S pecial R eport 23rd Annual
Awards Athena Private Sector Finalists Athena Public Sector Finalists H onoring W omen in B u siness
Susan Cordts
Susan Cordts is living proof of the old adage “tough times don’t last, but tough people do.” Cordts’ own tough times didn’t last, but her impact on Valley business women is sure to endure. After a 20-year career in medicine (first as a nurse, then as an executive), Cordts returned to school, earned an MBA and became leader of a Phoenix business intelligence firm. She now applies her own life lessons to helping other women succeed professionally and personally. “It’s only through people who believed in me and who were willing to give me an opportunity that I’ve been able to get here,” Cordts says. “My late father always told me that you can do anything you want to do, but you should always be grateful to those who helped you and remember to give back to them.” Cordts’ community service endeavors involve not just sitting on boards, but in actively giving of her time to help the homeless and disenfranchised, to improve our education system and to empower women to reach their true potential.
Debbie Hill
A strong sense of justice and fair play originally led Debbie Hill to the practice of law, but now it is leading her to faraway lands with hopes of making the world a better place. After more than two decades as a successful litigator, Hill is leaving her traditional legal practice behind to pursue her passion in improving education and healthcare for women around the world. “I want to make a real difference in the world, and leave it better than I found it,” Hill says. It’s a natural progression for someone who has mentored other women attorneys, contributed time and efforts to help homeless and domestic violence-ravaged families and championed the causes of those who would otherwise be voiceless. Hill’s vision stretches from Mali in Africa, where she has helped raise funds to build a school, back to our state, where she is one of the founding fellows of the Arizona Justice Project helping the wrongfully convicted and falsely accused.
Jay Parry
Margie Traylor
President & CEO Adaptive Technologies, Inc.
President • La Cerra Sueno
Senior VP of Brand & Business Development • Phoenix Suns
CEO • Sitewire
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Katherine Cecala
Katherine Cecala’s impact on the bottom-line is nothing compared to the lives she’s helped nudge toward the top of their potential. As Chief Operating Officer for Valley of the Sun United Way, Cecala has cut $1 million in expenses, refined procedures, tripled staff training for half the cost and used her law degree (one of three she holds) to do most of the organization’s legal work to save even more money. But numbers don’t measure Cecala’s true influence. She has been a tireless mentor and friend for women hoping to reach their goals, while giving her time to organizations like the Arizona AIDS Project, the Symphony, the State Board for the Blind, Camp Fire and many more. She sees needs and works to meet them, whether it’s by raising money or just raising spirits. “Some people don’t realize their potential,” Cecala says. “I work with a lot of women who have incredible abilities and maybe nobody ever told them that. So if I can help them achieve more by encouraging them, they can be a greater success.”
Pam Gaber
Pam Gaber’s successful sales career has gone to the dogs – and she couldn’t be happier about it. More than a decade after leaving the corporate world to serve the less fortunate, Gaber has built Gabriel’s Angels into a successful charity that provides pet therapy to more than 13,000 abused and at-risk children annually. Gaber also serves on boards of organizations working with children and animals and mentors through the ATHENAPowerLink ® program. While others draw inspiration from her, Gaber is guided by the example of her late Weimaraner, Gabriel, who gave her organization its name and mission. “We started this organization together, and I’m so proud of his legacy and what he’s done to help children in this community,” Gaber says. “I believe animals impact us throughout our lives, but I’m particularly moved by how animals can reach children. Animals and children live in the moment and once that connection is made, the wall comes down and children learn core behaviors that intervene in the circle of violence.”
Success on the basketball court and the financial ledger are goals Jay Parry shoots for every day in her roles with the Phoenix Suns and Mercury. Recently named the new Senior Vice President of the Suns after leading the Mercury to two WNBA titles and revenue growth, Parry will head the team’s brand and business development efforts while continuing to build an environment of teamwork and trust. “A successful team sets high objectives, lofty ones that they’re not sure they’ll ever get to, and then everybody works to figure out how they can do it together,” Parry says. “The only way to achieve those great goals is to work together.” Away from the arena Parry has also been a mentor to other women, founded the Mercury’s Score for Kids program and worked with the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation as a board member and volunteer.
Cindy Gentry
By connecting farmers to customers and by providing fertile ground for women-owned businesses to succeed, Cindy Gentry has become a role model, mentor and community leader. In eight years as Founder and Executive Director of Community Food Connections, Gentry has helped increase the availability of healthy food for the hungry while nourishing opportunities for farmers and entrepreneurs. She has guided dozens of women-owned micro-businesses and built the downtown Phoenix Public Market into the most successful of its kind in Arizona. And she has served on many groups focusing on issues of hunger and helping small farmers struggling to grow. “People need to understand that those who can’t manage to meet their basic needs are not inherently bad people,” Gentry says. “Sometimes society teaches us that if you have a lot of things, you’ve lived your life well, and that if you don’t, you haven’t. I’d like an opportunity to be part of building a community where we look out for each other.”
While she has started and run her own successful companies, Margie Traylor doesn’t measure her accomplishments solely in business terms. Sitewire’s CEO believes strongly in helping others reach their full potential, and business people throughout the Valley have benefitted from her mentoring. “What inspires me is the ability to help other people achieve their own greatness,” she says. “Every day I get out of bed with the idea that I get to influence others to be a better version of themselves.” That influence has paid off, with a bevy of business people crediting Traylor with helping their profits and professional fortunes rise. In addition to mentoring, Traylor stays just as active in the community as she does running her two companies. She has served on multiple boards, provided church services to the homebound and spearheaded Sitewire’s charitable work for St. Mary’s Food Bank, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and Habitat for Humanity, among others.
Sharon KnutsonFelix
Those who help keep us safe can count on having someone watching their backs. Sharon Knutson-Felix, executive director of the 100 Club of Arizona, knows first-hand the burden carried by public safety workers and their families. Having lost a young son and her husband, a highway patrol officer, in tragic accidents, she devotes her professional life to supporting families of police officers, firefighters and other law enforcement workers. “Every day I do my very best to bring attention to not just the hardships of public safety, but the accomplishments as well,” KnutsonFelix says. “I hope everyone realizes that those who serve us and put their lives on the line every day are moms, dads, brothers and sisters, that there are people behind those uniforms.” Knutson-Felix has helped increase the 100 Club’s assistance to public safety families and agencies eightfold in nine years and launched and expanded the Club’s scholarship program which helps those family members pursue higher education. And the same faith that helped this pastor’s daughter get through her own grief now calls her to active participation in her church and with local charities.
O ctobe r 2010
Chief Operating Officer Valley of the Sun United Way
Founder & CEO Gabriel’s Angels
Executive Director Community Food Connections
Executive Director 100 Club of Arizona
www.phoenixchamber.com