In 2006 Amy Smart saw her life being possessed by mind-altering substances. Addiction had led her down a dark road that ended with a five-year prison sentence. But she knew she had to change her life, learn to live life on whatever terms came her way. She promised her family and her children that Amy would be part of the addiction recovery solution and no longer part of the problem when she came home. She established Riverside Recovery Services from the ground up, growing from a small office in Chesapeake, Ohio, in 2015 to four counties across the state of Ohio. August 2022 marks sixteen years for Amy being clean and sober, and with her personal story, she is determined to transform lives wherever she goes.

Some of the qualities that Amy encompasses have transformed Riverside Recovery Services into what it is today. Amy continues to seek input from others. She recognizes that there are things she could be doing better and tirelessly work to meet those goals. Women in leadership positions aren’t afraid to see a situation from various angles, and Amy is no different. She attempts to understand a situation as organically as possible by asking the right questions at the right time rather than bending a situation to her own will. Whether something is going perfectly or disaster strikes, Amy is always willing to accept the consequences of her decisions. She won’t play the victim or try to pass the buck onto someone else.

Amy works hard to build up other female leaders; she understands how difficult the road is and has spent tireless hours assisting other women in developing business plans to support the dreams they have for their businesses. These qualities have shown Amy’s staff not to be afraid of pursuing dreams and that culture that transformed and supported Riverside’s growth.

When women entrepreneurs succeed, they are more likely to invest back into their families and community – into education, nutrition, well-being, and children’s health. Moreover, their businesses are more likely to provide necessary services and opportunities to their communities. Amy fully understands that she had support from other female leaders along the way, and she has used what she learned to give other women opportunities. Amy lives by the advice someone once gave her “The best way to support women in business as a female business leader is to share your knowledge and pay it forward. If your past mistakes or successes can help other women avoid similar mistakes or provide them with a great idea, then you’ve made a positive impact with little effort.” As a leader, Amy works side by side with her staff and has never asked them to do anything she wouldn’t do herself. Her team sees that often encouraging them to step into leadership positions themselves.

According to the CDC, alcohol and drug overdoses have increased since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020. The pandemic increased pressure on families and individuals and, at the same time, made it difficult, if not virtually impossible, to receive timely treatment for drug and alcohol use disorders. There is currently a backlog of people needing recovery services, such as those available at Riverside Recovery Services. Substance use disorders increase the chances of becoming severely ill from a COVID-19 infection. At the same time, data shows that there have been more fatal drug overdoses since the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic. This trend highlights the need for safe, secure addiction treatment.

Approximately 46% of US adults have experienced or witnessed substance abuse among family members. Further, 18% of these cases involved alcohol only, while another 18% were directly impacted by combined drug and alcohol abuse. With so many families in crisis, it’s more important than ever to reach out to Riverside Recovery Services to find out how to get help for yourself or someone you love. Recovery programs restore mental clarity and physical well-being, allowing clients to take the first steps toward healing broken relationships. “We see our clients’ making strides in their recovery goals, gaining back mental clarity and physical well-being. To us that is achievement. Many past clients of Riverside Recovery Services have gone onto to become employees and are living the life they have dreamed about for so many years,” says Amy. WL

Michelle Mollineaux, Director, Marketing and Channel Partnerships at ZE PowerGroup, is the driving force behind ZE’s global brand awareness, product marketing, and attracting international partnerships with market data publishers, technology providers, and consulting firms. With more than two decades of experience with innovative technology-based companies, and startups working collaboratively with established category leaders, Michelle has specific expertise in go-to-market strategy and marketing execution for data management, IoT solutions, SaaS applications, cloud platforms, cloud services, and professional services.

Before working in high-tech, Michelle worked in higher education as an administrator for various departments at Simon Fraser University, including the International Center for Crime and Punishment (a collaboration with the United Nations and UBC), the Department of Linguistics, and The Community Economic Development Center. She also worked as the Registrar for the Vancouver Film School for Acting and Film programs.

In the non-profit sector, she was the executive assistant at Science World. During her tenure at Science World, Michelle developed the award-winning networking program “Opening the Door” for Grade 10–12 youth. This networking event was created to help connect young people with relevant science and technology leaders and industry professionals to better prepare them for careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) fields. “Opening the Door” has received the BC School Superintendents’ Award of Recognition and had become a province-wide program.

Michelle uses an innovative approach when leading her team, allowing her staff to thrive by finding solutions and ideas on their own for the benefit of success in the company. Help women, entrepreneurs and mentor students to enhance their strategic agility and hone their entrepreneurial spirit. She is known in the organization for giving them the confidence to not shy away from taking on challenges and hurdles and for teaching them not to be afraid to ask for help, advice, or request for free stuff to get their business or project off the ground success.

But for Michelle, success took a while as she never completed her degree, and instead of believing in a college degree, she had to believe in herself and her capabilities. “I had to work much harder than my peers because we were all judged on a degree background. My “degree” came from the school of hard Knox. Because of this, it helped me strengthen my work ethic and problem-solving skills,” elucidates Michelle. “Today, people know me as the can-do person and that no matter what I will always look for solutions to ensure successes. I always advice everyone on never giving up on yourself or doubt your abilities. Always think out of the box, believe in collaboration, and work with people who nourish and mentor you.” With this brilliant mindset, Michelle has been taking the company to new heights.

ZE PowerGroup Inc. (ZE) was established in 1995 and based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with regional offices in the UK, Houston, TX, USA, and Singapore. ZE’s data centers are located 2 in Canada, 1 in Germany, and 1 in Amsterdam, which provides high redundancy and security for clients. Combining industry expertise with advanced technical capabilities, ZE serves small to Enterprise globally positioned clientele.

ZE is the developer of ZE Cloud, an award-winning private cloud solution that provides cost-efficient, secure, and fully automated data management solutions for any data-driven organization. The ZE Cloud offering comprises Hosted Services and Managed Services, and it offers a turn-key solution for clients accessing the ZEMA’s platform and overall data management and integration. ZE is also the developer of the award-winning ZEMA™, a data integration, management, and analytics platform for many industry sectors, including energy, renewable energy, finance, insurance, shipping, mining, and commodities markets.

ZE PowerGroup is now ranked 8th in the Chartis Energy50 Ranking Report for Energy Fintech Technology Firms and is the sole single-technology solution provider to qualify among the top 10 and awarded the Cross-Market Data Management solutions for the second year twice. By marketing ZE as a technology powerhouse, ZE is committed to providing state-of-the-art end-to-end data management and analytics solutions across the broad Energy Commodities and Finance spectrum. For the days to come, Michelle wants to continue to help grow ZE PowerGroup into new markets and industries and keep ZE PowerGroup in the top 5 number 1 spot for Energy and Commodities markets for Data Management. “I want to launch a new Data as a Service solution at ZE PowerGroup, expand into new markets and geographical regions and increase revenue and new global customers.” WL

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellemollineaux/

Twitter: @VancityMichelle

Instagram: Management Consulting Firm

Website: www.ze.com

Fuelled by the need to improve risk management and data recovery for their own organization, Platform Plus the owner of Stratus Cloud, set out to find a cloud based solution.

Made urgent by a natural disaster, the Christchurch earthquake, which left vulnerable people with disabilities without personal and medical records.

” To find solutions to your ICT requirements, contact the team at Stratus Cloud today. Visit stratuscloud.nz for details. “

As a response to the possible impact, PlatformPlus made it their mission to find a cloud provider to meet the needs of the disability sector. Research proved the market was over inflated, unresponsive and disinterested in the needs of the sector. Faced with the decision to engage a service provider who couldn’t meet their needs, PlatformPlus took a calculated risk and built their very own ICT solution – Stratus Cloud.

Stratus Cloud currently delivers services internationally to more than 1.2 Million end users. Based on a low cost delivery model and 99.999% uptime promise, Stratus Cloud is positioned in the international market as a highly-reliable and cost competitive cloud service provider.

Stratus Cloud understands the need for Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) as well as Platform as a Service (PaaS). Their proven responsiveness and agility has lead them to be chosen by businesses of all shapes and sizes. Stratus Cloud currently deliver services to small and medium sized businesses, innovative technology companies and large healthcare organizations internationally.

Director Marese shared “All profits are reinvested to ensure maximum social impact. Our realistic revenue expectations enable the business model to remain affordable and responsive to client’s needs. Every dollar we make goes towards a purpose, every dollar earned more than yesterday makes a difference.”

Whether you are looking for speed, security, cost effective organizational data recovery or ICT consultancy support to reinstate your system from a ransomware attack, Stratus Cloud offers tailored, effective and future proofed solutions for modern day challenges.

Stratus Cloud upholds a reputation for being agile and responsive in an ever evolving ICT space. “We aim to make growth simple and accessible for those who need it. Our commitment to quality service has the team deliver above and beyond our client’s expectations. We are different in a positive way” says Marese.

Stratus Cloud will continue to work with the following customer groups
– IT Managers

Companies looking to move their traditional server to the cloud and better manage risk, data-recovery and maintenance.

– Software Entrepreneurs

Requiring affordable, low cost solutions and flexible testing environments for software development.

– Companies interested in adding Stratus Cloud to their product offering

Whether branded under the Stratus Cloud logo or branded as your own, Stratus Cloud will partner with you to deliver cloud services to your existing client database. This distribution model enables companies to increase their client offering and profitability, without the need to invest in infrastructure and core networks.

Tatiana Langseth, a successful graduate from George Mason University, founded Augaroo in the early 2010’s, with the goal to bring the power of big data to every-day business decision-making. The CEO has taken the organization to new heights and today Augaroo has become a market leader offering their expertise, products, services, and solutions in solving customer challenges and overcoming technical complexities around big and streaming data.

According to Tatiana, Augaroo’s customers have lots of disparate types and sources of data in various data technologies. This presents the challenge of how to organize and make sense of all this information and data, to drive better decision-making by the employees of the firms. “The old approach of building a data warehouse and using ETL technologies do not work anymore as those approaches are too monolithic and slow. Data is changing and streaming in real-time now,” explains Tatiana. As firms seek competitive advantage in this new data-driven world, they need to leverage data as a strategic asset to turn data into new streams of revenue, and to use data to achieve greater competitive advantage–and that is where Augaroo takes the lead.

Augaroo is working with each of their customers to understand how they can uniquely use data to differentiate from their competition. By working with leading-edge enterprises, Augaroo is able to see new trends and opportunities in the use of data, particularly big and streaming data, to help drive insights. “By reducing the latency between a new point of data arriving, and a human synthesizing and potentially making a business adjustment based on that new data, we can drive faster and faster loops of innovation and efficiency,” adds Tatiana.

” Each of our customers has their own roadmap, and we work carefully in conjunction with them to make sure that the technologies that we bring to bear are the most applicable to their situation “

The company has an best practices-based approach to determine what set of technologies are best for a customer’s need. They start by looking at the various sources of data that the organizations currently have and understanding the types of additional competitive advantage that could be achieved by better leveraging those sources of data. Based on that analysis, the company creates a blueprint for each customer to enable them to stream and leverage real time and big data as close as possible to the point where business decisions are being made. Many of Augaroo’s customers have recently upgraded their own technology stacks, and want to use the latest big data and streaming data technologies in conjunction with their new platforms. Augaroo is working relentlessly to align the customer’s internal road maps with the latest big data technologies that can help bring new value and insight to those customers.

Tatiana believes that building and taking a company to new heights requires hard work and determination alongside technically sound co-workers who can understand the growing disparities in the technology landscape and work towards building solutions to address those challenges. Augaroo brings their unique understanding of both technology and the methodologies by which each customer can achieve the highest levels of competitive advantage. “I lead the company by example, working closely with our customers to help them achieve success,” asserts Tatiana proudly.

Augaroo’s roadmap as a company is tightly coupled to the needs of their customers. The company continuously evaluates the latest technologies that could be applicable to a customer’s applications and use cases.

Brooke Blake, VP, and Chief Sustainability Officer, FARO Technologies, Inc., has had the privilege of having a strong network of female colleagues and friends to help her throughout her career journey; hence it is her goal to seek out opportunities to pay it forward. Brooke loves her professional female (and male) relationships as a nurturer at heart. “When it comes to the corporate environment, it is vitally important that we be able to support each other when needed as well as have the courage to challenge each other when needed as both are truly important,” she elucidates.

Brooke joined FARO in 2017 as Chief Compliance Officer and Sr. Director of Internal Audit and, in 2021, was promoted to her current role. With 20 years of senior-level experience across multiple sectors, her background includes expertise in risk management, technical accounting analysis, process improvements, and corporate governance. Before FARO, Brooke served as vice president of internal audit at Everi, Inc., a global, publicly-traded company within the gaming industry. Previously, she held similar roles at Houldsworth Russo & Co., PC, BDO Seidman LLP Affiliate, Ronald McDonald House Charities, and Progressive Gaming Intl Corp. Brooke earned a BS in accounting from the University of Utah and maintains current certifications as a CPA and Certified Information Systems Auditor.

Brooke has been inspiring and empowering team members to become great leaders of tomorrow by sharing her experience. The pioneering leader firmly believes people are the greatest asset. She likes to invest a lot of time in relationship building with her staff and throughout the FARO organization. “For my team, I am committed to making the employment relationship a win/win scenario, encouraging growth and developing my team, particularly with potential successors,” she says. “I believe success is a mindset, and every career milestone should be celebrated. My advice is not to be in such a hurry to get to a certain title, salary, or status. Instead, people need to focus on learning as much as they can along the way. My advice is to principally ‘say yes to everything.”

Throughout her career, Brook has been open to all learning opportunities, allowing continual expansion of her skillset from auditing financial statements to IT Systems to multiple areas of regulatory compliance and now to sustainability. This immense experience has led to her learning many leadership lessons and life. “There are innate differences between men and women, both of which bring value to the corporate environment. The lesson that helped me the most was learning not to internalize challenges or take things personally,” she explains.

Brook elucidates, “People cannot be offended without your agreement. For me it has been valuable to maintain the perspective that feedback and/or challenges are positive no matter what. This either shows me things I need to work on, or it shows me the nature/character/personality/work style of others. In this way, I understand how to manage the relationship going forward.”

Armed with this mindset, Brook has been taking the company to new heights. Being appointed a Chief Sustainability Officer and tasked with building a program from scratch has been a great learning opportunity for Brook to understand more about the world’s view and the existing internal programs, many of which were not receiving credit for their good deeds until now. She has focused on right-sizing expectations to match the organization’s risk appetite, budget, and core values when implementing a program. “While we would all love to maximize our sustainable offerings, we need to be realistic in our capabilities in order to ensure a successful program,” says Brook.

“We recently issued our first-ever sustainability report, and I was thrilled to lead this initiative,” states Brook. This comprehensive 50-page report profiled FARO’s corporate social responsibility and ESG programs, such as reducing their carbon footprint globally and supporting social programs like STEM learning, particularly for minorities and females from low-income and disadvantaged areas. Moreover, this report outlined how FARO solutions already contribute to a sustainable future by pioneering numerous precision measurement and imaging tools along with cloud-based data-sharing platforms that enable customers to reduce rework, waste, and scrap while leveraging the advantages of digitalization and working virtually. “While I am proud of my achievements thus far, I remain focused on learning and growth opportunities, both personally and professionally,” says Brook. WL

Chris Baker, EVP, and Global Head, Parexel FSP, is a visionary strategist who leads her team towards growth and success. How does she do it? Her high EQ leadership skills coupled with her business acumen have led the FSP business to grow 83% over the past 3 years. She leads a business division of several thousand colleagues that span 18 time zones and 5 continents.

With more than 20 years of biopharmaceutical experience, Chris is an accomplished leader whose expertise spans from molecule to market in leadership roles across clinical research and development, global launches, and commercial roles in strategy, sales, marketing, and manufacturing. A hallmark of Chris’ award-winning leadership is her ability to engage, direct and inspire global, cross-functional,and remote teams to successfully achieve business results through times of change and uncertainty, including acquisitions, organizational restructurings, and most recently, the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Chris believes in developing her team and the leadership team around her. She outlines the vision, strategies, and goals and supports her team to grow and advance in their capabilities. Chris has been a keynote presenter to global audiences on the topic “Leading Global Teams” and has been interviewed and published in “Chicago Business Review”on the topic of “Effectively Managing Global Teams.” Additionally, she has been published in Industry Publications as a thought leader. She mentors and advises junior and mid-level colleagues and is a trusted advisor to – senior executives across the pharmaceutical, biotech, and healthcare industry.

As one of the world’s leading global clinical research organizations (CRO), Parexel FSP provides the talented colleagues who seamlessly integrate into biopharmaceutical companies to support their clinical trials. These experts can be scaled up and down, based on program priorities, and have the highly valued expertise that biopharmaceutical companies need to successfully complete their clinical trials and provide life-saving new medicines for patients-. “Our 20,000 employees have a deep conviction in what we do, and by partnering to support our biopharmaceutical cleints, we are shaping the next generation of therapies, one patient at a time,” says Chris. “We work hard to provide a great place to work in all key attributes to attract, develop and retain great talent. We develop our colleagues through career tracks and development programs so they have a career here where they can thrive and grow over the years. We pay competitively and reward strong talent. And we do a lot to listen and engage our teams and ensure we are taking care of ALL of our colleagues in a welcoming and inclusive environment.”

It is pertinent to mention that the Parexel FSP division she led has won several awards. Two that are meaningful are being named one of the Top 3 FSP businesses in their industry for the first time, just one year after she took over the business. “Additionally, client awards are significant for being best at delivering value and partnering with them to support our clients achieving their goals to deliver clinical trials for patients,” adds Chris.

The business division she has led has grown 25-29% each year, so she wants to continue investing in the people and infrastructure to ensure they are scalable to succeed both now and in the future. “We are a people business. Our company is focused on supporting the delivery of clinical trials so that patients get the life-saving medicine they need. That is done through people and for people,” elucidates Chris. “So, we try hard to value, appreciate, support, and fully accept talent from diverse backgrounds. – An example that demonstrates how we value our employees is our strong efforts to support our Ukraine and Russia colleagues and their families. We have paid to relocate colleagues and their families from these areas to anywhere worldwide, and have supported their legal fees, visas and travel expenses.”

But great leaders are the ones who practice discipline and balance their health and wellness in order to support their professional and personal lives; Chris is working on the same, “I have twin sons who are 18, and like many parents, I have put their activities and wellness at front and center. Over the pandemic, I invested in working with a trainer doing strength training 3 session times a week to invest in my health, which has paid dividends.” Chris also wants to continue contributing to meaningful Board of Directors roles and to wrap up her book on Corporate Leadership principles applied to Family life. WL

Missy MacKintosh, founder and CEO of MisMacK Clean Cosmetics, has been named as one of the top 20 Best Women Leaders of 2020 with Industry Era for her work in building her transformative cosmetics business. As an internationally acclaimed makeup artist with more than 16 years of experience, Missy created MisMacK Clean Cosmetics to fill a void in the professional clean beauty industry. With a full line of clean makeup, including Canada’s first environmentally friendly glitter, her self-built brand is a hit with avid makeup lovers and professional makeup artists alike.

“MisMacK Clean Cosmetics comes from years of hard work and research, experimenting with new techniques, and collaborating with creative leaders in the industry,” Missy explains.”

“The inspiration behind MisMacK Clean Cosmetics comes from years of hard work and research, experimenting with new techniques, and collaborating with creative leaders in the industry,” Missy explains.

With work featured in Cosmopolitan, Huffington Post and Daily Mail, complemented by an extensive background in cosmetic retailing, Missy has taken her love of beauty and cosmetics new heights by building an incredibly successful cosmetics company. The MisMacK Clean Cosmetics makeup line has become an award-winning leader in the professional clean beauty industry in Canada.

Missy’s road to clean beauty started in 2016 when she was hired to build a campaign for a new clean beauty retailer. While clean beauty was a relatively new concept to her, she instantly fell in love with the industry’s integrity and ethics, but felt that most products would not meet her high standards. Nevertheless, this challenge lit a fire within her, and she set out to create a professional-grade clean makeup line that could perform flawlessly for users of all ability and experience. With an idea clear in her mind, she began laying the foundation for what would become MisMacK.

Missy works directly with a female Canadian chemist to ensure that each and every formula meets her professional standards for clean beauty, delivering superior quality products at every turn. To ensure the products are of unparalleled quality and durability, and worthy of the MisMacK Clean Cosmetics name, she uses the product samples in her own professional makeup kit before they hit the market. Each product is tested on performers and actors under the most demanding conditions to ensure it can stand up to HD cameras, long hours and harsh studio lighting, which they do every time.

Missy’s products contain only ethically sourced ingredients, are PETA Cruelty-Free certified and PETA Vegan certified, and are free of the Dirty Dozen, fragrance, parabens, and phthalates. In addition to these noteworthy qualifications, MisMacK’s proprietary ingredient is also the first of its kind to hit the market: it mimics the look and feel of silicon but is actually derived from the fatty acid of coconut oil. It is eco-certified, contains no GMOs, and is built on the twelve principles of green chemistry. This technology is one of the main ingredients in the brand’s GAIA Gloss, Flawless Foundation, and Moisture Locking Lipsticks.

This award-winning cosmetics line continually pushes the envelope of technology and performance in natural cosmetics, keeping both the professional makeup artist and consumer in mind. This was further acknowledged when her unique pro pigment ART Shadows, an impressive multi-functional makeup product, recently earned 1 st Place at the 2020 Clean Beauty Awards for Best Eye Color.

Missy’s approach to clean beauty isn’t just about developing exceptional products, it’s also about the education and empowerment of the next generation of makeup artists. She has designed a program to help new makeup artists understand the fundamentals of makeup artistry, while also learning classic application techniques and the “natural guides” of the face. The program empowers both current and future makeup artists to think of how clean, non-toxic makeup impacts the way the industry thinks of and approaches beauty.

Missy’s innovative makeup line is a testament to the hard work and dedication that she has put into every aspect of the brand, from the bottom up. MisMacK Clean Cosmetics has one simple mission: to be the go-to clean makeup brand for everyone across the globe. IE

MisMacK Clean Cosmetics

Management

Missy MacKintosh
founder and CEO of MisMacK Clean Cosmetics

Description

MisMacK Clean Cosmetics sets out to revolutionize the clean beauty world bringing professional quality application paired with ethical and sustainable production. Canada’s newest and most innovative line on the market. Launching with GlitterEnvi (Environmentally friendly glitter) and GAIA Gloss (Mother of all Glosses) is the first of the upcoming full line launching in 2019. Our proprietary ingredient mimics the look and feel of silicone but is derived from the fatty acid of coconut oil.

Being the quintessential problem solver is not an easy task, but Susan Lavenski makes it seem simple. Alongside being the CEO and owner of Charles Ryan Associates (CRA), one of the region’s oldest and largest communications firms headquartered in Charleston, West Virginia, and with offices in Richmond, Virginia, Columbus, Ohio and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Susan is an expert in issues management and has spearheaded the communications efforts for transportation campaigns, utility, energy and manufacturing projects, controversial elections and health care certificates of need.

” Charlie Ryan had a vision to grow this business from a one-person public relations shop to a multi-disciplined agency, serving clients across the country. “

Susan’s decades of experience have given CRA the perspective to craft solutions that they know will drive results. “Charlie Ryan had a vision to grow this business from a one-person public relations shop to a multi-disciplined agency, serving clients across the country,” says the steadfast leader. “We are proud to be part of that history. Today, we are the largest communications and women-owned firm in our region.”

Susan has seen numerous changes in more than two decades that she has worked at CRA. According to Susan, from communication to technology, everything has transformed making it absolutely necessary to utilize the appropriate communications tools in order to reach their targeted audience. She knows people are overloaded with messages and implementing a targeted communications plan is of extreme importance. “It’s not enough to be flashy — you have to be relevant. It’s not enough to pop — you have to sustain. It’s not enough to jump onto the latest trend — you have to know your audience,” says Susan. “When the right tactics are combined with proven experience it is more than just marketing, it is smart brand communications.”

Susan says that when new clients come to CRA, what they are looking for varies while some know exactly what they want, some know little about they need. “They just know they need to communicate a message. So that’s why it is important for us to take the time to listen to a client – really listen – and understand their goals,” she explains. “We tailor communications plans to each and every client. We don’t believe in the cookie-cutter approach. It certainly doesn’t work in today’s world of communications. Every client deserves an individualized plan, born of experience and tailored to meet specific needs and budget.”

It is important for CRA that their executive management team and staff have time to volunteer and give back to the communities. The company offers their employees paid time off to volunteer with organizations of their choosing as they want to inculcate a nature of passion in them towards their own causes. CRA believes every business has a responsibility to give back to its respective community, because if people want their community to thrive and be a great place to work, live and raise kids, then each one has an obligation to help with that effort.

The goal for CRA is to be a great place to work and do business. It is pertinent to mention that clients hire CRA for their expertise and dedication and retaining the best talent is the life blood of the agency. “I am privileged to work every day with smart, dedicated and hard-working individuals,” says Susan. Motivating the young women entrepreneurs, Susan says that a young woman especially the working mom has always been characterized as Super Woman, but that is not the reality. “Women need to understand that it is not easy! They need to be bold about what they want. Work hard, work smart, make yourself invaluable and find a company that appreciates that and will provide you flexibility to have a work/family balance,” elucidates Susan, who is truly a role model for all women around the globe.

Lori Asbury is one of the original founders of CMOco and has guided the firm’s evolution since 2011. Upon the marketing firm’s inception, Lori co-owned the business alongside a digital marketing agency. Initially, the digital agency supplied infrastructure and resources to manage many of CMOco’s accounts. Over time, the President & CEO of CMOco began to build her internal infrastructure to serve clients more efficiently and expediently and capture more margin on the business being generated. In 2015, she bought out her partner’s business share, and Lori became the sole owner, making CMOco a 100% certified woman-owned small business. In that time, Lori has implemented many strategic initiatives to drive revenue and expansion outside of the firm’s traditional accounts, which includes the recent formal strategic partnership with Innovative Product Brands (IPB), a leading medical & dental device manufacturer located in Highland, California. CMOco is working with IPB as a sales agent for the company’s GrooveSwab (sterile flocked & non-flocked collection swabs) & the SteriFlock Oropharyngeal and Nasopharyngeal Sterile Collection Swabs used in COVID19 testing, among other applications.

“CMOco’s value proposition has evolved. Initially, the focus was operating as an organization’s Chief Marketing Officer if one didn’t exist internally within the company.”

CMOco’s value proposition has evolved. Initially, the focus was operating as an organization’s Chief Marketing Officer if one didn’t exist internally within the company. “What we learned is that once we developed the strategy, the companies we served had no knowledge or infrastructure in place to be able to implement the strategy. We had those resources and expanded them over time to be able to morph from being just our client’s CMO into their entire marketing team,” explains Lori. “CMOco operates like an organization’s in-house TEAM, providing the full resources of our firm for the same price a company would pay a mid-level marketing employee. No risk, no overhead. No long-term commitment required. We provide a seasoned results-driven CMO, backed by a skilled marketing team, to manage an organization’s monthly marketing and advertising activities. Just one flat monthly fee.” CMOco also operates as a full-service traditional advertising agency developing multi-layered ad campaigns and implementing those campaigns from start to finish – and does so for many clients.

When CMOco first onboards a new client, they don’t immediately jump straight to implementing marketing tactics without first having a strategic marketing roadmap in place. “We first start with quickly immersing ourselves in our client’s business. We want to know what they feel their competitive advantages are and how they are differentiated and unique,” says Lori. “When we have these key factors determined, then we can more easily identify the best marketing tactics, appropriate messaging and customer touchpoints to motivate and inspire their target customers into action.”

For instance, CMOco developed a comprehensive geofence and lead generation campaign for Premiere Martial Arts which consists of 85 locations across the United States. CMOco utilized multi-platform digital marketing techniques and technologies to reach multiple target audiences. Each campaign had unique creative to appeal specifically to each target audience. CMOco leveraged a paid premium social media campaign, Google Ad Words, and website retargeting – all with a tight geo-fence around each of the 85 US locations to drive awareness, lead conversion and sales. Each target audience was served custom display or video ads that had specific messaging to inspire them into action. Once engaged, customers were retargeted with messaging based on where they either opted in or out of the sales funnel. If customers opted in, they were served “thank-you” and “next steps” messaging. If they abandoned their cart, or only made it partially through the sales funnel, they were sent custom ads to reengage them. “The great thing about digital marketing technology is that it allows you to get very granular in how you target and engage consumers. Using a push-pull strategy across layers of target-audiences allows us to capture more campaign share-of-voice, and drive a higher rate of conversion,” said Lori.

For the days to come, Lori aims to build value for the company outside of her personal intellectual property; create new, recurring, and sustainable revenue streams that aren’t necessarily tied to their core account business, while at the same time continuing to add more accounts monthly. “I have added three new business development team members in the past two years focused on various regions throughout the country and launched several non-traditional programs to drive growth,” says Lori. IE

CMOco

Management

Lori AsburyPresident & CEO of CMOco

– Chief Marketing Officers for Hire

Description

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Stephanie Broyles, CMO, Fidelis Cybersecurity, is smart, talented, and driven. She is an energetic powerhouse who understands market (and human) dynamics, customer needs, business opportunities, and flawless execution. Her energy, innovation, and “get it done” attitude actively transform and improve Fidelis Cybersecurity.

According to Stephanie, every woman confronts gender-related bias and roadblocks in the workforce. “I had an outstanding manager early in my career who recognized that I was not earning as much as a male peer even though I had more responsibility. They helped me overcome that challenge,” she says. “As a woman, you don’t want to come across as combative or defensive. Women need to know the delicate balance of being assertive and not appearing aggressive. Men don’t need to learn this.” She goes on to add, “I developed into who I am today by stepping out of myself to become the person that I would want to work with and admire. How did I do this? I set up a lot of calls and meetings with managers, mentors, respected peers, and leaders over many years to learn from them, and I still do this today.”

Stephanie sees and evangelizes the enormous opportunities for women in business and marketing throughout the tech industry and beyond. Stephanie strives to be an expert in her craft and vocal advocate for personal growth, professional development, and ongoing training. She leads by example in many ways. “She has always strived to be an expert at what she does – to understand as well as improve – which truly makes a difference in leaving her mark and leaving things better than the way she discovered them,” says Maria Romito, Director, Demand Gen (and serial Stephanie team member) at Fidelis Cybersecurity.

“Stephanie has always strived to be an expert as what she does – to understand as well as improve – which truly makes a difference in leaving her mark and leaving things better than the way she discovered them,” says Maria Romito, Director.

She also is incredibly passionate about mentoring others. In particular, Stephanie is deeply committed to the professional advancement of women and mentoring up-and-coming marketing professionals. She is a founding member in chief and an original member of the Cybersecurity Marketing Society.

Her energy, enthusiasm, and “never give up” attitude is contagious. “She has made herself available to me numerous times over the span of my career. She has served as a sounding board for ideas, and given guidance around next-level job growth, as well as how to balance career and demands of raising children. Her insights have served me well, and because I viewed her as a ‘people first leader’, I always knew she had my best interests at heart,” continues Romito. “Stephanie is a forward-thinking and persistent leader who can work successfully cross functionally between internal and external teams. Her mentorship and guidance gave me the confidence to persevere through roadblocks,” adds Amy Heng, Security product marketing manager, Splunk.

Stephanie goes on to explain that many women suffer from impostor syndrome. For her, it manifested itself in public speaking. She was scared of it and would pass on speaking at user conferences, shows, and other events. “I am a natural introvert, and the environment of public speaking, being on stage, was just the last place I believed I should be. As I said before, I am always learning. I watched other people present. Keynotes. TedTALKs. I watched how they command an audience,” she elucidates. “As I gained knowledge, I realized that speaking was not knowledge of all, but experience to know where to find the answers if you did not have them. I overcame my fear of the stage when a couple of situations occurred, and I had to pinch-hit. I learned in real-time. I was able to present and command authority on the topic of discussion. During Q&A, probably what I most feared, I realized I did not have to have all the answers. Instead, I asked for the opportunity to circle back. It was an excellent way to establish an even more robust professional network.” Armed with such a responsible attitude, Stephanie has taken the company to new heights.

Fidelis Cybersecurity was founded in 2002 and is a leading provider of proactive cyber defense solutions that safeguard modern IT environments with unparalleled detection, deception, response, and cloud security capabilities. They help organizations find, study, neutralize and remove threats earlier – whether cloud, multi-cloud, on-premise or hybrid environments. Fidelis Cybersecurity is dedicated to helping clients become stronger and more secure. The company is trusted by many top commercial, enterprise, and government agencies worldwide. IEWL

Fidelis Cybersecurity

Management

Stephanie Broyles
Chief Marketing Officer of Fidelis Cybersecurity

Description

Fidelis Cybersecurity, the industry innovator in proactive cyber defense solutions, safeguards modern IT environments with unparalleled detection, deception, response, cloud security, and compliance capabilities. We offer full visibility across hybrid environments via rich, dynamic cyber terrain mapping and multi-faceted context and risk assessment. These features help minimize attackable surface areas, automate exposure prevention, threat detection, and incident response, and provide the context, accuracy, speed, and portability security professionals need to find and neutralize adversaries earlier in the attack lifecycle. With Fidelis, organizations emerge stronger and more secure. Fidelis is trusted by many top commercial, enterprise, and government agencies worldwide. For more information, please visit www.fidelissecurity.com.