserved.