Women Of Influence

Today we are joined by the Founder and Owner of Third Street Digital, Helen Speiser, to chat about her career journey, what inspired her to launch an agency of her own, and how she walks the walk as a people-first employer.

Learn more at https://columbusbusinessfirst.com

Produced by Crate Media.

Today's featured business leader is Heather Hiller, General Counsel and Senior Vice President at The Daimler Group.

Heather illustrates her experience as a woman in a male-dominated field, surveys the shifting landscape of remote vs. office working, shares some great career advice and transports us to the new Downtown Columbus district that's earning favorable comparisons to the city that never sleeps.

But first, we begin with Heather's introduction to The Daimler Group, its mission and culture—a connection with surprising roots on opposing sides of the courtroom.

Today we're joined by Brooke Minto, the Columbus Museum of Art's new Executive Director and CEO.

With over 20 years of curatorial, educational, and fundraising experience all around the world, Brooke brings a fresh approach and big goals to the 145-year-old museum on East Broad Street.

We talk about her early experiences in the city and in her role, what's in store for the future of the museum, and which surprising local sports team has made her transition to Columbus that much more comfortable.

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Today's guest, Leah McDougald, works in the field of design research, studying our world and people in it on behalf of Columbus's biggest brands, to innovate better experiences, products, and services.

It's wide-reaching work: even as she now runs her own business, Leah remains closely involved in the firm's projects, working on her business, and working in it, at the same time.

She's also a newly-appointed board member for the Women's Fund of Central Ohio, a reader of non-business books, a Carolina Cabin vacationer, and an energized proponent for female mentorship.

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Rehgan Avon felt the time had come to start her own company. She had been thinking about it for a while, reflecting on the ways artificial intelligence was impacting businesses and the unsolved issues she saw across industries.

So she made the jump, putting in her notice and readying for her next phase in February of 2020. Of course, that's when the world changed. The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic made Rehgan one of scores of female business owners who took the dive into entrepreneurship during a seismic shift in the global economy.

As part of our coverage of National Women's Small Business Month, we sat down with Rehgan to talk about her journey and her experience so far. The first thing I noticed when she walked into her office was something I had to ask about.

She is, simply put, quite young, having graduated from college in 2016. I wanted to know if and how she deals with imposter syndrome.

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Julie Granillo didn't expect to take the top job at Paul Werth Associates when she did. Her aunt and mentor, Sandy Harbrecht Ratchford, died this summer after decades running the family business.

Just four years earlier, she'd suggested Julie, then living in Nashville, come back to Ohio and join her at Paul Werth. The Western native took her up on the offer and spent the ensuing years settling into a leadership role at the firm. Now she's running it, and while taking over came much faster than she wanted or hoped, Julie said she's excited about the team she has and the work they're doing.

In prepping for my interview with Julie, though, I was struck quickly by one of our main similarities, a shared history in Music City, USA. We kick things off by talking through her journey from Nashville to Columbus.

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For nearly five years, our Women of Influence podcast has featured conversations with some of the most influential female executives in Central Ohio. This year, Columbus Business First decided to take things a step further with the launch of our inaugural Women of Influence Awards.

We fielded 126 nominations, ultimately honoring 27 outstanding women in six categories: nonprofit leaders, community champions, entrepreneurs, trailblazers, mentors, and a rising star, along with Businesswoman of the Year, OhioHealth's Karen Morrison. We encourage you to check out our July 14th print edition for short profiles of each honoree and an extended Q&A with Karen.

During our July 12th awards event, I sat down for brief chats with three of our honorees:

Merry Korn, CEO and Founder of Pearl Interactive Network; Kari Jones, President & CEO of the Down Syndrome Association of Central Ohio; and Emily Foote, Area Manager for Bechtel Corp.

Listen on to hear what they had to say; and stay tuned for my onstage conversation with our keynote speaker, Bath and Body Works CEO Gina Boswell.

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When Lisa Shuneson talks about accounting, it makes you want to be an accountant.

Her passion for the industry is all the more notable given her path to it — while she studied accounting in school, she took a long break to have a couple kids before finally taking the CPA exam.

But in the years since she’s risen quickly, and now leads Whalen CPAs as its CEO. Lisa recently visited our office to chat about her path, her role at the firm today and what people misunderstand about the industry she loves.

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Christy Farnbauch serves as executive director of the Contemporary Theatre of Ohio. If that name's not familiar to you, perhaps you might know the organization by its former brand: CATCO.

The just-completed and revealed rebranding is one of the first major projects undertaken by Farnbaugh since she joined amid the uncertainty of Spring 2020.

She recently visited our office to talk about that experience, what's on the schedule for this year, and much more.

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Melody Birmingham was a bit of a “unicorn” early in her career.

There weren’t many young Black women from the Midwest in management at the Rochester, New York car factory she started her career at after college. But while she did stand out during her time there and later in the utilities industry, that didn’t change anything about the way she approached her work.

Today, Melody serves as executive vice president of Nisource. During a recent visit to our office, she talked about her experience with gender parity – and the lack thereof – in the utilities industry, plus a whole lot more.

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