An experienced sales and marketing professional, Stephanie O’Dear heads the marketing efforts of the Retirement Solutions Group at Empower Retirement. Throughout her career, Stephanie O’Dear has balanced her professional activities with various charitable pursuits. Among others, she served on the board of directors of the Lyric Opera of Kansas City. Her roles on the board included chairing the annual Lyric Opera Ball. In celebration of its 60th anniversary, the Lyric Opera will host a Diamond Jubilee Ball on the evening of Saturday, April 14, 2018, at the Sheraton Kansas City Hotel at Crown Center. Registration is currently open for the black-tie event, which will include cocktails, dinner, dancing, and a silent auction. The 2018 Lyric Opera Ball will also feature a performance by Ben Bliss, a Kansas native who performs as a tenor with the Metropolitan Opera. Individual tickets for the ball are $250, and available sponsorship packages range from $1,250 to $75,000. All proceeds from tickets, sponsorships, and auction sales will support Lyric Opera of Kansas City programming. For more information, visit www.kcopera.org.
Before becoming head of marketing for the Retirement Solutions Group at Empower Retirement in Overland Park, Kansas, Stephanie O’Dear earned a bachelor of arts in journalism-advertising from the University of Missouri. Stephanie O’Dear also holds a master of business administration from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.The Executive MBA at MIT is a two-year program combining real-life situations with classroom discussion to provide a comprehensive learning experience. Students are able to personalize their coursework to direct their classes toward their desired career goals. After completing core courses, students are able to choose electives ranging from product design and international economics to pricing strategies and advanced system dynamics.Students come from a range of professional backgrounds who are looking for an edge in their careers and the program provides more in-depth study in specific areas where students desire to build careers, while ensuring they have exposure to the fundamentals of the science of global management practices. The experience also incorporates a capstone project which encompasses the entire last semester where students solve issues for outside companies and travel globally to formulate problem statements and solutions. This allows students to apply their cumulative learnings in real-world settings and tackle challenges outside their sphere of expertise. The entire program is meant to redesign how students evaluate business problems and opportunities and that they graduate with a degree that accelerates their career and connects them to a robust network for life.
