by Eva Glassman | Jun 23, 2026 | Blog, Featured
C200 is honored and thrilled to announce the recipients of our 2026 Luminary Awards!
We want to thank our Members and the Luminary Awards Committee for an engaging nomination and voting process. We are excited to continue this wonderful tradition that celebrates and funds the advancement of businesswomen around the world.
Our Luminary Award categories are: Entrepreneurial Champion, Corporate Innovator, Voices That Change The World, and Lifetime Achievement. More information about the history of our Luminary Awards and how awardees are nominated and chosen can be found here.
Without further ado, here are the winners of each award:
Entrepreneurial Champion: Maxine Burton
This award is given to entrepreneurial leaders who have championed or created a new product or service with global implications. Their companies have a minimum financial measurement of $20 million in annual revenue, as dictated by C200 US membership criteria. Their companies also have a rapid and continuing growth since their launch. Awardees show a commitment to advancing all women in business.
Maxine H. Burton is the founder, president, and chairman of the board of burton + BURTON®, headquartered in Georgia, over forty years ago. The company is one of the world’s largest supplier of balloons and gift products, employing a staff of over three hundred and enjoying a global customer base. Maxine actively travels the globe and works tirelessly in conjunction with in-house artists to guarantee all products are on-trend and ensure customer satisfaction. As the founder, Maxine was a trailblazer who has paved the way for women to overcome barriers and flourish in the business world.
Maxine’s remarkable career has been marked by numerous awards and honors highlighting her success in the balloon and gift industry. Maxine was the first woman in the state to receive the Spirit of Georgia Award. She was also honored with the prestigious Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year® award for the Retail and Wholesale Category in the Southeast Division of the United States. She received The Leading Women Entrepreneurs of the World by The Star Group and, shortly thereafter, received the Alan J. McDonald International Entrepreneur Award from the Society of International Business Fellows.
Over the course of Maxine’s career, four elected governors have appointed her to serve on various Georgia state boards. She served on the Georgia Ports Authority, on the Georgia Council of the Arts, and she is currently serving on the Georgia World Congress Center Authority. Maxine is an active member of the Chief Executives Organization (CEO), Coalition for Responsible Celebration (CRC), and The Committee of 200, as well as other industry and leadership organizations. Maxine approaches these positions with the purpose of helping elevate each organization or committee and continuously providing support in propelling its mission forward.
Receiving the C200 Luminary Award is a tremendous honor because it comes from a community of accomplished women leaders who understand the challenges, risks, and rewards of entrepreneurship. I founded burton + BURTON® with a simple idea and a determination to build something that would stand the test of time. That makes this honor especially gratifying, as it reflects not only the growth of the company over the past forty-four years, but also the impact it has been able to make along the way. This award is particularly meaningful to me personally because it recognizes the values that have guided me throughout my career: creating opportunities for others, supporting our customers’ success, and helping more women realize their potential as business leaders.
Corporate Innovator: Sandra Beach Lin
This award is given to corporate leaders who have innovated the strategy of the corporation for which they lead and have impacted their value significantly. Awardees are considered leaders in their industries, and their companies have a minimum financial measurement of $250 million in annual revenue, as dictated by the C200 US membership criteria. Awardees show a commitment to advancing all women in business.
Sandra Beach Lin is a distinguished corporate leader whose career spans general management, operations, and global business leadership across the chemicals, materials, and industrial sectors. As the retired President & Chief Executive Officer of Calisolar, Inc., she led the company through the solar industry’s technological transformation. Earlier, as Corporate Executive Vice President of Celanese Corporation, she directed a portfolio of global Specialty Materials businesses, driving advanced materials innovation. Her executive career also includes senior leadership roles at Avery Dennison Corporation, Alcoa, and Honeywell International, where she built a reputation for operational excellence and strategic growth.
Ms. Beach Lin serves on the Boards of Directors of American Electric Power, Avient Corporation, Trinseo Plc, and Ripple Therapeutics, and previously served on the boards of WESCO International and Interface Biologics. She is also a Founder and former Co-Chair of Paradigm for Parity®, a coalition dedicated to closing the corporate leadership gender gap.
In recognition of her board leadership, she was named to the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) Directorship 100 in 2013, is an NACD Board Leadership Fellow, and received the Dallas Business Journal’s Outstanding Directors Award in 2014.
Ms. Beach Lin holds a Bachelor of Business degree from the University of Toledo and an MBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. She is a member of the Committee of 200, the International Women’s Forum, and the Dallas Assembly, and serves on the board of the Achievement Foundation, supporting Junior Achievement USA. A former Executive Board member of Delta Delta Delta sorority, she was named a 2024 Woman of Achievement.
It is a true honor to be recognized by my C200 sisters, with whom I’ve spent countless hours over the years discussing business challenges, opportunities, and life as women in the corporate world. This award means even more coming from a community that has shaped my own growth as a leader. I deeply value the sisterhood and friendship I’ve found in C200 and as I continue through this phase of my corporate journey, I’m grateful to be celebrated by women I so admire.
Voices That Change The World: Ann Drake
The recipient of this award has made advancing women a lifetime commitment. This new award recognizes women who have made and continue to make advancing women their mission and who have demonstrated that they are a true visionary in the manner and impact they are achieving. These visionaries look beyond their own business and have a vision for how women make an impact to make the world a better place.
Ann Drake is President and Founder of Lincoln Road Enterprises, an operational philanthropic organization focused on elevating women’s leadership and creating a future in which women are at the forefront of improving the world we live in. Before launching Lincoln Road, Ann was Chairman and CEO of DSC Logistics, an innovative supply chain and logistics management partner to some of the world’s leading companies. While at DSC, Ann founded AWESOME (Achieving Women’s Excellence in Supply Chain Operations, Management, and Education), which became the preeminent community for senior women in supply chain.
Ann is also the President and Chair of the Women’s Leadership Center at Williams Bay. Designed by internationally renowned architect Jeanne Gang, the center encourages innovation by bringing together accomplished women in an extraordinary retreat and conference space dedicated to generating fresh thinking and accelerating the impact of women leaders.
Ann has been honored with the Distinguished Alumni Service Award from Kellogg, the Distinguished Service Award from the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) and the Schultz Award for advancing women in transportation and logistics from the McCormick School at Northwestern. She has been inducted into the Chicago Business Hall of Fame by Junior Achievement Chicago.
Ann serves on the Kellogg Global Advisory Board, the International Women’s Forum (IWF) Board of Directors, and on the Boards of Trustees for the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, and the Chicago Architecture center. She is a member of the Civic Committee Transportation Task Force, an affiliate of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
I’m delighted and honored to receive this award from C200. This is an organization where I’ve always felt supported and encouraged and where I learned important lessons about the power of women working together. Our voices are needed in the world right now, so let’s all keep raising them and speaking up about what matters. And thank you!
Lifetime Achievement: Tena Clark
This award is given to women who have successfully led or founded, grown, and advanced a company that is consistent with C200 membership criteria. Awardees have demonstrated a commitment to advancing the next generation of women throughout their professional career and personal endeavors.
Tena Clark is an award-winning visionary leader, songwriter, producer, author, and philanthropist whose career has spanned entertainment, media, business, and social impact. As Founder and CEO of Dunaway Gardens, Clark is leading the transformation of a historic 376-acre property in Georgia into a world-class destination where art, nature, wellness, education, and hospitality converge. Scheduled to open in early 2029, Dunaway Gardens will feature a luxury resort, historic gardens, spa, outdoor amphitheater, screening room, event center, fine dining, an organic tea farm, and innovative arts and educational programming designed to nurture creativity and community for generations to come.
For twenty nine years, Clark was also the Founder & CEO of DMI Music & Media, a pioneering entertainment and marketing company that has spent more than two decades helping some of the world’s most recognized brands connect with audiences through the power of music, storytelling, and live experiences. Clark recently sold DMI to a public company in Canada.
Throughout her distinguished career, Clark has worked with some of the most influential artists and cultural icons in the world, including Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, Dionne Warwick, Gladys Knight, Natalie Cole, Patti LaBelle, President Barack Obama, Secretary Hillary Clinton, Maya Angelou and even NASA. A Grammy Award winner and respected creative force, Clark has built a reputation for bringing together art, culture, and purpose to create lasting impact. In 2027, Clark will be inducted into the Women Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Beyond her professional accomplishments, she is a passionate advocate for women and social justice, using her platform to elevate underrepresented voices and create opportunities for future generations. Clark wrote and produced the theme song, “Break the Chain” for the organization One Billion Rising – a movement to end violence against women and girls, and it has become the most globally performed song in history. Most recently, Clark wrote the anthem “We Are Here” for the National Women’s History Museum.
Clark currently serves on the boards of the National Women’s History Museum, as well as the advisory boards of the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, Georgia State University’s Creative Media Industries Institute, and the Grammy Museum. Her leadership, innovation, and commitment to cultural impact have established her as one of the most influential female executives and changemakers in America today.
Receiving the Luminary Award is an honor I never could have imagined, and I am incredibly grateful for this recognition. For more than two decades, C200 has been one of the most meaningful influences in my life, shaping me not only as a business leader, but as a person. To stand alongside the extraordinary women who make up this organization is truly humbling. While I am deeply honored by the award, it is the friendships, mentorship, and sisterhood I have found through C200 that mean the most to me and will remain my greatest gift from this community.
Join us in supporting our 2026 Luminary Awardees and C200’s mission to inspire, educate, support, and advance current and future women entrepreneurs and corporate-profit center leaders.
Congratulations to Maxine, Sandra, Ann, and Tena for this remarkable achievement. We’re proud of the work you each have done over the course of your careers and the influence it has had for women in business worldwide.
Celebrate with C200!
Our award recipients will be honored and celebrated on the evening of Friday, October 9, 2026, at our Luminary Awards Ceremony during the Gala Dinner at our 2026 Annual Conference in Dallas, TX. Individual tickets, tables, and sponsorship opportunities for the Gala Dinner are available for purchase at our Conference website.
Click here for more info.
Note: If you have registered for the 2026 C200 Annual Conference, your registration includes a ticket to our Gala Dinner.
Donate to C200!
Your support of our award recipients raises critical funds for C200’s larger mission and vision to advance businesswomen worldwide. Together, through the celebration of these incredible women, we can make a big impact in the business landscape by creating more opportunities, spaces, and time for women in business to connect with, inspire, and help one another succeed in male-dominated spheres and set examples for the next generation of women leaders.
Click here for more info.
by Eva Glassman | Jun 16, 2026 | Blog, Featured
By Georgia Rittenberg | ComputerCare | Member since 2023
The more accessible AI becomes, the more important human connection may be as a source of competitive advantage.
Technology can improve efficiency, streamline processes, and create valuable time savings. But trust, loyalty, and the ability to understand the nuances of a customer’s needs still come from people. Organizations that use AI to strengthen those relationships, rather than replace them, may be the ones that stand apart.
In this Forbes article, C200 Member Georgia Rittenberg explores why relationships remain one of business’s most enduring advantages and how leaders can use AI to create more space for the work that humans do best.
Read the full article here.
C200 is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a mission to inspire, educate, support, and advance current and future women entrepreneurs and corporate profit-center leaders. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the individuals quoted or featured and do not necessarily reflect the views, policies, or positions of C200.
by Eva Glassman | Jun 11, 2026 | Blog, Featured
Jaime Donnelly is CEO of Integrity Staffing Solutions, one of the largest privately held staffing companies in the United States. Jaime has worked for Integrity for twenty-five years, starting her career as an on-site recruiter. Jaime credits her advancement through the company to her constant mindset of staying fearless and curious in the face of new opportunities, as well as her personal and professional support systems, both of which proved pivotal when her career gained momentum while she raised three young daughters. Outside of work, Jaime savors her time spent with her daughters, all of whom are now in their early twenties and nearly finished with college. Jaime has been a Member of C200 since 2026.
Eva Glassman: What does Integrity Staffing Solutions do, and what is your day-to-day like as CEO? What do you love about your role, and what are some more challenging aspects?
Jaime Donnelly: I have been with Integrity for over twenty-five years. Nobody ever says they want to be in temporary staffing when they’re little; there’s no degree path for this. I actually went to school to sing opera, but realized I needed a different career path if I wanted to make a good living.
I took a little bit of time off from school, and I landed a job recruiting for Amazon in its infant stages, which was really wonderful. In that experience, I got to work directly with multiple staffing partners, one of which was a temporary staffing agency called Integrity Staffing. We went from fifteen temporary staffing partners down to one: Integrity. In that time, working on the client side with Integrity, I got to know the owners very well.
Eventually, it was time for me to make a career move, and I was also moving back home to the East Coast. I called Todd, who is one of the owners of Integrity, and I asked, “Do you have any clients you can place me with?” And he said, “Come work for me.” That was twenty-five years ago, and I have been here ever since.
I started in my role at Integrity as an on-site recruiter, managing the one-hundred temporary consultants we had working at JPMorgan Chase. I would do payroll, events, act as counsel and coach, and manage attendance issues. Over time, Sean, the other owner of Integrity, would ask me to take on more tasks, allowing me to dip my toes into different areas of the business. That really changed the trajectory of my career here. Over the course of twenty-five years, getting asked “Hey, can you do this? Can you help with this?” over and over again has led me to where I am today: the CEO of one of the largest privately-held staffing companies in the US. I get to lead this amazing team of people who really make a difference in people’s lives every single day.
EG: Not everyone gets the experience of growing throughout the entire company. What was that experience like, advancing your own career in one place? Looking back, what were some moments or moves that proved pivotal to your advancement?
JD: I tried to have a sense of fearlessness and remind myself that if someone is asking me to do this, they must think I’m capable of doing it right. I pushed aside the self-doubts; I went to school to sing, not to be in finance! However, Todd and Sean believed in me, so I had to push aside my fears, jump in, and get curious. That mindset served me well along the way, and it’s something I would encourage every new, young leader to lean into.
I also got comfortable with figuring things out along the way and failing fast. If I failed at something, I was the first to recognize it, pivot, and share what went wrong and why. At Integrity, I was given the grace and freedom to fully own not only my failures, but also how I would move forward from them. This is something I continue to champion within my teams. We don’t need to browbeat people when they fail; it’s a learning opportunity.
I’m so thankful to the founders of Integrity for all the grace they gave me over the years, because I succeeded more times than I failed. But it was the lessons in those failures that created growth for me as a leader and an individual.
Coming from the performance industry, I developed a thick skin to “no” from a very young age. Very often, I didn’t get that role, I didn’t score highest at the competition, I didn’t win that trophy. When I came into the business world, I learned that things don’t work out all the time, but the more important questions are: where do we go from here? What will we try next?
When you fail, being transparent in your failures is key. Integrity created an environment where I could fully admit, “I didn’t do so great on this one,” or “I made a mistake.” And the response always was, “Thank you for telling me that.” Transparency is important because if someone gets blindsided by something, that’s when things actually don’t go well. That’s when failure isn’t received well.
EG: Many of our Members may recognize you from our 2025 Annual Conference, where you were a featured speaker. How was that experience part of your journey to becoming a Member of C200?
JD: The 2025 Annual Conference was so fun—but I was so nervous getting up on that stage! It was nerve-wracking being in front of a room of so many amazing women leaders. I questioned, “Why does anyone want to hear from me?” But the C200 women are such a welcoming, amazing group. I got so much from that experience.
I was actually in the process of joining C200 before my session at the 2025 Annual Conference. I was initially hesitant to join because I was worried about the time commitment, so when I was asked to speak at the conference, I thought it would be a great opportunity to get a “taste” of the organization and the other Members.
Again, I was really scared. It’s intimidating walking into a room of several hundred, incredibly successful, confident women. Was I going to be accepted? Many of these women have been together for decades. Would I be an outsider looking in? Would I have a seat at the table?
As soon as I walked into the opening session, it was like a warm blanket was wrapped around me—as if I was already a Member. My nerves immediately dissolved; I was welcomed right away. Literally and metaphorically, people pulled up a chair and made room for me, seeking me out to ask me questions and hear my perspective. In turn, I was able to hear from everyone else in the room, learn, and digest this amazing experience from all these women. After the conference, I was like, “Well, this is a no-brainer.” It was clear as day how much I would get out of being a C200 Member—so clear that I knew I would naturally prioritize this group.
C200 represents a place for women to not just get together and celebrate their successes, but to share their learned experiences, and to challenge each other’s ways of thinking in natural, supportive, and encouraging ways. I can’t imagine a better place to invest my time, both personally and professionally, because it’s so uplifting and developmental.
EG: What was the representation of women like at Integrity throughout your career? What has your experience been like finding other professional women—both in and out of your organization—to connect with?
JD: I have been so blessed and fortunate in my career. I’ve only really worked for two organizations: Amazon and Integrity. At Amazon, it was very natural to be surrounded by women. That was never an issue, even in a distribution warehouse environment.
At Integrity, I have the privilege of working for two men who are partners in business and in life—they’re married. They have created a culture of acceptance and support regardless of your gender, identity, race, religion, or whatever it may be. It does not matter at Integrity. I grew up in this diverse melting pot of an organization where I never questioned whether I could advance as a woman. Sixty percent of our leadership team is women; it was simply never a question. I was always championed.
It never occurred to me how lucky I’ve been until I started working outside Integrity on different boards and affiliation groups, where I saw just how few women leaders there were in my industry. I realized I couldn’t take it for granted just because it happens organically and naturally in my organization.
EG: To that point, what does being a “woman in business” mean to you? How do you apply that thinking to your work and leadership?
JD: It means creating an environment where equity and support are so natural that the next generation of women leaders aren’t thinking about it the way that other women in my generation had to.
As my career was taking off, I had my three daughters—one at twenty-five and twins at twenty-seven. I’m forty-eight today. In so many ways, I was stepping into much bigger boots than I ever had before. When my girls were little and needed care, instead of my husband at that time saying, “Okay, you should step back,” he said, “Okay, I’ll stay home.” This was at a time when stay-at-home dads were incredibly uncommon and hardly talked about. He stayed home and supported my girls and me, letting me achieve my dreams.
I’m not sure if I would have been as receptive to this plan if I didn’t already have an amazing foundation of support—not just at work, not just at home, but from a young age in general. I was raised with the idea that I could do whatever I put my mind to. I’m so lucky that my girls got to see that in action: a dad who stayed home and a mom who went out and conquered the world. To this day, they are in awe of having a mom who’s a leader. None of them are going into business, though! [Laughs] They all picked different career paths.
EG: When you aren’t at work, how do you spend your time?
JD: Most of my free time is spent with my girls—every chance that I get. I know my time with them is dwindling because they’re moving into adulthood. My oldest is twenty-three, and my twins are twenty-one. Having three of them so close in age is such a blessing. I’ve got two graduates—one who just graduated from college a semester early in January, and another who graduates next spring. Everyone is almost finished and out of the house, so it’s about spending every single moment I can with them these days: vacations, Sunday dinners, birdwatching (yes, one of my daughters loves birdwatching). In the future, there will be plenty of time for me and my hobbies, so right now, it’s all about my girls.
EG: What is your advice to aspiring women business leaders to advance their careers?
JD: I’ll never forget this moment when I was fourteen or fifteen years old, at a singing competition. I was waiting in the hallway outside the auditorium to perform for the judges. My father was waiting with me, standing across from me against the other wall. He said, “You look pretty relaxed. You’ve got this.”
“I’ve got this in the bag, Dad,” I said. “There’s no one who is going to beat me. I’m not worried about it.”
My father came across that hallway and closed the gap between us so fast. He stood right in front of me, right up in my face, looking at me, and said, “Do not ever forget that you can always be replaced.”
I wasn’t nervous before, but now I certainly was. It was a humbling moment for me. That one lesson from my father—I can still feel that moment, clear as day, thirty-four years later. It’s a lesson I took with me throughout my entire life. You can always be replaced—so don’t let your talent, skill, or praise from others make you complacent. That lesson helped me get to where I am today.
Now, as a leader, I have learned that I need to hire people who can replace me. I always need to work with people who are smarter than me, because I want to be replaced eventually—I want to take that next role. For that to happen, I need to have a team that is ready to replace me.
Finally, something else I learned is that I don’t have to be a virtuoso in everything. As you advance in your career, you eventually become the conductor. The conductor is not a virtuoso on every single instrument; they just need to know how to get them all to work together. As a great leader, you have to inspire followership and get people who want to be on your team. That means giving people room to shine—just like Todd and Sean did for me all those years ago.
Today, my job is to create an environment where people have a path to grow, can be constantly challenged, have the space to fail, and where someone can replace me when the time comes. I want that trajectory for someone else in the organization. Creating a path for others feels better than creating a path for myself. It’s important to me that I nurture the environment that nurtured me.
C200 is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a mission to inspire, educate, support, and advance current and future women entrepreneurs and corporate profit-center leaders. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the individuals quoted or featured and do not necessarily reflect the views, policies, or positions of C200.
by Eva Glassman | Jun 9, 2026 | Blog, Featured
Leaders spend a great deal of time measuring outcomes. Revenue, productivity, growth, and performance are all tracked, reviewed, and discussed regularly. But some of the conditions shaping those outcomes never appear on a dashboard.
In this article for our Forbes column, C200 Member Valentina Videva Dufresne explains why indoor air quality deserves greater attention as a factor influencing how people think, focus, and make decisions. While most organizations track performance metrics with precision, far fewer understand how the environments in which people work may be affecting those results.
Her article challenges leaders to look beyond traditional measures of performance and consider whether some of the factors influencing success are being overlooked simply because they are harder to see, measure, or assign to a single function.
Read the full article here.
C200 is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a mission to inspire, educate, support, and advance current and future women entrepreneurs and corporate profit-center leaders. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the individuals quoted or featured and do not necessarily reflect the views, policies, or positions of C200.
by Eva Glassman | May 27, 2026 | Blog, Featured
By Farrah Lakhani | Uber | Member since 2024
As organizations accelerate AI investment, many leadership teams are discovering that the biggest challenge is no longer access to technology. It is leadership readiness.
In our latest article for Forbes, C200 Member Farrah Lakhani shows why AI fluency is becoming a core executive competency and why many organizations still have a significant readiness gap at the C-suite level.
The article examines how AI is changing leadership expectations across decision-making, workforce management, governance and operational accountability, and why many traditional executive development models may no longer be enough.
A thoughtful perspective for leaders thinking about how organizations prepare the next generation of executives for an AI-enabled business environment.
Read the full article here.
C200 is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a mission to inspire, educate, support, and advance current and future women entrepreneurs and corporate profit-center leaders. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the individuals quoted or featured and do not necessarily reflect the views, policies, or positions of C200.
by Eva Glassman | May 21, 2026 | Blog, Featured
Andrea Picard is a Managing Director at Golub Capital, a market-leading direct lender and specialized private credit manager, where she leads the Global Investor Solutions team. With an undergraduate background in linguistics, Andrea’s career in credit and finance began with serendipitous random conversations that led to her first permanent position at Lehman Brothers in their taxable fixed income group. Today, Andrea leads a team across multiple continents and deeply values her time developing talent within her organization, especially the rising women leaders. Andrea has been a C200 Member since 2026.
Eva Glassman: What is your day-to-day like as Managing Director of Golub Capital? What do you love about your role, and what are the more challenging parts of the job that you navigate?
Andrea Picard: I lead our Global Investor Solutions team, which oversees our global distribution effort. Most days, I’m either partnering with our sales team to shape and execute regional strategies or meeting with current and prospective clients. I’ve always loved leading sales teams and working closely with clients. There’s a real sense of satisfaction in understanding a client’s challenges and helping develop solutions that meet their needs. And of course, it’s especially rewarding when our teams are exceeding their targets. One of the more challenging aspects of the role is navigating volatile and unpredictable markets, which can quickly shift client preferences and priorities.
EG: Was your career goal always to be a leader in finance?
AP: I wish I could say it was all part of a grand master plan, but it wasn’t—not at all. When I graduated from college, even though I was a strong math student, I had a degree in linguistics, which didn’t point to an obvious commercial career path.
A fun fact is that my early career really came together through chance conversations. I got my first job offer—a temp role—while chatting with someone on the Long Island Railroad, and later landed a permanent role after sitting next to a senior person from Lehman Brothers on a cross-country flight. At the end of the trip, he told me I’d make a great bond salesperson. I wasn’t even sure what that meant, but I kept his card. About a year later, I called him, which led to a position on Lehman’s taxable fixed income team. I started in mortgages, quickly moved into high yield, and that ultimately launched my career in credit and finance.
EG: As you advanced in your career and took on more leadership roles, when you look back on those experiences, are there any pivotal moments that come to mind that were important to your success?
AP: At different points in my career, I’ve looked back and wondered whether I should have asked for more or been more assertive. That said, there isn’t much I would change. There were, however, a few pivotal moments that shaped my path.
One that stands out is my time at TD, where I was on the high yield sales team. When the head of sales was preparing to retire, I hoped I would be considered for the role. When the process seemed to be moving slowly, I decided to ask for it directly. It was something I had never done before, but it turned out to be a pivotal move—I got the job.
That experience reinforced an important lesson: you have to ask for what you want. You can’t always keep your head down and assume your work will speak for itself. I think a lot of women are conditioned to operate that way, and frankly, I can still fall into that trap myself. Over time, though, I’ve become much better at recognizing when I need to raise my hand and advocate for myself. No one can read your mind.
Joining BlackRock was another major pivot for me. I had never worked at an asset manager before and wasn’t entirely sure what my path there would look like, but I had always liked working at large firms. I felt confident that if I could get into an organization like that, I would find my footing.
I ended up accepting a role for which I was under-titled, overqualified, and taking a significant pay cut. Fortunately, I was able to move through the organization quickly and was put up for Managing Director the following year. In hindsight, I’m grateful I had the confidence to put myself in that position, even when the short-term tradeoffs were significant.
EG: How did you discover C200? What drew you to the organization and made you join? As a new Member, what are you most looking forward to getting involved with?
AP: I found my way to C200 through Marilyn Skony Stamm, a longtime Member, after we connected at a dinner. Marilyn became a trusted mentor and friend, and over the course of several conversations, she introduced me to C200 because she felt it aligned with many of my interests and values. I was thrilled to be nominated and am excited to now be an official Member. What I’m most looking forward to is continuing to build relationships with accomplished senior women leaders who are thoughtful, generous with their advice, and deeply supportive of one another.
EG: Throughout your career, what was your experience like connecting with other professional women, particularly as mentors? Did you see senior women leaders when you were rising the ranks?
AP: I’ve had many mentors along the way, both men and women. Earlier in my career, most of them were men simply because there were not many senior women in finance at the time. Over the years, that shifted, and more of my mentors became women. That change was a direct reflection of more women rising into leadership roles—and, importantly, bringing other women up with them.
EG: What does being a “woman in business” mean to you, and how does that impact your work and leadership?
AP: It means something very different to me today than it did earlier in my career. When I was younger in finance, my focus as a woman in business was on advancing my own career. Today, it means developing talent—both men and women—but especially helping more women rise.
There’s a real responsibility that comes with being a woman business leader: to support other women as they grow and advance. You have the opportunity to be the sponsor and advocate you may have needed yourself when you were coming up.
EG: Outside of work, how do you like to spend your free time?
AP: I enjoy cooking, traveling, reading, and just about anything outdoors. I love the mountains for hiking and skiing, and I also enjoy long walks on the beach. I have two children—a 32-year-old daughter and a 31-year-old son.
EG: What is your advice to aspiring women business leaders to advance their careers?
AP: Most importantly, have goals and articulate them. People can’t read your mind. At the same time, to borrow a golf metaphor, don’t grip the club too tightly. Organizations are constantly evolving—leaders change, managers come and go—and it’s important to take those shifts in stride.
Also, be thoughtful about job changes. The grass can always look greener, so it’s important to make sure you’re leaving for a better long-term opportunity rather than simply chasing short-term gains.
And finally, don’t forget to live your life in the meantime. It can’t be all about work.
C200 is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a mission to inspire, educate, support, and advance current and future women entrepreneurs and corporate profit-center leaders. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the individuals quoted or featured and do not necessarily reflect the views, policies, or positions of C200.
