Melissa Wright faced the daunting task of rebranding American Pacific Mortgage Corporation (APM) early in her tenure. Since APM had been around for over 25 years, there was a lot to look at and take into account. She took a holistic approach to the rebranding of APM, looking at their core values and who they are as a company and (perhaps more importantly) at how others see them. She worked with a team to hone in on the voice of the company and with each member of the senior leadership team to tell the story of APM going forward in their voices. Her imprint can be seen in all areas of the company, both internally and externally, from visuals to communication, to sales and marketing strategies.

“I was very lucky to have had great mentors and a strong network, leading to my taking over as president of a large mortgage company early in my career,” says Melissa. “This served me well when I recently took over as Cheif Sales & marketing Officer for APM. I’ve spent a lot of years building and managing branches and the revenue of the company, while also managing the marketing department and our strategic objectives. Yet, coming into 2022 I will be transitioning to focus full-time on growing the success of the company and its originators, and leveraging proven marketing and sales strategies to help them and the company succeed.”

Melissa has had the amazing opportunity to formally mentor young women, mostly during their high-school years . “I was vested in growing their confidence, nurturing their dreams, and encouraging them of their value in the world. It’s been such a highlight of my life to watch these girls turn into amazing women, leaders, entrepreneurs, mothers and stellar humans,” she says. “The biggest lesson I’ve learned is to listen and trust. Listening to what people are saying is important, but really hearing what an underlying issue might be is crucial to mentoring, growing, and building a team and growing as a leader myself.” Armed with this unique ideology, Melissa has taken the company to new heights.

APM was born out of a single originator wanting to do it better. That hasn’t changed, and Kurt Reisig has seen to that. It’s in their DNA to constantly do better and be better. Pain points are always there, but they lead by doing as a company. Nearly every one of the leaders has spent time as an originator, so they understand what it’s like to sit across the table from a borrower or referral partner. “The biggest pain points we’re facing are similar to what the rest of the industry is facing – increased costs of doing business, growing our business regardless of outside forces, and maintaining our integrity and core values throughout,” explains Melissa. “A lot of companies talk about culture, but APM is different – you see every team member, including leadership, truly walking the walk. We treat everyone like family because no matter how much we grow and change the underlying feeling is that we ARE family. Part of my job is to keep that in the forefront of everything we do, both internally and externally, and to help people new to the family not only get it but feel it.”

The company’s most significant ongoing project is what they call Project PRIMO. It’s a global view of the entire process of originating, processing, and closing a loan, both internally for loan officers and operations and externally for the customers. PRIMO stands for Production Reimagined and Modernized, and while they have launched several pieces of the project, including AI underwriting, changes to how they leverage their resources, they are continuing to focus on putting tools in the hands of the loan officers to take as much friction out of the origination process as possible. “Internally, our focus is 100% on our customers – the originators. Making them more efficient so that they spend their time in front of a borrower is our top priority. Externally, we want every client who is going through the process with APM to leave knowing they’ve made the right decision, and that their experience matters to us.” IEWL

As a boutique investment consultancy that often competes with much larger firms, bfinance’s success is driven in large part by the deep expertise and market knowledge of its senior researchers. Soo Shin Kobberstad brings precisely this depth of understanding: she has more than 25 years of experience spanning portfolio management, asset allocation, document negotiation, capital market analysis, and more.

Having spent time working in the pension fund sector (four years as Head of Credit at LPP), she also has a deep understanding and sensitivity to the needs and challenges of the firm’s clients—pension funds, insurers, endowments, charities and other institutions. These investors are trying to deliver essential outcomes in an increasingly challenging and complex investment climate, with heightened market volatility, inflation and rising interest rates.

“The rapid growth of bfinance, an independent investment consultancy firm which now provides advice and solutions to institutional investors in more than forty countries, is driven by the deep expertise of its senior research staff.”

At bfinance, Soo focuses primarily on Investment Manager Selection. “Soo’s skillset has been particularly valuable in manager selection, supporting incisive research into the factors that differentiate one manager from another and drive strong long-term performance,” says Kathryn Saklatvala, the firm’s Head of Investment Content.

One of the most interesting current developments in the world of fund manager selection is the growing emphasis on Diversity and Inclusion (“D&I”). More and more of bfinance’s clients are paying attention to D&I matters within their investment decision making and when deciding which partners to work with. “I would like to applaud the investors incorporating D&I aspects in investment,” says Soo. “When companies’ shareholders show that they care about diversity, companies must sit up and pay attention.”

Academic research now strongly indicates that diversity contributes to better decision-making within companies – a view which tallies strongly with Soo’s personal experience. “Although women are more likely to show high social conscience and collaboration, I have personally found that teams with more women lead to less conformity in thought – leading to more rigor in analysis and debate.”

Diversity is a topic particularly close to her heart, as a woman who has spent much of her career in financial services grappling with biases which she describes as subtle, cultural and often unconscious. “Ten or twenty years ago, I would give talks at widely-attended investment industry conferences and consistently find myself as the sole female speaker in the line-up,” says Soo. “Surveying the audience from the stage, I could see only a few female faces here and there. That reflected an endemic problem in the industry. I certainly felt like an ‘outsider’ in some ways, and found this quite difficult – as I’m sure many other women in investments and portfolio management experienced.”

She does recognize significant improvements in this gender imbalance through recent years, but argues there is still a long way to go. “I am glad to see the financial services industry making conscious efforts to check our unconscious biases at the door, with education and emphasis on D&I,” she says. “But I do still hear men in this industry casually make remarks to female professionals that undermine the women’s credibility and authority, and which they certainly would not make to male counterparts.”

Moreover, the office culture in financial services “is still geared towards men and their way of interacting and transacting”, she observes. “Women need to ‘adapt’ more than men, requiring additional aptitude. That said,” she adds, “the greatest lesson for me as a female leader is that women need to remain authentic and not undermine themselves by unconsciously and unintentionally veering away from the professional they aspire to be.”

Soo firmly believes that the most powerful factor leading change is increasing the number of women in the ranks, including senior roles. It is a circular, virtuous evolution: “a greater number of women will both empower women and, at the same time, extract greater value out of women,” she says.

This transition also requires supportive company policies. Bfinance, for example, has promoted family-friendly human resources practices and encouraged a culture of work-life balance, helping those with responsibilities at home to fulfil those without sacrificing the quality of work. Women are encouraged to take up senior roles and greater responsibility. They have senior directors who work part-time schedules; this should not be a barrier to advancement. Flexibility and remote work have now become more mainstream, with the pandemic overturning historic presumptions and biases about the effect of flexibility on productivity. IEWL

bfinance

Management

Soo Shin Kobberstad
Research Consultant at bfinance

Description

bfinance is an independent, privately-owned investment consulting firm that provides advice and solutions to pension funds and other institutional investors around the globe. We combine specialist expertise with a global perspective to help our clients develop, implement and manage best-in-class investment programmes.

Having grown up and worked in and around New York, Erin McReynolds developed an instinct for finding what’s “cool” and impactful while still being on-brand. Today, Erin brings this unique perspective to Fremont Bank as its Senior Director, Brand & Content. By combining strategic and creative skills, she delivers both big ideas and sustained bottom-line results for the Bank. By uncovering the overlap between the needs of the target audience and the company’s goals, Erin leads her team to design creative, engaging campaigns that hit the mark.

The results of this approach speak for themselves. Since joining the Bank in 2019, Erin’s team has produced the highest-performing ads in the Bank’s history for its primary revenue source. Its app downloads increased by 40% and app usage by 17%. Fremont Bank’s social media following is up more than 50%, and the team has won 13 awards for outstanding design, content, campaign strategy and more.

In 2020, this pioneering leader introduced a new component to Fremont Bank’s positioning, which is inspired by the Bank’s business model itself. When people choose to bank locally with Fremont Bank, their deposit dollars become, in part, loans for local businesses. Those businesses create jobs, buy real estate and retain services. Over time, schools improve, property values increase and the community grows ever more vibrant. Featuring this newly framed value proposition enables Fremont Bank to engage more people with everything the Bank does to support local communities and businesses, including women and minority-owned businesses.

Personalization is one of the biggest trends in marketing in general, and especially for financial services. It involves creating unique customer experiences that speak to each user’s wants and needs. Netflix offers a great example: making recommendations about content a viewer is likely to enjoy based on viewing history. “This way you don’t have to sift through movies or shows you’re not interested in to find something that will be exciting for you,” Erin explains. Another great example in the making? Fremont Bank. “At Fremont Bank, capitalizing on the full spectrum of what personalization can do will take time but we’re well on our way,” she states. Currently, the Bank is redesigning its warehouse of customer data, expanding its stack of marketing automation tools and refining its buyer personas to continue evolving its use of personalization.

Fremont Bank’s future looks bright. It has a strong, memorable brand built on its wide recognition for consistently supporting the communities in its branch footprint. These efforts get more and more media coverage, as do the Bank’s products and senior leaders.

The Bank is rebuilding the flagship branch from the ground up, which will be an iconic landmark. It will also be a fantastic marketing opportunity, brought to life by a brilliant team guided by a brilliant leader.

Beyond her ability to recognize and act on marketing trends, Erin’s effective leadership reflects her unique skillset and experience. Her management style is based on empowering her team to achieve more than they first believed they could. She gives her team members a crucial combination of mentorship, training and access to the tools they need to succeed. Then? She gets out of their way.

If there’s something she can do to help her team find more satisfaction in their work or advance their careers, she does her best to make that happen. “My team continues to grow. We recently produced a directory of our business clients that has created quite a buzz. Seeing the excitement, we’re now designing a series of strategic campaigns around it that will excite prospects, build loyalty and encourage supporting local businesses.”

“My career started moving more fluidly when I stopped focusing on what I thought I wanted and instead followed what I’m good at,” she says. “When I pivoted to marketing I added more value, was more energized and progressed more quickly. People say “follow your passion” or “do what you love,” but that can be really tricky. I think it’s more effective to figure out how to be passionate about the things you’re really good at. What makes people successful in a corporate environment is the ability to deliver results. Where can you deliver the best results? How can you add the most value? That’s where you should build your career.”

Advising young leaders, especially women, she adds, “Ask for what you want. I’ve worked with women who were either afraid to advocate for what they wanted or didn’t know how to do it effectively. This really holds women back from achieving their potential and meeting their professional goals. My advice to others – and something I follow myself – is to figure out what stands in the way of asking, research how to overcome that obstacle and then go for it.” WL

Poornima began her career as a CEO when she had only 7 years of overall work experience. She is a highly competent professional with a track record of building high-quality service delivery systems and processes. She has played a key role in the execution of multiple BOT model projects and has built a solid basis for the company’s different critical engagements. Poornima manages the India business of InsighTEK today and is all set to take over the global P&L of the organization. It was not an easy road, but she had the content, drive, and urge to succeed. This provided her with the opportunity to build two huge, well-known recruiting firms in India from the ground up to a turnover of more than $10 million in less than five years. Her company grew to 1000 employees in around three years after she took over the Indian operations, which she had started with nearly nothing. Poornima believes, InsighTEK is set to break all her previous records and will lead the market in the next few years. Poornima has a thorough understanding of the industry and knows how to meet even the most difficult and demanding client requirements. It’s an open challenge for her to meet any challenging opportunity in staffing needs of every client on the planet.

InsighTEK is an IT Solutions & Services Company dedicated to providing entire business and technical consulting services that improve the way businesses function. InsighTEK was founded with the goal of making people’s lives easier by offering digital transformation as a solution and service to its clients. InsighTEK’s soul and goal are to make people’s lives easier. InsighTEK assists both foreign and domestic clients in their transformational efforts. People in India, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Australia, and other nations are influenced by InsighTEK.

InsighTEK strives to make the process as smooth as possible. It has won recurring business from its clients because of the high quality of work it produces and the short turnaround time it maintains. Poornima’s ambition is to make InsighTEK a market leader in the next five years, and in the process, to alter the lives of those who are directly or indirectly involved with the company.

Poornima says, Throughout my life, I’ve been inspired by a variety of people. I tend to pick out the best qualities in the people I meet. My father, from whom I have inherited most of my characteristics, has had the most profound influence on me. I was raised to believe that there are no gender differences, but it wasn’t until I started working that I discovered that you must work five times as hard to get half as far, and as a woman, you are always forced to manage many duties. So far, the most difficult element has been learning to juggle and then mastering the juggle. Women leaders are equally dependable, dedicated, committed, trustworthy, and straightforward, but the journey is much more difficult when it comes to fair pay, promotion, additional responsibilities, or even trusting to get an investment, regardless of how good your idea is or how strong your track record is.

Poornima also adds, there is no gender when it comes to leadership lessons! Engage with people who have a positive mindset; being “just right” isn’t always enough. It’s critical to maintain your belief in order to persuade others to do so as well! Keep your priorities in mind and don’t give up when you face a snag. Always have a backup plan, take time to reflect, and restart if something doesn’t work out.

InsighTEK creates COE for the most demanding skills and develops competencies to keep ahead of the curve. Clients who work with InsighTEK will notice a significant change when they work with them. A seamless workflow, creative solutions, a unique approach to resolution, and an incredibly honest partnership will allow clients to focus on their core company while InsighTEK handles the task. It’s not just about the creative ideas at InsighTEK; it’s also about the speed with which they work. The majority of the contracts InsighTEK signed were brought on as a challenge, which Poornima turned into a long-term contract and they have generally been repeated orders, which is quite an achievement and a result of InsighTEK’s positive approach toward customer service. Poornima’s aim to succeed, as well as her hard work and commitment, had accomplished her to become a successful CEO. IEWL

InsighTEK Global

Management

Poornima B
Co-Founder / CEO of InsighTEK Global

Description

InsighTek is an IT Solutions & Services Company, committed to enabling startups to Fortune 500 enterprises, with complete business and technical consulting services that transform the way the business operates. Our expertise in providing software solutions to complex business management and business workflow process problems has enabled and equipped our clients with scalable and flexible solutions that adapt to dynamically changing business processes and requirements.

Carsten Peters, Language Mining Company

I have been a language learner as long as I can remember. On average I spend 1-2 hours daily on learning languages. I do different activities, use all kinds of tools, and I switch languages to keep myself motivated. And I am a language teacher, so it is almost impossible to imagine a life without language language or coaching.

Just recently, I have become a Google for Education Certified Innovator. During a lunch break at the academy, I was asked to give my opinion on the future of language learning. My answer was spontaneous and it really made me second-guess the very reason for my existence.I said: In the future language learning will not be necessary anymore and my work will become irrelevant.

Wow! Did I just dismiss myself? Carsten, you are fired! No, not really. Let me explain.In the future (and it might not be too many years from now) I see an increase in bilingual people all over the world due to migration, exchange programs, and efficient second language teaching in our schools. In other words, more and more people will be able to chose a common language to communicate in. Working as an expat in a foreign country and using only English both at work and in your social relationships is already common practice.

On the other hand, technology will play an important role in communication. There will be (and there are already) devices that will translate oral conversations on the fly. Today, we might still be concerned about the accuracy and the misunderstandings resulting from the translations, however, the quality of both hardware and software will improve considerably. Hence, a common language will not be a necessity for efficient communication anymore.

Does that mean the end of language learning for good? No, definitely not. The focus will be on language acquisition in the early years of life, which will decrease the need for adult language learning. Immigration will still take place and therefore there will always be a need for learning a foreign language. What will probably disappear is language teaching as we know it today. Technology will play an important role. And augmented reality can provide an immense benefit on this behalf.

Aditi Karandikar oversees demand generation at Arcserve. She was brought in when StorageCraft Technology Corp acquired Exablox to put in place a world-class B2B growth engine that would scale pipeline creation for Sales to close in a consistent fashion quarter over quarter. Three years down the line, StorageCraft had a successful merger with Arcserve, and Aditi was again retained to bring together these two companies’ marketing operations, teams, tech stacks, and processes into a seamless organization. She has consistently delivered an average ROI of 6x and been responsible for 1/3 of the company’s pipeline goals.

Aditi has personally journeyed through the various stages of the young entrant to the demanding corporate environment, graduating to wife, mom, individual contributor, mom of teens, and currently boss of a team. So, she is very aware of the challenges of juggling multiple responsibilities and the illusiveness of the work-life balance. Therefore, she has made it her mission to mentor and guide women (& men) on her team, who 5 range from millennials entering the workforce, moms and peers who are redefining priorities, especially during the pandemic. Armed with these qualities, Aditi has been taking the company to new heights.

For more than 30 years, Arcserve has been a catalyst for IT transformation by redefining how organizations worldwide protect their priceless digital data. We help our clients protect and recover from cyber-attacks, natural disasters, human error by end-to-end data protection, data management, and disaster recovery. This is especially crucial in a world seeing a tsunami of data growth as well as more & more sophisticated ransomware attacks.

Before the merger made Arcserve the 3rd largest data protection company worldwide, both StorageCraft and Arcserve were smaller players against much larger competitors with deeper pockets and larger marketing budgets. “We had to be very creative, smart and hyper-targeted in order to make a difference. This nimbleness has actually helped us to grab market share over the years,” she says. “We know most buyers research online before they ever reach out to vendors in their shortlist. We have a hybrid strategy for digital marketing – a combination of traditional demand generation and more cutting-edge Account Based Marketing (ABM).” They also have a healthy mix of inbound and outbound marketing strategies, which help engage proactively with prospects across their entire buyer journey instead of being reactive.

The company has incorporated AI and intent-based signals to drive more real-time engagement. Most of their customers benefit from data protection, data management, and disaster recovery across on-and-off premises. “We offer them backup software, backup devices, Remote Office Branch Office for today’s Covid WFH, Ransomware protection and recovery of critical data in minutes,” explains Aditi. “We have been able to be EBITDA+ and meet the rigorous expectations of not one but two Private Equity stakeholders while running on a very lean budget and resources to take on and grow revenue in a very crowded and competitive market. We are working towards offering a single-pane-of-glass for all the storage, backup and cloud DR needs of companies towards a comprehensive best-in-class business continuity solution.”

According to Aditi, modern marketing in general, and demand generation, are vastly different from traditional marketing with a slew of technology being thrown at it, a lot of scrutinies and attribution metrics to granularly measure the success of every integrated campaign. There is a ton of visibility and accountability, but on the plus side, Marketing is finally being seen as a revenue generator instead of a cost center for companies. “I thrive on this challenge and in mentoring my team to success,” she says. “Indra Nooyi is one of the most influential woman for me. Her interviews have helped crystallize the reality that we can have it all (just not at the same time). Managing to let go of expectations set by society on the traditional mothers role /employee standards and redefining them has helped reach a balance. It’s essential to put a $/hr value on my time so I know which parts of my household duties I can outsource so I can channelize my time better for work, kids and me-time.” IEWL

Arcserve

Management

Aditi Karandikar
Sr Director – Demand Generation & Marketing Ops at Arcserve

Description

Arcserve provides exceptional solutions to protect the priceless digital assets of organizations in need of full scale, comprehensive data and ransomware protection. Established in 1983, Arcserve is the world’s most experienced provider of business continuity solutions that safeguard multi-generational IT infrastructures with applications and systems in any location, on premises and in the cloud. Organizations in over 150 countries around the world rely on Arcserve’s highly efficient, integrated technologies and expertise to eliminate the risk of data loss and extended downtime while reducing the cost and complexity of backing up and restoring data by up to 50 percent. Arcserve is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota with locations around the world.

Lisa Colella, Founder of Truist has been a maven in the employer branding industry since it’s early days. Her diversity of experiences in different organizational settings combined with her natural empathic qualities, have fueled her ability to create a company that serve the needs of all key stakeholders in meaningful, unique ways. She is inventive, resilient and believes that there is always a way – “if you can’t find it, create it” is her mantra. This has led to many happy clients, successful talent brand professionals, inspired employees, and the survival of a new small business during the COVID-19 market turbulence.

“To win in these challenging times I believe we need to help humans be in their authentic power more, and help those in power be more human.”

Having worked in both consumer and recruitment consulting agencies, as well as in-house corporate roles prior to starting Truist, Lisa experienced a few gaps in the industry that were just begging to be solved for. Truist was founded on the belief that both sides of the talent-employer relationship will benefit exponentially when the truths of both sides are discovered, aligned and intentionally put into action. In essence, happy employees produce successful companies and when that happens, both sides win financially and emotionally. Putting this belief in practice has led to the company offering support options for both sides of the talent-employer equation.

Truist consults with companies to help them solve complex talent challenges – attraction, retention, engagement, etc. by getting to the root cause of their “people issues” and developing realistic, creative, insight-driven solutions to solve for them. “We also work with talent in a few different ways. We offer a Talent Brand Coaching program for industry practitioners who want to further excel in their career or for those looking to break into the profession, and we plan to offer more career support services to the general labor market with a special focus on mothers undergoing career transitions, re-employment for those impacted by the 2020 crises and new graduates entering the workforce,” adds Lisa.

Lisa is a diehard truth-seeker, unafraid to verbalize “elephants in the room” as the basis for influencing change and creating solutions that are based on truth, and are therefore effective in the workplace (and the world). She believes that people are inherently good and have a genuine desire to do well. She also believes that leaders have good intentions, but often need a “mirror moment” to take the meaningful, often hard, actions that will best serve the people on whom their business relies.

One of the best projects Lisa and her team did was for AllWays Health Partners. The scope went beyond the typical Talent Branding projects and involved redeveloping the company’s Mission, Vision and Values as a starting point to bring their new corporate brand platform and transformation strategy to life. The new Mission/Vision/Values developed were positioned to the company’s employees as a collaborative rally cry, Believe/Do/Be. “Due to Truist’s proprietary process, which is grounded in truth and favors co-creation between the client and our experts, we were able to get our proposal signed off by the Board in the first round of presentations,” says Lisa.

Operating from a balanced place of values, logic and possibility, she coaches and inspires people and executive teams to be their authentic selves, do their best work, and continuously grow beyond expectation, often in ways that they don’t even see or know themselves. She has a particular passion for helping women (especially working mothers) design and live balanced lives they truly love. Core to her approach is helping them overcome limiting beliefs, break free from outdated social programming, manage their time intentionally, and connecting them to resources that support their holistic ability to thrive. Lisa is living this difficult journey firsthand as a working entrepreneur simultaneously raising two young daughters with whom she values ample time and strong connection with.

In turn, she is in the process of doubling down her focus on supporting working mothers. “I plan to launch a new lifestyle business in 2021 that would more easily connect new mothers to a holistic community of support they often don’t know exists or are not in the optimal frame of mind to research and access. It’s time we stop hiding the fact that working mothers are often also overwhelmed CEOs of their households and need more help so they can actually enjoy the lives they work so hard to sustain,” she explains. “While Truist’s services and products skew more towards companies and corporate leaders, this new business’s services and products will skew more towards mothers. My dream is that at some point the two entities meet in the middle and create lasting change for both sides that is desperately needed.”

For the days to come, Truist is placing heavy emphasis on helping company leaders navigate changes to their employee experience and ultimately what they are calling their holistic “People Deal” as they emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic. For smaller Employer Branding teams, they are shifting their business model during the pandemic to offer more DIY+ product offerings so that they can access expert employer branding support at prices they can afford. IE

Truist

Management

Lisa Colella
Founder of Truist

Description

Truist is a boutique talent (employer) brand strategy consulting, coaching and advisory firm. We believe that worker happiness and company value exponentially increases when the fundamental truths of both are uncovered, aligned, and creatively expressed every moment in one’s journey – brand or personal.

For anyone to be successful in the organization they serve, they need to be dedicated to its mission. Rhonda Chisenhall is genuinely committed to Northern Kentucky Community Action Commission (NKCAC) and their work to help Northern Kentuckians thrive. To that end, her ability to envision positive outcomes, share stories, and connect the “why” of their work with what they do is critical to building support.

Rhonda’s accuracy, attention to detail, and natural inclination to roll up her sleeves are significant assets to keeping the agency’s programs on track. She is a “big-picture” visionary, but she also can get in the weeds, study the details, build a plan, and execute on it. She’s skilled at making connections among NKCAC’s diverse portfolio of programming and funding – which is where her detailed nature is beneficial.

For the work that NKCAC does in the community, the ability to be forward-looking is essential to fulfilling the mission. Rhonda constantly researches what’s trending in the industry so NKCAC can be positioned for whatever is next. She’s inquisitive and open to trying new initiatives to ensure the agency effectively serves the community. She is a highly skilled networker and is intentional about supporting and joining activities and groups that will further the mission of NKCAC.

Rhonda is also an inspirational and motivational leader, colleague, mentor, and resource. Her customer service skills and desire to treat others as she wants to be treated are foundational to building trust and maintaining partnerships. She is responsive and dependable. And finally, she is invested in creating a supportive workplace where her staff can be more effective at what they do and where all team members can reach their full potential. “I think of myself as a connector and innovator, opening doors that women business owners may not have access to or awareness of, and helping them to see the benefit in connecting with others they may not have thought of.”

Rhonda has an innate talent for seeing the potential in individuals and helping them recognize they are capable of achieving more than they thought possible. Her leadership style inspires and empowers by encouraging and – when it’s helpful, gently pushing – team members to take the next step, even if it’s out of their comfort zone.

Rhonda successfully develops the next generation of leaders because she is intentional about guiding and developing team members. She takes time to understand their goals and aspirations and puts thought into nurturing their growth. To that end, Rhonda values and emphasizes professional development to advance career aspirations. She also seeks out opportunities and tasks that will challenge team members, forcing them to think outside of the box and be innovative.

Rhonda’s guidance and advocacy encourage team members to believe in themselves. As a result, they have greater confidence in setting and reaching the next level of personal and professional goals. These wins snowball and help build the foundation and momentum for team members to grow into leadership roles, which work to benefit their future, the agency’s future, and the community.

One of the biggest recent achievements for the Northern Kentucky Community Action Commission was its ability to respond to the community’s changing needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. This flexibility and preparedness of the organization have led to phenomenal growth for NKCAC. Early in the pandemic, the agency leadership mobilized to adapt their services, internal systems, and staffing. Their operations never stopped; offices never closed.

“At a time when people needed us the most, NKCAC was there. More than two years later, we continue to serve the community at a much higher capacity than ever before,” she elucidates. “We accomplished more than double the work with the same number of staff, capitalized on new grant opportunities to increase funding and develop new programs, and established the internal structure to support our work.” As a result, NKCAC has emerged stronger, better, and wiser, enabling them to support the families in the community more effectively.

“As for my future, I hope to continue serving the community through this organization and to be a part of the continued growth and awareness of the organization. I hope to be a part of making a real difference in the lives of many families in the area.” WL

Monica Miller Collison, Esq. has many leadership qualities that have enabled her to help salvage, resurrect and grow two long-established mutual insurance companies in Oklahoma over her insurance career. Mostly, she is methodical, strategic, and selfless in her approach. She has outstanding EQ and interpersonal skills, which give her a keen ability to recruit the team or teams she needs to implement her vision. These abilities help her be a true “change agent” and turn around failing or failed companies, leading them to growth and profitability in a very short time.

Throughout her career, Monica has continued to look for personal and professional ways to pour into women with goals of leading in their communities and careers. “I have spoken with and given feedback to many young professionals entering into fields that have traditionally been dominated by men,” she says. “I am a relational person at heart. Therefore, my best mentoring and support of others comes from one-on-one time with female professionals, whether it is lunch, coffee or a simple phone call to talk with them about how to navigate tough environments and not lose sight of their goals and vision.”

Monica is a gentle and authentic leader and person.

She hires the right people for the right task and allows them to work within the space she brought them in to complete. She does not micromanage but simply sets the vision, trains on that vision and provides guidance and leadership when necessary to allow her team to gel and work.

“My late father gave me the greatest advice when interviewing for one of my first legal jobs and then working in that role. He told me, “always let them underestimate you because they always will.”

Those words, like so many of his, have almost become my professional mantra,” elucidates Monica. “I believe that while I have seen growth and change in this area over my career, many people especially when I was beginning my career journey, tended to believe or see female leaders as not being as assertive, strategic or able to deliver the same results as their male counterparts. I think this varies from organization to organization, as my current role and board of directors have allowed me to soar and, as a result, our company is moving.” Armed with a brilliant ideology, Monica has been taking the company to new heights.

Union Mutual Insurance Company’s biggest achievement has been its seasoned experience and customer service. “While it sounds simplistic, it is actually a very rare corporate trait! We are a small to mid-sized organization and within the four top leadership positions, have over 125 years of experience in the rural, mutual insurance space,” explains Monica. “This continues to intrigue reinsurers as well as customers. This experience and knowledge allowed us to recently take to market a new insurance product that continues to break internal goals for growth.” Additionally, what sets Union Mutual Insurance Company apart is that from the top down, all of their Senior Leadership team continue to maintain a presence in the rural part of their state through production agriculture engagements and business endeavors. This type of engagement enables the staff to relate to and understand the needs of their consumers.

For the days to come, Union Mutual Insurance Company is working toward expanding into other states beyond their Oklahoma borders. They still have regulatory, legal, and business assessments to cross before transacting business in their first new territory. However, they hope to have met this goal by the first quarter of 2023. “I believe that Union Mutual of Oklahoma will continue to grow and expand our reach within Oklahoma through our Legacy and Town and Country products. I also look forward to creating and producing brokerage products that enable our agents and customers to continue to grow their UMIC books of business and retain clients. I am excited about duplicating this same model and trend into our growth region beyond our borders as well. As for me, I hope to continue to lead UMIC into a new era of growth and profitability.” WL