BJ’s CEO Gets ‘Best Executive’ Nod

BJ’s Wholesale Club CEO Laura Sen garnered “Best Executive” honors in the Service Businesses-More Than 2,500 Employees-All Other Industries category at the 8th Annual Stevie Awards for Women in Business gala ceremony, which took place Friday, Nov. 11 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York. More than 300 businesswomen and their guests attended the event.

The Westborough, Mass.-based membership warehouse club retailer operates more than 190 stores in 15 states from Maine to Florida. Sen (left) has been with the company since 1989 when the company had only about 20 clubs. She rose through the ranks at the company, eventually becoming EVP, president and COO, and, finally, CEO in February 2011.

The Stevie Awards are the only global, all-encompassing business awards program for women executives, business owners and the organizations they run. Categories include Best Entrepreneur, Best Executive, Most Innovative Company and Best New Company of the Year. More than 1,300 nominations – a record for the competition -- were received this year for consideration in the program's 78 award categories.

Notable Stevie Award winners from this year’s competition included Ursula Burns, CEO of Xerox, and Dany Levy, CEO of Daily Candy. Additionally, Ramona Singer of reality TV's “The Real Housewives of New York” received an honorary award as “Mogul of the Year,” in recognition of her prominent success in various businesses. Foreign nations represented among this year’s Stevie Award winners were Australia, Canada, the Dominican Republic, England, France, India and the United Arab Emirates.

A portion of each ticket sold for the event was contributed to Camfed, a San Francisco-based organization that fights poverty and HIV/AIDS in Africa by educating girls and empowering women to become leaders of change.