Kelly Tomblin’s 30-year history in the energy sector can be defined as driving innovation and transforming companies through initiatives that unleash the human spirit. The focus of the CEO of El Paso Electric is on culture and leadership and taking risks on nontraditional candidates. She says “it isn’t just what we do, but who we are, that drive creativity and success.” She works to create wholesome environments that facilitate authenticity and freedom and talks daily about finding meaning and purpose in the everyday work. She makes sure that El Paso Electric has a compelling Vision that inspires their teams and that they make sure their processes and systems are aligned with that Vison.

“Kelly has had many role models that were appropriate at different times in her career. The founder of INTREN, Loretta Rosenmayer, was a huge role model for Kelly – she always put service before self.”

Kelly as a steadfast leader at El Paso Electric has been inspiring and empowering women entrepreneurs across industries into becoming great leaders with technical know-how. Kelly has written a Guidebook – 100 Days of Doing Power Differently – that helps leaders activate their true power. She has also mentored countless women and helped them develop their own personal roadmaps. Kelly also models risk taking and courageous speaking and has moved to different companies and countries spreading her positivity and idealistic ideology. She bolsters technical know-how by promoting continuous learning and demonstrating how nontechnical women can grasp technical concepts and lead technical companies.

According to Kelly, the first thing that is required to catalyze sustainable change is to listen and understand where the company is now and what has led it to the current state. “While we can always make analogies, every company and situation is unique. We are focused on ESG now and a Unified Framework we believe will promote the next chapter of sustainable change,” she says. “It is always important to find your change agents who are ready to take past experiences – yours and theirs – and learn from it without feeling defensive.” The most important step in leading sustainable change is to build an excited and inspired leadership team, who will in turn help create and synergize that same inspiration throughout the company.

Kelly has had many role models that were appropriate at different times in her career. The founder of INTREN, Loretta Rosenmayer, was a huge role model for Kelly – she always put service before self. Bill Gates – knew when to move on to something else and the work of Simon Sinek always inspires her. Brene Brown and Elizabeth Lesser from Omega are also people she has learned from. These inspirations have shaped Kelly into the pioneering leader she is today leading El Paso Electric towards great heights.

For the days to come El Paso Electric is poised to change the Region’s Energy Landscape through a commitment to cleaner energy, implementation of storage technologies, the use and promotion of electric vehicles, and the movement to a smarter grid. “We are currently building a new efficient power plant to accommodate more renewables. On the customer side, we are working on enhancing the customer experience with more independence and service options,” explains Kelly. “Underneath all that energy transformation is greater information to our customers and to our partners that let them have the energy that fits their needs.” The world is demanding more authentic leaders and the workforce of the future will insist on work that is meaningful. For Kelly, inspiration will be declared to be the foundation for innovation and every leader will have to get comfortable taking more risk on each other. It is this nature of hers that has won her numerous awards and accolades including being named the S&P Platts Global CEO of the Year. “Gone are the days when “bosses” only rate their “subordinates.” Leaders will be “rated” by those they are honored to lead,” says Kelly. IE

El Paso Electric Company

Management

Kelly Tomblin
CEO of El Paso Electric Company

Description

Today, El Paso Electric is a regional electric utility providing generation, transmission and distribution service to approximately 384,000 retail and wholesale customers in a 10,000 square mile area of the Rio Grande valley in west Texas and southern New Mexico. Its service territory extends from Hatch, New Mexico to Van Horn, Texas and includes two connections to Juarez, Mexico and the Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE), Mexico’s national utility.

Tina Kuhn, President & CEO of CyberCore Technologies (CyberCore), has 35 years of leadership experience with a variety of customers including the Intelligence Community (IC) Agencies; Defense, state and local governments; and international customers (NATO, AUS, and the UK). Her broad areas of expertise include team transformation, strategy development and implementation, organizational transitions, financial improvements, management of profit and revenue, marketing, staffing, budgeting, mentoring, talent acquisition, cybersecurity, and personnel management. She has performed transitions of organizations from low performing to high performing, efficient teams.

“CyberCore specializes in Mission Services and Lifecycle Information Technology (IT) Solutions including the design, buy, build, integrate, test, deliver, installation, training, and maintenance of mission-critical products and systems.”

Named President and CEO of CyberCore in 2016, Tina has grown CyberCore by diversifying the business base and putting in place growth initiatives to extend its influence nationally. When Tina took over CyberCore, approximately 75% of the company was based on one large contract. She took a risk and changed the focus of the company to diversify the business base, both in work type and customer mix. She created and launched CyberCore’s first product, SecurStak—the world’s first off-the-shelf secure, scalable, and cloud-enabled data center built and delivered in 90 days using a certified, secure supply chain.

According to Tina, it’s important to give people a great working environment because happy and engaged employees work hard to uphold the company name, while providing customers the best service possible. Not only is Tina passionate about the work she does in the community, she also takes immense pride in her employees and the demanding work they do each and every day. Tina’s goal is “Making CyberCore the best place to work, getting us to the next level, and consistently thinking of ways to make our company better for our employees!”

CyberCore specializes in Mission Services and Lifecycle Information Technology (IT) Solutions including the design, buy, build, integrate, test, deliver, installation, training, and maintenance of mission-critical products and systems. CyberCore has unique qualifications to protect our customers’ IT supply chain from malicious and tainted products using supply chain risk assessments. CyberCore develops comprehensive risk assessments for the vendors, distributors, and transportation companies they use. CyberCore has procured over $2B in product for a confidential client. This client needed a standardized process for buying, building, delivering, and maintaining equipment, and CyberCore has aided the client in avoiding over $250M of cost by standardizing the devices and creating efficiencies in their processes.

Tina’s current big project with CyberCore is WindRose and its many supply chain threat assessment features. WindRose cuts through the complexity of global IT supply chain threats and vulnerabilities. WindRose provides a full spectrum analysis of all threat vectors. CyberCore’s WindRose follows a comprehensive supply chain focused analysis framework to mine, correlate, and analyze non-cooperative data across our 5 defined threat vectors including: Cyber Attack Surface; Hardware and Software Risk; Financial Risk; Regulatory and Legal History; and Nefarious Associations and Nation State Influences.

CyberCore’s WindRose was recently recognized by the Washington Technology and Defense Systems with a Government Innovation Award as a 2019 Industry Innovator. CyberCore was also listed as Maryland’s #2 Top Cyber Company in 2019 by the Baltimore Business Journal.

Tina has also made it her goal to develop future women leaders in her profession and community. She is a mentor to women in the government contracting community and supports their careers and business growth. She operates a Women in Government Contracting networking event for women of various stages and positions in their career to bring them together. She has been a mentor at the Women In Intelligence Group (WIIG) and has participated in mentoring panels.

As a beauty lover and innovator, Alice Chang identified a need and use for augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (AI) in the beauty arena as a way to improve the consumer shopping and product trial experience. She recognized how AR and AI technologies could be used to curb consumer pain points eliminating messy and unhygienic product swatching and replacing them with hyper-realistic virtual try-on experiences that rivaled the physical try-on. She also saw a place for beauty technology to integrate across all touchpoints including mobile, online, and in-store. The emergence of a future “Beauty Tech” category motivated her to be one of the first to launch into the space. Her goal was to develop and provide digital-first solutions to enhance the beauty shopping experience for beauty brands, retailers, and consumers alike. She founded Perfect Corp., the leading beauty tech solutions provider and developer of the award-winning YouCam suite of apps, on the basis of innovation and the intersection technology and beauty. With over 280 brand partners around the globe and 850 million app downloads, it is safe to say that was a game-changing and trailblazing vision.

“Perfect Corp.’s innovative beauty tech solutions combine AR + AI technologies to re-imagine the consumer beauty shopping journey through experiential virtual try-ons that drive conversion.”

As the CEO and founder of Perfect Corp., Alice is an innovator who leads by example. As consumer shopping behavior shifts to contactless, virtual try-on and beauty tech solutions are not only proving a fun and convenient way to shop for beauty, but are now essential to the success of businesses online and offline. Consumers have become accustomed to the convenience of try-before-they-buy shopping experiences, yet as global health concerns spike surrounding COVID-19, physical sampling is quickly being replaced by virtual try-ons. Digital try-on technology has become so accurate that consumers now rely on beauty tech as a way of making the most confident purchase decision possible.

Alice’s ‘Beauty 3.0’ vision is at the root of the unique brand and retail business solutions transforming the consumer beauty shopping experience through experiential product trials that drive conversion. Beauty 3.0 is the supercharged combination of hyper-realistic augmented reality (AR) and machine learning artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. The combination of AI + AR unlock a whole new realm of personalized, beauty experiences, that not only show you true-to-life digital beauty trials, but also recommend specific products and styles based on your personal preferences and facial attributes. It’s this unique combination that elevates beauty tech from reactive to proactive. “This powerful technology is at the root of our Skincare Diagnostic which delivers an instant skincare analysis and products recommendations based on your skin health; as well as more integrated services like online Beauty Advisor 1-on-1, which re-imagines the beauty counter experience through an on-demand virtual beauty consultation through your mobile phone,” says Alice. “It’s also the tech that drives our AI foundation shaded finder technology, matching users with their best foundation shade match, and the soon to launch AI Beauty Assistant which helps to recommend styles based on your preferences and attributes.” This powerful beauty tech continues to transform the way consumers shop for beauty, creating more personalized and fulfilling experiences online and offline.

For instance, Neutrogena—a renowned American brand of skin care, hair care and cosmetics—have pioneered the skin tech category with the relaunch of their Skin360 app (powered by YouCam skin tech). The technology eliminated the barrier to entry posed by the need for secondary devices required by their first iteration. This newly relaunched experience delivers a seamless mobile skin analysis for a personalized branded skincare diagnostic directly through a user’s phone.

For the days to come, Skin Tech is a top priority for Alice’s next phase of development. With advancements in AI technologies and mobile camera lens tech, she is just breaking the surface of how technology can be used to benefit the consumer skin health journey. “We have recently expanded our skin health tracking metrics to include 8 common skin conditions including spots, wrinkles, texture, dark circles, hydration, oiliness, redness, and acne,” adds Alice. “With continued advancements in skin health and skin condition tracking, technology can help to match us with personalized skin regimens based on our individual skincare needs and preferences, further building on the personalized, consumer-centric journey across this new AI-powered category.” IE

Perfect Corp

Management

Alice Chang
CEO and founder of Perfect Corp

Description

Perfect Corp. is the world’s leading beauty tech solutions provider transforming the industry by marrying the highest level of augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (AI) technology for a re-imagined consumer shopping experience.

As an 18+ year veteran in the senior living and advertising industries, Jessica is a people person and has had the opportunity to partner with many brilliant and innovative minds and has led many dynamic teams. Yet, this opportunity was different from those in her past.

Jessica’s role with LifeStar Living is the EVP, Sales and Marketing, and the LifeStar Creative, Division President. “For the first time, I’m not simply a consultant sharing best practices and recommendations on what to implement,” she says. “Instead, I am blessed daily with the opportunity to engage with the residents and members we serve at our active living and healthcare communities and to know the work that I’m doing is enhancing their lives.”

The steadfast leader’s passion for this industry is fueled by resident and member stories of family and life achievements, their smiles, and over all gratitude for service to them. This interaction and energy drive Jessica’s passion for innovation and creativity as the Division President of LifeStar Creative. “We are each making a positive difference every single day. We are committed, hardworking, innovative, genuine and trustworthy. We remain confident, yet humble and we have an unquenchable thirst to succeed and evolve.”

“I feel it is important to lead by example. I approach each day with an energy and excitement that is contagious to others.

Jessica currently leads a predominantly female team, and there are a few key principles she reminds them of often; she states:

• We do not have a finger-pointing culture, instead we assume the best of intentions and seek understanding to help lift each other up.

• We have a “fail forward” approach – there will be times we fall, and when we do, we will do so as a team. We identify our missteps and opportunities for learning so we aren’t afraid to try new things and continue to grow and evolve.

• If we are comfortable, we aren’t doing it right – she is constantly pushing her team to think differently, challenge the norm, and reflect on their buying and purchasing decisions and what impacts them daily. If we sit in a comfortable place, we aren’t growing. It is important for us all to be stretched and it is essential in my role as their leader to identify opportunities for growth and to support them on their journey.

I possess a can-do attitude, and this optimism helps the team get through even the hard moments with a solution-oriented mindset,” says Jessica about how she is inspiring people toward becoming great leaders.

“I meet with my team regularly to discuss goals for their career and to further explore their passions.” These can be areas they have expertise in or new areas they’d like to explore. We work together to identify opportunities to pursue and further learning that aligns with their passions. As a female, it’s important to express your dreams and goals because if you aren’t an advocate for your future and success, who will be.

Jessica feels every leader needs to be empathetic. “I was once denied a CEO/President role of an organization because I was told I “feel too much.” That as a CEO it was best to limit the personal relationships with your team because they often interfered with business decisions,” she explains. “I disagreed with the statement, feeling as though people were not widgets and in order to have a strong, engaged team, with a purpose and drive to remain engaged, there has to be personal connections. The team has to feel valued, connected, challenged and also enjoy the individuals they work with daily.”

These relationships certainly can’t get in the way of decisions, but with strong relationships in place and transparency with the team, each business decision has a greater understanding. WL

Laura Owl is the newly appointed Chief Operating Officer for First Nation Procurement Inc. She brings tremendous knowledge with over 22 years of experience in management positions, working with companies and First Nations government and administrations. In 2018 Laura graduated from the prestigious Queens University with her Masters In Management, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship. Since graduating, Laura has used her education to do brilliant transformations and has been extremely successful in working with First Nations and companies to implement quality management systems into their operations and has successfully worked with many First Nations and companies to implement ISO 9001 certification.

When Laura began her career in 1999, she was still very young. “Initially, I felt the need to get the work done, learn from others, and often failed to recognize the strengths I was bringing to the companies I worked for,” she says. “Recognizing this, I had to make changes around the work I was doing and most importantly, how I viewed myself and the contributions I was making.” But the most significant barriers Laura has faced as a female leader have been that often the work she was doing was being overshadowed by her male counterparts, and her work never seemed to be fully recognized.

“Looking back, I see both experiences as game changers for me because it helped to build my confidence. Over time, I became more vocal, asked more questions, learned more about the work we were doing and slowly began to build my confidence and in many ways shaped how I conduct business practices of today,” elucidates Laura. “Now I see it as a blessing in disguise because in learning about processes and people, organizational behaviours and transformatory change, it forced me to look at my own work experiences and have since taken on a more comprehensive and inclusive approach to managing people and companies.”

As an indigenous female Chief Operating Officer, Laura is a huge advocate and support system to female business owners trying hard to establish themselves. She understands the challenges of owning and starting a business and how important it is to be surrounded by supportive people. “In supporting female business owners, I have made myself available for reviews of proposals and other pertinent documentation, participated and coordinated workshops around entrepreneurship, networked on behalf of female owned businesses, and have provided ongoing support as they become operational.”

Going forward, Laura says she would love to see more female entrepreneurs emerge, which is an area she would like to continue to focus on. “Additionally, it’s an area I would like to see incorporated into First Nation Procurement Inc.”

Laura has unique talents when it comes to working with people in any workplace, and she is often revered for her abilities to inspire and empower team members. Through ongoing encouragement, mentorship, and confidence-building in the people she works with, Laura is proud that she has and will continue to work with and inspire our great leaders of tomorrow.

As Laura enters her new position as the Chief Operating Officer with First Nation Procurement Inc., she has already identified plans to incorporate internships and employee engagement. She sees First Nation Procurement Inc. as a leader in creating opportunities for Indigenous people everywhere and will be focusing more efforts in this area because we need more leaders!

“While I have gained tremendous experience and developed my skills over the last 22 plus some years, I am remiss to say I have found success. One because traditionally success has been based on two things, objective and subjective success,” she adds. “If I could give any advice for success, I’d say that understanding yourself as a person, and the unique qualities you can bring to any table will set you apart from others. But more importantly, understanding, appreciating, and validating your employees are where the true success happens because people who feel appreciated will do more.”

As Laura enters this new position, employee engagement and satisfaction will be key in understanding how they can drive improvements and opportunities for First Nation Procurements Inc. She has learned a lot of leadership lessons that are unique to being a female leader, but the one that stands out the most can listen to others and make connections with personnel. She sees this as a vital leadership lesson because it builds relationships and promotes an inclusive workplace that gets work done. WL

Fashion for Patrizia Lazzaro, Vice President Global E-commerce, Guess, is a way of being and expressing personality. “If we look at Guess, the Brand is the expression of being sexy, young and adventurous. If we look at Marciano, the Brand is the expression of elegance and sophistication. Fashion is such a fascinating world, with the capability to externalize and show how we feel inside to anyone around us.”

Guess?, Inc. designs, markets, distributes, and licenses a lifestyle collection of contemporary apparel, denim, handbags, watches, eyewear, footwear, and other related consumer products. Guess? products are distributed through branded Guess? stores as well as better department and specialty stores around the world. As of January 29, 2022, the Company directly operated 1,068 retail stores in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. The Company’s partners and distributors operated 563 additional retail stores worldwide. As of January 29, 2022, the Company and its partners and distributors operated in approximately 100 countries worldwide.

Guess’s main strength and creative force are definitely the people, the Guess Family. All the people working in Guess are the engine of the Brand and the Company, starting from Guess’ founders, Paul and Maurice Marciano.

Being in Guess since 2008, Patrizia had the chance and the fortune to be part of several phases of the Company’s transformation, the most visionary one starting in 2019 when Paul Marciano, together with the Global CEO Carlos Alberini, set the strategy for a combination of Brand elevation, product innovation and redesign, digitalization, online boost, and operational flows improvements, investing a lot of time and energy to make all this happen very quickly. Their vision was embraced by the Company as a whole, supporting them with strong commitment and dedication. GUESS was able, under their direction, to elevate the Guess and Marciano brands, develop collections with excellent and fashionable products, redefine the Company’s global e-commerce strategy, and drive efficiencies across the business, delivering meaningful results.

“We can say that the strategy identified and set at the beginning of 2019 was really an extraordinary vision which helped the Company to navigate through Covid-19 during 2020,” says Patrizia. “Even during the pandemic, while many companies decided to reduce or stop investments, Guess continued investing in digital and online, strongly believing in the potential of the Brand and the capability of the Guess team to be able to navigate through this together with success.”

All the above reflects some of the Guess Rules that Paul Marciano has been stating since the Company was founded: Courage, Get Things Done, Be a good teammate; combined with some of his Personal Values, which Patrizia strongly believes in: Belief, Hope, Never Give up and Trust.

According to Patrizia being a woman is a strength: creativity, imagination, organization, empathy, the capacity of thinking outside the box and being multitasking are excellent. “We must have courage, as Paul Marciano always says, trust in ourselves, hope and never give up until we see our dreams coming true,” she adds. “The key is always looking for a place where women are put at the same level of men, where people are evaluated based on soft, hard skills and results, nothing else.”

For the steadfast leader, the best way to empower team members into becoming great leaders of tomorrow is by projecting self-confidence in them, allowing them to appreciate and develop all their strengths, and work on improving their weaknesses, never forgetting their roots (another Paul Marciano’s Personal Value) keeping a level of humility that engender trust.

“I was entrusted by Paul Marciano to run the e-commerce business and his trust gave me the confidence and strength to do my best. This is the kind of environment I want to recreate in my team.” Good leaders are the ones who work with the team and are not on top of the team. Consequently, a leader must be a good teammate, respect and evaluate everybody’s opinion and contribution, and be open to discussion and explanations. She/He has to be assertive yet flexible, with great communications skills. “Last, but not least, our teams are learning by example, so if we are good leaders, they will learn from us.”

For Patrizia, the future holds limitless possibilities, and she wants to keep on developing e-commerce and omnichannel business and scaling it more and more, being always on top of the best-in-class technology and processes; deeply customer-centric, consistently performing the function of a customer champion and fully understanding their motivations and behaviors. WL

Kristie Bender-Carey is the creative driving force behind Bender-Carey Capital’s programs and services. Determined to bring each project to life and a successful close, she is driven to earn a high level of client retention and customer loyalty. Vital to a consistently growing company, Bender-Carey Capital, LLC focuses on providing an optimal level of service for each client while constantly striving to satisfy customers at a higher rate than the industry average. Their goal is to serve as a performance-proven leader in the financial industry. Through the pillars of excellence, distinction, transparency, trust, and honesty, they aim to satisfy their responsibility to their clientele.

As an eager stockbroker for Searson American Express, Kristie entered her career field as an aspiring entrepreneur with a vision for scaling a portion of the capital market. After selling her company, her efforts led her to become the bank president for Midland States Bank. Although a majority of headstrong men surrounded her, Kristie’s mindset was to learn from a challenging environment, be the first at the table, and the last to leave the room.

While the leading force of men has traditionally dominated the financial realm, the “glass ceiling” was something Kristie intended to shatter. “I watched as women in every industry grew stronger, smarter and applied themselves to transform both regulated industries and outdated stereotypes. I considered myself among the ranks of these influential members and I persisted towards taking my spot among the male-dominated ranks of being a female financial leader.”

From someone who has learned first-hand the challenges of beginning a career in a highly regulated industry, Kristie prioritizes offering her insights to female business owners everywhere. “As women in business, we stand stronger together when we combine our learnings and experiences to make better-informed decisions,” she says. “Strategically speaking, if you’ve got a wealth of knowledge that others can learn from, you should feel encouraged to position yourself as a strong influence that can shift the status quo.” Her foundational piece of advice is that failure is inevitable, “You learn from it, but how you get back up and the choices you make after will determine who you will be. Learn from your industry leaders and don’t allow your vision to be compromised by small setbacks.”

Motivating young entrepreneurs, Kristie adds, “go for it and put yourself out there. Your passion is your “why.” Be good at it, and better yet, be the best at it. So often, I come across individuals who can explain what their role is, but struggle to explain why they do it.” Based on the Golden Circle theory, great leaders understand their value proposition, which is how they truly differentiate themselves from others. “As I promote continued education to encourage others to stay on top of new advances in cutting-edge technology, I also strive to educate others on the importance of communicating your “why.” In combination with giving back to the community that supports you, there’s a humbling feeling from being able to learn, do, and teach others.” Armed with a unique mindset, Kristie has taken the company to great heights.

As the financial industry continues to experience disruptions from the modern digital transformation, Kristie and her team will continue scaling operational growth. They envision providing industry-leading capital and cutting-edge products and services. Setting the industry standards exceeding client expectations is their number one priority. “From a personal standpoint, the future is highly opportunistic as more female business owners begin to realize their potential. I’m enthusiastic about being able to contribute my knowledge to help others grow in both a professional and individual manner.”

The company’s mission is to be the nation’s premier commercial real estate middle-market lender by leveraging its deep expertise, robust network of relationships, and the latest technology. Bender-Carey Capital builds long-term client relationships with a results-oriented approach, producing innovative solutions swiftly and efficiently. Kristie and her real estate finance professionals provide creative and tailored solutions for complex financial transactions. Real estate owners needing immediate access to flexible capital can rely on Bender-Carey Capitals’ nationwide lending solutions to ensure success. They seek investment opportunities with economic upside and sound fundamentals, allowing real estate owners to acquire, refinance, or enhance distressed and non-distressed properties.

Bender-Carey Capital actively pursues financing opportunities for commercial real estate assets, including multifamily, industrial, office, hospitality, medical, and retail. Bender-Carey Capital provides solutions during all phases of an assets life cycle, including predevelopment, construction, renovation, adaptive reuse, lease-up and stabilization loans. WL

Fashion for Patrizia Lazzaro, Vice President Global E-commerce, Guess, is a way of being and expressing personality. “If we look at Guess, the Brand is the expression of being sexy, young and adventurous. If we look at Marciano, the Brand is the expression of elegance and sophistication. Fashion is such a fascinating world, with the capability to externalize and show how we feel inside to anyone around us.”

Guess?, Inc. designs, markets, distributes, and licenses a lifestyle collection of contemporary apparel, denim, handbags, watches, eyewear, footwear, and other related consumer products. Guess? products are distributed through branded Guess? stores as well as better department and specialty stores around the world. As of January 29, 2022, the Company directly operated 1,068 retail stores in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. The Company’s partners and distributors operated 563 additional retail stores worldwide. As of January 29, 2022, the Company and its partners and distributors operated in approximately 100 countries worldwide.

Guess’s main strength and creative force are definitely the people, the Guess Family. All the people working in Guess are the engine of the Brand and the Company, starting from Guess’ founders, Paul and Maurice Marciano.

Being in Guess since 2008, Patrizia had the chance and the fortune to be part of several phases of the Company’s transformation, the most visionary one starting in 2019 when Paul Marciano, together with the Global CEO Carlos Alberini, set the strategy for a combination of Brand elevation, product innovation and redesign, digitalization, online boost, and operational flows improvements, investing a lot of time and energy to make all this happen very quickly. Their vision was embraced by the Company as a whole, supporting them with strong commitment and dedication. GUESS was able, under their direction, to elevate the Guess and Marciano brands, develop collections with excellent and fashionable products, redefine the Company’s global e-commerce strategy, and drive efficiencies across the business, delivering meaningful results.

“We can say that the strategy identified and set at the beginning of 2019 was really an extraordinary vision which helped the Company to navigate through Covid-19 during 2020,” says Patrizia. “Even during the pandemic, while many companies decided to reduce or stop investments, Guess continued investing in digital and online, strongly believing in the potential of the Brand and the capability of the Guess team to be able to navigate through this together with success.”

All the above reflects some of the Guess Rules that Paul Marciano has been stating since the Company was founded: Courage, Get Things Done, Be a good teammate; combined with some of his Personal Values, which Patrizia strongly believes in: Belief, Hope, Never Give up and Trust.

According to Patrizia being a woman is a strength: creativity, imagination, organization, empathy, the capacity of thinking outside the box and being multitasking are excellent. “We must have courage, as Paul Marciano always says, trust in ourselves, hope and never give up until we see our dreams coming true,” she adds. “The key is always looking for a place where women are put at the same level of men, where people are evaluated based on soft, hard skills and results, nothing else.”

For the steadfast leader, the best way to empower team members into becoming great leaders of tomorrow is by projecting self-confidence in them, allowing them to appreciate and develop all their strengths, and work on improving their weaknesses, never forgetting their roots (another Paul Marciano’s Personal Value) keeping a level of humility that engender trust.

“I was entrusted by Paul Marciano to run the e-commerce business and his trust gave me the confidence and strength to do my best. This is the kind of environment I want to recreate in my team.” Good leaders are the ones who work with the team and are not on top of the team. Consequently, a leader must be a good teammate, respect and evaluate everybody’s opinion and contribution, and be open to discussion and explanations. She/He has to be assertive yet flexible, with great communications skills. “Last, but not least, our teams are learning by example, so if we are good leaders, they will learn from us.”

For Patrizia, the future holds limitless possibilities, and she wants to keep on developing e-commerce and omnichannel business and scaling it more and more, being always on top of the best-in-class technology and processes; deeply customer-centric, consistently performing the function of a customer champion and fully understanding their motivations and behaviors. WL

Sohalia Mosaddegh is a Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) and CEO of Physical Therapy and Sports Medicine Center. Dr. Mosaddegh earned a Bachelor of Science in physical therapy from Howard University. She received her doctoral degree from the Arizona School of Health Sciences. Her research focused on the effectiveness of physical therapy diagnoses of lumbar disease versus MRI. Dr. Mosaddegh has worked in the orthopedic and sports medicine field for more than 20 years.

Orthopedic injury, sports injury, work related injury, and trauma can cause pain, limited function and downtime from enjoyable activities. Physical Therapy and Sports Medicine Center is here to help ease your pain and restore movement and function, so you can get back in the game, return to work, and resume your life! The professional staff at Physical Therapy and Sports Medicine Center is highly trained in physical therapy, with over 16 years of outpatient orthopedic physical therapy experience.

Dr. Mosaddegh and her practices offer patients the most advanced physical therapy for optimizing movement, function, and health. She is guided by integrity, life-long learning, and a commitment to her patients’ health. She is dedicated to using evidence-based physical therapy throughout the continuum of care to improve her quality of life. Dr. Mosaddegh says, “I have the privilege to work with everyone from middle school and high school athletes, professional tennis players, weekend athletes, and older adults and injured workers. I chose the physical therapy field because it combines the human body with exercise and movement.”

Armed with such a unique ideology, Dr. Mosaddegh has taken the company to new heights. The plan for PTSMC was to create a physical therapy company that was not only profitable but also was led by a healthcare practitioner that understood the needs of the patient come first and to understand what the healthcare provider needs to be a successful physical therapist. What brought Dr. Mosaddegh to this point was working for a very successful PT company, but the numbers were the most important to them (profit margin), and they forgot that this was a healthcare company, and she did not want that happen at PTSMC. “Our motto is treating the patients like they are your mother, father, sister, and brother, and with the utmost compassion and care.”

The steadfast leader has been a support system to the female business leaders who are out there trying hard to establish themselves. “I always help, support, and share my knowledge and experiences with female business owners trying hard to establish themselves.” She has been an inspiration to her team, empowering them to become great leaders of tomorrow. “I believe leading by example is the most important aspect of creating great leaders. Hard work, respecting all team members, looking at their strengths, respecting one another, and learning to work as a team.”

For Dr. Mosaddegh attaining success is a continuing journey, “there are days that you feel you have finally made it and something happens and you have to step back and make changes to be able to stay successful. I think the most important thing about running a successful business is being adaptable to change, having a level head, and a great team.”

The most critical leadership lesson Dr. Mosaddegh learned from her father—who treated her brother and her the same teaching them how to lead with strength and perseverance. “He did not tell me “I can’t, but always said try it.”

Women are placed in specific roles when young, which sticks to them. Women need to believe they can do it and have a support system. I don’t think there is a uniqueness about being a female leader but believing you can do it and surrounding yourself people who believe in you and help you achieve it.”

For Dr. Mosaddegh and her organization, the most significant achievement has been allowing and teaching their healthcare providers to treat how they need to treat by educating them and supporting them when Ins. issues come up. “For the near future, I would like to spend more time with my group of PTs and PTA’s.

Spend more time listing to their needs, educating them, and assisting them to become the best practitioners they can be,” she says. “When it comes to PTSMC, we are still working on growth by staying focused on our strengths, encouraging a healthy work environment to improve relationships, collaboration, and efficiency.” She adds, “I would like to highlight that a successful company is not successful by just one person; it takes a village (that village are your wonderful, hardworking, supportive employees. I could not be here without the ones with me now and those who have moved on.” WL

The CEO of The Irish Centre for Business Excellence, Linda Barron, has tremendous passion in terms of the services provided by The Irish Centre for Business Excellence. She always has belief in both the team and what the company represents. Linda has great drive and positivity, which comes across when dealing with our members and all other stakeholders.

Linda’s vision collaborating with Skillnet Ireland to grow the Aviation Skillnet to its full potential has been Multi-tasking – Delegation – Trusting team. Linda would always encourage and communicate positively with the team; she has extraordinary emotional intelligence skills. “We are now running National & International Conferences, Digitalization Summit, Research in the Future of Work, leadership Forums, collaborating with universities on creating industry led training programs and building ICBE’s Network internationally.”

She demonstrates perseverance and passion in everything she does. Her strong sense of vision and purpose enables her to identify new and innovative opportunities for the business and pursue them with confidence and determination. “I enjoy seeing younger females today with more confidence and ambition earlier in their careers.

“If I had known then what I know now” is a phrase that comes to mind, therefore I believe encouraging from the cradle to boardroom. Women must inherently know that senior positions are not just for the few but are necessary for the majority,” explains Linda. She believes that networking is essential and establishing support and training for upcoming female leaders. “The Aviation Skillnet are also working to highlight to the younger population the diverse and exciting roles that exist for women in the aviation sector. This is envisaged to be an annual event with a yearly calendar of events to showcase what prospects are out there for women in what is widely regarded as a male-dominated sector. I am delighted that more and more male leaders are increasingly getting involved in these initiatives; this is essential.”

In recent years the company has seen great team transformation, and again this comes from the belief that Linda has shown to the team. Positivity and encouragement are always shown towards the team and appreciation for all business areas from finance to activity, marketing, sales, etc.

She leads by example and is not afraid to take risks. She encourages adaptability within the team to constantly respond to the ever-changing demands of the work environment. She supports and encourages new initiatives undertaken by her team and provides guidance and leadership. She demonstrates high levels of emotional intelligence and is personally committed to helping others reach their potential.

“I don’t think you find success; success is a broad term and means very different things to different people. If reaching the role of CEO is a success then I would have to say that always being conscientious and diligent would be critical, show and share empathy. Primarily, and this goes against many ideas but “it is not about you.” It is always a collective and team mindset that gets results,” says Linda. “Do not be intimidated by a room full of men, they walk in the room with the same credentials, the same worries and are individuals as are we all, unique and fallible. Focus on the now.”

Some of the company’s achievements include ICBE positively embracing the challenges presented by the global pandemic. The profile and reputation of the organization have grown from strength to strength and are steadily gaining an international presence as part of its strategic goals.

“Being in business a long time is a great achievement, but unless you have ambitious strategies and ensure your team are engaged and invigorated you will not get the desired results,” elucidates Linda. “You may get there eventually but, in my experience, if you invest and share the organizational goals (bring the team on the journey not just invite them for updates on what the journey is) you get there a lot quicker. The business has grown but has also maintained its core values and mission as it has progressed. The organization employee retention rate is over 90% over a 10-year period.”

For the days to come, Linda wants to continually learn, “there is so much to know out there!! I never want to get complacent and always reach higher than is comfortable.” The Irish Centre for Business Excellence is looking to collaborate more on a global platform and aim to inspire and share insights for their members that will continually enhance the individual and the organization. WL