By Ambassador Gianna Angelopoulos, Vice-Chairman of the Dean’s Council of the Harvard Kennedy School In May 2000, I received a call asking me to take over the Athens Olympic Games Organizing Committee. Three years earlier, I had led and won Athens’ successful bid for the 2004 Olympics. Now I was being asked to rescue an [...]
‘Extraordinary Lives’ Category
Intrepid Woman: Ambassador Gianna Angelopoulos on the Journey to Leadership
by melissa
Intrepid Woman: Rupali Deshmukh on Remaking Veteran Transitions
By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City) Last week, Accenture launched a new online Military Career Coach tool for veterans transitioning from military roles to the private sector. Rupali Deshmukh, Military Sourcing Lead at Accenture, considers the tool an extension of one-on-one coaching she has been doing for veterans. Now, she says, the online tool [...]
Intrepid Woman: Silje Vallestad Discusses Her Journey from Idealist to Innovator
By Michelle Clark (Keene, New Hampshire) Silje Vallestad did not major in technology, nor did she ever plan to make her mark on the tech industry as Founder and CEO of the mobile app development company, Bipper. Yet here she is, a successful entrepreneur blazing trails in an industry where women are not heavily represented [...]
Intrepid Woman: Jacki Zehner on Bringing Wonder Woman to the Big Screen
By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City) Until the early 2000s, Jacki Zehner was focused on building a stellar career on Wall Street. When she was named partner at Goldman Sachs, she was the youngest woman and the first female trader to have done so. But upon getting involved in leadership, she began to develop [...]
Lean In: A Primer on Owning Your Power
By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City) By now, you’ve probably had time to pick up Sheryl Sandberg’s new book Lean In – or you’ve at least read a few of the reviews. My first take: I liked it, and more than I was expecting to. If you’re in a position to advocate for women [...]
Intrepid Woman: A Pro Bono Secondment Leads to a New Mission in Life
Contributed by Lily Dey, Author, Coach, Accountant & Technologist In the fall of 2011, I knew that my career wasn’t progressing the way I had intended. I’ve always been ambitious, wanting to do more and more with myself, but I’d been stuck in the same role for too long and felt unable to break free. [...]
Intrepid Woman: Kimberly Foss, President & Founder, Empyrion Wealth Management
By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City) “At 11 years old, I realized I wanted to be in money management,” said Kimberly Foss, Founder and President of Empyrion Wealth Management. “I was the youngest of six kids and all I had were hand-me-downs. I wanted Jordache Jeans so bad,” she recalled with a laugh. “I [...]
Intrepid Woman: Claudia Chan, Founder of ClaudiaChan.com and S.H.E. Summit
By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City) According to Claudia Chan, founder of ClaudiaChan.com, women must build stronger relationships with one another in order to unlock our potential for leadership. “When you look at statistics like those from CARE, which show women do 60 percent of the world’s work, yet earn just ten percent of [...]
Intrepid Woman: Theresa Payton, President and CEO, Fortalice
By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City) According to Theresa Payton, President and CEO of Fortalice and co-author of Protecting Your Internet Identity: Are You Naked Online, one of the most important things she has learned throughout her career sounds simple, but it’s something many women find challenging. “Saying no sometimes is actually okay. It’s [...]
Turn Passion into Profit
Contributed by Marcia Wieder In our careers, dreaming is serious business and the driving force for transformation. Without vision companies fail, and without our personal vision, our dreams, our lives can become mundane, redundant, even stagnant. When we are in touch with our passion we have more energy, enthusiasm, and creativity. In a business context [...]






