LeadingShe

Listen to this Special Edition of LeadingShe in which we address three topics which are recurring themes in the podcasts: Gender Bias, Communication and Speaking Up. We introduce each topic in the podcast as we air clips from previous guests about the topics. These are powerful insights and stories from these women leaders. Watch for another Special Edition of LeadingShe in two weeks. In August we will take a break as we interview more excellent women leaders for the podcast which will be aired this fall. Stay tuned! Let your friends and associates know about LeadingShe, where women leaders use their voices, wisdom and experiences to help elevate and inspire other women. Follow us on @LeadingShe---on the social media formats of LinkedIn, Instagram and FB.

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Leslie Woo, CEO of Civic Action in Toronto, Canada not only sees where gender and racial equity is needed she takes action. Born in Trinidad and having immigrated to Canada to attend college, Leslie has had a career of adapting to her environment. She is optimistic about the next generation of young leaders and appreciates their values, energy and enthusiasm and enjoys leading them. The pandemic has negatively affected the Toronto economy and the residents’ way of life as they assess next steps. Leslie sees the next phase being one of a "building back better" with work/home hybrid work arrangement and is optimistic about strong prosperity in the future. Leslie believes being a woman and of a different race can give her an advantage at times yet she cautions women not to abuse these differences. What a wonderful interview!

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Marsha McVicker’s B2B company, Errand Solutions, began as a college class white paper at University of Wisconsin. Assembling investors and taking the business plan to reality, 20 years later she has grown the company to helping over four million employees with seven billion tasks. Errand Solutions offers personal assistance and concierge services to her company clients’ employees. She talks about adopting her 12-year old son from Haiti as a baby, and as Max’s mother she sees firsthand racial injustices and inequities in our society. Dealing with personal illness and a leave of absence from her company, she appointed a person to run the company who was not a good fit for the role and listened to feedback as she dealt with the situation which helped to improve employee morale. What a positive and inspiring woman leader and entrepreneur!

Since 2018, Amy Spiller has been president of Duke Energy’s utility operations in Ohio and Kentucky with 2300 employees. Though she was considered for the position in 2012, she believes she was more ready for the challenge later. Amy leads with a focus on diversity and Duke Energy as a company scored 100% on the 2020 Human Rights Campaign’s annual scorecard workplace equality. She talks about dealing with profound disappointment after not succeeding on a project when she and her team had worked long and hard to win. Amy offers great advice to young professionals just getting started in their careers: to "bloom where they are planted". What a delightful conversation with a wonderful leader!

A fearless risk-taker, Nicole Loftus is a serial entrepreneur who started her companies based upon her passion around problem-solving through using creativity and technological savvy. After a failed marriage, she founded the company Zorch and as CEO of Zorch she grew the company to one of the fastest growing companies in the country. She began her company SkinX as a result of her bad experience with venture capital fundraising at Zorch which resulted in her loss of ownership control. Her vulnerability, sense of humor and story-sharing make this a fantastic podcast!

Against all odds, Kathryn Bertine as CEO of Homestretch Foundation, has tirelessly and relentlessly accomplished so much for women’s equality. As a successful pro-cylist, she has published four books including her latest, STAND, A Memoir on Activism. A Manual for Progress. Kathryn was a senior editor for ESPN and also raised money through crowd-sourcing to produce the documentary Half the Road, which explores the world of women’s professional cycling, focusing on the pressing issues of inequality female riders face in this male-dominated sport. Kathryn began a petition which had nearly 100,000 signatures and assembled an all-star team, Le Tour Entier, in an effort to include women the Tour De France race. She was successful and La Course de Tour de France, the women’s race today, was formed in 2014. Overcoming one obstacle after another, Kathryn has never stopped pursuing gender equity in pro-cycling. Despite battles with insecurity, depression, a failed marriage, recovering from a bike crash, she persisted and learned a great deal during the journey, all of which are addressed in the book. This is one of the most inspiring episodes and fascinating guests on LeadingShe. https://www.homestretchfoundation.org/

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Susan Gallagher is CEO and President of BPI Group, a leadership and executive coaching company. Her natural curiosity about people and business has benefited her career in many ways. Susan’s family of origin made a practice of having family dinners and she and her husband decided they wanted to do the same so she worked hard to be home for dinner most nights. During her time at Arthur Andersen she developed a popular seminar to change the perception of Women in Business Politics and Power in which there was a public conversation about power, which was met with some hesitation by the men in the firm. Susan’s diverse career experience and positive wisdom make her a great podcast guest!

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Mary Boosalis is President & CEO of Premier Health, the largest healthcare system in southwest Ohio which employees more than 15,000 employees and physicians. She is one of the few women in the U.S. which lead a large health organization and is the first woman to head Premier Health. She is highly respected in her position and within the Dayton, Ohio region and community. Mary and her husband Tom chose to have children when she was 43 and believes she has been a better parent having children later. A consummate resilient and mission-driven leader, she has dealt with several high-stress situations including the Dayton, Ohio mass shootings in August, 2019 and the COVID-19 virus health crisis. Diversity and inclusion have long been part of the mission of Premiere Health and 66 percent of her executive staff are women. What a wonderful podcast!

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One of the most fascinating LeadingShe podcast guests, Julie Smolyansky was the youngest CEO of a publicly-traded firm after she took over the family company upon her father’s sudden death. Julie’s grandmother’s survival during the Holocaust, she believes drives her to be a social justice advocate.  Her company Lifeway Foods has 95 percent of the Kefir market. Kefir is a 2000-year old product and a live bacteria, probiotic, healthy dairy food containing mind and body benefits. Julie’s family came to this country in 1976 from Russia with little money and no familiarity with U.S. culture or the English language. Having experienced sexual assault herself, Julie’s produced the movie “The Hunting Ground” about on-campus college sexual assaults which was responsible for over 300 Title IX investigations across the country. Julie also began the non-profit, “Test400K” which has put a spotlight on advancing the testing of the country’s untested rape kits. What a powerful and inspiring podcast!

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This very positive and high-energy leader, Marianne Lewis, is the first woman to be Dean of University of Cincinnati’s Carl H. Lindner School of Business. She knew early in her career she wanted to lead as a dean yet the number women heading business schools is low. Marianne believes with a strong confidence women can achieve more. After facing a lack of transparency when hired at Cass Business School, she joined an important fight. The landscape of higher education has permanently changed since the pandemic and Marianne has embraced this change, looking for opportunities in a more digital world.

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