WORLD AFFAIRS COUNCIL OF SONOMA COUNTY Information

We promote study and education in world affairs. We contribute to improved international understanding and relations. Leanna Breese has made many contributions as a valuable Board member. We asked her to share highlights of her life and work with us. Leanna writes: I grew up in Iowa City, Iowa. Intriguing places I wanted to see and experience seemed all too far away. I attended the University of Iowa, and the summer after my junior year I traveled, with a girl friend, to 13 European countries. That trip settled it no way would I stay in Iowa after I graduated! So, with a BBA in accounting, I moved to San Francisco to me, the most European city in the US. I worked for Price Waterhouse (now Price Waterhouse Coopers) for six years, getting my CPA during that time. I wanted to stay in San Francisco, but with a company whose values and products I respected. I decided on Levi Strauss, and worked there for the next 23 years (along the way earning my MBA from UC Berkeley). At Levis, I moved from finance to operating divisions, and managed development and production for a number of products. But I wasnt done traveling. In 1993 I went to Prague as General Manager of Levi Strauss Internationals affiliate for the Czech Republic and Slovakia. This was a truly fascinating time to be in Eastern Europe. Czechoslovakia had liberated itself peacefully from the Soviet Union in 1989, in what was termed the Velvet Revolution. There were a lot of entrepreneurial folks ready to make a difference as soon as the Soviets were gone. When I arrived, Czechoslovakia was still a very supply-driven economy. The factories were manufacturing products solely to maximize their efficiencies, and consumers needs were simply not being considered. For example, if customers needed toilet paper, they had to buy a months supply at once because they wouldnt see it on the shelves again for weeks. But by the time I left in 1997, that had totally changed, and retail supplies were readily abundant. I took early retirement in 1997. By then I was married to ...