C200

C200 is an association of leading corporate and entrepreneurial businesswomen. It began in 1982, when 200 women business leaders came together to build a national network, and the name has stuck even as membership has grown past 400.

It is small by the standards of this category, and deliberately so. Where the Entrepreneurs' Organization counts twenty thousand members, C200 counts hundreds, and the selectivity is the proposition.

Who joins

Four requirements, and none of them is a revenue figure.

Members run for-profit businesses and carry profit and loss responsibility. They hold among the most senior positions in their companies. They are recognised leaders in their industries and communities. And they are committed to advancing women in business.

That last condition is not decoration. C200's programmes are built around members giving time to women earlier in their careers, so a member who wants only to receive is a poor fit.

The absence of a stated revenue threshold is itself a choice. Where the Women Presidents Organization sorts members into tiers by turnover, C200 assesses standing and seniority, which lets it include corporate leaders running large divisions alongside entrepreneurs who own their companies outright.

How membership works

Selection runs through an interview process, and the organisation says membership details are shared during it.

On cost, C200 discloses the shape without the numbers: annual dues depend on career type, and there is a one-time initiation fee. Varying dues by career type is a sensible arrangement, since an entrepreneur paying personally and a corporate executive whose employer may contribute are in different positions. The amounts are not published, so both come at interview.

What members get

A confidential peer community of several hundred senior women, member-only events, an annual conference, and learning and development programming.

The mentoring work sits alongside it, through outreach programmes aimed at the next generation of women leaders. For a family enterprise, that is the part worth noting: a member has a structured route to bring a rising family member into contact with senior women running substantial businesses.

For this directory, C200's relevance is the calibre and the scale together. A room of four hundred rather than twenty thousand means the connections are fewer and considerably deeper, which suits someone who already has a network and wants a smaller one that matters.