‘Women Can Learn as Much From Competent Women as Men’

When Frontier Communications then-Chief Executive Officer Maggie Wilderotter sought to make a big acquisition last year, she reached out to some of the best dealmakers she knew. That was to be expected—her intended prey would double the size of the telecommunications company. The bigger surprise was that all her major players in the deal wear skirts.

To negotiate the $10.5 billion bid for a chunk of Verizon Communications’ landline assets, Wilderotter tapped JPMorgan Chase investment banker Jennifer Nason, global chairman of its technology, media, and telecommunications practice; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom partner Martha McGarry, one of the minds behind Coca-Cola’s investment in Monster Beverage and its strategic partnership with Keurig Green Mountain; and mergers-and-acquisitions public-relations strategist Joele Frank, whose company represented players in 125 deals with a total value of $414 billion last year. “I hired them because of their talents and competencies,” says Wilderotter, who stepped down as CEO on April 1 and remains Frontier’s executive chairman. “But it’s a win-win that they’re women.”