by Patricia Sellers
This year’s Most Powerful Women “Evening With…” dinner in New York featured the theme “Building a Legacy” and my conversation with two women who have done exactly that: CNN vet Christiane Amanpour and former Xerox chairman and CEO Anne Mulcahy. Another highlight of the evening was the mentor tributes: Fortune MPWomen talked about the greatest mentor who helped lead them to success.
Fashion entrepreneur Tory Burch did one of the mentor tributes. After working in PR for Ralph Lauren and Vera Wang, she started Tory Burch LLC in 2004 as a lifestyle concept, spanning ready-to-wear, handbags, shoes, and jewelry. Today, her products are sold in 29 freestanding Tory Burch boutiques in the U.S. and Asia, on the web at www.toryburch.com, and at 550 department and specialty stores worldwide. Her business has grown remarkably — Mexico-based Tresalia Capital invested at a company valuation of $600 million last summer. And while Burch doesn’t like to flaunt the fact that she’s building her company to serve as a platform do good in the world, it’s the truth. She launched the Tory Burch Foundation last year to provide economic opportunities to women and their families in the U.S.
You can read Burch’s Guest Post about her foundation here. And here is her tribute–to an unusual mentor — at Fortune‘s MPWomen dinner last Thursday.
[cnnmoney-video vid=/video/fortune/2010/05/26/f_mpw_tory_burch_mentor.fortune]
