Penelope Trunk

Penelope Trunk
Born Adrienne Roston[1]
Residence Darlington, Wisconsin[2]
Nationality American
Other names Adrienne Greenheart[1]
Alma mater Brandeis University
Occupation Businesswoman, blogger, writer
Website
blog.penelopetrunk.com

Penelope Trunk (born Adrienne Roston; legal name Adrienne Greenheart[1]) is an American businesswoman, author, and blogger. Her work focuses on the intersection of work and life. Trunk is the author of the books Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success, The New American Dream: A Blueprint for a New Path to Success, and The Power of Mentors: The Guide to Finding and Learning from Your Ideal Mentor.[3][4][5] She blogged at Brazen Careerist before leaving that company. She now runs Quistic,[6] her latest start-up venture—an education company—and maintains an eponymous blog featuring career advice.[7] Trunk wrote a column for the Boston Globe that was syndicated in 200 newspapers across the United States.[2]

Early life

Trunk grew up in Chicago's northern suburbs before moving to Los Angeles to pursue a career as a professional beach volleyball player. She is a graduate of Brandeis University.[2] Trunk was a resident of New York City during the September 11 attacks. She moved to Madison, Wisconsin in 2006, before relocating to a farm in Darlington, Wisconsin.[8]

Career

Business

According to Trunk herself, she spent ten years as a marketing executive in the software industry.[5] She also says she started the companies math.com, ECityDeals, and Brazen Careerist[2] but these first two have never been verified. Trunk’s decisions about her own career have been written about in Time and The Guardian.[9][10]

In September 2009, Trunk was replaced as CEO of Brazen Careerist. She stated, "When the company was clearly moving too fast for me to keep up as CEO, I badgered another board member to be CEO. He told me a number of reasons why that wouldn’t work – he had had two huge exits and he wasn’t planning to be CEO again, and another company wanted him to be CEO, and he wants to watch his kids play football. These are all good reasons that I overcame, and I got him to agree to be interim CEO."[11]

Writing

Trunk began writing business advice when Fortune magazine published an open call for a woman to write about her own life as an executive and Trunk won the job. She has been a columnist at Business 2.0 magazine, Bankrate.com and Yahoo! Finance.[5]

According to an article by Richard Rierson, "She has a reputation for giving advice that is counter-intuitive but effective, like take long lunches, ignore people who steal your ideas, and stop vying for a promotion."[5] Writing in the New York Times, Marci Alboher called Trunk "one of the most popular career writers around."[12]

Controversy

An article in CBS News titled "Why You Shouldn't Report Sexual Harassment" sparked outrage among internet commentators when it resurfaced in April 2014.[13] The article, published in May 2011, advocated against reporting sexual harassment in the workplace, calling it an unfortunate but inevitable fact in the careers of women, that "if you want to have a career of increasing power, you are going to have to keep quiet about the harassment."

Personal life

In September 2009, Trunk was preparing to have an abortion, but while waiting out a state legal requirement, suffered a miscarriage during a company board meeting. When Trunk tweeted what happened, around 70 of her Twitter followers left. The unusually public approach was covered by numerous news outlets, including The Guardian.[14][15] Trunk has been married once before her current marriage, and has two sons by her first husband, whom she homeschools and writes about on her education blog.[16][17] Trunk's accounts of physical abuse in the relationship with her boyfriend (current husband) have been criticized on the website Jezebel.[18] Penelope Trunk has diagnosed herself as having Asperger syndrome.[19][20]

Bibliography

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Trunk, Penelope (2007-03-05). "My name is not really Penelope". Penelope Trunk Blog. Retrieved 2011-10-03.)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Prestegard, Steve. "The indescribable Penelope Trunk". Plateville Journal. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
  3. ↑ Smith, Jacquelyn (2013-2-25). "14 Things Successful People Do On Weekends". Huffington Post. Retrieved 13 April 2013. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ↑ Gartland, Matt. "Penelope Trunk: Buzz doesn’t translate to book sales. Community translates to book sales.". Winning Edits. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Rierson, Richard. "32 – Penelope Trunk: Brazen Careerist Founder". Dose of Leadership. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
  6. ↑ Koetsier, John. "Penelope Trunk’s new startup is crazy, creative, insane, and genius — just like her". Venture Beat. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
  7. ↑ Kaufman, Leslie (2008-04-18). "When the Ex Blogs, the Dirtiest Laundry Is Aired". New York Times. Retrieved 12 April 2013.
  8. ↑ Baedeker, Rod (12-7-2009). "Big city blues: Could a more affordable life, away from the Bay Area, actually be better?". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 13 April 2013. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ↑ "Penelope Trunk, Columnist, Business 2.0". Time. 2001-09-12.
  10. ↑ Trunk, Penelope (July 13, 2012). "From PR to profits: the problems with publishing". The Guardian.
  11. ↑ Trunk, Penelope (2009-09-23). "How to find the right job for you". Penelope Trunk Blog =. Retrieved 2011-10-03.)
  12. ↑ Alboher, Marci (3-12-2008). "An Antidote to Spitzer’s Style". New York Times. Retrieved 16 April 2013. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  13. ↑ Trunk, Penelope (2011-05-23). =28 April 2014 "An Antidote to Spitzer’s Style". CBS News.
  14. ↑ Dee J. Hall (2009-10-01). "Advice columnist's tweet: Too much information?". Wisconsin State Journal. Retrieved 2009-10-01.
  15. ↑ Trunk, Penelope (2009-11-05). "Why I tweeted about my miscarriage". The Guardian. Retrieved 2011-10-03.
  16. ↑ Cowen, Tyler. "Assorted links". Marginal Revolution. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
  17. ↑ http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2010/03/24/live-video-chat-you-have-to-read-the-post-to-find-out-the-topic/
  18. ↑ North, Anna. "Who Is Penelope Trunk?". Jezebel. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
  19. ↑ Louette Harding (2010-07-30). "'I don't have an edit button': Twitter user Penelope Trunk on why she announced her miscarriage on the networking site". Daily Mail. Retrieved 2013-04-27.
  20. ↑ "Penelope Trunk Knows How to Pick a Husband". GOMI. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
  21. ↑ "Before you aim for someone’s job, look at the price they paid to get there". Penelope Trunk. 2013-05-09. Retrieved 2013-05-19.

External links