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2015 Women of Vision: Diane McClelland

By: Rick Arnett in Women of Vision 2015 October 13, 2015 9:53 am Diane McClelland, Astra Women’s Business Alliance (Provided by Astra)

Diane McClelland

President and founder

Astra Women’s Business Alliance

When Diane McClelland was 13 years old, she and her twin sister organized the Metro Tennis League for Girls. It was just the beginning for McClelland.

Decades later, in the 1990s, McClelland was working in commercial lending when she recognized the need for an organization to support women-owned businesses and help them package their loans. She left the banking business and started Gateway to the Women’s Market, a consulting firm that offered sales training and methods to create customer loyalty for women-owned companies. She did significant research that analyzed women in business, and in 1996 held the first Astra Awards to recognize outstanding women business owners. Those awards eventually expanded into Astra Women’s Business Alliance, which McClelland and another woman founded in 2002.

McClelland worked with Joan Ray, then the publisher of the DJC, to create award events to showcase and encourage mentoring in the then non-traditional fields for women in construction, architecture, engineering and law. The Astra Women’s Business Alliance also partnered with the Women’s Business National Council to certify women-owned businesses and has been instrumental in certifying several hundred since its inception.

“We partnered with the WBENC 16 years ago in Montana, California, Alaska, Washington and Idaho,” McClelland said. “And since then, we’ve helped women-owned companies earn millions of dollars in contracts. We have support from amazing companies, and we’ve now spread across the country, to Canada, Nigeria – and we’re beginning to have a real global impact. It’s hard to put into words how good that makes me feel.”

McClelland was elected as the first woman president of the Founder’s Club of Portland in 1994.  She went on to serve as vice-chairwoman of the National Advisory Council for Small Businesses during the Clinton administration.

In 2014, she spearheaded the Astra STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) Summit for girls ages 13 to 17, who submit business development ideas with the hope of winning a top $10,000 award from Microsoft. Partners include PG&E, Google, NASA, AT&T and International Game Development Association. The program is being licensed to go national and global in 2017.


women of vision 9:53 am Tue, October 13, 2015 Daily Journal of Commerce


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