3,2,1 iRelaunch

Kendra Johnson is currently Senior Counsel/Manager, Management Liability Claims at the global insurance giant, Markel Corporation. Kendra had been out of the legal profession for over 12 years when she attended our Spring 2019 iRelaunch Return to Work Conference in metro Chicago, at a pre-Pandemic time when our conferences were in person! Shortly after attending, she was hired at Markel handling management liability claims. Now at Markel for over three years, Kendra has been promoted twice, and was recently honored with one of the Markel Style Awards for Excellence, awarded to only 11 people in the entire company. Kendra discusses the "play by play" of her job search, recounting in detail how she relaunched successfully back into the legal profession.

Heather Black is founder and CEO of Supermums, an organization that trains relaunchers and others to be Salesforce administrators. In 2010, Heather became an “accidental” Salesforce administrator for her non-profit, helping to establish their customer relationship management system (CRM). She loved it so much that two years later she decided to upskill as a Salesforce Consultant and help other non-profits do the same. She realized her career path could work for other mothers, so she launched Supermums in 2016 to bring more women into the sector. As a consultant, Heather has overseen over 700 Salesforce projects and now enjoys upskilling talent in Salesforce consultancy and coaching skills. In this episode, we break down the Salesforce Administrator training process with Heather and discuss the doors it can open for relaunchers.

Steve Deeble is a Senior Technical Writer at Gurucul, a global cybersecurity company protecting data and information from insider threats and external cyberattacks. He has taken career breaks to care for his father following a stroke, and to transition back to a technical career after 12 years as a video producer. He found himself competing with younger professionals and had to fight the perception he was technologically obsolete. Steve recounts the mental and emotional journey of his prolonged job search, the role of freelancing and contract work along the way, and how he ultimately took the steps that kickstarted his relaunch and led to relaunch success.

Jennifer Tufillaro is a Control Account Manager for the Radar Systems Engineering Group at Lockheed Martin. She initially joined Lockheed Martin after receiving her bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Villanova University, and subsequently took a 20-year career break for childcare reasons. Jennifer returned to Lockheed Martin when she relaunched her career through Lockheed’s Chapter Next program, which she found through iRelaunch, and now works in a part-time engineering role. In this episode, we get the details on how Jennifer successfully returned to a technical role after a very long career break.

Monique Garcia Rizer was a military spouse for 13 years to a reserve service member. She relaunched twice, first after her partner's deployment, and second, after a major life transition. Monique currently serves as Vice President of Freedman Consulting, a consulting firm focused on strategic planning and policy development for non-profits, foundations and advocacy organizations. She has served in leadership and executive roles for direct service nonprofits, coalitions, and policy advocacy organizations, and previously created and scaled an award-winning career program for military spouses. Monique shares the details of how she built her professional career, including following her two career breaks, and provides recommendations for military spouses and other relaunchers who are looking to relaunch in public interest leadership roles.

Anita Rehman is a Partner at GSV in Silicon Valley who took a 2-year career break. Her experience encompasses roles as an entrepreneur, investor, and advisor to global companies in the Technology sector. Prior to GSV, Anita was an investment professional at Vantage Point Capital Partners where she invested in early to growth stage technology companies across the Consumer, Enterprise and Energy sectors. In addition, Anita is the founder of a vertically integrated plus size womenswear retail startup. Today's episode is part of our "Relaunching in Senior Roles" mini-series.

Lazetta Rainey Braxton is the co-CEO of 2050 Wealth Partners, a financial planning firm. She is also the Founder and CEO of Lazetta and Associates, a consulting practice that helps financial services firms create culturally aware and hospitable workplace environments. Today we are focusing on financial decision making when returning to work after a career break. Relaunching can impact Social Security benefits, tax brackets, budgeting and more. If a spouse or partner is involved, money-related conversations can change significantly when a non-working partner is working again. Listen in to the conversation as Lazetta offers financial advice to relaunchers coming back from a career break.

In 2015, Estelle, a French native, resigned from a career in proposal development at an ERP software company to meet the demands of mothering a child with special needs and a new baby. Shortly after, she turned published a food survival guide for French people in the US. Next, she challenged herself to review 37 chocolate bars in honor of her 37th birthday that Halloween.

Estelle is now an award-winning food writer and chocolate sommelier. In this episode, we talk to Estelle about her journey and the creation of 37 Chocolates, a chocolate education company.

Kimberly Frost is the Director of Public Sector Growth at Britton Industries, a circular eco solutions company, where she manages recycling initiatives throughout New Jersey and Pennsylvania, tapping into her passion for creative repurposing and sustainable materials management strategies. Following a relocation and birth of her son, Kim took a career break to adapt to her new circumstances. She was diagnosed with postpartum depression, had a passive investment morph into her running a business, became a single parent and battled in family court, managed a gut rehabilitation of the house she lived in and eventually closed the business she started. After four years in court she was awarded relocation. Her lowest point set in while she and her son were living in her brother's basement with no prospects on the horizon. We speak with Kim about how she navigated a lot of transition and turbulent times, leading ultimately to a successful career relaunch.

Chad Koenig is a Managing Director with Cushman & Wakefield's Atlanta Office Tenant Advisory Group. His wife, relauncher Kati Koenig, was our guest for the 223rd episode of the 3,2,1 iRelaunch podcast. Kati took a 20-year career break before relaunching her career as a Salesforce Administrator. She is now a Senior Salesforce Business Analyst for Booz Allen Hamilton. In this episode, which is the first of our “The Importance of Significant Others in Relaunching” mini-series, we’ll talk with Chad about how he and Kati navigated Kati’s career break and her return to work.