LeadingShe

Elizabeth Mangan is CEO and partner of Miller-Valentine Group and the first woman to head the company. MVG has 225 employees in four markets.  In 2016, Elizabeth led the difficult and challenging task of implementing a strategic vision for this long-standing company which resulted in the spin-off of several divisions into separate companies. Elizabeth felt pressure to find work-life balance until...

Diane Morefield is a top executive with a long and successful career having just retired from CyrusOne, a publicly-traded, global data center REIT with revenue of over $1 billion. She is driven and a high-achiever and a self-proclaimed extrovert. As the youngest of four children, Diane grew up in the western suburbs of Chicago in a strong, family-focused home. When the public company COPART appoin...

As a top banking executive with Fifth Third Bancorp, Kris Garrett has always been ambitious and driven with a strong work ethic. During a time of employee feedback, she learned the value of being more vulnerable and reinforcing that she trusted her staff, which enhanced her leadership. Kris and her husband made the decision for their family and the raising of their sons that only one of them shoul...

Kathy Fish heads the 7000-employee R & D division of Proctor & Gamble having worked with the company 41 years. She talks about a time when she was not satisfied her position and career with P & G and did not feel valued. She proactively took action by having an important conversation with her manager resulting in a positive and pivotal point in her career.  As an introvert, she developed skills to...

Katy Hollister was one of the top female executives for many years with Deloitte, a 312,000 employee company.  She credits her success with being a strong team player, strategist and being resilient during change. Being in a male-dominated industry as a trained CPA with a law degree, Katy believes diversity within organizations and different opinions are important to achieving the best results for...

Mary Zalla was the first female CEO and President of the international brand design firm, Landor.  She grew up on a farm in a family with 10 children and her parents instilled a strong work ethic in her.  She brought this work ethic to her career which has contributed greatly to her success. Mary’s creativity was fired by starting a new hobby and offers these opportunities for expanded creativity...

LeadingShe is a podcast where women leaders use their voices, wisdom and experiences to help elevate and inspire other women.  So far 29 LeadingShe episodes have been released, with over 7300 downloads and over 1300 social media subscribers! Listen here to six of the best clips from the podcast.  A big thank you to our guests and to our listeners and social media followers!  Follow LeadingShe on I...

Trish Smitson has had an interesting career as both managing partner at a large law firm and the head of the American Red Cross in the region. She is creative and has strong leadership skills. At the Red Cross she implemented a program which prevented disasters and saved lives which was modeled at the American Red Cross nationally. Trish Smitson is poised and polished and believes women indeed nee...

Eva had a long and successful career as an executive in commercial real estate. She believes that companies often diminish women’s contributions by not realizing that women are just as committed and passionate about their work and careers as men.   Eva decided to attend graduate school to refine her business acumen and executive presence.  She realized that if her talents were to be valued she nee...

Dr. Julia Heath has enjoyed a long and successful career in one of the most male dominated fields, Economics. She believes women need to use all of their experiences and stay open to what they are teaching them. Julia says all women will experience bias and it is important for them to find their voices. Her positive attitude is delightful as she uses humor to deal with gender micro-aggressions.  ...

This is a delightful and enriching podcast with Karen Case, Executive Managing Director and President of Commercial Real Estate for CIBC U.S. Influenced by her intellectually curious working mother and a family-oriented father, Karen refreshingly and openly imparts her experience and wisdom in many areas. She says we should pick our battles, save them for the things which matter most.  Difficult c...

Shellye Archambeau celebrates a successful, 40-year career having been the first woman of color owning and running a tech company, MetricStream in the Silicon Valley of California. She also spent 15 years as an executive with IBM and serves on the boards of Nordstrom, Verizon, Roper Technologies and Okta. Shellye believes strongly that business people should always at some point in their careers o...

Kay Geiger is the President of PNC Bank, Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky and one of the few female bank presidents in the U.S. She is a powerhouse and has a wonderful reputation for courageous and collaborative leadership. In this podcast Kay talks about how she never considered there were limits to her success. She cites her tenacity, open-mindedness, hard work and curiosity as her strengths...

Jean Kane, CEO of Colliers Minneapolis/St. Paul has led both a private real estate company and a division of a large public company.   Having grown up in a rural area of Minnesota with parents who taught her to work hard and told her to “be yourself”.   Jean talks about walking away from people and assignments in which she believes she is not respected.  She and her husband were a dual career coup...

During the 4.5 years as CEO and President of REDI, Johnna Reeder led the transformation of the organization from a struggling economic development group into one which ranked number three in the country.   Johnna always had the career goal of having a top CEO spot when she took on President and CEO of REDI, Cincinnati’s Economic Development organization.   She had reached her goal of being CEO, an...

Debbie Hayes is the Chief Operating Officer of Christ Hospital Network, having begun with the organization in 1989 as a nurse. Thirty years later she holds a top position at the 6500-employee health organization. She believes women need to take opportunities presented and be life learners. Debbie is positive that failure is valuable since it has made her a better leader. She truly believes in coll...

Maribeth Rahe received great advice about making career decisions with a strong emphasis on considering the “chair you’ll be sitting in”. Maribeth gives the mentoring advice to welcome open feedback so we can grow, learn and refine our presence. At a previous company she spoke up about the lack of fairness to women in considering maternity leave as sick leave. Maribeth has a strong reputation nati...

Stephanie has always been an overachiever throughout her life, having graduated from high school at 16 years old.   As a 25-year old prosecutor, she experienced gender bias yet her confidence helped her to overcome obstacles and be successful.  She was the first female elected to the Clermont County Common Pleas Court. Her empathy as a woman, mother and grandmother has helped her as a judge in juv...

Donna, CEO and founder of Fabulous Furs, is a true entrepreneur and has endured many ups and downs throughout the company’s 30-year history.   Entrepreneurs have to respond to changes quickly and decisively and Donna is a master of adapting to change.    Over and over she takes the risk to start new ventures even though she may not have experience.  Donna is an ambitious and strong business woman...

Barbara Turner, the first woman and person of color to lead Ohio National Financial Services believes in authenticity and boldness.   She leads with integrity, courage, and empathy.   She believes women should be themselves and embrace authenticity.   She has worked hard and risen the ranks in the financial services industry.  In the beginning of her career as a young divorced mother of three she...

Dr. Lisa Larkin, A Yale University and University of Chicago trained physician and Founder of Ms. Medicine, she has experienced plenty of gender bias, not only as a physician working in a large health organization, but by witnessing the bias around the healthcare community not providing women the healthcare needed.    Her strong passion for making sure women obtain the care they need, Lisa began M...

Florence Hudson is a Princeton University graduate, Founder, and CEO of FDHints, and a former C-level executive in global technology, cyber-security, cognitive computing, research, and academia, having had a long career with IBM. She talks about the importance of not only diversity, but inclusion.  We discuss unconscious biases and micro-aggressions against women.  Florence insists that young wome...

Diana Reid has had a unique career experience with varied companies, first at Credit Suisse on Wall Street then establishing her own company, Beekman Advisors and finally her years as an executive with PNC Bank. Diana believes companies can make the mistake of losing talent if employees do not see people like them at the top. She built a successful career through credibility derived from excellent...

Kim Feil is mission-driven and high-energy executive who has and has had a long and successful career in large public companies.   Now being an entrepreneur with her energy drink, Aspire, she talks about making sure we achieve our goals through engaging stakeholders.  She believes if women promote themselves more often by reminding their superiors what they have accomplished they will advance and...

Stacey Browning was President of Paycor having grown the company over 27 years to one of the largest privately owned companies in Cincinnati.  She has a gift for developing teams and bringing players’ strengths together to accomplish success. Her intuition has helped her in her career and life yet she “fact-checks” it.   She discusses building relational capital by asking for employees’ opinions a...