STEP Ahead Recipients

Brave Enough to Step off Path

The phone call came just after the drinks.

He quietly excused himself from the table of colleagues, family, and friends.

It was April 11, 2019, and I was being honored with a STEP Ahead Award by the Manufacturing Institute. Truly a highlight of my career.

He didn’t have to say anything when he returned. I knew. My partner had just gotten the phone call that would change everything.

What timing.

The STEP Ahead program recognizes women who have demonstrated leadership in the historically male-dominated STEM fields-- science, technology, engineering, and production. Fueled by the purpose of closing the gender-gap and keeping much-needed female talent in the workforce, the STEP program embodied everything I believed in.

As I listened to the keynote speaker tell her story, I started to think about how I got here.  To this moment… this chair… this stage.

Most recently, it was my advancing a sustainable sourcing program to join and incorporate the UN Global Compact’s Ten Principles into supplier contracts impacting a global supply chain.

I also grew a supplier diversity program and had taken an active part in the organization's diversity & inclusion efforts.

I had strategically hand-picked

everything about my career

to align with what I wanted in life. 

The company, it’s time zone, and the job itself aimed at integrating sustainability values into a global sourcing group— was everything I wanted.

I had been recognized as a thought-leader and change-agent. Neither one was easy. And now, just shy of four years in… with momentum growing... I was about to walk away. 

I hear the critics now.  Quit your job? For a guy?

I decided years ago that I was the only one responsible for my career… my life, really. Not a company, and certainly not the economy!

You see, I started my corporate upbringing in the US homebuilding industry just before the market crashed in 2008. I was hired into a rotational management training program and later held various roles. The experience shaped me into a big-picture thinker.

As the real estate market came back to life-- I did not. I was no longer passionate about my work and made my first big life change.

In 2013, I earned a global MBA focused on sustainability in emerging markets from EDHEC Business School.  The program was based in France with trips to Singapore, studying emerging markets, and South Africa, seeing first-hand the importance of social responsibility.

The team-based MBA program taught me that business used for good— is good for business!

Did you catch that? 

Said another way: Purpose-driven organizations that strategically chip away at systematic social injustice, offset environmental destruction, and put people at the center— have more potential to sustain long-term profits than organizations without purpose beyond that of the almighty dollar.

While this feels like second nature to me now, it is a far stretch for many.

As the lights shone across the crowded ballroom I saw all the potential and promise that the room represented. These women weren’t here because they listened to critics or played it safe. In fact, just the opposite. 

I am here because like the other women being recognized, I am a risk-taker. Driven by compassion and good ole’ common-sense!

Am I ready to walk back into the unknown, with no guarantees?

You bet I am!

Four months after receiving my STEP Ahead award, my partner and I boarded a plane bound for Shanghai, China. 

Just as I had done 4 years prior, he strategically sought out a position that would offer not only the job- but the life-experience that he (we) wanted.

I’d be lying if I said leaving my job and independence was easy!

But it wasn’t hard either. It’s way more complicated that that. It’s like being at the intersection of terrified and unstoppable.

Living on the brink of your comfort zone is how you know you’re alive.

Now, immersed in Chinese culture, in one of the largest cities of the world— the professional possibilities seem endless! 

Staring at a blank canvas in early 2020, COVID-19 wreaked havoc across the globe.

Geographically displaced and living out of a suitcase, I decided to start my own company.

Like everything with purpose, it has evolved into a wonderful opportunity leveraging my unique background and advancing projects that make life better for others.

This is my story and my own purpose-driven project.  Let’s see where the leads!