May 2013
5 posts
2 tags
Lise Luttgens Leads the Girl Scouts of Greater LA...
The first CEO of the Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles (GSGLA), Lise L. Luttgens assumed the role in late 2008 following the merger of six Los Angeles area legacy Girl Scout councils. Since then, she has focused her time and efforts on building a strong and effective council that serves its young and adult members. To accomplish this, Luttgens brought together a highly talented group of internal...
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Patricia Smith, Compassion Fatigue Specialist
Many caregivers forget to care for themselves. When this happens, destructive behaviors such as apathy, bottled up emotions, isolation, and substance abuse can rise to the surface and lead to compassion fatigue, also known as secondary traumatic stress disorder. This is why journalist and certified compassion fatigue specialist Patricia Smith founded the Compassion Fatigue Awareness Project and...
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Senior-Level Health Care Executive Cástulo de la...
If the definition of an entrepreneur is creating success where none existed or filling an unfilled niche, Cástulo de la Rocha could be considered an entrepreneur of his own life. When he arrived in the United States from Mexico at age 11, he was in many ways a blank slate, with no formal education. In the next seven years of the turbulent 1960s, he attended public school and received an education...
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David Jacobs, Champion Skier and Founder of Spyder
Former competitive skier and Spyder founder David Jacobs began skiing when he was 13. At age 21, he won the Quebec Kandahar, Canada’s ski equivalent to the Superbowl. A few years later, he earned the title of Canadian Downhill Ski Champion and joined the Canadian National Ski Team. During the spring of 1964, Jacobs went on a skiing trip in France with his friends in the French national team...
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Trident Research: Specialized Military...
Having spent more than a decade working for a US Navy research laboratory, Miguel Cardoza knows firsthand the personal satisfaction that comes from developing and fielding instrumentation for the Department of Defense. However, he noticed that his previous working environment emphasized creativity but neglected engineering discipline and product focus, so he founded Trident Research in 2001.
...
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Martin E. Segal, Benefits Expert and Civic Leader
Headquartered in New York City, The Segal Company is a leading benefits, compensation, and human resources consultancy founded by Martin E. Segal in 1939. During and after World War II, Segal played a key role in the creation and establishment of health and pension benefits for employees, leading him to be recognized as an authority on health insurance, pension, and collectively bargained...
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John T. Becker, Eurpac Founder and Notable...
Michigan native John T. Becker joined the US Navy after graduating from Michigan State University in 1942 and commanded a US Navy patrol craft in the Aleutian Islands during World War II. Following his return to civilian life, Becker founded Eurpac in 1951 in Paris, France, and subsequently led the company for the next 59 years. Now headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, Eurpac has become one of...
April 2013
11 posts
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Dale Swanson: Aluminium Industry Innovator and...
Headquartered in Spokane Valley, Washington, with 66 locations in 31 countries around the world, Pyrotek is a leading international company specializing in the development, production, and sale of high-temperature materials for industrial applications. Founded by Dale Swanson in 1956, Pyrotek is now a recognized leader in the global aluminium industry, providing innovative solutions for the...
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Industry Leader Dr. Roger Levin Helps Fellow...
A third generation general dentist, Roger P. Levin, DDS, always knew that he would follow in his grandfather’s and father’s footsteps and become a dentist. After graduating from the University of Maryland School of Dentistry in 1982, he joined his father, Dr. Jules Levin, in practice, working full-time with patients and learning how a successful dental office operated. With a keen...
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Dominican University President Donna M. Carroll...
In 1994, Donna M. Carroll was appointed as Dominican University’s first lay president. At 39 years of age, she also became one of the youngest university presidents in the United States. Under her leadership, enrollment at the private Catholic university doubled, the operating budget more than tripled, and a satellite campus was added. US News & World Report ranks Dominican as one of the...
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World Wide Technology's David L. Steward,...
The winner of the 2012 Black Engineer of the Year Award, David L. Steward is the founder and chairman of World Wide Technology, Inc. (WWT), the largest African American-owned company in the United States. A leading systems integrator that delivers innovative technology and supply chain solutions to the commercial, telecom, and government sectors, WWT specializes in data center and virtualization;...
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Dr. Paul E. Jacobs, Mobile Communications Leader...
2013 Edison Achievement Award recipient Dr. Paul E. Jacobs is chairman of the board and CEO of Qualcomm Incorporated, a global semiconductor company that makes and markets digital wireless telecom products and services. Dr. Jacobs joined the company in 1990 as a development engineer and later became vice president and general manager of the combined handset and integrated circuit division. An...
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Kip Tindell, CEO of The Container Store, on...
Kip Tindell is one of the three co-founders of The Container Store, the first retail store devoted to storage and organization solutions. Today, Tindell continues to lead the company he co-founded more than 30 years ago as chairman and CEO. He believes that one can build a better company on love than on fear – a philosophy that’s evident in his business and leadership style. At The Container...
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Denise Wilson, Aviation Business Leader
Denise Wilson began her career as an airline pilot and subsequently joined the field of corporate and business aviation. In 2007, after seeing what other businesses were doing wrong, she founded Desert Jet to bring together the desert’s corporate flight departments as a cooperative and thereby decrease the cost of aircraft operating expenses. A full-service aviation management company,...
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Julie Haley, From Attorney to IT Firm CEO
Former commercial litigation attorney Julie Haley co-founded IT firm Edge Solutions with her husband Michael in 2008. Based in Alpharetta, Georgia, Edge Solutions specializes in providing storage, server, and networking services to organizations across the US, particularly in the Southeast.
During the years he ran the Hewlett-Packard division for a distributor, Haley’s husband saw what...
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High Standards and Peer Recognition in Florida
Excelling in his field, Florida attorney Lloyd Schwed has repeatedly earned Martindale-Hubbard’s AV Peer Review Rating, voted on by fellow attorneys and judges. In 2011, in recognition of his ethical standards and legal expertise, he garnered the AV Preeminent Peer Review Rating, the pinnacle of peer acknowledgement. The BTI Consulting Group also named Lloyd Schwed among the nation’s top 134...
March 2013
9 posts
1 tag
Carlton Hobbs: Profile of a Globally Recognized...
Distinguished as one of the foremost experts in his field, antiques dealer Carlton Hobbs has amassed a stunning collection of furniture and artwork that stands apart for quality, distinctiveness, and scope. Focusing on British and Continental pieces from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, Mr. Hobbs currently resides in New York City where he operates Carlton Hobbs Antiques with Stephanie Rinza,...
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Robert LoCascio: Creating Meaningful Connections...
Robert LoCascio never forgot the time he went on the Internet for the first time. The year was 1995, and he was fascinated by the fact that he could connect with millions of people. However, when he was shopping online and needed help, there was no one to assist him. LoCascio found the situation very ironic, and he started dreaming up a solution to this problem. He eventually founded LivePerson, a...
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Michael G. Rubin, Billionaire Serial Entrepreneur
Most 12-year-old kids spend their free time playing video games and watching television. Not Michael G. Rubin – he was already running his own business as a preteen. In 1985, Rubin opened a ski-tuning shop in his parents’ basement and earned $25,000, allowing him to rent space in a strip mall for his business. He made $125,000 by the time he was 14 and acquired a chain of ski shops near his...
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Carolyn Rafaelian, Creative Entrepreneur
Coming from a family of jewelers, jewelry designer Carolyn Rafaelian knew she would continue the family tradition at a very young age. After learning the ropes from her father, she founded her own company, Alex and Ani, in 2004. Headquartered in Rhode Island, the jewelry capital of the world, Alex and Ani became an almost overnight success, catching the eye of fashion editors, celebrities,...
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Richard Ramos: Proof That Hard Work Pays Off
San Antonio entrepreneur Richard Ramos has worked in the home improvement industry for more than three decades, having sold everything from vacuum cleaners to room additions. After selling gutter protection for GutterMaxx, he joined Liberty Builders of Texas, where he led the Gutter Pro division.
In 2009, Ramos came across Green Energy Barrier, a radiant barrier that uses state-of-the-art...
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Richard Zuschlag: The Entrepreneur Who Started a...
Richard Zuschlag was 23 when he co-founded Acadian Ambulance in Lafayette, Louisiana in 1971 after new federal regulations unintentionally caused a medical transportation shortage in the country. Now, more than 40 years later, Acadian is a multi-faceted company that offers a wide range of medical, health, and safety services for individuals and businesses, including emergency medical transports,...
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Successful Entrepreneur Elaine Love Wants the Same...
Entrepreneur, business coach, and professional speaker Elaine Love began her career as a teacher and went on to manage a chain of Goodyear dealerships in Detroit during the ’60s and ’70s. In 1981, she moved to Steamboat Springs, Colorado and purchased a struggling bakery which she ran for five years. Under her guidance, Candy Mountain Culinary Creations went from “financial life...
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Clive Davis Continues to Make Hits in His 80s
Sometimes referred to as “the man with the golden ears”, music exec and Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Clive Davis began his career as a lawyer. After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1956, he joined a law firm that worked with Columbia Records and later transferred to the record label’s legal department. He eventually became president of Columbia in 1967, leading the organization until...
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Sheila Marcelo: Mom of Two Leads the World's...
Sheila Marcelo founded Care.com in 2006 after her family experienced a crisis that required them to seek a nanny. Though they were able to find reliable care, the process wasn’t easy. With her passion for technology and professional background, Marcelo began thinking about a consumer Internet business that could help others avoid the pain and frustration her family went through. Thus, she...
February 2013
8 posts
2 tags
Asmau Ahmed Uses Technology to Help Women Find the...
Like most women, Asmau Ahmed loves shopping. But finding the right beauty products and colors online can be a challenge, and the demands of life and work left her with little time for leisurely browsing. Knowing that there had to be a better way to shop and that such a solution would benefit countless other women as well, Ahmed set out to create a recommendation engine that worked. Armed with her...
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Leo Goodwin, Sr., the Man Who Transformed the Auto...
The founder of the Government Employees Insurance Company (GEICO), Leo Goodwin, Sr. was born in 1886 in Lowndes, Missouri. Educated as an accountant, he established GEICO in 1936 and is known for coming up with the innovative idea of marketing affordable insurance directly to the customer via mail instead of through local agents. Catering to government employees and the top ranks of...
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Tom Gosner, the Father of E-Signatures
Regarded by many as the father of electronic signatures, Tom Gosner is the founder and chief strategy officer of DocuSign, the premier provider of e-signature transaction management solutions. Launched in 2003, DocuSign is a cloud-based electronic signature platform that allows individuals and organizations to securely sign documents on any device without having to print or scan anything. Gosner...
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Emma Elston, Britain's Bin Queen
When Emma Elston and her husband started their waste container refurbishment business 15 years ago, people laughed at them. After unsuccessfully trying to secure financial assistance from the banks, they took out £15,000 on credit cards and operated out of a spare bedroom in their home. While her husband was out repairing waste containers, Elston was calling up local authorities and waste and...
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Jason Franklin, Philanthropy and Social Change...
Leader, educator, author, and speaker. Jason Franklin is the executive director of Bolder Giving, a New York City-based non-profit that inspires and supports people to give more and take more risks in their philanthropic efforts. Bolder Giving collects stories of incredible givers and shares them through presentations, publications, the web, and partnerships with other organizations. The...
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Gregg Saretsky Guides WestJet to New Heights
An aviation industry veteran with nearly 30 years of experience, Gregg Saretsky currently serves as president and chief executive officer of WestJet, Canada’s most preferred airline. He began his career in aviation in 1985 when he joined Canadian Airlines as a route development planner, later rising through the ranks to become vice president of airports and vice president of marketing. In...
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John S. Hendricks: Enabling Millions to Discover...
In 1985, John S. Hendricks launched the Discovery Channel as the first US cable network designed to provide high-quality documentary programming that would allow viewers to explore the world and satisfy their curiosity. Since then, the venture has grown into the world’s number one non-fiction media company, Discovery Communications, with a total of 1.5 billion subscribers in over 200...
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Alan Mulally: From Boeing Engineer to Ford Exec
Engineer and business executive Alan Mulally joined Ford Motor Company in September of 2006 and currently serves as the automaker’s president and chief executive officer. An aircraft industry veteran, Mulally previously spent nearly four decades at Boeing, where he made contributions to the 727, 737, 747, 757, and 767 airplanes. Over the years, Mulally took on roles of increasing...
January 2013
10 posts
2 tags
Macy's Terry Lundgren, Retail Guru
Macy’s, Inc. chairman, president, and CEO Terry Lundgren began his retailing career in 1975 when he joined Bullock’s as a trainee. Bullock’s was a department store owned by Federated Department Stores, Inc., the former name of Macy’s, Inc. Lundgren subsequently held various positions in buying, human resources, store management, and senior level store management. Less than...
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Verisign's Jim Bidzos, Online Security Pioneer
In 1995, Jim Bidzos launched online security and domain name company Verisign to develop the digital certificate infrastructure for e-commerce. An Internet and security industry pioneer, he is also recognized for integrating RSA Security into the early standard-bearer for authentication and encryption. Bidzos served as Verisign’s first president and CEO from April 1995 to December 2001...
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Kendra Scott, Philanthropic Jewelry Designer
Jewelry designer Kendra Scott began her entrepreneurial journey at a young age when she opened a hat boutique in Austin at 19. She later found herself working as an advertising representative, during which making jewelry became her “fun escape.” In 2002, she started her jewelry business with only $500. After her first collection received positive response from customers, Scott focused on setting...
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Serial Entrepreneur Jeff Hoffman: Make Money and...
While still a student at Yale, Jeff Hoffman started his first software company, Competitive Technologies, which quickly became the industry leader in online travel tools and was later acquired by American Express. Since then, the serial entrepreneur and motivational speaker has founded and grown a number of successful startups, including Priceline.com and uBid.com. Hoffman is currently a partner...
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Bob Bentz, Mobile Marketing Expert and Sports...
Seasoned entrepreneur Bob Bentz is the president of Advanced Telecom Services, a Wayne, Pennsylvania-based mobile marketing firm that has been providing interactive telemedia solutions to advertising and media clients for more than two decades. Co-founded in 1989 by Bentz, Advanced Telecom Services offers text message marketing, custom QR codes, mobile websites, apps development, interactive voice...
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Jon Olafsson, Former Media Mogul and Current...
Dubbed the “Richard Branson of Iceland,” Jon Olafsson began his career at the age of 14 as a band promoter in his native country. By the time he was 16, he was managing bands professionally. His passion for music and entertainment led him to found Skifan, the largest music recording and distribution company in Iceland. With Skifan holding distribution rights for a number of music and film...
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Jack Welch, the CEO Who Transformed GE
The former CEO of General Electric, Jack Welch joined the company as a chemical engineer in 1960 after earning his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois. He helped develop a new plastic called PPO and was subsequently promoted to lead the company’s entire plastics division. In 1972, he became GE’s youngest vice president. Following a tenure as...
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Larry Page, Co-Founder and CEO of Google
Born on March 26, 1973 in Lansing, Michigan, Larry Page is a computer scientist and Internet entrepreneur best known for co-founding Google with Sergey Brin. Page developed an interest in technology at a young age – both of his parents were computer experts who taught at Michigan State University, and the family home was filled with first generation personal computers and scientific magazines that...
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Davide Grasso: Nike’s Chief Marketing Guru
Imagine combining a passion for sports, apparel, and business in a job that requires creativity and keeps the entrepreneurial juices flowing. Welcome to Davide Grasso’s world, one where he meets Olympians and works with some of the brightest minds in branding and marketing. As Vice President of Global Brand Marketing at Nike, Inc., he oversees advertising and marketing initiatives in all...
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Wesley Yuan of WEI Mortgage Corporation
A highly accomplished mortgage sector executive with 15-plus years of multifaceted professional experience, Wesley Yuan currently applies himself as President of WEI Mortgage Corporation in Rockville, Maryland. Recognized as one of the region’s most successful lenders, WEI began servicing loans more than a decade ago and has expanded its business considerably since that time thanks to Mr. Yuan’s...
December 2012
9 posts
2 tags
Henry John Heinz, the Man Behind the World-Famous...
Born to German immigrant parents in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on October 11, 1844, Henry John Heinz was an entrepreneur from a very young age. As a child, he sold surplus vegetables from his mother’s garden. By high school, he was running a vegetable delivery business. After graduating from Duff’s Business College, he and his friend L. Clarence Noble started Heinz, Noble & Company...
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Anne Mulcahy: The Woman Who Restored Xerox
The former chairman and CEO of Xerox Corporation, Anne Mulcahy joined the company in 1976 as a sales representative shortly after graduating from college. Over the years, she held senior management positions in sales, marketing, and human resources, as well as oversaw the business division that creates and sells products for retail, reseller, and dealer channels. From May 2000 to July 2001,...
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David Jorgensen, Co-Founder of the Katun...
A highly successful entrepreneur in the technology sector, Katun Corporation Founder David Jorgensen laid the platform for his future professional endeavors as an undergraduate student at the University of Utah. Born and raised in Salt Lake City, Mr. Jorgensen began college with vague plans for his future. Academically motivated but unsure of how to apply his intelligence, Mr. Jorgensen opted to...
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Alfred N. Schindler: Turning a Family Business...
Founded in 1874 in Switzerland by Robert Schindler, the Schindler Group is a leading provider of elevators, escalators, and related services, moving one billion people around the world every day. Between 1985 and 2011, Robert’s great-grandnephew Alfred N. Schindler ran the company, which he set to reorganize after earning his MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of...
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Mallika Srinivasan: India's Tractor Queen
The Economic Times’ 2006 Businesswoman of the Year, Mallika Srinivasan joined her family’s business in the mid-1980s shortly after receiving her MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Her father, industrialist A. Sivasailam, wanted to see what she could do with Chennai-based Tractors and Farm Equipment (Tafe), which was at that time a small, crumbling part of...
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Joseph Segel: King of the Startups
Dubbed “King of the Startups” by Forbes magazine, Joseph Segel is an American entrepreneur best known for founding the Franklin Mint and the QVC Network. When he was 16, he enrolled in the undergraduate program of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, receiving his bachelor’s degree in economics in 1951. Segel went on to become the school’s youngest faculty member,...
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Milton Bradley: The Father of Modern Board Games
Born on November 8, 1836 in Vienna, Maine, businessman and game inventor Milton Bradley began his career as a draughtsman and lithographer. During the Civil War, he decided to create games to lift the gloomy mood of the nation. His board game The Checkered Game of Life, which was designed to provide factual instruction and moral advice to young people, went on to sell 40,000 copies in its first...
