Meet Beth Skillern: Bullivant’s Quiet Success

Glance at the top 150 Privately held Oregon Companies list and you’ll find women CEOs scarcer than hen’s teeth.  Beth Skillern, a former middle school teacher who worked her way up to CEO at law firm Bullivant Houser and Bailey is one of the few.

Ironically, despite a keen interest in the law, graduating college with a teaching degree in the ‘60s seemed like a smart way to go for a woman back then.  And Beth loved teaching. But when the time came to trundle her youngest child off to kindergarten, Beth decided if she didn’t pursue her dream then, she probably never would.

When asked why there aren’t more women in her position, Beth’s focus is on the future, noting many more women entered the profession over the past 30 years and are in good positions to successfully work their way up, too.

Perhaps that kind of quiet success is just what you’d expect from someone who for the last 24 years starts her day off with the same group of neighbor-friends, rain or shine, at 6 am to walk.  Or from a CEO who insists that economic down times are not the time to jettison personnel and market development and whose open door policy is not just a figurative term, it’s a literal reality.  Or from someone whose greatest on-the-job pleasure is mentoring, then seeing her mentees pass those lessons on to others, recognizing and fostering their skills and strengths.

Over the years, Beth worked hard to balance career and family demands.  Unexpected family crises, and attending a soccer game took priority when it needed to, though that may have meant working long evenings after putting her daughters to bed and pulling weekends, too, especially when there was a big case coming up.

“I must have done something right,” Beth chuckles, “My family’s still speaking to me.”

Bullivant prides itself on its acceptance of diversity, family-friendly policies and even its willingness to support part-time employees.  Still, Beth pragmatically advises women raising a family while wanting to follow in her footsteps,  “You can have it all, just not all at the same time. There’s an ebb and a flow, and sometimes you’re just going to be tired.”

That same practicality pushes Beth to focus attorneys now more than ever to get out of their safe, cozy offices and market, seek out new opportunities and directions.  When tough times hit, the focus on spending sharpened, and some positions had to be trimmed. “Personnel issues are hard,” confesses Beth, “You want everyone to succeed, and sometimes it just doesn’t happen.”

On those rough days, the kind of day tough enough to take a walk, Beth finds sitting down with a cup of coffee and a cookie, any kind of cookie (from the woman who admits “I never met a cookie I didn’t like”) is the simple guilty pleasure that gets her through it.

After hours, Beth restores her optimism with stories, typically true, of courage and success in overcoming obstacles, like the building 0f Afghan schools for women, “Three Cups of Tea”, the deliberately intertwined lives of an Arab and Israeli family in The Lemon Tree” and the delightfully told tale of German resistance, “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society”.

What else would we expect from a woman whose motto is “Do your best, and anything is possible!”