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VOLUME 10 • ISSUE 3 THE LEADERSHIP ISSUE / ÉDITION DE LEADERSHIP AUTOMNE 2024

Your Majesty

Inspired by the ultimate symbol of regal elegance, the notorious Queen of France, Marie Antoinette, The ‘Your Majesty’ collection by Kim Kassas is a celebration of opulence, grace, and individuality. BY SAMANTHA PAIGE

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY KIMKASSASCOUTURE.COM

Long Live the

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QUEEN

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BY LAURIE BOGART WILES

BY MARCY DUBROFF

122 Lady Portrait of A

BY ELAINE BURMEISTER

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Inspiring Women Jessica Word page 138 Anita Zucker page 150 INTERVIEWS BY KAREN FLOYD

The Women Who Lead Shared Knowledge BY LAURIE BOGART WILES

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beauty&style The Beauty Queen.

BY PEARL LUSTRE

fashion&culture The Woman Behind the Label. BY CORA WALDEN

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essentials

Estate Pieces. BY SINDIE FITZGERALD-RANKIN

182

188business&finance philanthropy Guiding Light in Animal Welfare. BY SONIA HENRY

The Keys to Navigating Your Way in Business. BY VERITY GALSWORTHY

200 back story

Team ELYSIAN and the ELYSIAN Circle celebrate an unforgettable Summer magazine launch in Savannah, Georgia.

on the cover

American businesswoman and philanthropist Anita Zucker photographed by Michael Paniccia .

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architecture&interiors Up Stairs & Down. BY CHRISTY NIELSON

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AT THE END OF THE DAY, DON’T FORGET THAT YOU ARE A PERSON, DON’T FORGET YOU ARE A MOTHER, DON’T FORGET YOU ARE A WIFE, DON’T FORGET YOU ARE A DAUGHTER.” —INDRA NOOYI

FORMER CHAIR, PEPSICO

ncharacteristically, I was late in submitting my publisher’s letter for ELYSIAN’s Women CEO and Leadership issue. I struggled writing the quarterly column, overwhelmed with the data that showed obstacles women leaders face, which are significantly disproportionate to men. Noticing my malaise, one of my teammates, tongue in cheek, asked, “Do you ever wish you were a male CEO . . . even if it was just for a day?” We laughed, and I brushed the question off to continue with my writing.

But the thought caused me to pause, and I could not erase the idea from my mind. What would my life have been as a male? So, I decided to put the question on our social media channels and see what others had to say.

They answered. From the scrutiny of women’s appearance to our deep-rooted commitment to caregiving and the gender disparity in self-confidence . . . They felt that women almost always start from behind.

As mothers, wives, and daughters, our paths differ greatly from our male counterparts.

APPEARANCE

Can you imagine how much time would be saved if you did not have to worry about how you looked? Imagine being a man and getting ready in about 15 minutes... shaving, jumping in the shower, brushing your teeth, putting deodorant on, grabbing a suit, and walking out the door. It takes most women a minimum of 45 minutes to get ready for the day. (This does not take into account showering and other basic hygiene.)

Therefore, men statistically have a net 30-minute “time win” every day . . . multiplied by seven days and again multiplied by 52 weeks. If women spent equal time as men readying themselves, we would literally have an additional 182 hours each year to dedicate to something other than appearance. In simple terms, women could free up one full week to focus on empowerment, knowledge, travel, self-improvement, and more.

CAREGIVING

CONFIDENCE

Among the S&P 500, more women are attaining the top jobs, but their numbers remain insignificant compared to men.

I asked many of my contemporaries, “Why?” The response was fascinating. While most women learn the value of failure over time, of the hundreds of women I have interviewed (many of whom are CEOs and thought leaders), one of the most common pieces of advice that they would give their younger self is that they wished they had been told: “failure is nothing more than success turned inside out.” The shared conclusion is that women are hard on themselves and view failure differently than men.

Men are born, raised, and told that they can do and be anything. In Corporate America, this confidence is borne out in the data that shows men in leadership roles are five times more likely to be optimistic and confident that they will beat the previous year’s performance than women. Confidence in women is earned over the years, while with men, it is a societal gift.

I

nitially, we laughed at the idea of being a man for a day, then the idea became intriguing . . . but finally, reality set in. Though it made us chuckle, imagine a world without a woman’s gentle hands, compassionate heart, and selfless love.

My message in this Women CEO and Leadership issue is . . . “Do not forget that you are a mother, do not forget you are a wife, do not forget you are a daughter.” This is what matters the most.

Thank you for believing in the journey and remembering your strength.

With much love,

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Karen Floyd Publisher

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PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL PANICCIA

Women are the hub of the “caregiving wheel,” with the two widest “spokes” being motherhood and eldercare.

Women bring life into this world and bring comfort to loved ones who are departing. Imagine a woman in leadership, a CEO’s enhanced “lift,” and the responsibilities she carries in her private life, with the carry-forward implications of those duties. Her unique perspective on balance, compromise, and peace is heralded by these life experiences.

Consequentially, women spend energy and thought focused more on others’ well-being than on themselves. This, in turn, translates to reduced sleep. Statistically, men sleep 12% more than women. Empirical data shows the importance of sleep, which is essential to every process of the body, including immune response, brain health, and physical well-being.

As the “cultural caretaker,” women quantifiably, whether inside the workplace or at home, sleep less because they are the predominant informal care providers and therefore experience “caregiving stressors” disproportionately from their male counterparts, according to the World Journal of Psychiatry.

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beauty&style

Estée Lauder (1906-2004), co-founder of the Estée Lauder cosmetics company.

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PHOTOGRAPH BY EVENING STANDARD/HULTON ARCHIVE / GETTY IMAGES

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The Beauty Queen

BY PEAR LUSTRE

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American beauty magnate Estée Lauder taking care of household business with the servants in her Upper East Side townhouse.

PHOTOGRAPH BY FAIRCHILD ARCHIVE/PENSKE MEDIA VIA GETTY IMAGES

never saw anyone love to make women beautiful like her. It was in her blood,” reflected Leonard Lauder, 91, billionaire, philanthropist, art collector, and chairman emeritus of The Estée Lauder Companies, Inc., who, with his brother, Ronald, are the sole heirs of the $90 billion-dollar international beauty empire. “I tell people I’m a lipstick salesman,” he grins.

F

ounded in 1946 by their parents, Estée and Joseph Lauder in their kitchen, Leonard “remembered sitting in my high chair in the kitchen and I would see my mother mix her ‘jars of hope’ face cremes on the stove.” She sold them in New York, tempting women with free samples and a three-minute makeover. It became a family business. Her husband, Joseph, kept the books, and a young Leonard packed boxes of powder and cleansing oils. “We had a tiny little factory, and I would go there after school for 25 cents an hour.” In preparation for joining the family business, Leonard received his business degree at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, then studied at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business before enlisting in the U.S. Navy, serving as a lieutenant until 1958, when he received an honorable discharge and began working for the family company, sharing an office with his mother at the Estée Lauder’s first location, at 501 Madison Avenue in Manhattan.

“I would listen to her on the phone, and boy, would I learn. Being in the same office as my mother was extraordinary because I wasn’t her assistant, I wasn’t her little boy, I was a witness. And what lessons I learned just by hearing her talk and getting an insight into her soul.” Added his brother, Ronald, a former United States Ambassador to Austria, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, president of the World Jewish Congress, civic activist, and philanthropist, who worked at the family company from 1964 to 1984 as the head of the International Department: “When I think of my mother, I think of a force of nature . . . and a lot of fun.” Years later, in his 2020 memoir, The Company I Keep, as much about his life growing the Estée Lauder brand as it is a tribute to his mother, Leonard would tell his employees, “I want to have the best company in the world. Nothing less than that.” It worked. Today, the company owns more than 26 brands, including Aramis, Aveda, Donna Karan, AERIN Beauty, Bobby Brown, Clinique, La Mer, MCA Cosmetics, Origins, and Tom Ford Beauty, which are sold in 150 countries and territories, and in 2023 amounted to $15.91 billion in sales.

J

osephine Esther “Eszti” Mentzer, nicknamed Estée, was born an 11-minute subway ride from Midtown Manhattan, in Corona, Queens, Long Island, on July 1, 1908, to Hungarian Jewish immigrants Rose and Max Mentzer. Her childhood dream was to become an actress with her “name in lights, flowers, and handsome men,” but that was not to be her life.

That did not stifle her imagination, though. She would claim that she was descended from blueblood European aristocracy. “She was a New Yorker and not an aristocrat at all,” wrote Lee Israel in his 1985 biography of the extraordinary American businesswoman, Estée Lauder: Beyond the Magic. Her “favorite story was that she had been brought up by her Viennese mother in fashionable Flushing, Long Island, in a sumptuous home with stables, a chauffeured car, and an Italian nurse.”

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PHOTOGRAPH BY FAIRCHILD ARCHIVE/PENSKE MEDIA VIA GETTY IMAGES

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Nothing could be further from the truth. Growing up, Estée, along with her brothers and sisters, worked at the family’s retail hardware store to help make ends meet for the family of ten, five children by her mother’s first husband, Abraham Rosenthal, and three with her second husband, Estée’s father, Max. In her teens, Estée seized the opportunity to work instead for her uncle, Dr. John Schotz, a chemist whose company, New Way Laboratories, formulated facial cremes, lotions, rouge, and fragrances.

She was fascinated by the method involved in creating cremes and lotions formulated to improve women’s skin.

He taught her how to wash your face and give facials properly. She began assisting in the lab and selling New Way products door-to-door until 1930, when she was 21. She married Joseph Lauter, a businessman working in the garment industry on Seventh Avenue in midtown Manhattan, and moved to Manhattan. Their first child, Leonard, was born in 1933, but in 1939, the couple divorced, and Estée moved to Florida. Realizing they were better together than apart, they remarried in 1942, and in 1944, their second son, Ronald, was born. Their second marriage lasted 40 years until Joseph died in 1983.

“My parents had a wonderful partnership. She was the one who came up with creative ideas, all the ideas. My father’s role was the business part,” Ronald said.

“He had an extraordinary sense of humor that could disarm Estée and make her laugh,” said her grandson, William Lauder, CEO of the Estée Lauder Companies.

“We wouldn’t be in business today if it weren’t for him.

But on top of that, he was the person who she most listened to. He truly was my grandmother’s partner.”

Joseph sold his interest in another business to finance the creation of his wife’s company. They changed their surname to Lauder. From the beginning, her vision was to become a skincare specialist. “I didn’t get here by dreaming or thinking about it. I got here by doing it,” Estée said. In 1946, she and Joseph officially launched the company. “We did everything ourselves,” she said of the early days. “We stayed up nights for nights on end, snatching sleep in fits and starts.” She developed her own beauty line, introducing four products, and Joseph managed operations. Determined to have her products available in only the best luxury stores, the Lauders targeted the top market. At first, everyone turned her away, but that didn’t stop her; she wouldn’t give up. She’d wait in buyers’ offices, sometimes day after day. If her calls weren’t returned, she kept calling until she reached them. She wouldn’t quit until she could convince someone to place an order—and when finally, she did, her very first order came from Saks Fifth Avenue in New York.

Any doubts Saks—one of America’s most prestigious retailers—may have had were almost instantly quashed: the first order of Estée Lauder sold out in two days. Her products not only worked, but the results were amazing.

Satisfied customers told their friends. Friends told friends.

Women began asking for Estée Lauder. Dallas-based

Neiman Marcus placed an order, followed by Lord & Taylor and other high-end department stores nationwide.

On Saturdays, she personally worked the Estée Lauder counter at Bonwit Teller’s on Fifth Avenue, New York. In the day, she would sell. She would make her cremes on a restaurant stove in their tiny factory at night. She told her customers, “Your face should look as if you cared, and your best friend is your mirror.”

As

sales grew, so did their manufacturing facilities. Now Estée and Joseph competed against leading, established brands like Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden.

However, Estée had a unique way of doing business.

She offered free makeovers at salons and hotels and the subway. Her unique approach to showing the customer herself, as she wrote in her autobiography: Every day I touched 50 faces. And women lined up, thrilled at the transition it took to go from mundane to magnificent with Estée Lauder cosmetics and skincare. “I’d make up every woman who stopped to look. I would show her that a three-minute makeup could change her life,” Estée said.

Packaging was extremely important to Estée. “I knew women would not buy cosmetics in garish containers that offended their bathroom décor. I wanted them to be proud to display my products.” But that wasn’t enough.

If the couple were to gain the exposure they needed to support sales, they had to advertise. However, again and again, agencies turned them down because no matter how large they saw their prospects and how certain they were of their future, the advertising agencies deemed them too small an account even to bother taking on. Estée and Joseph had no alternative but to make their own way—and in doing so, they invented a new type of marketing that would become their signature way of selling and redefine how cosmetics worldwide would be sold. They took the $50,000 they had saved for advertising and instead produced free samples they would distribute through point-of-purchase at the sales counters that sold their products, through direct mail, charity giveaways, and as incentive gifts with purchases. The famous Estée Lauder gift bags were so successful that there is a story that Saks Fifth Avenue was mobbed by wealthy ladies who wanted to buy her lipsticks after gift bags containing lipsticks were given away at a charity ball the evening before at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on Park Avenue in New York.

Marvin Taub, the former CEO of Bloomingdale’s, once called her “the world’s finest salesperson.”

Estée’s address book—today, we would call it a database—contained the names and phone numbers of every fashion editor in the city. She phoned for appointments to demonstrate the company’s line of cremes and lipsticks to them in person. This small, chic, beautifully groomed woman who personified chic

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and elegance in her fine suits, beautifully coiffed hair, and perfect makeup was a dynamo personality and unstoppable saleswoman who never took ‘no’ for an answer. The thing was, she never had to. The editors were so smitten with the quality of the Estée Lauder line that they needed little convincing to give them free editorial press. “Our company has developed a life and momentum all its own—a dedication to the dream,” Estée said, looking back upon those early days.

In 1953,

the company launched its first fragrance, Youth-Dew. It was a unique concept: an affordable bath oil that also was a perfume. The notion took off immediately and soon accounted for more than 80 percent of Estée Lauder’s sales. Now, no door was closed to Estée and Joseph. They expanded abroad to the most famous department store in the world, Harrods of London. Sales were so enormous that Estée Lauder was given prime “real estate”—the front counter in the first-floor cosmetics department.

The company’s reception was not nearly as easy in Paris when Estée went to the famed French department store, Galleries Lafayette. When it was clear the store had no interest in selling her products, as she was leaving the store, she cleverly spilled a bottle of Youth-Dew on the sales floor. Customers flocked like geese around the fabulous scent—and Galleries Lafayette changed their mind. The line was also given prime exposure at the very forefront of the cosmetics department and proved to outsell every other brand.

Estée herself was a tough taskmaster. She has been called a “pioneer in presentation” in the way she displayed her products and, as importantly, the precise way the sales team was trained to present the product and apply the product to customers. Each salesperson was trained how to do their makeup and hair, dress, and even hold themselves to achieve the best posture. They were taught how to present and apply the products and establish a relationship with their customers so that they would return often to replenish their cremes and lipsticks and try out more Estée Lauder products. To this end, Estée told her sales force, “If you don’t sell, it’s not the product…it’s you.” Likewise, her saleswomen were taught not to oversell. The ‘hard sell’ proved damaging. “No customer should go home wondering, ‘Why did I buy this,’” Estée said.

After World War II, women’s roles were being redefined.

Now, the middle class owned their own two-up and twodown homes. Like their mothers, a wife’s job was being a housewife, staying at home, raising the kids, preparing three square meals daily, and driving the family station wagon to get groceries and shuttle their children to sports, doctors, and play dates. But there was something new

in the American household—the television. And when women watched The Donna Reed Show, Ozzie and Harriet, I Love Lucy, and Father Knows Best, homemakers wanted to look just like the women on these shows. “There are no homely women, just lazy ones,” she preached. And women around the country listened—and changed their appearance. That meant going to the beauty parlor weekly, wearing a shirtwaist dress and low heels, watching their weight (Weight Watchers was founded in 1963), and putting on makeup daily. Women were beginning to want more, and indeed, those who joined the workforce in support of the war were already conditioned to work and did. Many housewives got part-time jobs at department stores as saleswomen while their children were in school— and the most ambitious wanted to work at an Estée Lauder department store cosmetics counter.

Estée knew this. Her sales force was enormously important to her. She knew if she didn’t keep up the enthusiasm for the company’s products, she wouldn’t keep up a strong, equally enthusiastic sales team. Upon these women, the financial well-being of Estée Lauder depended. Estée never missed the opening of a new counter in a store. She knew the importance of word-ofmouth and was constantly expanding her social network.

She made it a point to be photographed as often as possible with the rich and famous and numbered among their acquaintances the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Princess Grace of Monaco, movie stars, and U.S. Presidents and their First Ladies. Now, the Lauders had every P.R. agency in New York begging to take them on. They advertised in every fashion magazine with two-page spreads. They signed on supermodels such as Paulina Porizkova and Stephanie Seymour, as well as actresses Gwyneth Paltrow and Elizabeth Hurley, the latter of whom has represented the brand for almost 30 years. And yet, in the 45-year history of the company, only fifteen women have been selected as “the face of Estée Lauder.”

As the business grew into a multimillion-dollar industry, so did the holdings of the Lauder’s. They bought the Lehmann mansion in the heart of New York City. They bought homes in Palm Beach and the south of France.

They lived and entertained elegantly.

O

ne day, their competitors approached Joseph Lauder with an offer of $1 billion to buy out the company. His response was, “Why don’t we buy you out.” And he did. Since the 1960s, the company has expanded to include 25 brands in its global beauty empire. They founded Aramis for men; Clinique, founded in 1968, the first best-selling dermatology line of skincare and cosmetics, which has expanded to include skincare for

Estée Lauder advertisement from 2000s.

GRZEGORZ CZAPSKI / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

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David Jones Estée Lauder cosmetic consultant Sonja Addison tends to the cosmetic needs of Kylie Ruth, 1992.

PHOTOGRAPH BY STEVEN SIEWERT/FAIRFAX MEDIA VIA GETTY IMAGES

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Estée Lauder advertisement from 1980s.

BE CONFIDENT. BE THE STAR OF YOUR OWN LIFE. BEAUTY IS AN ATTITUDE, THERE’S NO SECRET. SERENITY IS PLEASANT, BUT IT LACKS THE ECSTASY OF ACHIEVEMENT.” —ESTÉE LAUDER

men; Bobbi Brown, MAC, Jo Malone London, La Mer, Smashbox, Tom Ford Beauty, Glossier, Le Lago, Aveda, Origins, among others. “I was a woman with a mission and single-minded in pursuing my dream,” Estée reflected as she saw her dream become a reality beyond her dreams.

Estée had cultivated the image of a refined and elegant aristocrat for herself, and as she aged, she used it to shield from the world her private struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. There came a time when, after a vigorous routine of working for more than 80 years, she could no longer go to the office. “It was very hard,” her son, Leonard, recalled. “I remember being with her, and my wife Evelyn came into the room and said, ‘Estee, we miss you in the office.’ She looked at Evelyn and said, ‘I miss me, too.’”

E

stée Lauder died at home on April 24, 2004, from cardiopulmonary arrest. She was 95. Along with Helena Rubenstein, Elizabeth Arden, and African American beauty entrepreneur Madam C. J. Walker, Estée Lauder was one of the four “beauty queens” of the

twentieth century whose vision defined beauty for all women from all walks of life, everywhere in the world, pushing the boundaries of the cosmetics industry to become a global giant projected at grossing $393.75 billion in 2024—and projected to soar to $785 billion by 2032— proving Estée’s belief that anything is possible if you dare to dream—and have the tenacity to achieve your dream.

Her legacy continues. Her son, Leonard, manages the company’s philanthropic interests. “I rarely simply give money to people and say, ‘Well, you do it.’ I want to make our philanthropy transform something. He has given millions of dollars on behalf of the Estée Lauder Companies to fight Alzheimer’s, to the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, The Lauder Institute, and Breast Cancer Research Foundation, just a few of his many causes. Personally, the lifelong art collector made headlines when he pledged a gift of one billion dollars to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Queens-born daughter of Hungarian Jews who started her career selling four skincare products made in her uncle’s tiny laboratory created a billion-dollar brand. “Risk-taking,” she said, “is the cornerstone of empires.” In that context, Estée Lauder most assuredly built an empire. ■

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The Private Collection fragrance is shown on display during a visit by Aerin Lauder at Saks Fifth Avenue Chevy Chase, Maryland.

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PHOTOGRAPH BY BY STEPHEN J BOITANO/GETTY IMAGES FOR ESTÉE LAUDER

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Stairs: Up & Down

BY CHRISTY NIELSON

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taircases are more than just conduits between floors; they’re sculptural statements that unify the architectural narrative of a home,” says Kelly Hoppen CBE of UKbased Kelly Hoppen Interiors. “In my studio, we dedicate considerable time to crafting staircases as artistic expressions, enriching the space with visual interest and depth.” Staircases, argues Hoppen, are integral to the overall design aesthetic, imbuing the home with a sense of harmony and sophistication. “Each project brings its unique architectural nuances, and I approach stairway design with a keen eye for marrying organic flow with architectural elegance,” she says. “It’s a process I find deeply fulfilling, as it sets the tone for the entire living space.”

Balancing practicality with aesthetics is also key to success when designing a staircase. The design must function seamlessly and comfortably while meeting the building codes of the particular location while considering the safety of those who will be using the stairs. (An open tread or spiral stairway might not be the best option for a family with young children, for instance.)

The

anatomy of a staircase includes the stringers – the foundational parts of the staircase that hold the treads and maintain the staircase structure. Treads are the flat surfaces that you walk on, and the risers are the vertical portions between the treads that can be enclosed or left open for a dramatic effect. The header is where the stringers connect to the main stair structure. The handrail you hold onto as you walk up and down the stairs is attached to the baluster, sometimes called a banister or spindle. The newel post is a heavy, vertical column at the end or turn of

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a handrail. Lastly, there is the difference between a stairwell and a stairway/staircase. A stairwell encompasses the walls that enclose a staircase, which is the functional flight that takes you from one level to another.

“While still being functional, staircases can make or break a home’s aesthetic value, especially in the highend residential market,” says Punit Chugh, co-founder of BuildLabs, a Bridgehampton, New York-based architect and construction firm with global operations. “It can be compared to an artist’s masterpiece or that signature look that defines an entire art collection.”

There are many different types of staircases to consider, and the style should complement the overall design of the home and incorporate materials that correspond with the overarching theme. Most of us are familiar with commonplace staircases, which follow a straight upward path. However, many homeowners are upgrading these simple designs to be wider and grander or to take on an L or U shape with notable landings and railings. Grand staircases are typically located in the foyer of a home and are large, sweeping forms that are often crafted with high-end, ornate materials like marble, wood, or wrought iron and serve as a focal point for the main entrance or living quarters.

Floating staircases, which seem to be suspended in midair, are the contemporary equivalent of the grand staircase and are gaining in popularity, especially in homes with a modern or minimalist design aesthetic. Cantilevered stairs, which are anchored only at one end, are a more structurally complex cousin to the floating staircase.

“Personally, I love the cantilever, free-floating stair design because it’s a challenge to balance the structural integrity of the piece with the architectural design,” says Reese Morter, owner and designer at Steelhead Design + Fabrication in Colorado. “Modern homes are simplifying the design of stairs to make them less bulky and obstructive. When placing stairways in and around great rooms and rooms with windows, creating a sleek, streamlined, and open staircase provides better sight lines,” he notes.

Spiral staircases can be smaller constructions that wind around a central post where the steps are attached to provide upper-level access in a tight space, or they can be widened to be grander and more elaborate in an upscale home. Similarly, curved stairways are often used in larger spaces and can add a touch of elegance.

“I have been obsessed with curved staircases of late!” says Kim Gordon of Kim Gordon Designs in the Los Angeles area. “It adds such a sophisticated and elegant moment to any space.“ For those seeking an intricate design, a double helix stairway – which mimics the appearance of DNA by combining two interlocking spiral staircases – is an interesting option. These visually impressive staircases are complex and designed to take center stage, especially in an ultra-modern, ultra-luxurious setting.

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Carolyn Cerminara-Kelly, founder and principal designer of Nashville-based Cerminara Design says a trend that is about to take off is wider staircases. “Especially in new builds, there’s so much freedom to really play with the space and make a statement,” says Cerminara-Kelly. “I also love the trend of using natural stone for the stair risers and treads while keeping the main floors in wood. It’s a beautiful contrast that elevates the overall aesthetic.”

Cerminara-Kelly believes a stairway is an opportunity to create a focal point and have a real design moment. “There has to be a striking element that catches the eye. It doesn’t always have to be the stairs themselves; it can be the lighting, sconces, or wallpaper that draws attention and highlights the staircase,” she says. “Whether to make the staircase a focal point depends on the overall design and flow of the home.”

Lighting is an essential ingredient for a successful staircase that can brighten the larger living space with sunlight from a well-placed window in the stairwell. A sparkling chandelier hovering above the steps or landing or sophisticated sconces gracing the walls along the stairwell are other ways a staircase can add to the design tapestry of a home.

“I love stairs that have lighting built right into them,” says Diana Melichar, president of Chicago-area Melichar Architects. “The lighting is hidden either under the lip of the tread or on the side of the stringer. With the advancement of LED lighting, it’s possible to design stairs that have lighting integral to the steps or risers, and you can’t see the source of the light.” Melichar says this not only makes the stairs more attractive – but it is also a matter of safety. “Since we are aging-in-place design specialists, we try to incorporate design features in our work that are not only beautiful but also assist others,” she says.

With a little creativity, even the space underneath your staircase can be incorporated into the overall design story. You can turn the alcove into a just-the-right-size kids’ play space, a cozy reading nook, a place to showcase collectibles on built-in shelves, a posh den for your furry friend, or a hidden storage cabinet that can be customized to slide in and out for convenience.

Staircases can serve as both a physical and metaphorical centerpiece of a home, exemplifying the essence of the living space. Whether grand and elevated or simple and understated, staircases are an important part of a home’s narrative.

“I think the main evolution with staircases is that clients are definitely more adventurous, and with advancements in materials, shapes, technology, and lighting, the possibilities are almost endless,” concludes Cerminara-Kelly. ■

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WOMAN BEHIND the LABEL

BY CORA WALDEN

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• automne 2024 • édition de leadership • readelysian.com Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace stands with his sister and fellow designer Donatella Versace.

PHOTOGRAPH BY TONI THORIMBERT/SYGMA/SYGMA VIA GETTY IMAGES

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hen she stands next to the supermodels who strut down the runways of New York, Paris, and Milan, she is short and petite, not what you expect because Donatella Versace is a powerhouse and, for her brother, the late Gianni Versace, his muse. Born May 2, 1955, in the south, the region geographically called the heel of Italy, in Reggio Calabria, she explains, “I was the baby of the family. I was so spoiled. I was the best-dressed little girl in the city.”

Donatella, Gianni, their older brother, Santo, and sister, Tina, were raised by their mother, Francesca Olandese Versace, a seamstress for a fashion company before establishing her own fashion boutique, and father Antonio, who helped run the family coal mining business. Tragically, Tina was twelve years old when she died from a tetanus infection that was not properly treated. Donatella and Gianni, perhaps because of the trauma of losing their sibling, became inseparable. Even growing up, Gianni knew his future lay in fashion; indeed, Donatella’s trademark bleached blonde hair did not evolve in adulthood but rather when she was only eleven after Gianni beseeched her to dye it in honor of Italian singer Patty Pravo, who he idolized, and who wore her bleached hair long and straight, as Donatella continues to wear hers to this very day.

It was natural that Donatella would join Gianni when he was working at the Callaghan fashion label. Their mother was furious. In the mid-seventies, Donatella had been studying literature and languages and Florence and her parents were keen that she acquire

Fashion Designer Donatella Versace poses for photos in Milan.

PHOTOGRAPH BY WENN US / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

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an important education. Little did they know that Donatella would take the train from Florence to Milan on weekends to join Gianni and work with him on his fashion designs.

“I knew I was going to work in fashion; I really didn’t think of nothing else,” she said.

In 1976,

Donatella Versace and her brother Gianni sit among the artworks they have collected in their home in Milan.

PHOTOGRAPH BY © STEPHANIE MAZE/CORBIS/CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES

she and their brother, Santo, joined Gianni in Milan and started the Versace brand. Gianni created the first collection and styled the brand’s accessories, shoes, and handbag lines under the Gianni Versace name. The following year, the three siblings took to the road on a three-week tour of the United States to get press and retailers to promote and buy the collection. The response was immediate. Elegant lines, luxurious fabrics, a distinct allure that fit the body and was sometimes quirky, and appeared as if out of nowhere at a time when fashion was over-embellished and hippy was a breath of fresh air. Soon, Versace was worn by the likes of Madonna and modeled by Stephanie Seymour, Helena Christensen, Linda Evangelista, and Cindy Crawford.

In 1978, Donatella became vice president and collaborated with Gianni on all projects, styling and refining the brand image. By 1980 she was designing her own collection under the Versace label, Versus.

In 1982, as business exploded, she won the palazzo at Via Gesù 12 in Milan at auction, which became their headquarters and showroom.

In 1983, Donatella married former model Paul Beck. In 1986, Donatella gave birth to their daughter, Allegra, and in 1989, their son, Daniel. That same ear, Gianni introduced his new perfume, Blonde, to honor his beloved sister, and to mark the occasion, he gave her a yellow diamond. The Versace line of cosmetics and vibrant lipstick colors was a logical expansion to a business now renowned as one of the prima couture collections in the world. But when Gianni was diagnosed with cancer of the left ear, his siblings were prompted to work on a succession plan for the company. Santo entirely managed the business while Donatella had to step up the design decisionmaking responsibilities of the entire brand. The demand of couture requires constant creative energy, for no sooner does one collection hit the runway, the next must be at its heels, well into development. “I don’t look at the clothes with my eyes,” Donatella said. “I look through images—a picture or a video.” Among her inspirations was the work of photographer Richard Avedon, who the company employed for Versace’s Spring-Summer 1980 shoot. Later, Avedon would direct the company’s Spring -Summer 1993 campaign. The result was explosive and unlike any fashion imagery to hit the fashion magazines through Versace’s two-page spreads and inside front covers.

“The last two years of Gianni’s life,” Donatella explained to New York magazine, “I was going up into his apartment, showing him the work, getting the approval from him, but I ran the company because he wasn’t showing himself. It was like a year and a half I did everything.” Just as it appeared that Versace was winning his battle against cancer, he was murdered at the front gates of his mansion, Casa Casuarina, in Miami, Florida, on July 15, 1997.

The fashion world was stunned, and Donatella’s world went dark.

While the manhunt for the assassin was on, the Versace family all moved to a secluded private resort in the Caribbean to seek safety.

Even after her return to Milan, the inconsolable Donatella shuttered herself from the world. Upon Gianni’s death, Santo inherited thirty percent of the company, and Donatella’s daughter, Allegra, whom her uncle adored, inherited fifty percent. Now, as artistic director of the Versace Group, Donatella’s mission was clear: to continue her brother’s legacy—a devotion which she captured in the dedication

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Super model Stella Maxwell for Versace fashion show in Milan, Italy, 2016.

PHOTOGRAPH BY FRANCESCO GRECO / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

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TO BE BLONDE MEANS TO BE CARESSED BY THE SUN, AND TO BE YOUR OWN SUN.” —DONATELLA VERSACE

of The Art of Being You, written by Gianni and published posthumously: “This book is a tribute to a great artist himself, to someone who lived with an incredible love for art, to a very special person who was always fascinated by art and artists and always supported them.”

Donatella resorted to drugs after her brother’s death. “I couldn’t stand the pain,” she told Vogue. “I had to hide my feelings. What better way to hide your feelings than with drugs?” Nonetheless, on July 18, 1998, a little over a year after her brother’s death, Donatella’s first haute couture show for Versace Atelier was presented at Hôtel Ritz Paris to thunderous applause. If anything, the momentum of the company had heightened. Donatella pulled out all stops now, making Versace a household name and catapulting the brand with global ad campaigns featuring the likes of Madonna, Christina Aguilera, Demi Moore, Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, and Courtney Love. The mane of waist-long platinum blonde hair she has worn since childhood and her heavy black kohlaccentuated eyes made her a fashion icon. No longer was Donatella standing in the shadow of her late brother. She was a shining force in fashion all on her own. Fashion critics maintain that Donatella’s vision was developed working at her brother’s side all those years and that she slowly incorporated her own vision after his death—but that is not so. Brother and sister were entwined, worked as one, and fed off one another. If anything, Donatella carried on what was a joint vision for fashion that she had long shared with her brother.

As time passed, Donatella dealt with her drug addiction.

In 2004, she sought treatment. This aside, she nonetheless continued work to reinvigorate the brand with fresh, on-thecusp looks and, in the process, made herself as much a presence in the fashion world as her brother, Gianni, had been in his lifetime. In 2009, she kept up the momentum when she hired Christopher Kane to reinvent and redesign Donatella’s own original collection, the Versus line, an undertaking Gianni himself had been working on shortly before his death. To keep things fresh for the company’s haute couture collection, Atelier Versace, Donatella collaborated with up-and-coming designers.

With great success, the company licensed into high-end home furnishings products. Palazzo Versace hotels were opened in Dubai and Queensland, Australia.

Today, Allegra, 38, is one of the wealthiest women in the world. Her fifty-percent share of Versace left to her in her uncle’s will is valued at an estimated $800 million. She serves as a company director and lives in New York.

Donatella remains a self-proclaimed perfectionist. As ever, she excels in conceptualizing. She understands the modern woman: she is strong, fearless, and inspiring. She is a self-proclaimed

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perfectionist and “a total boss” who sets exacting standards for her designers and seamstresses, pushing her team to new heights while leaving them breathless—“both a blessing and a curse—” and maintaining relentless attention to detail, which she calls “a dance between brilliance and pressure.”

It has been 27 years since Donatella took over the helm of Versace. She has remained true to her family brand while maintaining her own signature and pioneering vision. One of the most powerful women in fashion, she is a living legend who inspires the next generation of designers by telling them, “Be ready to fight, be ready to suffer, but never give up your dreams.”

Donatella, reflecting on her brother’s death.

“When my brother died, and the way he died, I had to show strength. I had to show, ‘We’re going to do it. Don’t worry.” I was living my pain in public, and I couldn’t show my pain to anybody. This office, this space we’re in now, really reflects me and my emotions. The ones I don’t show to anybody. This is the place where my emotions stay. Nobody believes me, but I’m not a very secure person. You know, I question everything I am. My vulnerability was always hidden. I was going home and crying, closing the room, because I didn’t lose the King of Fashion which my brother was. In that moment I lost my brother. Gianni’s not here anymore. We had to worry about how to bring Versace into the 21st century and how to keep Versace relevant.”

On Family

“My mother, she was a seamstress. And she had a big atelier later. She always treated any employees as family. So, Gianni was the same. I’m the same. I still have people who worked for Gianni here, who will teach a younger generation what it is to sew a dress, to cut a dress, to sew, and to embroider it. That’s something I’m obsessed with, for tailoring. The shoulders.

Some people make the same kind of shoulders for a long time in a brand. I like to change it. This I’ve been told: I project this image, you know, very distant, very cold. Nobody’s afraid of me. I mean, not that I’m aware of, at least. As you see, nothing is minimal here. I like branding. All the time, it’s what I do. I like clothes to make a woman feel powerful. If you wear black with boots in the winter and heels, it gives you an attitude, like,

(L-R) Emily Ratajkowski, Donatella Versace, and Elodie are seen backstage at the Versace fashion show on February 21, 2020, in Milan, Italy.

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Donatella Versace attends the 2020 Vanity Fair Oscar Party hosted by Radhika Jones at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, February 2020, in Beverly Hills, California.

PHOTOGRAPH BY RICH FURY/VF20/GETTY IMAGES FOR VANITY FAIR

‘I’m not afraid.’ When I arrive here in the morning, in my studio, surrounded by my designer team, I feel this is my family. And I can, in a way, surrender and say whatever I think, do whatever I want because my family will understand me.”

Donatella’s Versus Label

As for her own original label, Versus, Donatella has continued to fuel it with emotion and life. “For me, it’s one thing and fills me with emotion because it is the first collection my brother Gianni gave to me with complete freedom to do as a young line, a young soul, a young spirit under the Versace brand. At the time, it was revolutionary. I took Versus to New York, and nobody used to do that kind of thing then. I always connect Versus with rock music because I love music—I’m a music addict.”

Donatella and Gianna decided to launch Versus in a different way than they presented Versace. Instead, Versus was sold through events all over the world. “I started in New York because there Verus was born because the city is so amazing—so many different cultures, so many different kinds of people, fearless people, conservative people, there is everything, and that is the place I wanted to be, to present for the first time my new Versus.”

Donatella and the Digital World

“When I am doing the collection, a sketch or a fitting, I post it on the Internet to ask the kids whether they like it or not because I think the Internet community has a good eye, and you get a yes or no. I want everybody to be part of the process. I want fashion to become Versus fashion. I think it is going to be a good experience. It’s scary sometimes because it’s easy to be protected in your studio, where people will take care of you. In the digital world, everybody can say whatever they want; there are no filters. This is what I want. This gives me inspiration. This is what I want to hear more and more. I really, really like this digital world. I think it brings everyone together and gives so much information. I’m so curious, and anything can inspire me from the Internet, from people saying something. So, I’m really excited about the new Versus, always interpreting and always making it something interesting the kids want right now. It is the most important thing I am doing right now, the most attractive thing for my mind to work on. The most important thing has been the element of revolution, daring, it gives a rush, so powerful, tells you so much about what you’re doing, what you’re thinking, and what the character and the personality of the clothing is. I want people to take away from my show, that was a confident woman, that was a confident man. I want to be like that.”

Donatella’s love affair with Los Angeles

“I wanted to do a show in LA because this city means so much to me, and I have so many memories here. We were at the LGBT Center in LA to launch the scholarship we prepared for the students to work in fashion. It’s good to see people with that excitement who love fashion so much. For me, it is very important to help a new generation, a young generation, who want to work in fashion and give them the tools in order for them to do it. So, I was happy to talk to young designers and they were happy to see me. The young people around me were giving me more energy. They push me to innovate more. In order to show them, ‘Look, you can do this. You can reach this, but you have to work hard.’

Hard work has never slowed down Donatella. She says, “There is an energy that I think lies in the clothing that Versace has been able to continue to amplify.”

That energy—is all Donatella Versace. ■

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Versace boutique in Milan.

PHOTOGRAPH BY PIERO CRUCIATTI / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

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Long Live

Queen

by Laurie Bogart Wiles

The

Princess Elizabeth, the future Queen Elizabeth II, gazes through a window near an exotic floral arrangement, 1946.

PHOTOGRAPH BY LISA SHERIDAN/STUDIO LISA/HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES

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was February, and the weather was hot and dry—not nearly as scorching as it gets in that part of the world in late April and May, but rather a balmy 72 degrees. The year was 1952. An attractive young woman of twenty-five and her handsome husband of five years, a British naval officer who had served with distinction in World War II, were vacationing in Kenya. Their guide was the legendary British hunter Jim Corbett, who was still thoroughly active at age 86.

The couple were thousands of miles away from their native England and a hundred miles from Nairobi in a remote jungle retreat—a treehouse and game-watching post high up in a giant fig tree, called Treetops. They spent the day watching a multiplicity of wild animals in their natural surroundings safely from above: elephants, monkeys, wart hogs, wildebeests, giraffes and, of course, leopards and lions. When the most terrifying of lions, tigers, and leopards sought out human flesh, native villagers sought out Corbett, renowned killer of maneaters, to end the carnage. He was asked to protect the couple, who planned to dine and spend the night in the treehouse, from the wild.

The dark was lit by moonlight. The woman put away her 16 mm movie camera, a gift to her from her beloved father, and joined her husband in bed. Just before midnight, a message was carried to Jim Corbett, who was on watch at the top of the ladder where he could block any living thing that might attempt to climb up to the treehouse. The visitor’s log book at Treetops bears this inscription by Corbett:

Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, the younger daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother (1930 - 2002), and Elizabeth with a pony and cart, at Windsor Castle.

PHOTOGRAPH BY LISA SHERIDAN/STUDIO LISA/HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES

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68 Queen Elizabeth II filming the arrival of the escort ship HMNZS Black Prince, while in the South Pacific en route to Fiji, aboard the SS Gothic during the coronation world tour, 11th December 1953. On the left is Prince Philip.

PHOTOGRAPH BY HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES

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the first time in the history of the world, a young girl climbed into a tree one day a Princess, and after having what she described as her most thrilling experience she climbed down from the tree next day a Queen.”

In the moment Jim Corbett handed the message to Princess Elizabeth, she became Queen Elizabeth II. Being so far away from civilization, the message had taken some time to arrive with the sad and somewhat unexpected news. King George VII died in his sleep at 7:30 on the morning of February 6, and the message to Elizabeth did not reach her until almost midnight. BBC’s Frank Gillard broadcast from Nairobi, “How tragic to think that even this morning, as she sat at breakfast, talking about her father, and proudly describing how bravely he’d stood up to his illness, how well he’d recovered— sitting there in her yellow bush shirt and brown slacks—even at that moment her father was lying dead, and she had succeeded to his vast responsibilities.” King George VI of the United Kingdom and the 32 Dominions of the British Commonwealth, the last Emperor of India, was 56 years old. He died of coronary thrombosis just five months after his left lung was removed as a result of lung cancer.

The King was meant to have taken that royal tour of India, but his eldest daughter and heir apparent, Elizabeth, and her husband, Prince Philip, stood in his place. For that matter, it was never meant for the King to be King, though it surely was Destiny.

His elder brother, Edward, relinquished the throne before his coronation for twice-divorced American Wallis Simpson, “the woman I love.” Second in line for the throne was his younger brother, George, a withdrawn, shy, largely aloof young man who suffered a terrible stutter. And yet, when he assumed his destiny, he overcame his speech impediment and proved to be the greatest king imaginable for his times. This was best said by the great statesman and twice-prime minister of Great Britain, Sir Winston Churchill, when he paid tribute to George VI upon his death: “For fifteen years, George VI was King. Never at any moment in all the perplexities at home and abroad, in public or in private, did he fail in his duties. Well does he deserve the farewell salute of all his governments and peoples.

“His conduct on the Throne may well be a model and a guide to constitutional sovereigns throughout the world today and also in future generations. The last few months of King George’s life, with all the pain and physical stresses that he endured—his life hanging by a thread from day to day, and he all the time cheerful and undaunted, stricken in body but quite undisturbed and even unaffected in spirit—these have made a profound and an enduring impression and should be a help to all.”

Princesses Elizabeth (left) and Margaret Rose (1930 - 2002) with one of their Lhaso Apso dogs outside the Royal Lodge, Windsor.

PHOTOGRAPH BY LISA SHERIDAN/STUDIO LISA/HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES

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Queen Elizabeth II with Prince Charles and Princess Anne in the grounds of Balmoral Castle, Scotland. Charles is celebrating his 4th birthday.

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Princess Elizabeth watching her son, Prince Charles, playing in his toy car while at Balmoral, 1952.

PHOTOGRAPH BY LISA SHERIDAN/STUDIO LISA/HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES

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Churchill then recounted a story. “Let me tell you another fact. On one of the days when Buckingham Palace was bombed, the King had just returned from Windsor. One side of the courtyard was struck, and if the windows opposite out of which he and the Queen were looking had not been, by the mercy of God, open, they would both have been blinded by the broken glass instead of being only hurled back by the explosion. Amid all that was then going on, although I saw the King so often, I never heard of this episode till a long time after. Their Majesties never mentioned it or thought it more significant than a soldier in their armies would of a shell bursting near him. This seems to me to be a revealing trait in the royal character.”

It was a trait the King passed on to his daughter, who lived by example from the moment she became monarch until the moment of her death. Elizabeth II changed history. Her reign of 70 years and 214 days—the longest of any monarch in British history and the second-longest verified reign of any monarch of a sovereign state in history— outlasted her father’s by 55 years. There was never an occasion—not one—when she failed her kingdom. “The King was greatly loved by all his peoples,” Churchill said. The same, most assuredly, could be said of his daughter.

Though she clearly was fragile and failing, her death on September 8, 2022, at the age of 96, shocked the nation and the world. Countless millions mourned her; even countries that had no sovereign connection to Great Britain—most particularly, the United States, once her child—mourned her loss as though she had been its own monarch. Indeed, many of us believed—in spirit, at least—that she was.

She

referred to the monarchy as “the family business.” Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor was delivered at 2:40 in the afternoon by Caesarean section at 17 Bruton Street, the home of her maternal grandfather, Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, April 21, 1926, in the Mayfair section of London. She was the eldest of the Duke and Duchess of York’s two daughters—the younger, her sister, was Princess Margaret Rose, four years her junior.

Their extremely close family adored them. Elizabeth was affectionately called “Lilibet,” and she called her adored grandfather, King George V, “Grandpa England.” Indeed, it is said that her regular visits to her grandfather when he was seriously ill in 1929, seven years before his death, raised his spirits so that he recovered fully.

Though Elizabeth was third in line to the throne, there was no expectation for her or, for that matter, Margaret, other

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Queen Elizabeth II in her Coronation gown, with the Duke of Edinburgh, inside the Parliament House, Wellington, New Zealand, during the State Opening of Parliament.

PHOTOGRAPH BY FOX PHOTOS/GETTY IMAGES

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than to make a suitable marriage, have children, and be exemplary members of the second tier of the Royal Family. No one doubted the girls’ uncle, the debonair, bon vivant, outgoing Edward, Prince of Wales, firstborn of King George V and Queen Mary, would marry and sire a family, but that was not to be. Instead, he created a constitutional crisis when he proposed to Wallis Simpson, a divorced American woman with two living ex-husbands. His reign lasted 326 days, one of the shortest of any monarch to date, and his abdication and subsequent marriage to Wallis on June 3, 1937, left him a pariah in his own country for the next 35 years, until his death. (An act repeated by his great-great-nephew, Harry, who likewise made his own choice to forfeit his country in pursuit of the woman he loved.)

Elizabeth was only ten years old when it was established that she would become queen upon the death of her father, now King George VI. Her mother, Queen Elizabeth (who, after her husband’s death, became Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother) had determinedly raised her daughters to have as near a normal childhood as possible, surrounded by dogs and horses and plenty of fresh air. However, they did not go to school, and the extent of their formal education was limited to home-schooling under the tutelage of governess Marion Crawford. As Elizabeth grew older, a series of private tutors, including the provost of Eton College, Henry Marten, taught the princess subjects such as constitutional history, but it was barely sufficient for the way that lay ahead of her. The young monarch’s limited education was debated, prompting Marco Houston, theneditor of Royalty Monthly, to speak up in the Queen’s defense when he commented that she “may not have had the best formal education, but she has the best education at the university of life.” The education she received proved unparalleled. Throughout her reign, she met 179 prime ministers of Her Majesty’s Commonwealth, five popes, and fourteen United States’ presidents. Determined to expand her knowledge as well as spiritualty – although the head of the Church of England, Elizabeth’s personal religious advisor was the Reverend Billy Graham—she knew her peoples, their leaders, their lands, their struggles, and not once missed an opportunity to step in to be of assistance in any way, other than political, that could she provide support. The Crown, as a constitutional monarchy, and Elizabeth II as the nominal leader of the United Kingdom, is largely symbolic and holds no real power in the British government, but the monarch remains the highest representative of the United Kingdom on the national and international stage and head of the British state. Elizabeth truly reigned and lived to celebrate her Silver, Golden, Diamond, and Platinum jubilees in 1977, 2002, 2012, and 2022.

Every day of her rule, whether at home or abroad, with the exception of Christmas Day, the Queen received her “Red Box,” a red dispatch box containing papers from government ministers in the United Kingdom and the Realms and from representatives from the Commonwealth. Some papers required her signature, while others were briefing materials and information about forthcoming meetings. Even on the day of her death, the Queen’s Red Box was delivered to her at Balmoral.

Princess Elizabeth, 17, volunteered to do her part in the Second World War, working in the Transport Service of the Auxiliary Territorial Service, the women’s branch of the British Army, as a mechanic and driver. At the height of the London Blitz, Buckingham Palace, the family home, was repeatedly bombed by the Nazi Luftwaffe, and it was suggested that the princesses and their mother evacuate to Canada. Their mother declared, “The children won’t go without me. I won’t leave without the King. And the King will never leave.” In 1940, the family moved to Windsor Castle, 22 miles and a world away with its rolling gardens, stables, and many dogs. From there Elizabeth made her first radio broadcast on the BBC’s Children’s Hour, addressing children who had been separated from their parents and evacuated from the cities. “We are trying to do all we can to help our gallant sailors, soldiers, and airmen, and we are trying, too, to bear our own share of the danger and sadness of war. We know, every one of us, that in the end, all will be well.” The tone of her speech established the spirit of her reign in the decades to come, giving strength, solace, and national pride to her loyal subjects. Then, on VE Day, at the war’s jubilant end in Europe, she and Margaret begged their parents to allow them to join the crowds celebrating on the streets.

In 1985, in a rare interview, she recalled, “We asked my parents if we could go out and see for ourselves. I remember we were terrified of being recognized . . . I remember lines of unknown people linking arms and walking down Whitehall, all of us just swept along on a tide of happiness and relief.”

In 1947, Elizabeth accompanied her parents on her first official overseas tour, through southern Africa, during which she celebrated her 21st birthday, her coming of age. In a BBC broadcast to the whole of the British Commonwealth, she made this pledge: “ I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.

But I shall not have strength to carry out this resolution alone unless you join in it with me, as I now invite you

Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain enjoying an elephant ride at Benares during a tour of India, 1961.

PHOTOGRAPH BY FOX PHOTOS/GETTY IMAGES

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The Queen talking with the Emir of Bahrain during horse racing and camel racing in Bahrain, 1979.

to do: I know that your support will be unfailingly given. God help me to make good my vow, and God bless all of you who are willing to share in it.”

In November 1947, she married Philip Mountbatten, a former prince of Greece and Denmark. Elizabeth and Philip were distantly related—Philp was a great-great-grandson of Queen Victoria on his maternal side. Elizabeth had first laid eyes on Philip in 1934 when she was only 13 and he 18, but she was smitten and, before and since that time, loved no other.

They became engaged. Philip had to renounce his Greek and Danish titles and convert from Greek Orthodoxy to Anglicanism, adopting the style of Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten by assuming his British mother’s family’s surname.

It was a time of rationing, still, and Princess Elizabeth had to use clothing ration coupons to buy the fabric for her wedding gown. She was allowed 200 extra ration coupons by

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the government, but that wasn’t near enough. When word got out, brides-to-be from all corners of the kingdom sent her their coupons so she could acquire the fabric—hundreds and hundreds of coupons. They married in Westminster Abbey on November 20, 1947—a marriage that would last 73 years.

In

June 2, 1953, only ten weeks after the death of Queen Mary, in keeping with her beloved grandmother’s wishes, the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II took place in Westminster Abbey. Not once in her historic reign did Queen Elizabeth II break the vow to her country that she had made on her 21st birthday and again during her coronation.

Indeed, in all those years, she led her people with unflappable courage through hard times and, in the privacy of her family’s troubled times, remained stoic and resolute— not the least, in 1992 with the death of her former daughter-in-law, Diana.

Shortly after her coronation, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip embarked upon an unprecedented 40,000-mile, 13-country land, sea, and air tour of the Commonwealth of Nations. She became the first reigning monarch to visit Australia and New Zealand, received 112 state visits at Buckingham Palace, and visited 117 countries herself.

Queen Elizabeth had six homes: her official residence, Buckingham Palace, London, with its 775 rooms; Windsor Castle, with even more—1,000—favored by the Royal Family over Buckingham Palace, as she mostly grew up at Windsor surrounded by her dogs and horses, and where she and her husband, Prince Philip, raised their four children, King Charles, Prince Andrew, Duke of York, Prince Edward, Duke of Edingburg, Princess Anne; Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh, the official Royal Residence in Scotland; Balmoral Castle, Sandringham, which her father, King George V, called “the place I love better than anywhere else in the world,” and where Christmas was always celebrated by the Royal Family (except last year); and Hillsborough Castle in Northern Island.

As grand and enormous as each of her homes was, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip purposely and devotedly made their palaces home—for themselves, their children, grandchildren, friends, and extended family, by picnicking, playing games, riding, hunting, laughing, entertaining, weaving precious memories, and seeking comfort and strength in the difficult times. The Queen, too, loved her gardens. Every day, almost till the very end of her amazing life, she took her beloved Corgis and Dorgis for daily walks in her gardens and rode her dearly loved horses. She hosted annual garden parties at both Holyrood and Buckingham Palace, honoring, by special invitation, commoners distinguished by their service to the Crown. The Queen’s love of gardens extended to the Chelsea Garden Show, held on the grounds of Royal Hospital Chelsea, London, since 1912. In the 70 years of her reign, The Queen only missed the opening of the Chelsea Garden Show 11 times.

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On September 8, Queen Elizabeth II died at her favorite home of all, Balmoral Castle, built in the heart of the wild and remote Scottish Highlands in 1856 by her great-grandparents, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Gone is the great lady who devoted her life to serving Great Britain and 14 Commonwealth realms for 70 years and 214 days; the young woman who succeeded her beloved father, King George VI, when she was but a 25-year-old; indeed, who seized her destiny when she was never meant to rule, just as her father was never meant to be King. We will never see her like again.

There are no finer words to remember this incredible woman than her own: this, from that first Christmas broadcast in 1957, in which she referred to turbulent times and troubles. Her observations and wisdom are just as relevant today as they were seven decades ago. Her Majesty said: “The trouble is caused by unthinking people who carelessly throw away ageless ideals as if they were

8 3 Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip visit a farm on the Balmoral estate in Scotland, during their Silver Wedding anniversary year, September, 1972.

PHOTOGRAPH BY FOX PHOTOS/HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES

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old and outworn machinery. They would have religion thrown aside, morality and personal and public life made meaningless; honesty counted as foolishness, and self-interest set up in place of self-restraint. At this critical moment in our history, we will certainly lose the trust and respect of the world if we just abandon those fundamental principles, which guided the men and women who built the greatness of this country and Commonwealth. Today, we need a special kind of courage—not the kind needed in battle, but a kind which makes us stand up for everything that we know is right, everything that is true and honest. We need the kind of courage that can withstand the subtle corruption of the cynics so that we can show the world that we are not afraid of the future. It has always been easy to hate and destroy; to build and to cherish is much more difficult.

“I cannot lead you into battle. I do not give you laws or administer justice—but I can do something else. I can give you my heart and my devotion to these old islands and to all the peoples of our brotherhood of nations. I would like to read you a few lines from Pilgrim’s Progress: ‘Then said he, I am going to my Father’s; and though with great difficulty I am got hither, yet now I do not repent me of all the trouble I have been at to arrive where I am. My sword I give to Him that shall succeed me in my pilgrimage, and my courage and skill to Him that can get it. My marks and scars I carry with me, to be a witness for me that I have fought His battles who now will be my Rewarder.’”

The Puritan preacher and English writer John Bunyan wrote Pilgrim’s Progress in 1678. What the Queen did not read aloud was the paragraph that followed her recitation. Perhaps these words, more than any others, define the life of the most inspiring of any woman who ever graced our time: “When the day that he must go hence was come, many accompanied him to the river-side, into which as he went he said, Death, where is thy sting? And as he went down deeper, he said, Grave, where is thy victory? So, he passed over, and all the trumpets sounded for him on the other side.”

May God bless you and keep you, Your Majesty, till the day the trumpets sound for you on the other side. ■

Queen Elizabeth II views a portrait of herself by British artist Henry Ward, marking six decades of patronage to the British Red Cross, which had been unveiled at Windsor Castle on October 14, 2016 in Windsor, England. The Queen is the longest-serving patron of the charity, which supports people in crisis in the UK and overseas.

PHOTOGRAPH BY DOMINIC LIPINSKI - WPA POOL/GETTY IMAGES

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A Tapestry of Art, Romance, Heritage, & Progressive Leadership

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by Marcy Dubroff

estled between the Baltic and North Seas and neighbors Norway, Sweden, and Germany, Denmark beckons with its enchanting blend of artistry, romance, rich heritage, and a legacy of progressive female leadership. From its picturesque landscape to its vibrant cultural scene, this “Land of Everyday Wonder” captivates visitors with its charm and leaves an indelible mark on those who explore its depths.

Art & Culture

Denmark’s artistic heritage is as diverse as it is rich, spanning centuries of creativity and innovation. Danish artists have left an enduring legacy on the global stage from the Viking Age to the modern era. One of the most notable figures in Danish art history, neo-classicist Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844), is best known for sculptures that adorn churches, museums, and public spaces across Europe. Among his most famous public monuments are the statues of Copernicus (Warsaw), Maximilian (Munich), and the tomb monument of Pope Pius VII (the only work by a non-Catholic in St. Peter’s Basilica). The Golden Age of Danish painting, which flourished in the 19th century, produced renowned artists such as Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg and his protégé Christen Købke, whose works continue to inspire awe and admiration for their rendering of light and their depiction of the natural world.

In the 20th century, Danish art underwent a period of profound experimentation and innovation, with movements like COBRA and Danish Modernism pushing the boundaries of traditional artistic conventions. Figures such as Asger Jorn and Vilhelm Hammershøi became guiding lights in this creative renaissance, and their works are now celebrated for their boldness, originality, and emotional depth. Merete Barker has emerged as one of the finest of

The Capital Region of Denmark is the easternmost administrative region of Denmark, and contains Copenhagen, the national capital. Denmark has a rich innovative history that dates back to the days of the Danish Vikings. That spirit of innovation is still thriving today; in areas like food and agriculture, environmental science, pharmaceuticals and biomedicine, Denmark is producing world-leading discoveries.

ABOVE PHOTOGRAPH BY FEBIYAN / UNSPLASH.COM / OPPOSITE PHOTOGRAPH BY JOSE LLAMAS / UNSPLASH.COM

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Copenhagen, Denmark’s capital, sits on the coastal islands of Zealand and Amager. Its beautiful waterways, historical buildings, and modern architecture adorn this world-class and historically rich city.

PHOTOGRAPH BY TARAS VERKHOVYNETS / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

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Helsingør, also known as Elsinore, is a port city in eastern Denmark. Overlooking the Øresund Strait, the 15th-century Kronborg Castle provided the setting for Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.”

PHOTOGRAPH BY KASPER RASMUSSEN / UNSPLASH.COM / OPPOSITE PHOTOGRAPH BY ANNIE-SPRATT / UNSPLASH.COM

her generation, using sketches and photographs from her travels as the basis for highly expressive paintings that blur the lines between nature and culture.

Today, Denmark’s art scene continues to thrive, with its capital, Copenhagen, serving as a vibrant hub of creativity. The city’s numerous galleries, museums, and art festivals showcase diverse talent, from contemporary painters and sculptors to performance artists and conceptual visionaries. Whether exploring the iconic collections of the National Gallery of Denmark or discovering emerging talent in the city’s avantgarde galleries, visitors will surely be captivated by Denmark’s dynamic and ever-evolving art scene.

Romance & Charm

Denmark’s landscapes are a canvas painted with romance.

Rolling countryside, picturesque coastlines, and quaint villages beckon lovers of all ages to embark on a journey of discovery and enchantment. From vibrant city streets to the tranquil shores of Bornholm, Denmark offers endless opportunities for romance and adventure.

Copenhagen, the capital city, is a symphony of sights and sounds, where historical architecture blends seamlessly with sleek, modern design, and bustling street markets give way to serene waterfront promenades. Couples can lose themselves in the maze-like streets of the Old Town, where hidden courtyards and cozy cafes provide the perfect backdrop for intimate moments and quiet conversations.

For those seeking a more secluded retreat, Denmark’s countryside offers plenty of idyllic hideaways where romance can flourish undisturbed. According to travel writer Victoria Lewis, “There are fairytale castles turned hotels, and bucolic farm-to-table restaurants with tasting menus to rival their urban peers.” There are also the rolling hills of Zealand, the windswept cliffs of Jutland, and the pristine beaches of Funen that offer just a few of the breathtaking landscapes waiting to be explored.

So, Denmark offers endless opportunities for romance and connection, whether it’s picnicking in a sun-dappled meadow, cycling along a scenic coastal path, or simply stargazing beneath a blanket of twinkling lights.

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4 Although the list of what Denmark is famous for ranges from impeccable modernist design to baroque palaces, there is also a deeply-rooted craftsmanship that can be seen throughout the country’s rich historical buildings and landmarks. PHOTOGRAPH BY ROBBY MCCULLOUGH / UNSPLASH.COM Opposite: St. Canute’s Cathedral, also known as Odense Cathedral, in Odense, Denmark, is named after the Danish king Canute the Saint, otherwise Canute IV. It is a fine example of Brick Gothic architecture. The church’s most visited section is the crypt where the remains of Canute and his brother Benedict are on display. PHOTOGRAPH BY JOSE LLAMAS / UNSPLASH.COM

Heritage & Tradition

Denmark’s rich heritage is a tapestry woven from centuries of history, tradition, and cultural exchange. From its Viking roots to its modern-day monarchy, the country’s annals are evident in its architecture, customs, and way of life.

The Viking Age, which spanned roughly from the 8th to 11th centuries, was a defining chapter in the story of Denmark.

Viking longships once sailed the seas, carrying warriors and traders to distant lands and leaving behind a legacy of exploration and conquest. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, at one point, the Danish Viking Sweyn Forkbeard and his son Cnut were the kings not only of Denmark but of Norway, Southern Sweden, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Shetland, Orkney, and parts of England. The Vikings traveled widely outside their realm, sailing to what today is Russia and Turkey. Their admirable navigation skills also brought them as far as Greenland and North America. They continued to plunder and steal, as well as ply more peaceful activities such as trading precious metals, textiles, glassware, jewelry, and fur.

Today, traces of Denmark’s Viking past can be found in archaeological sites, museums, and historic landmarks throughout the country, offering glimpses into this fascinating and notorious era in the country’s history.

Denmark’s royal history is another prominent feature of its heritage, with majestic castles and palaces dotting the country’s landscape. Kronborg Castle was immortalized as “Elsinore” (the setting of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”) and stands as a testament to the country’s regal past with its imposing turrets and ramparts that are symbols of strength and sovereignty. The castle is now inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List for its cultural and historical significance. Other notable landmarks include Frederiksborg Castle, a masterpiece of Renaissance architecture, and Amalienborg Palace, the official residence of the Danish Royal family.

In addition to its royal heritage, Denmark is also known for its rich cultural traditions and customs. From Midsummer celebrations featuring bonfires and feasting to Christmas markets teeming with delicacies such as klejner, pebernødder (ginger cookies), and glögg (a warm wine mixed with brandy and dried fruit) to folk dances and culinary delights, Danish culture is steeped in traditions that “help cement our continuity as a society,” said Else Marie Kofod of the Royal Danish Library.

“These are celebrations and customs handed down from one generation to the next.”

So, whether you participate in a traditional smørrebrød lunch of herring, shallots, and dill, attend a performance of favorite son Hans Christian Andersen’s beloved fairy tales, or visit the world-famous and original LEGOland®, visitors to Denmark are sure to be enchanted by the country’s vibrant cultural tapestry.

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Copenhagen, like much of its mother country, has a strong tech sector, with a number of multinational tech companies and startups. Danish tech workers also enjoy some of the highest salaries in Europe.

PHOTOGRAPH BY YOHAN MARION / UNSPLASH.COM

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9 According to a study in The Copenhagen Post, in the 2023 Women, Peace and Security Index, Denmark ranked the top country of 177 in which to be a woman. In 13 indicators, Denmark scored the best or among the best group in 12 of the cateogories. PHOTOGRAPH BY KIMBERLY STERLING / UNSPLASH.COM

Opposite: Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) is a splendid example of Denmark’s modern architecture and design..

PHOTOGRAPH BY DORIEN BEERNINK / UNSPLASH.COM

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100 Legacy of Female Leadership

Denmark has long been a trailblazer in the fight for gender equality and women’s rights, with a legacy of progressive female leadership that spans centuries. In the landscape of global gender equity, Denmark has emerged as a beacon of progress, where women have broken through traditional barriers and risen to prominent leadership positions across various spheres of society. From queens and politicians to activists and entrepreneurs, Danish women have played a vital role in shaping the history and society of their country and on the world stage.

Denmark’s journey toward gender equality can be traced back to its rich historical tapestry. Despite being a constitutional monarchy with a long line of male sovereigns, Danish society has historically afforded women certain rights and opportunities. As early as the 19th century, Danish women began advocating for their rights, forming organizations and movements to secure greater freedoms and opportunities.

One of the most prominent figures in Danish history is Margrethe II, who reigned as Queen of Denmark from January 1972 until her abdication in January 2024. The first female monarch since her namesake, Queen Margrethe 1 (1376-1412), marked her time on the throne with her intelligence, creativity, and dedication to public service. During the more than 50 years of her reign, Margrethe II worked tirelessly to modernize the monarchy and promote Danish culture and values at home and abroad. Her passion for the arts also earned her acclaim as a talented painter and costume designer, further burnishing her legacy as a multifaceted and influential leader.

In addition to Queen Margrethe II, Denmark has also produced several pioneering female politicians who have shattered glass ceilings and blazed trails in the world of politics. Vigdís Finnbogadøttir made history in 1980 as the world’s first democratically elected female president. Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Denmark’s first female Prime Minister (2011-2015), also earned her place in the history books when she was elected to lead the country’s government. During her four-year tenure, she focused on issues such as gender equality, social welfare, and climate change, earning praise for her leadership and vision. After her time as Prime Minister, she continued her social justice work by assuming the CEO role of Save the Children International, a post she held until 2019. The second woman to be elected Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, became the youngest PM in Danish history, attaining that position at 37. She gained international attention in August 2019 when former U.S. President Donald Trump canceled a state visit to Denmark following her refusal to sell Greenland, an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. She recently made headlines again in 2022 after initiating diplomatic talks on the possible presence of American troops on Danish soil, stating, “We want a stronger American presence in Europe and in Denmark.”

Beyond politics, Danish women continue to make strides in fields ranging from business and academia to sports and the arts. For instance, Denmark’s percentage of women who work outside the home is one of the highest in the world. A shifting

Above: Besides being a distinctive building on Copenhagen’s harbour, and one of Denmark’s most iconic structures, BLOX, designed by world-renowned architect firm OMA, is a prime example of the city’s development and sustainable urban planning.

PHOTOGRAPH BY C8EFGNUXGII / UNSPLASH.COM

Opposite: Interior of The Black Diamond, also known as the Royal Danish Library.

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The National Aquarium Denmark, northern Europe’s largest aquarium.

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Copenhagen is known as one of the world’s greatest foodie cities. The Nordic city is the 2023 Top Culinary Destination of the Year, according to Restaurant Guide World of Mouth. PHOTOGRAPH BY NHI DAM / UNSPLASH.COM / OPPOSITE PHOTOGRAPH BY MADS ENEQVIST / UNSPLASH.COM

culture led by Danish female leaders has increased efforts toward securing safe and dignified working environments for all employees, and for fighting gender-based violence.

Danish women continue to be recognized for contributing to the country’s cultural and intellectual landscape. The long list of influencers includes pioneering seismologist and mathematician Inge Lehmann, whose research revolutionized our understanding of the Earth’s core; Academy Award-winning filmmaker Susanne Bier, whose work has put a spotlight on the human condition; top-ranked tennis player Caroline Wozniacki, who was ranked the world’s No. 1 singles player for a total of 71 weeks in 2010-2011; Matilde Bajer, who helped found the Danish Women’s Society (one of the oldest women’s rights organizations in the world); and author Karen Blixen (also known as Isak Dinesen). Another notable example is Stine Bosse, former CEO of the insurance company Tryg, whose tenure at that company was marked by a commitment to diversity and inclusion, leading Tryg to become one of the most gender-balanced in Denmark. Beyond her corporate role, Bosse has also been an outspoken advocate for gender equality, using her platform to champion women’s rights in the workplace and beyond.

These women are just examples of Danes who have excelled in their respective fields and who have inspired future generations of women to pursue their dreams without fear or hesitation.

In Denmark, the legacy of female leadership is not just a historical footnote but a living testament to the country’s commitment to equality, justice, and progress. To be sure, Denmark still faces challenges when it comes to achieving total gender equity. Women remain underrepresented in specific fields, particularly in senior leadership roles and STEM-related industries. However, the country’s commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment remains steadfast, with ongoing efforts to address these challenges and to create a more inclusive and equitable society for all. From legislative reforms to grassroots initiatives, the country is actively working toward a future where women have equal opportunities to succeed and thrive personally and professionally.

Denmark is truly a land of contrasts, where tradition exists side by side with innovation and vision, and timeless romance mingles with progressive ideals. From its vibrant art scene and picturesque landscapes to its rich cultural heritage and legacy of female leadership, Denmark offers a wealth of experiences for those who want to explore its depths. As Denmark continues to build on its reputation for progress and transformation, it serves as an inspiration and model to other nations worldwide striving to achieve gender equality and empower women in leadership. ■

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108 Kim Kassas Couture “Your Majesty” campaign preview.

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Inspired by the ultimate symbol of regal elegance, the notorious Queen of France, Marie Antoinette, The ‘Your Majesty’ collection

by Kim Kassas is a celebration of opulence, grace, and individuality.

Majesty

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Viola

A corset dress featuring a drop-waisted shaping bodice with embroidered peacocks. Their embroidered feathers trail down the waist to the hips on the voluminous draped silk tulle skirt.

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Kim Kassas Couture “Your Majesty” campaign preview.

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jesty” campaign preview.

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Sharlotte

A corset-based ball gown accentuated by a basque waist and peplum layer adorned in solstice lace, paired with matching detachable sleeves.

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Kim Kassas Couture “Your Majesty” campaign preview.

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Josephine

A halter dress featuring a deep front drape, thin cross straps, and high leg slit, exquisitely crafted from an elaborately sequined and crystal-adorned fabric for a glamorous and captivating look.

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Frances

A Marie Antionette inspired two-piece gown featuring a structured corset delicately embroidered and paired with a sheer Indian embroidered lace slip underlay.

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Last queen consort of France prior to the French Revolution. She married Louis the 16th, heir apparent to the French throne, in May 1770 at age 14.

PAINTED BY ÉLISABETH VIGÉE LE BRUN, 1783

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Lady

A gallery of royalty-adored & despised even beyond deathtranscending time & beauty.

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by Elaine Burmeister

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Catherine 1st Empress of Russia

PAINTED BY JEAN-MARC NATTIER, 1717

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Catherine was the first woman to rule Imperial Russia, opening the legal path for a century almost entirely dominated by women, including her daughter Elizabeth and granddaughter-in-law Catherine the Great, all of whom continued Peter the Great’s policies in modernizing Russia.

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Isabella Queen of Portugal

PAINTED BY ROGIER VAN DER WEYDEN, 1450

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Isabella was only twelve when she became the wife and of King Denis and Queen of Portugal. As queen, she set an example of abstinence, modesty, and cheerfulness. She dedicated herself to helping the poor by establishing orphanages, institutions for the sick, housing for the homeless, and a convent for nuns. She was known as The Peacemaker. It is said that she had the ability to calm people by her presence alone. She died in 1336 and was canonized almost 300 years later in 1625.

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Elizabeth 1st

Queen of England and Ireland PAINTED BY MARCUS GHEERAERTS THE YOUNGER, CIRCA 1595

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Elizabeth I was Queen of England and Ireland from 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last monarch of the House of Tudor. Elizabeth was the only surviving child of Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn.

She and Queen Elizabeth II are related, even though she is not a direct descendant of Queen Elizabeth I. Queen Elizabeth I’s grandfather was King Henry VII. King Henry VII is also Queen Elizabeth II twelve times great-grandfather.

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Mary Stuwart Queen of Scotland

PAINTED BY ANONYMOUS, CIRCA 1565

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Mary, Queen of Scots, also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567. The only surviving legitimate child of James V of Scotland, Mary was six days old when her father died and she inherited the throne.

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Maria Theresa Queen of Hungary & Bohemia PAINTED BY FRANZ ANTON PALKO, 8TH CENTURY

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Maria Theresa (1717-1780), Archduchess of Austria, Holy Roman Empress, and Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, began her rule in 1740. She was the only woman ruler in the 650 history of the Habsburg dynasty. She reigned as an absolute monarch for forty years over one of the largest empires in Europe.

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Mary Rose Tudor Queen of France

PAINTED BY MICHAEL SITTOW , CIRCA 1514

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Mary Tudor (March 18, 1496-June 25, 1533) was an English princess who was briefly Queen of France as the third wife of King Louis XII. Louis was more than 30 years her senior. Mary Tudor was known around Europe for her pale skin and beautiful looks. As children, Mary and her brother, the future King Henry VIII, shared a close friendship. Henry arranged for Mary’s marriage to an old and ill King Louis XII as part of a peace treaty with France, who died suddenly after. Mary was Queen of France for just 82 days. Unafraid to challenge her powerful brother, she vowed to the king that her next marriage be for love.

THE WOMEN WHO INSPIRE US INTERVIEWS

BY KAREN FLOYD

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Women Inspiring Women . . .

* Copy edited for length and clarity. * Interview videos are available to watch at elysianwomen.com

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LYSIAN was the result of Karen Floyd’s personal quest to tell and listen to stories about exceptional women. From her early twenties as a young prosecutor . . . to the women she has interviewed over the past eight years as ELYSIAN’s publisher and editor, Floyd shares insights that are intended to encourage and move our readers.

On the surface, Floyd’s interviews are about women succeeding, overcoming, persevering, and enduring.

As the number of years and interviews have grown, Floyd no longer asks, “Is it timing, virtue, luck, funding, perseverance, faith, endurance or passion?”

Instead, she concludes, “While there is no one roadmap to achievement, these remarkable women have similar attributes. At some point, each woman ‘went against the grain’ and as a result they share qualities like courage, passion, steadfast persistence, hard work, un-deterring focus, strong loyalty, self-awareness, and independence.

Though some led . . . others built, created, and changed the world. Their interviews reveal a sense of self and a belief in something greater, many call faith.”

With the thousands of interviews, Floyd emphasizes, “Their journey was often lonely, but their hardships created inner strength, enlightenment, and ultimately an intention to uplift others.”

It is that purposeful determination that Floyd mirrors in the women she interviews as she shares their inspiring stories.

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Interview Date: May 11th, 2023

JESSICA WORD’S journey at Word & Brown General Agency began at a young age, working in the mailroom of her family’s company. Cofounded in 1985 by her father, John M. Word III, and Edward J. “Rusty” Brown, Jr., the Word & Brown Companies have since grown to include the Word & Brown General Agency, one of the largest independent health insurance general agencies in the U.S. Additionally, they are the parent company of CHOICE Administrators, which oversees CaliforniaChoice and ChoiceBuilder, the largest private multi-carrier, small group health insurance and ancillary exchange platforms in the nation.

Now 47, Jessica, a California native and married mother of two, serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the Word & Brown General Agency.

In this interview, Jessica shares that it wasn’t until she was 40 that she realized she had been telling herself everything was great when, in fact, she was struggling. Having two children just 15 months apart without taking maternity leave took a toll on her, both physically and emotionally. At that moment, she decided to let go of her limiting beliefs, focus on self-healing through self-love and self-care, and fall in love with herself for the first time.

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In 2021, you were made CEO of Word & Brown. How many years had you been working there?

I started working at Word & Brown when I was eight years old. My father, John Word, and Rusty Brown were the founders of the company. At eight years old, I was cleaning out file cabinets with a sponge and paper towels.

I have essentially worked here “off and on” my entire life. I started in the mail room and have worked in every department, in every division, from the ground up. I am 47 years old now, so when you think I was eight years old when I started working there, you realize it has been a very long time.

Thirty nine years at Word & Brown, the largest privately held General Agency in California, is quite an accomplishment. When you see a young woman coming up through the Word & Brown ranks, do you have flashbacks of yourself at that age?

Yes, I do. I see myself in a lot of young women coming up through the ranks, and sometimes, I just want to hug them and tell them to keep going: you got this.

Word & Brown is a “general insurance” agency. What does that mean?

A General Agency in the health insurance space is really an intermediary that works with insurance carriers and individual insurance agents or brokers. Our company provides services to brokers in California and Nevada, and we represent all of the medical carriers in those states; we also offer dental, vision, and life insurance. The value of a General Agency to an agent or broker is we consolidate all available insurance options in an easy-to-understand quote for brokers to share with their small business clients.

This concept is like comparing flights through Priceline or Expedia. Additionally, a General Agency provides brokers with support throughout the sales, enrollment, and open enrollment process; we provide education and training, and we also offer a number of other tools designed to make the broker as efficient as possible.

Were you a girly girl or a tomboy at the age of eight?

Tomboy.

And what was your first paying job?

My first paying job was at Irvine Park. I was 12 years old and fortunate to find a place that paid me to ride horses while taking people on trail rides.

Are you an introvert or an extrovert? I ask this because many CEOs are required to work as extroverts.

I am a little bit of both, so I never looked at the CEO position as requiring one or the other. I love that question because being the CEO is not something that defines who I am. I have always been the person that just wants to help. I love puzzles. I love operations, “finding the cheese” so to speak. I understand how the company can be more efficient and speak up. I always offer my advice and try to help others. It authentically comes that way for me.

Critical thinker, problem solver, or logistics, which word best defines you?

All of them.

Project management or visionary?

Both of them.

You had to become all these descriptors because . . . fill in the blank.

I had to become all of them because I worked in all divisions, and I had to understand the business from the ground up. Complete operational understanding

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is critical to be able to offer advice and suggestions. If you don’t understand how something works you will not get the respect of your teammates nor understand the company’s vision. Without a strong team that has mutual respect for their peers and leader and a comprehensive understanding of the vision, you cannot think strategically to streamline systems for increased productivity.

Your ability to multitask and wear multiple hats, are those characteristics hardwired into you?

I was not given a choice. I have always been that person that wanted to try to help. At one time, I was a big-time people pleaser, but I have learned later in life, to begin pleasing myself too, which is a significant part of my journey.

Where were you born and are you the youngest child?

I was born in Fountain Valley, California. Yes, I am the baby. My brother is two and a half years older, and my sister is seven years older.

There are many challenges with being the youngest in a complex family situation. You are the child of divorced parents. Did you spend most of your time with your mother, or with your father?

I lived with both of them in Santa Ana, CA, until they divorced when I was 12 years old. After that, I lived mostly with my mother and saw my father every other weekend.

He moved to Newport Beach and my mom moved us to Tustin, CA. I have cherished memories of spending time with both my mother and father. While I primarily lived with my mother, my father and I bonded during family vacations. He also made it a point to attend most of my junior high and high school sporting events.

Do you think what you experienced as a young woman impacted your choices as an adult?

I believe that my experiences have given me examples of what I want to do, what I want to experience, and things that I don’t want to do. I am grateful for all of it because it molded me. And so yes, what I experienced had a major impact on what I want to create, the environment for my family life, and what I want for my children.

What things do you feel passionate about? We all have life experiences that mold us, but we also have choices to move forward.

What are those for you?

First of all, I am madly in love with my husband.

He is amazing. His parents are still married, which I love, especially in California, where the divorce rate is significantly higher. Not to focus on that, but I am passionate about loyalty and integrity. I want to do right by my kids. One of the most important lessons for them is to love yourself and be who you authentically are. I support them unconditionally and try to teach them by example, that you will not always get it right, and that’s okay, you’re human. Even now I still seek clarity… because I do not always know what to do, I just know what I don’t want to do. The list of things I am willing to put up with continues to get smaller and shorter with time.

Is that self-actualization?

Being self-aware. You nailed it.

To have self-awareness, you have to go through good and bad.

Which was it for you?

I would put the good and the bad together because it was my life’s experience, so I am unable to put them in different buckets. I had good experiences and bad

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experiences, but I truly can’t look back and say what was good or bad, because all my experiences got me to where I am today. I went through some pain, and it wasn’t easy.

But here I am today, and I love where I landed. I learned a lot along the way.

Did your difficulties teach you compassion?

Oh, yes, both compassion and empathy. It took a lot for me to figure this out. Being a people pleaser is a characteristic a lot of women share, and I consistently neglected “me” along the way. The good and the bad experiences taught me to change this.

What is critical to your well-being?

Both self-care and self-love.

I think women are terrible in acknowledging this . . . do you agree?

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ELYSIAN Publisher Karen Floyd interviews American businesswoman Jessica Word, Chief Executive Officer at Word & Brown Companies, the largest independent small group health distributor in the United States and the nation’s first private health insurance exchange.

We absolutely are, and they are critical. It takes time to understand the importance of self-care and self-love.

As we go through experiences in life, how we respond is a product of how we are emotionally, mentally, and physically, and that knowledge is important. This is something I’ve learned with age. My parents’ divorce wasn’t easy. Divorce can be ugly and sad, particularly if you’re a child who wants to make people happy, and all at once, you are not a

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priority. Dividing time was hard for all of us.

Those who experience childhood trauma have a choice to end up becoming resentful, bitter, and angry (dark) or they forgive and embrace their journey (light). How were you able to move through this?

For a long time, I was judging myself by how others judged me and I reached a point where it was dark.

At some point, I attended an amazing leadership series where I learned that I did not really like myself. It was transformational because when you go to the office or are with family and friends, you show up a certain way. You know if you are not having a good day, but no one can tell, because you are smiling.

What is interesting is when I entered a safe environment

of strangers, they told me exactly how they perceived me.

They saw straight through my smile and knew I wasn’t showing up as myself.

During these leadership classes, they had exercises for the whole group, and it was the first time I had ever sat in the back of the room, simply listening. I didn’t want to be responsible for anything, so I just sat in the back and watched people.

I realized my passion was to help others and that I loved what I did. It was the first time I felt I loved something, yet I also recognized that I did not love myself and was holding myself hostage.

How old were you when you realized that?

It was only five years ago, in 2017, and I am now 47.

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Of the hundreds of interviews I have conducted, would it surprise you to know that around the age of 40 most women have these types of life realizations?

Not really; I think it takes time to decide that you will not put up with unhappiness. I think we get to the point where we become fed up and can’t fake it anymore.

Is it a control thing?

Well, I believe control is an illusion. All one can really do is regain control of oneself. If you can breathe, you can choose.

Two milestone years . . . 2017, and 2021 when you were made CEO. In 2017, I had a profound change, and I learned to forgive myself. I was still holding on to several past experiences/traumas where I was disrespected and minimized, and it affected me. I was still upset for being that weak person who allowed myself to be in those situations, and I felt I should have known better and stuck up for myself.

I recognized that I was just human and once I forgave myself, I fell in love with myself for the first time. It was the most beautiful feeling because it changed my entire life.

I love people, but if someone is nasty or rude to you, I learned it has nothing to do with me. I live my life differently now. I go to bed every night, put my head on my pillow, and know that all my actions from that day were made with integrity, meaning I tried to do “right.”

Right by God. Right by spirit. This is how I choose to live my life.

Was your husband with you through your journey or was that a very lonely period?

He was definitely with me. But there are some things that you just cannot share or even explain. You must experience it. I love men, but if you talk to a man, they just want to fix it. And sometimes women just want to talk through it. Men don’t get that. It can be frustrating too because as females, I think just talking out loud makes us feel better. It gets it out of our system.

You, much like many women, had signs of postpartum depression after the birth of your children.

It was a very painful part of my life because I was misdiagnosed twice. My family knew I wasn’t okay. I had babies back-to-back 15 months apart and I worked the entire time. My kids are now eight and nine.

I became president in 2013 when Obamacare was created. I was seven and a half months pregnant at the time. I think I wanted to prove that women don’t need or have to take personal time to have a baby . . . “you just play like the big boys.” I also wanted to show the naysayers that I could do it all.

I regret that now, having worked through both pregnancies, but at the time, it just wasn’t an option.

Meetings were scheduled three weeks after having my baby, so I just went for it, and I really never stopped working.

You literally had a baby and went back to work. And no concessions or empathy from anyone?

All the females at the company understood but not at the executive level. Mind you, people were sweet and happy for us, but that lasted about 3% of the conversation which was fine because I wasn’t there to talk about my baby. I wanted to talk about work.

But the toll on you with childbirth, new motherhood, and taking

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on a new job . . . What was that like?

It was like drinking through a fire hose. Shortly after my first, I became pregnant and had my second child 15 months later, and my body mentally and physically began to break down. Something was not okay with me, and I was not normal.

It wasn’t until a few months after my second child that I learned a woman’s body needs about a year in between to recover.

To be transparent, after my second child, I was sick with sepsis and had to be hospitalized on two separate occasions. I literally felt like a zombie; I was living in a fog bank. I didn’t know I was gravely ill; I could no longer ascertain what feeling healthy vs not feeling healthy was anymore. I didn’t know what was going on with me.

Professionally to put everything into context, being made president of Word & Brown was a huge undertaking in and of itself because your company is the largest privately held General Agency in California.

Yes, it was a big undertaking, but also a privilege.

What was that like?

I love what we do, and today, everything is changing with the global shift of more women coming into the workforce and serving in executive positions.

The world has changed in the past decade, hasn’t it?

Today, there is also an emotional shift in which women support each other. And let me tell you, it wasn’t always like that. Early on, I shied away from women’s events because I was the only female at the executive level at my company.

At your level as CEO, you still statistically are the only woman in the boardroom.

Absolutely, and it still is not easy.

It is not easy because . . . fill in the blank.

It’s not easy and I love my father who paved the way.

He has done so much for me as my mentor and my best friend. But he is also old school and very traditional.

Sometimes it feels like, employees or businesses want to hear from a man.

Many women interviewed describe a scenario, where if they offer an opinion or position in mixed company, there are blind stares.

Abundant affirmation and credit are given if a man offers the same option or position. Is this your experience too? If the idea comes from a male, suddenly, it is the right answer.

That is exactly what happens. I say something and then somebody repeats it, and suddenly, it is okay.

It is validated.

For years I dimmed my light for others. When you have answers as a woman executive, people become envious.

Over the years, I have learned that when people do not have integrity or do something to you, it has nothing to do with you, which is why you need to have empathy. I feel bad for mean people because nobody wakes up angry… and sad manifests into anger.

If somebody is in such a bad place that they take it out on others, it is often because it numbs their own pain. I have empathy, but for a long time, I did not understand the root cause of their ugliness.

Take me through “A Day in the Life” of Jessica Word. You get up at what time?

It ranges, but normally 4:30 AM, depending on how late I go to bed.

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WHAT ADVICE DO YOU HAVE FOR SUCCESSFUL PROFESSIONAL WOMEN WHO MAY EXPERIENCE RESENTMENT FROM OTHER WOMEN? And what do you do at that time?

I don’t look at the phone and in fact, I cover the clock.

Do you turn your technology off at night?

I turn it off because I am trying to be more present with our kids.

What time? Give me an idea.

I try to put the phone down six-ish.

Do you think that makes you healthier?

Yes, and it allows me to be in the “beingness” and not in the “doingness,” because it just allows me to be present.

I try to do this for myself and for my kids.

You get up at 4:30, what do you do from 4:30 until your kids leave for school?

I do my meditation and my centering. I am at peace, and I just sit in silence. I get up and it’s just peaceful and I love it.

Without that quiet time, can you function as fully?

Yes. You can?

I can. I just don’t like to. I can function but I resent giving too much of my vitality away because I am not “filling my cup back up” with the energy I need.

How do you do you replenish and recalibrate?

I leave town. I have an amazing life coach who I have ELYSIAN “Inspiring Woman,” Jessica Word, during a recent trip to Iceland.

been with for five years. We meet up once a quarter for a three-day immersion. We go places where there is limited or no Wi-Fi. I make agreements with my family and my work so I can be off the grid.

We stay at Airbnb’s and even camp—not glamping—which is nice because I love nature so much. It is my happy place.

When you go to nature, it is restorative and so beautiful. Then you return home and are sucked into the vortex.

My happy spot is outside in nature and getting away from technology.

I want to now focus on this next chapter of Your life. What do you want to be remembered for?

I want to be remembered for integrity, loyalty, and supporting those who need help. I want to help light up this world, making it a little bit brighter and a little bit better than it was when I got here. And I want to be remembered for leaving my children a legacy that they can be proud of.

Will your children be part of the Word & Brown succession plan?

Oh gosh, I don’t know. It will be their option, as it was always an option for me. John, I call my father John at work, would say, “You do whatever you want, baby.”

I loved the company, which was a family. When I was a child, my father took me to this wonderful Christmas party, and I remember him standing in front of the room, talking to his staff. My dad stood up there with Rusty, his business partner whom I adore, and they were congratulating and

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PEOPLE WILL SPREAD RUMORS NO MATTER WHAT. BE FRIENDLY, AND BRAVE, MAINTAIN YOUR INTEGRITY, AND BE GENUINE. PUT YOURSELF OUT THERE, BE HONEST BUT DON’T EXPECT ANYTHING IN RETURN. MY MOTHER SAID THIS FAMOUSLY, “EXPECTATIONS ARE PREMEDITATED RESENTMENTS.” FINALLY, DON’T TAKE THINGS PERSONALLY. JEALOUSY WILL HAPPEN AND NOTHING YOU DO CAN CHANGE THAT. giving out awards to their employees. I remember they both were crying. There was so much passion. I love what we do because we get to help people and what we do matters.

What advice do you have for successful professional women who may experience resentment from other women?

My advice would be who cares what they say? People will spread rumors no matter what. Be friendly, and brave, maintain your integrity, and be genuine. Put yourself out there, be honest but don’t expect anything in return. My mother said this famously, “Expectations are premeditated resentments.” Finally, don’t take things personally. Jealousy will happen and nothing you do can change that.

You have a reputation for empowering and mentoring women.

Where does that come from?

I love women when they are doing something different and have gathered the courage to try. It takes courage to go to school, to stand up in speech class . . . and when we are young those decisions are hard. Some people fear public speaking more than death. I mean, it’s incredible.

I am drawn to brave women, and I am passionate about helping them. I have mentored female students during their final year of college at Cal State Fullerton as well as those who are looking to become executives.

There is so much I want to share, that nobody told me.

Has any woman ever mentored you?

No, because it wasn’t available. The word mentor was not talked about until recently, now it is a “thing.”

Do you think women understand the art of compromise better than their counterparts?

I think our brains are more analytical because we have had to be. We look at many different angles of one issue, while simultaneously juggling a million balls in the air.

Women should be at the table/board room because . . . fill in the blank.

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Women should be at the table because we are trained to think through all the variables, and we have overcome obstacles based on gender.

Are women better problem solvers, maybe?

Yes, because we constantly problem-solve, but we do it with heart and empathy too. We don’t play for the short game either. We must think about the future. And while some men do that too, I can only share my experience.

Women are constantly juggling and multitasking . . . what to wear to a function, who is going to pick up the dry cleaning, go to the grocery store, cook, clean, and just say thank you? Meanwhile, we are working in high-level positions demanding focus.

I think we are better at looking at all levels of a problem and not just the obvious ones.

What advice would you give a young woman, that could have changed your journey had someone shared it with you?

I would say love yourself, no matter what. Don’t judge yourself harshly, as others most certainly will do.

Make sure that you are accountable. One small thing you say or do can have a ripple effect. So be kind and smile because smiling at someone, even strangers, can light up a life. Human connection is powerful. We need more of it. Do not fear being kind to people, so many people just aren’t used to kindness.

Be the best person you can. Be present and pay attention. Undivided and full attention is one of the rarest forms of generosity we can give. People know when you’re talking to them, whether you are focused or not focused. Listen to others because sometimes people just want to be heard and feel seen.

Finally, I would teach a strong handshake because we can’t stand that little donkey handshake. ■

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anita Interview Date: February 2nd, 2024

PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL PANICCIA

She is the daughter of Ukrainian Jews, a child born in the aftermath of humanity’s darkest hour, the Holocaust, under storm clouds that, even now, seven decades on, have yet to dissipate. When, as a young girl, she came to know her heritage, it became clear that the courage, resilience, and strength to supersede suffering and overcome loss was the blood of her forebears that coursed through her veins. Throughout her life, she would draw upon these innate strengths, through trial and tribulation, persevering and succeeding in work, life, and love. ANITA ZUCKER comes from a long line of survivors. Her story evolves from the concentration camps and ghettos her family endured, to her own life, which otherwise might have been meaningless had she not embraced her birthright and evolved into the woman she was meant to be. By dedicating her life and wealth to helping those far less fortunate than she but no less worthy, Anita Zucker honors those who came before her—and leaves a brilliant legacy all her own.

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Your maiden name, Goldberg, is historic and prominent in Western Europe. Can you share your family’s history?

My father and my mother’s families worked in retail and manufacturing. My father’s family was primarily in retail and my father was in sales. His parents were Chava Elka and Yehuda Leib Goldberg. My mother’s family were milliners.

They owned a factory that made hats for both civilians as well as the Polish military. My mom, who was a young teenager at the time, loved skipping school and working with her father in the plant where she learned how to sew the emblems for the Polish soldiers onto their hats. During those formative years, her father taught her everything from how to purchase products to the fundamentals of manufacturing. She would take their horse and wagon from their home (which today would be in Ukraine) and go to Warsaw, Poland. In Yiddish, the name of the town where they lived was Ludmir. Both my mom and my dad were raised there.

How old were you when you realized that your parents had survived the Holocaust in WW II? I was about eight years old when I began to understand what really happened to my family, where they lived, and how they came to America. I went to Sunday school, where they showed us a video about the Nazis and what happened during World War II to the Jewish people. I was a little girl, so when I came home and talked about it, Mom started sharing her experiences. From that day forward, she never hesitated to tell us the stories about her life and her family. While my mother’s siblings Peretz and Reuven, who were very young and survived the war, her only sister, Rachel was murdered along with her brothers, Moshe, Bentzi, and Herschel.

My dad, though, was not willing to tell us as much about what he experienced and endured. His hardships began early on when he lost his mother through childbirth. His father remarried and in 1933 his stepmother sent his sister Sarah away to what was then called Palestine. This is the reason she was the only other member of my father’s family to survive.

He lost his entire family, who lived in what is now Ukraine.

His three brothers Yankel, Mottel, and Shaiah, his father and stepmother, were all murdered.

It was difficult to overcome. Before marrying my mother, he was married to a lovely lady, and they had one daughter.

In 1939, when their daughter was three, the first bombings occurred, and one bomb demolished their building. My dad was not home but when he returned, the building was turned to rubble. He searched through the debris until he found the bodies of his wife and his baby.

When did your father tell you about what happened?

My father never talked about it until I was much older.

My mother had a photograph of my father’s wife and baby.

It was such a surprise when we realized that he had a family before ours. It took us 20 years before we knew the baby’s name but when we turned the picture over, on the back of the photograph we saw that her name was Nechama, which is meaningful because it means “soul.” It is hard to think that I could have had another sister, but she was murdered.

You mentioned that your father’s family; parents, brothers, and stepmother all perished. Do you know what happened to them?

They were forced to live in the ghetto during the war and were murdered . . . probably during one of the pogroms where the Jewish people were randomly rounded up, and sent to either concentration camps or shot in one of many mass graves.

I don’t know exactly how my father survived, he never fully explained how he managed to avoid death. There is a historical book about their ghetto. My dad is mentioned as

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being a partisan. He often spent time in the woods, during the war, trying to help by gathering food, finding information on what was going on, working with other partisans, and getting provisions back to the ghetto. After his entire family was murdered, he lived in the same building as my mom’s family, which is how they came to really know each other.

Had they met before then?

Yes, they were neighbors and my mom had known his daughter and played with her when she was a little baby.

The last years that my mother lived in the ghetto she was a teenager, and 18 years old.

How did she survive?

During that period of time, tragically, many people were shot, killed, and thrown into mass graves. My mother was forced to enter a work crew. One of the things my mother

• automne 2024 • édition de leadership • readelysian.com

ELYSIAN Publisher Karen Floyd interviews internationally sought-after scientific leader, spokesperson, and innovator in health and wellness, Dr. Christina Rahm.

ELYSIAN Publisher Karen Floyd interviews American businesswoman and philanthropist Anita Zucker. Anita was the chair at the Hudson’s Bay Company. Taking over after her husband’s death, she is now the chairperson and chief executive officer (CEO) of The Intertech Group.

had to do was to cover the mass graves. On one occasion, she found her brother’s clothing, and she knew he was murdered.

She recognized the patches on the pants because she had sewn them on, mending them where she could. Members of her family went to say prayers and the Nazis bolted the doors of the synagogue, poured gasoline, and burned the synagogue down.

Her father and another of her brothers were burned alive.

I can’t imagine the horror your mother felt. Did she tell you about losing her father and brother?

I have a video of my mother telling the story of them being burned alive. At the time one of her brothers was

living underground. She called it a “living grave.” At some point, he just couldn’t take it anymore, he missed his family.

Her brother was a little bit older than she was and all seven children were very close. She said, “Had he stayed just one extra day underground, he would not have died in the fire, but he just couldn’t take it anymore.” He wanted to be with his family and was murdered in the fire with his father.

During the time my mother was part of a work crew, the Nazis would come and get her. She was beaten, tortured, and blinded in one eye. I never knew she was blind until she moved here in the last several years of her life. I heard her doctor say to her, “You are blind in one eye, aren’t you?” And she responded, “Yes, I was beaten by the Germans.” Though she lost her vision, somehow, she managed to get a driver’s license and managed to drive until she was in her nineties.

She was amazing in that way; she was strong and the things she went through taught her to be tough.

Did any members of your mother’s family survive the ghetto roundups?

Yes. My mom and her younger brothers, who were only eight and 10, survived the final roundup, they were the few who were lucky. They were placed in the last group slated to be rounded up, in the ghetto.

The Nazis broke into their little, tiny room that housed 16 family members. How they didn’t find my mother was a miracle.

Amidst the chaos she hid underneath a straw mattress where she stayed as quietly as she could so they wouldn’t find her.

Out of the corner of her eyes, she watched the Nazis take her entire family away, her mother, her young brothers, another brother, and his wife.

Did any of her family members, that were taken by the Nazis in that room survive, other than your mother?

Yes. Her mother taught her to be tough and her father taught her to be prepared, even though he didn’t survive.

When the coast was clear, and the Nazis had taken her entire family, she crawled out from under the mattress and checked the room where she found an infant. The baby was her niece, her brother and sister-in-law’s 16-month-old child.

She picked up the baby and decided that wherever she was going, that baby would go with her.

They loaded the rest of the family into wagons, one of which was carrying my grandmother and my two uncles, who were young and smart. My grandfather had taught all seven siblings where there were hiding places. Somehow, they got my grandmother off the transport. They remembered one of the hiding places, a little cobbler’s shop nearby, and the three escaped by covering my grandmother and themselves with wood. At that time a lot of the shoes were made of wood. By hiding under the wood, they were not found.

Of your entire family, who else survived the Holocaust?

In my mother’s family, my mother, her two little brothers, my grandmother, and this baby that she carried, her niece, survived. And my father survived. He was the only survivor of his family, other than his sister.

How many perished?

Oh my goodness, my mom lost four siblings and her father, and I couldn’t tell you the number of aunts, uncles, and cousins. I don’t know. I know that there were 25,000 Jewish people in that ghetto when the war began, at the end of the war, 200 survived.

And then of your father’s family?

Only my father, everyone was murdered, which is tragic.

How did he hold onto life and keep hope?

I’m not sure how he did it, but he did. I will tell you; my family were all very faithful people. My dad loved to go and

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Rose Goldberg , Anita’s mother, along with her sister, Eva Goldberg (right), and her cousin, Esther (center) pictured in a field in Eshvega which is near Kassel, in Germany, circa 1947.

Anita’s parents, Rose and Carl Goldberg, in the window of the Displaced Person’s Camp, Schlachtenzsee in Germany about 1946.

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YOUR MOTHER, HOW DID SHE SURVIVE THE HOLOCAUST? pray in the synagogue, and he loved his community. They just believed that God was good and somehow their faith would carry them through. They remained faithful until the day my mom died, which was just about four years ago.

How old was she when she died?

She was 96.

Can you imagine the changes that that woman saw during her life?

I am sad that she is gone, but I am glad that she is not seeing the conflicts in the world today.

During the Holocaust, how did your family, as a unit, stay together?

They had no income, no home . . . nothing of material value, so they were forced to move around. My mom, her mother, the infant niece, and her two baby brothers traveled together.

My dad learned later that my mom was still alive and joined them. There was a spark between them from before when they met in the ghetto. At that time, my mother’s father was not happy, because my mother was so much younger than my dad. But so much had happened since the ghetto . . .

What was the age difference?

11 years difference. My dad was born in 1912 and my mother was born in 1923.

He obviously gravitated to some semblance of life that he understood.

Yes. While they were in the ghetto, he lived in the same house but in a different room.

I did not ask, but on that fateful day when the Nazis were making the final “round up” of the Jewish people, how did your father survive?

A wall fell on him that day, and it saved him from being captured. Later he escaped and joined the partisans in the woods, where he stayed until he learned that my mother survived. So somehow, he made it back to her. The most interesting thing is that when you look at where the hiding places were located, every hiding place was within two hours of the town they grew up in.

Geographically they were never far in distance. My dad would be in the woods, and of course, my mother would move the family from place to place. She had a baby with her, the infant niece.

During the moves there was one betrayal my mom told us about. They were looking for refuge and she saw her own uncle tell a man who they were seeking shelter from not to let them stay. Her uncle told the man that because she had a baby, their lives were all placed at risk (including her uncle) of being captured.

Did her uncle live?

He lived, but we never met him. To my knowledge, he was the only person outside of the group I mentioned, that survived. She never wanted us to find him, and we didn’t.

He betrayed her in the worst way, and the baby wasn’t even her child.

Did they stay in the hiding place, after all?

Yes, she convinced the owner of the property where the hiding place was, to let her and the baby stay for one night.

She said, “I will move the baby as soon as I can. Please let us in. It’s 32 below zero and I can’t, I can’t go on.”

He was kind and he let them stay, where they sheltered for at least one night. Somehow this teenage woman managed to take a baby and find the next hiding place. She went back each night and brought each family member, one person at a time, for several nights. It was incredibly cold, frozen, and snowing outside. I don’t know how she did it.

Is survival hardwired in you?

It is. My mom gave us skills, but others came naturally, partly from genetics. We also learned from her stories about what she went through and how she protected her family. She was a true believer in faith, friends, and immediate family . . . because she saw what her uncle had done.

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The museum was a converted train station, from which they deported all the Jews. Even today, the museum still has the deportation train cars. They created a museum where you can retrieve historical information. You just cannot imagine the amount of data that the Germans kept.

There are books sitting on tables inside the rooms of the train station with the names of every Jew that came out of that ghetto, where they were deported, and to which camp, they were sent. We saw all of that.

Poland was not liberated at that time. How did they escape?

Sometime between 1945 and 1946, they were placed in what was called a DP camp. And it was in a “displaced person’s” camp my older sister was born. It was a rough delivery.

Your grandmother was almost catatonic from the trauma. How did she adapt after the birth of your older sister?

She was getting better, but my God, she suffered so much tragedy. You can’t replace the losses she suffered. But she had Esther to take care of, her two sons, and now, she had my mom and the new baby. She always got along with my dad, thank goodness. They were all together in this DP camp for a while.

Life got better there. They secured employment, began to earn money, and focused on what their next steps would be. My grandmother, her two sons (mom’s two brothers), and Esther decided to go first. In 1948, they left the DP camp and went to Israel. My mom and dad didn’t have enough money to go to Israel with them.

Why did your mother, father, and sister choose to live in America?

After saving money and getting cleared through official channels, they were sent to one of the ports in Germany, and an organization named HIAS, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, which still exists today helped them immigrate.

My parents and three-year-old sister boarded the General Ballou and were processed into Ellis Island where they were then routed to Jacksonville, Florida. They had $200 in their pockets.

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Left: Jerry Zucker and Anita Goldberg at her sister, Eva Goldberg’s college graduation from the University of Florida, May, 1968. Center: Passover Seder at the Goldberg’s home, April, 1969. Leon Zucker is standing, to the right side of the table you have Charles Lipman, Eva Goldberg, Ben Mibab, Jerry Zucker, Anita Goldberg and Charles Mibab.

Her parents, Rose and Carl Goldberg are sitting at the head of the table. To the left side of the table you have Zipora Zucker and Rochelle Zucker. Right: Anita Goldberg, Rochelle Zucker, Leon and Zipora Zucker in Tarpon Springs, Florida, in December, 1969.

Did they ever return to the town they originally came from?

Yes, they returned and found their property, but everything was gone. They married in the house where my mother lived but nothing was left there, it was just a shell. They had several ceremonies but the first one was in what originally, was my mother’s home. It was attended by Russian soldiers and the few family members that had survived.

The Russians had taken over their town and my mom said roughly 500 Russian soldiers came to one of their wedding ceremonies.

Why did they decide to leave?

They had to make a decision. They looked at each other, she, and my dad, and they said, “We can’t live like this.” They could not live under the communist rule. It was a tough time.

The area was a part of Poland at that point. Today it is in Ukraine, but it is very close to the Polish border.

And Poland was under the Soviet Union’s control. How did they leave?

They made a deal with the owner of a truck and gave him what little that they had with them, some of which was sewn into their clothing. One little outfit might have had buttons, coins, or something they were able to use, as a trade. My dad spoke seven languages and my mom spoke four, so they managed that way.

The truck was double walled so my mother’s whole family and my dad hid in between the walls. One of the stops along the way was in Lodz, Poland, where they lived for about six months.

I was not told about Lodz until later in my life, but I located the apartment building. When I called my mom, she confirmed that was where they lived. My uncle who was still alive at that time, gave me an address to a street that doesn’t exist today.

We went to a museum in Lodz and gave them the street address that my uncle had provided. They gave us the corresponding address, the place, street, and number. Sure enough, we found the building.

What did they do for a living in Jacksonville, Florida?

My mom worked for a Jewish family who helped them get an apartment within walking distance to a synagogue.

They placed my sister in kindergarten. My parents learned to drive and speak English. But well before that, my mom was working. She was hired to count inventory because she didn’t need to speak English for that. She learned to count inventory as a child in her family’s business. She knew numbers and would work at night when my sister was sleeping.

When my mom became pregnant with me, little by little her work switched to daytime hours. She iced cakes in a grocery store, and she still worked for the Jewish family, in a retail store.

My dad was hired by another Jewish family who had a grocery store. He worked in the produce department with vegetables and fruits. He also loved to make signs. When he could speak and write English, he made signs and he loved drawing caricatures, which is probably why my little sister became an artist, which is cute too. She was born while he was still working in the grocery store.

Eventually, he decided not to work for anybody, he wanted to be self-employed. So, with three daughters by then, Susie and I are five years apart, he invested in property and had residual income from their apartments.

My dad finally made the big decision that he was going to have his own business. By then my uncle moved to Jacksonville from Israel and the two of them bought full-service gas stations. They were also good with numbers and expanded the business to selling tires and owning U-Haul franchises.

When was the first time you saw your husband, Jerry?

That’s a cute story. I was walking downtown with my girlfriends, and someone said, “That’s Jerry Zucker.” His mother was our teacher. At that time, both his parents taught me at the synagogue. I was twelve at that time.

Were you a good student?

Yes, I was a good student and well-behaved. His parents moved to Jacksonville when I was eight or nine years old.

They helped start the day school at the Jacksonville Jewish Center in Jacksonville, Florida. My mother-in-law’s still alive. She’s 96 now.

What did Jerry’s father do?

Jerry’s father was a trained rabbi, but he also was a diamond cutter and they were in Israel. Jerry’s mother’s entire family left Poland in the 1930s and emigrated to what was Palestine. Jerry’s father’s family sent him away to study in Palestine, and their entire immediate family was murdered. Jerry’s father and mother became my religious school teachers.

Much like your father’s family, Jerry’s father’s family was killed.

Yes. Everybody, mother, father, and siblings are all gone.

Okay, Jerry Zucker’s mother and father taught you . . .

Yes, we were 12-year-old girls and at an age where we were just getting interested in young men. We didn’t know him well, but we knew who they were and that they went to our synagogue.

You were 12 and he was 14. When did you actually meet?

Not until I was 14 almost 15 and he was about 17. His dad was at my aunt and uncle’s home and said, “Go home and change your clothes and ask your parents if it’s okay for me to take you home with me. I want to introduce you to my son.”

My mother-in-law was in bed because she had had some kind of surgery. I spent time with her and wished her a speedy recovery. She had taught me when I was 12.

The rabbi, your father-in-law was he trying to connect you two?

Yes. He was making a match.

Did he ever tell you that?

Yes. He wanted us to know each other. Absolutely. There were other girls that Jerry could have gone out with. Once they introduced us, we dated ever since.

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Opposite: Anita Zucker and David Popowski, April, 2016, at a Kentucky Derby party.

DURING THE TIME MY MOTHER WAS PART OF A WORK CREW, THE NAZIS WOULD COME AND GET HER. SHE WAS BEATEN, TORTURED, AND BLINDED IN ONE EYE. I NEVER KNEW SHE WAS BLIND UNTIL SHE MOVED HERE IN THE LAST SEVERAL YEARS OF HER LIFE. I HEARD HER DOCTOR SAY TO HER, “YOU ARE BLIND IN ONE EYE, AREN’T YOU?” AND SHE RESPONDED, “YES, I WAS BEATEN BY THE GERMANS.” THOUGH SHE LOST HER VISION, SOMEHOW, SHE MANAGED TO GET A DRIVER’S LICENSE AND MANAGED TO DRIVE UNTIL SHE WAS IN HER NINETIES. SHE WAS AMAZING IN THAT WAY; SHE WAS STRONG AND THE THINGS SHE WENT THROUGH TAUGHT HER TO BE TOUGH. Did you know from age 14 on that you would marry him?

Maybe not at 14, but maybe by 15. A little later.

How old were you when you were married?

I was 18 when I got married, in 1970. My parents took me to find an apartment and I attended a community college that had the perfect program for me. I got to be a teacher’s aide and for four years I worked 20 hours a week in the schools, in a public school.

Is that what precipitated your love for education?

That was a piece of it. My parents knew we needed education because they didn’t get to complete theirs.

For 10 years you taught school and during that time, you and Jerry started building your own family. At what point did you start really learning about his business? Because you became the CEO of the Hudson Bay Company, which was at that time unheard of.

When our second child was born, we decided I needed to take a leave from education. One day I just said, “Jerry, guess what? I need a job. I can’t stay home. I don’t want to go back to the classroom because I want to have freedom for the kids. I want to help you and the business.”

I became involved in the Charleston Metro Chamber

of Commerce. At some point, he decided I should learn product development, which was the beginning of an entirely different aspect of the business.

He was a serial entrepreneur and that mind of his never stopped, he was always inventing, creating, problem-solving.

From the time we got married, we had businesses.

What is Hudson Bay known primarily for?

The Hudson Bay Company is the oldest fur trading company and retail operation in North America. My tenure was very short. My husband decided to buy it, and we closed in 2006. There were almost 600 stores with five different footprints of kinds of stores.

When he was sick, he said, “I’m sorry. I can’t do all the things I really wanted to do, and I have to leave it up to you and I’m going to trust you to make whatever decision you need to make. If you, however you want to deal with it, I’m leaving it to you.” Unfortunately, he died not long after that.

When he passed away, someone who had served on his board made an offer, and I took it, with a three-month close date.

In July of 2008, I closed the deal just before the stock market crashed.

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I understand the fortitude that it takes to close a business deal of that magnitude with all the emotional highs and lows. How did you do it?

When Jerry got sick, we spent 21 months, every night he taught me things that I needed to know about the business.

I wanted to know things like, how did he keep this team together? What are the keys to succeed? One day he handed me a piece of paper and said, “I wrote down these things.” And he said I want you to share them. We call it Mr. Z’s Keys to Success.

Do you know what they are?

I don’t know every one of them by heart. But the most important one to me was to “have a sense of urgency and a bias for action.” And to me, that is absolutely one of my guiding principles. Having that sense of urgency and the bias for action was critical because if I had waited around, nothing would have happened. The business might not have survived.

He just left me with these things that said take care of our family. Promise me that you will do these things. And to him, a promise was sacred. I had to promise that I would take care of our family and that I would do everything in my power to keep this business together and going which meant reviewing, updating, and always finding new ways.

He was a seeker of knowledge and a serial entrepreneur.

He was absolutely both. My youngest child is a serial entrepreneur. But all the children were bitten by the entrepreneurial bug.

A survival skill, isn’t it?

It is. My mother was an entrepreneur too. I have to give her credit.

The only way to survive is to be thinking several steps ahead.

Another of my favorite Mr.Z’s key to success was if you love your job, you’ll never work a day in your life.

What is your largest accomplishment…the thing you are most proud of ?

Easily, the one accomplishment I am most proud of is our three children.

Jonathan our oldest child is a graduate of Georgia Tech.

He has an MBA. I made him CEO, 2 years ago this month and he is doing great, wonderful. What I love about him is that he moved home and came to work with us. It wasn’t anything he really planned to do. He worked out in the field after Georgia Tech for about 10 years before we said, will you please come home? We really want you to be near us and come into the business with us.

I still want to be a part of the business, attend meetings, and be a part of the leadership team but he makes the decisions.

And your daughter?

My daughter Andrea and my oldest are three and a half years apart. She went to University of Pennsylvania and graduated summa cum laude. She is a smart young lady and an outstanding communicator. She is focused on social impact and is busy creating alternatives to juvenile detention, trying to help change what’s happening right here in our region. And I’m very proud of her for working on that and in that field because it’s really difficult what’s happening to our young people. So often they get picked up for doing nothing and it changes their life. She lives in Maryland and is involved in a global organization called Nexus.

And then your son, Jeffrey?

Jeffrey went to Boston University and is the real serial entrepreneur today. He never realized how much he was like

his dad until now, you know? The loss of his dad was really hard on all of us, but especially hard on him as the baby because he had less years with his father. He wants to break into television and movies and just made his first full-length movie which is hilarious. It is about something that he is very passionate about: hockey. Its title is The Late Game and is about a beer league in hockey.

And where is it being streamed?

I don’t know yet but hopefully it will start this month on Amazon Prime, though he has not given me all the details.

However, it was all filmed right here in Charleston, South Carolina at the Carolina Ice Palace. I love it and am so excited. One of our news channels picked it up and they did such a beautiful story about two hometown kids who were hockey players as youths together.

What is your focus, in the future, your legacy so to speak?

My family and I focus on the differences we can make in the lives of people by providing opportunity and access to education. Education is the one thing that you really can’t take away. Education also “scales”. We really try to make a difference in the lives of people at every stage of life. Fourteen years ago I created an organization called Cradle to Career, which is still going strong. Though I am not as active as I once was, I pay attention closely to the work that is being done.

Your philanthropic focus has included the Medical University of South Carolina. (MUSC). Is healthcare important as well?

My primary area of focus at MUSC became neurology and neurosurgery, because of my husband Jerry’s illness.

What happens in the brain is so critically important to growth.

If we can keep the brain healthy then hopefully a person is able to learn. I worked with some of the leadership at MUSC on young children. We had worked with the Duke Endowment to see if we could get funding for infant telemedicine during the early months of the baby’s lives—say the first six months.

A lot of parents do not have transportation and by using telemedicine medical people can see what’s happening with that child. It is important that we help those babies and the greatest learning time in a child’s life is the early stages. By the age of three, they are sponges, taking in everything.

MUSC has amazing neurologists and neurosurgeons.

I have learned a tremendous amount about epilepsy, Parkinson’s, brain tumors, and brain cancer serving on the advisory board which convenes at least three times a year.

And we bring in doctors to teach us and explain the latest and greatest in the field. I love being educated on new things and I think lifelong learning is critical.

You are also passionate about Trident Technical College. Did that come from your father?

Yes, and to learn about cars and with automobiles… how do I change oil? How do we fix this or that? Using your hands, being able to create and do and make. Oh my God, over 40 years ago, I became involved with Trident Technical College and was invited to serve on the foundation board where businesspeople come together monthly and have meetings to help the school. We are the ambassadors. I chaired their school’s first-ever capital campaign and have worked with Mary Thornley for 18 years. I became a member of what is called the Area Commission which is the Governing board.

Noted American businesswoman and philanthropist Anita Zucker attends the 2018, Ellis Island Medals of Honor at Ellis Island on May 12, 2018 in New York City.

PHOTOGRAPH BY NOAM GALAI/GETTY IMAGES

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Now you are at the tip of the spear for recruiting a successor for your friend, President Thornley.

Yes, I chair the governing board currently and also chair the search committee to find a successor for a president who cannot be replaced because she is incredible.

And finally, the University of Florida, a life spent legacy focus.

It is important to me because I have legacy giving there.

One of the things we created was a center of excellence in Early Childhood Research and Education within the School of Education which focuses on the child from zero to five. I learned from the most incredible professors who travel the world to share their depth of knowledge about how to make infants reach their fullest potential and be the best that they can be and how to develop them through the years. If you look at their website, it has the A to Z’s of early childhood education.

Your fingerprints are literally plastered all over education.

A hundred percent. In Florida, I have also been involved in brain cancer research. We created the Remission Alliance for patients with brain cancers like glioblastoma, the cancer my husband Jerry had. It is a collaboration of 12 different colleges, universities, and institutions that have dedicated researchers and physicians who work on this field every day. Every day. And the one thing that I have seen is the effect on people’s quality of lives. It’s much improved and lengthened by the studies, by the work, by the clinical trials that our doctors are creating. And the things I’ve learned from that are just incredible. But what I’ve also worked at is creating collaboration.

Your children share your desire to change the world. Is that a part of your legacy as well?

Absolutely. What am I proudest of ? My kids, who they are, and the fact that they are good people. I think it is so important . . . how they behave, hold themselves in the world, what they do for others, and how they take care of others to make their lives better. We all believe in that.

Tell me about David Popowski, who is your partner now…

There is a great story about how and why I know his family.

My husband told me he wanted me to have a life and several years after Jerry passed away, boom, David came into my life.

We share a lot in common both background and history.

His parents are also Holocaust survivors and are from Poland, the town is Kaluszyn. David’s mother and Jerry’s father knew each other as teenagers in that town. Jerry’s father biked to that city, where other cousins and relatives of his lived. He would visit the late Mrs. Paula Popowski, David’s mother, a wonderful lady. Coincidentally, Paula Popowski’s aunt married Jerry Zucker’s father’s uncle.

Oh, that’s so funny…a blood connection by marriage?

The other interesting piece of their history is that as the war progressed, his mother and sister became Catholic girls. They worked in a glass factory and lived in a monastery. There Is more to all of our stories. They survived, time passed, and they ended up in a DP camp, the same camp as my parents for a very short time.

Do you think that that historical backdrop is one of the things that draws you together?

A hundred percent because I am driven by who I am and David would probably say the same. We come from almost the exact kind of background by having two parents who also survived and went through so much. Jerry’s dad went through a lot, but Jerry was born in Israel.

The Zucker family relatives relocated to Charleston, South Carolina, which was a hub for immigrants coming here from Kaluszyn, Poland. When the war ended David’s mother and father were married there and had their first child Mark,

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David’s older brother. Eventually, they were placed on the ship headed to America because Jerry’s great aunt and uncle sponsored the Popowskis.

They lived in apartments until they built their own house and they owned a furniture store. David’s dad was a peddler and he would go out to the country with whatever they could get ahold of. It is an amazing story because so many of our Jewish families started out that way when they immigrated to America.

They were survivors.

They found a way to survive. I just love that we are connected. David was born here in Charleston; I think his mother was pregnant with him on the ship. His parents came a month after my parents, but my parents were sent to Jacksonville. His parents were sent here.

But the cutest thing is that David and Jerry knew each other. I have pictures of them together at the ages of two and three years old. Their families were very close friends.

My sister met David’s sister before we ever met. Okay. The connectivity is like the Twilight Zone.

I want to talk about Israel and what is happening there now.

So it’s such a tragedy and I am sad. I don’t want any people being killed. We have to care and love each other. I believe in teaching that. I believe there is good in all humanity, and we need to find that good. It feels like deja vu at this moment.

I was taught to be vigilant and in turn, taught my children to be vigilant. My husband Jerry taught us to be vigilant, but he also taught us not to be a bystander to hate.

The Jewish people that survived all over the world have done incredibly amazing things and yet they are being hated again and we are being terrorized.

I have concern for my grandchildren. What is the world going to be like for them? As Jewish people the state of Israel was always a place to go if God forbid there was a problem that came up in the world today. My mother always said, do anything and everything you can to protect Israel, it is the only place we have that’s ours. And I agree with her. It is hard to deal with because we are a small number of people in the world. I am not sure why people think we have so much power . . .

I want you to give one piece of advice to a woman, particularly a young woman coming up that was impactful to you and or could have changed your life. Had someone told you. What would that one piece of advice be?

One of the most important things I can tell a woman is to get every bit of education you can, absorb everything that you can, and keep learning. Women have so much to learn.

Dr. Mary Thornley taught me not to be fearful, to feel confident, and to step up and speak. I think every woman needs to have confidence in themselves, and you get confidence by being educated.

Never sit in a room and feel like you can’t say a word because you don’t have something to add…if you are informed you will add value. If you are sitting in a boardroom, make sure you are educated. Prepare yourself always, and as a woman, be prepared so that you are confident enough to speak up any time you need to.

With education and preparation, you can face the world with strength. Women bring the world so much and we have to continue. ■

Anita Zucker at home; she sits by a desk that is very sentimental to her as it had belonged to her mother, Rose.

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PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL PANICCIA

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the

WOMEN whoLEAD SHARED KNOWLEDGE—

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BY LAURIE BOGART-WILES

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Achieving Success by the Numbers

RENAE

R

enae Eichholz, a woman of determination, was working in St. Louis, Missouri. Armed with her Missouri Real Estate License, she was thriving.

However, the daily commute from her home in Belleville, Illinois, a mere 22 miles away, was a grueling threehour round trip due to city traffic. Unfazed by the weariness of the daily grind, she decided to seek opportunities closer to home, a decision that would shape her future.

She had a talent for numbers, and with the world increasingly computer-driven and code-oriented, she decided to hone her skills. She landed in an Ophthalmology office as a file clerk and saw they were not using the technology. She must have given the physicians a new perspective (she was young and dumb) as they listened to everything she noticed and suggested. They let her change the flow from the front desk to taking patient calls and even how they were managing their inbound checks. They had her set up a new Corneal Specialist, and he became profitable within the first year. One day, an Orthopedic physician needed a demo of the system, and she decided to interview with him and got the job. It was a fake it until you make it situation.

In 1991, she became a Certified Procedural Coder and got a job in a one- (grew to a four-) physician orthopedic practice running their revenue cycle. She worked there for three years.

It wasn’t enough. She knew she could do more.

Renae has come a long way since childhood, growing up on a farm on the outskirts of Belleville and attending school in a neighboring town, Mascoutah, population 5,000. Her father was a general contractor in Belleville (and her entire family was in Belleville), so she grew up loving the charming small city with a population under 50,000.

“I’ve always been drawn to downtown Belleville,” she said. So, it was only natural that she would someday start her own business there.

“I always saw myself driving my own destiny, but at first, I wasn’t clear what I wanted to do. I was always good with numbers and thought of becoming an accountant, but that wasn’t for me. Everyone told me it was so hard, and it scared me and stopped me from pursuing that as a career.”

She knew that college wasn’t for her either and that she’d

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prefer to work, so that was when she went into real estate. When that fit didn’t feel right, she got the job at the ophthalmology practice, then the orthopedic practice (1990). But her father’s words always rang in her ear. “My dad said that I would find one thing that I was really good at, and that’s what I’d do.”

Since Renae earned her certified procedural coding accreditation through the American Academy of Professional Coders in 1991 and had experience in two medical practices, she opened Precision Billing Services in 1993. Word-of-mouth spread after she secured her first client. With more physicians demanding her services, she needed space.

“My family and I partnered and purchased the former Washington Theater and renovated it. As my business grew, I was able to buy the building from my family, renovate it, and restore its historical façade.

For nearly eight years, Renae personally established and worked every job detail. This form of self-training from the bottom up and in every facet of the company was a brilliant approach—kind of “starting in the mailroom and working up to the president’s office,” a hands-on method that is too seldom tried by executives these days. If more people did, they might experience the staggering success Renae realized relatively quickly.

In 2001, she expanded Precision Billing Services into Precision Practice Management, Inc. Renae took on two partners, Mike Barnell and Alan Pullman, to actively manage the business.

Precision’s growth skyrocketed overnight. “It was the best thing I ever did. We work really well together.” Soon, the company opened offices in Creve Coeur, San Antonio, Houston, and Raleigh. In 2020, Renae kicked off the new year by assuming her current position as president of Precision. She oversaw operations and an executive team that maintains client relations nationwide with 400+ employees serving 2500+ medical providers.

“We excel at what we do,” Renae said. Precision has become one of the country’s fifty largest cycle management companies.

“Medical billing is tremendously challenging, in part because it is technical in its nature, but also because it is repetitive and voluminous, making it hard to manage effectively. We organize the revenue cycle management process for the benefit of our

• automne 2024 • édition de leadership • readelysian.com

I ALWAYS SAW MYSELF DRIVING MY OWN DESTINY, BUT AT FIRST, I WASN’T CLEAR WHAT I WANTED TO DO. I WAS ALWAYS GOOD WITH NUMBERS AND THOUGHT OF BECOMING AN ACCOUNTANT, BUT THAT WASN’T FOR ME. EVERYONE TOLD ME IT WAS SO HARD, AND IT SCARED ME AND STOPPED ME FROM PURSUING THAT AS A CAREER.” clients so that staff resources are more effective in getting results.

We focus on making the revenue cycle management process accountable and ‘visible,’ with detailed reporting and analysis of the work being done and the results achieved.”

However, nothing could dull Renae’s passion for real estate and property management, so she and her husband, Mark, began acquiring their own real estate. They are partowners in three buildings: two in downtown Belleville and a 20,000-square-foot building in Creve Coeur, Missouri, which became home to a second Precision Practice Management location for 75 employees. (This one was sold this year and was an excellent investment.)

Twice the size, though, was the 218 West Main Street building the couple acquired and then partnered with Precision Practice Management. At 40,000+ square feet, it became Precision Headquarters and home to 400 employees—until COVID-19 hit and the company’s business parameter was forced to change. Nearly 100% of Precision’s workforce had to work remotely, but the peculiar thing is, it worked out incredibly well. Today, Precision’s employees, by and large, work from home. Precision only occupies twenty percent of 218 West Main, leaving 32,000 square feet of available office space. Renae embarked upon the obvious solution: completely renovate the building, restore the historic façade, and lease the available space. The result?

A building Belleville is proud of, as a testament to several plaques awarded for “best renovation of a historic building.”

Like it stopped there—not for a woman like Renae. In 2016, she and Mark acquired a four-story, 25,000-square-foot building at 200 East Main Street. They renovated the entire first floor to accommodate their first venture in the hospitality business, a restaurant they named Copper Fire, which opened in March 2018. Then, on the second-floor mezzanine, they established a catered event space to broaden what Cooper Fire had to offer.

Moreover, she established a community advertising program to support her business and all of Belleville’s local businesses.

“I believe Copper Fire’s success rides on the successes of other businesses in our community,” she explains.

Renae and Mark’s success seemed unstoppable, but that

doesn’t mean they didn’t meet obstacles along the way.

Twelve days after COVID restrictions were lifted, Copper Fire flooded and had to close for renovations. Reasonably, that would have put a kink in revenue. It didn’t. Repairs completed, the restaurant—already a staple of the community and favorite haunt for foodies—exceeded 2022 gross revenue projections from $650,000 right before COVID hit to $1.5 million by year-end.

How’s it going with Renae today? If you’re ever in Belleville, ask anyone on the street where the “must stop” is, and they’ll direct you to Copper Fire. The food’s great, and the bar? Copper Fire has the largest liquor selection in the whole of St. Clair County. The upscale but casual bar offers an amazing selection of specialty cocktails and slushes, with live music five days a week. Just like at Precision, there are no employees at Copper Fire—only family because that’s how Renae and Mark treat the people who work for them. “It’s exactly the place we envisioned,” Renae said. “Copper Fire has a beautiful but comfortable atmosphere. The work of local artists line the walls, along with Mark’s beer collection, which he began gathering when he was a boy, and his valuable collection of posters to give a personal touch to the décor. “We used all-natural elements in the interior design— copper, steel, wood, metal—adding our personal touch.”

What’s in store for this nonstop, energizing businesswoman?

“Mark and I will continue to invest in our community, our businesses, and our property,” Renae says. How? By serving on the boards of community organizations, as active members of the Belleville Chamber of Commerce, Belleville Main Street, the Belleville Historical Society, Belleville’s Art on the Square, and, for Renae, as a vice-president of her local Illinois Liquor and Beverage Association. Above all, Renae mentors high school seniors in business through an entrepreneurship program the couple established. “I love these students,” Renae says, “and I love seeing them achieve continued success.”

Renae and Mark live in Belleville, near their four children and back on the farm where she grew up. What does the future hold for her? Obviously, there probably won’t be much time to rest. ■

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Be Your Own Champion

Dawn

D

awn Ellerbe, 50, is a champion. A former U.S. Olympian, she is a plus-size model and a popular blogger. She’s driven but laidback. She’s focused but calm. She’s big and comfortable in her curves and is gorgeous. In short, Dawn Ellerbe is amazing.

The former track and field athlete gained international fame in the women’s hammer throw at the 1999 Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, where she won gold and held a seventh place in the hammer throw at the 2000 Summer Olympic Games, with a distance of 66.80 meters. She has won 16 national titles: four-time NCAA champion, six-time USA Outdoor champion in the hammer throw (1995– 2001), and six-time USA Indoor champion (1996–2001.)

Yes. Amazing.

An Aries, she was born in Central Islip, toward the tail of Long Island, New York. Dawn earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of South Carolina. She is a member of five halls of fame, including the University of South Carolina Athletics Hall of Fame.

Dawn is one of only three track and field athletes to have their jersey retired by South Carolina, where she was a six-time All-American. After earning her master’s degree in communications from the University of Wyoming, she returned to South Carolina. She spent four years as the Director of Marketing for Olympic Sports, establishing several programs that increased overall growth in fan affinity, attendance, and ticket sales for the college’s

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athletic activities, and successful strategies for new community outreach campaigns contributing to the literacy, health, and wellness, and philanthropic initiatives for the department.

In 2022, she received the Southeastern Conference Trailblazer Award for contributions to the growth of women’s athletics in the SEC in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Title IX. An accomplished communications and marketing leader in the collegiate athletic world, Dawn joined the staff of Vanderbilt University in 2023 as the new assistant vice chancellor for athletic communications and senior associate athletic director and has since added senior woman administrator to her role. Before Vanderbilt, Dawn was on the athletics senior leadership team at California State University Northridge (CSUN) as the Associate Athletics Director for Marketing, Branding, and Fan Development. During that time, she managed external operations for a multi-year Under Armour™ partnership as CSUN, the brand’s first public institution partner on the West Coast and its first Big West Conference nonfootball partner. Ellerbe also managed the marketing and community relations efforts for the Matadome seating expansion and established the Matadors United Initiative, which focused on the well-being of student-athletes, staff, and coaches to address diversity, equity, and inclusion in the ever-changing social climate. She was named CSUN Campus Partner of the Year in 2019.

Prior to moving to southern California, Ellerbe

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CAN YOU IMAGINE BEING SIX FT. TALL AND A SIZE 16 IN THE 7TH GRADE AND HAVING TO SHOP IN THE WOMEN’S SECTION OF THE DEPARTMENT STORE? OUCH!” provided oversight for the athletics department’s successful transition from NAIA to NCAA at California State University East Bay (CSUEB), where she founded the literacy initiative “Read with the Pioneers,” which contributed $25 million to the California State University East Bay Hayward Promise Neighborhoods Grant. While at East Bay, her marketing efforts earned the Division II Award of Excellence from the NCAA for game-day environment initiatives.

Dawn has completed the NCAA Dr. Charles Whitcomb Leadership Institute and the NCAA Pathways Program.

She is a Women Leaders in College sports member and has served on the NCAA Women’s Basketball Advancement Committee. In the spring of 2023, she was inducted into both the South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame and the Suffolk Sports Hall of Fame for her contributions to athletics and the sport of track and field.

Ellerbe was featured in the New York Times article, “Sports of The Times; At Sydney, the First Toss Goes to the Women” by George Vecsey and CNN Sports Illustrated, “Ellerbe leads U.S. in debut of hammer throw.”[5] Her interest in fashion was profiled in “My Way: Dawn Ellerbe.”

As a plus-size model, Dawn has been an inspiration to women size 14W and over (which is most of us.) In her blog, dellerbe.com (and on Instagram, Plus Size Style @ dee_ellerbe), she wrote, “My name is Dawn Ellerbe, and I started this blog to help women and girls like me with their hunt for shoes, clothes, and anything that you need

to navigate this world from above 6 ft. I explore shopping, traveling, home decor, and lifestyle needs for those of us long in the legs. My whole life, I’ve been the tallest and often the biggest woman in the room, then add a little va va va voom to that, and you have Dee Ellerbe, 6’2”, size 20, size 12 shoe, who loves all things girlie and, thanks to her mom, loves to shop. However, the shops didn’t always love me. Can you imagine being six ft. tall and a size 16 in the 7th grade and having to shop in the women’s section of the department store? Ouch! Where was Forever 21 in the 90’s? There are far more options out there now, and while the plus-size fashion market is taking off, the boom doesn’t always include the 1% of the population that is over six ft. tall. Talk about a niche! I haven’t always loved my body the way I do now, but one day, I decided it’s worth all the love! This body has placed 7th at the Olympic Games, broken World and American records, won 16 different National titles, competed all over the world, been on the cover of the New York Times, and featured in Sports Illustrated; what’s not to love? Once I got past the doubt and the naysayers, I realized that loving on myself was— and is—the only way to go.”

So, what makes a champion? The strength to compete?

The desire to win? The physical skill and attitude to be the best? Yes, maybe, and maybe more… But not more than having developed the self-assurance and self-love that comes from knowing and loving who you are. And that’s what makes Dawn an inspiration to millions of women worldwide. ■

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A New York Businesswoman Who Broke the Glass Ceiling

Carmel

C

armel Fauci never dreamed of going into the insurance business, let alone being one of the first women to break through the glass ceiling, which, sixty years ago, was a male-dominated industry. She meant to go to art school. She was good—so good that she was awarded scholarships. But the timing wasn’t right. She was 16 when she graduated high school and wanted to wait until 18. As Fate would have it, she took a detour, which led her to become one of the most powerful women in the insurance industry.

Her father said she couldn’t stay home and do nothing.

An Aunt took her to work at an insurance company the day after high school graduation. Rather than go to college, she turned down the art scholarships she had been offered, deciding instead to go to continue working.

She continued working, attended Pace University at night, and subsequently got her Masters in Management at the New School. Her enthusiasm was surpassed by her obvious aptitude for the business, which inspired a senior firm member to mentor and guide her as she advanced in her career. “Women were pigeonholed as secretaries, and many men owe their success to their secretaries, now called ‘administrative assistants.’” No one was about to hold Carmel back, nor did she allow anyone to take credit for her successes. She rose rapidly through the

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ranks to become the first female vice president of a major broker. Along the way, she held several titles working as an insurance consultant for the affluent.

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ike in the television series Madmen, women dressed for work in Carmel’s time. Their shoes matched their pocketbooks, their hair was always coiffed, and they never went to work without makeup. Of course, COVID changed the way the world works today. “It’s very hard in today’s world,” Carmel points out. “Nobody goes to the office anymore. When I went to see clients, I had very good scarves, and I tried to dress the part of an executive, but I think there’s not so much of that in today’s world.

Besides, everything is made so poorly these days,” says the daughter of a tailor.

Women in the insurance industry still call Carmel for advice, and she’s happy to give it. However, she pointed out that when she was working, women were afraid to get ahead—not because of men, but because of other women. “I got more resentment from women than I did from men,” she explained, speaking about how women were jealous of her success. In a funny way, she compares women who gang up on a woman to a bucket of crabs.

“If there’s a bucket of crabs and one tries to get out, the others will try to pull it back.” However, she also

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INSTEAD OF ALLOWING YOURSELF TO GET OVERWHELMED, JUST PUT YOUR MIND TO IT AND TELL YOURSELF YOU CAN DO IT. PUT ONE FOOT IN FRONT OF THE OTHER.” observes that women today are more ambitious and have more goals. What happens when you’re surrounded by ambitious women at work? Carmel says, “Make yourself better than anyone else.”

The office cocktail party was how people in business socialized in the Sixties and Seventies—take another scene from Madmen. However, one thing Carmel will tell you is something you probably won’t see in any film depiction. Sure, the cigarettes, the tight-fitting satin gowns, and the string of pearls, bouffant hairstyles, and Elizabeth Taylor eye makeup, with women sitting at tables of two or four while the men are paying more attention to a woman’s cleavage than what she was saying are history. “We’d have a cocktail party with no chairs in the room,” Carmel explained. “Our chairman said people had to mingle. If you’re standing up all the time with no place to sit, believe me, you walk around the room and mingle. He knew this was the way to make real connections and do business.”

Today, women join networking groups and go on Zoom and social media to meet their peers. The problem is that there’s minimal personal contact, and that’s a shame.

Also, the topics of conversation are limited and set with boundaries. “Everybody is so worried about being politically correct these days,” Carmel says. People who are hesitant to talk about politics are probably reluctant

to talk about anything controversial or, for that matter, anything that might jeopardize their position at work and the way they feel their colleagues should view them. Is it a lack of trust or fear? Carmel says no—“I believe it’s self-esteem, and I believe self-esteem is universally fairly low right now. People get overwhelmed by life. Instead of allowing yourself to get overwhelmed, just put your mind to it and tell yourself you can do it. Put one foot in front of the other. My father was a great proponent of that.

My mother wanted me to get married and have a dozen children, and my father said, “No, do anything you want.

You are capable of doing anything you put your mind to.”

Young women today need to know that. My late husband said the same thing in a different way. He’d say, ‘Soldier on, put one foot in front of the other, and you’ll get there.’”

Carmel, raised Catholic, is an exceedingly spiritual woman and is ready for the next chapter in her life.

She believes Good will overcome evil. She also believes everyone has the divine gift of spirituality, but you have to tap into it, which is very hard. Carmel succeeded in making the most of her wonderful life because she knew how to tap into hers. “I believe I was meant to do what I did and that it was a God-given gift.”

When asked what advice she would give a woman in business today, Carmel didn’t miss a beat when she answered, “Take chances and don’t be afraid.” ■

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The Big Picture—Naturally

Tammy

T

ammy saves lives. She saved Clarke’s life. And William’s, Lola’s, and Percy’s, and when there seemed to be no hope, she even saved Godwin’s.

She salvaged a wedding…tree, that is. The Wedding Tree, the Clarke Tree, the Godwin Tree . . . all these are names of trees—beloved, stately trees that have shaded and been loved by generations through the years. Doubtless, they would otherwise have perished had it not been for the boundless knowledge and dedicated skills of certified arborist Tammy Kovar and her intuitive relationship with trees.

“There was a forester from Maine who told me once that he could see an aura around me when I was near the trees.

I thought he was making it up or being goofy or something.

Every day, he would come up to me and say, ‘There’s really this sense that I feel that the trees are safe with you.’ I think it’s their own thinking, imposing it on me and the plants.

But the truth is, I am doing everything I know to do at that moment in my life for the plants’ well-being and their plants.

I’m not attached to people’s trees so much as I’m attached to them being attached to their trees. That is what matters to them and therefore is important.”

Tammy is an ISA Certified Arborist who has worked in the specialized field of scientific technology for almost four decades. A graduate of the University of South Carolina, she earned her bachelor’s degree in 1985 and postgraduate studies in crop science at Oregon State University and education at Portland State University two years later. “I am an environmentalist. I am a biologist,” the pleasant, effervescent woman describes herself. “I am an arborist. I am a mother. I am an Enviropreneur! I have been called all kinds of names.” She traces her ancestral roots to cotton growers in Czechoslovakia who emigrated to Texas. “I am, by lineage and choice, an environmental farmer,” she allows.

Monsanto, the giant American agrochemical and

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agricultural biotechnology company, hired her in 1987. “I moved from Oregon to Sacramento and ended up in the San Francisco Bay Area. I love San Francisco. I had a ninecounty territory. My job was to increase sales of Roundup™ herbicide and Glyphosate products in an area where people are averse to chemicals. “I tried to help educate people about the use of herbicides. I worked on many high-profile habitat restoration projects, such as working with Ducks Unlimited to rescue, grow, and protect duck habitats from exotic pest grasses. I loved my job.”

In 1994, her path led her to Florida, where she studied Aquatic Plant Ecology and Physiology at the University of Florida and worked to preserve the Everglades from exotic pest plants, such as Australian Pines, Melaleuca trees, and Brazilian pepper. She worked with the largest water district in Florida.

In 1996, she was recruited by Biotech Company Mycogen to promote biological treatments for farmers to reduce caterpillar infestations on high-value crops such as tomatoes and peppers. She traveled Puerto Rico and the Southeastern US and was the company’s top performer yearly.

In 1999, Dr. Don Marx, a Nobel Prize-winning Mycorrhizal Fungi Scientist from Georgia and owner of Plant Health Care hired Tammy to launch mycorrhizal fungi products into Agriculture. This was the very most challenging episode of Tammy’s career. How do you place products of great benefit that you can’t physically see working underground? She creatively demonstrated the effects of the symbiotic organisms on plant health, growth, and vigor of crops.

In 2004, she took the leap and opened her own company, Biological Tree Services, a sustainable tree preservation and restoration service based in Bradenton, Florida, specializing in creating healthy, ecologically friendly tree environments.

She specializes in root-promoting services, such as aeration of

• automne 2024 • édition de leadership • readelysian.com

I JUST BELIEVE IN MYSELF. I AM PERSEVERING AND A PROBLEM SOLVER. I AM PATIENT AND OF THE OUTDOORS. I LOVE PEOPLE, ANIMALS, AND PLANTS. I HAVE NO LIMITATIONS, NOT FOR ME OR MY DAUGHTERS.” the soil using an air knife and soil drenches of her proprietary cocktail of beneficial soil root-inhabiting microorganisms. “I started my company as a passionate small business to help rejuvenate stressed trees for builders and developers. I know the importance of biological processes in plant health.” Today, Biological Tree Services is called to preserve and conserve treescapes throughout the United States. “My philosophy is simple,” Tammy explains. “We evaluate and plan the best possible long-term solutions for our customers. This includes custom treatment plans for their trees and landscape based on property-specific soil nutrient and pH levels using biologically based products that improve plant health and growth using natural symbiotic root inoculation treatments.”

Tammy does not measure her success by her company’s growth; she measures it by the number of trees she saves and by supporting landscapes to host the trees she’s saved.

“Well, I really think I am a psychologist and a tree doctor.

I take care of people and trees. The people in Bradenton/ Sarasota, where I live, are highly attuned to their social responsibility for the environment. They get to a place in their lives where they purchase a lovely home, but they don’t feel right, and they don’t know why. Maybe one day, they are sitting on their porch, looking out and going, ‘Hmm, that tree doesn’t look great, or that palm, something’s wrong with it.’ Sometimes, they call too late, but they saw it. Then they find me. I receive referrals from state extension offices, other landscape companies, builders, and private calls for special diagnoses.”

Tammy’s work is not relegated solely to being a tree doctor. Just as an interior designer is called on to design home interiors, Tammy is called on to design Floridafriendly landscapes. My BTS, “Green Team,” and I created the Discovery Gardens as a demonstration of a Floridafriendly designated botanical preserve for our prospective

clients to see and feel plant and tree options that work with ease and limited inputs. “My landscape design clients are highly discerning and sophisticated. They know what they like and don’t like. I love helping them determine their objectives. Will we design for birds, bees, butterflies, or a tidy ornamental appeal? Therefore, it is encouraged to select plants on a visit to the Discovery Gardens and achieve consensus on their landscape choices.

Over the years, I have built strong green industry relationships and have great connections, great ties, and great colleagues, so if I don’t know the answer, I’ll find someone who does. It’s fun to create beautiful spaces for people that really appreciate the artistry behind the fine design of a garden.” Her work speaks for itself: Tammy has been awarded Entrepreneur of the Year, Small Business of the Year, and the Governor’s Small Business of the Year for the state of Florida.

One thing is for sure: you will always find Tammy outside in her Discovery Garden, learning something new. She plays with the squirrels she rescues, too many to count. She watches the bunnies in the newly created bunny garden. She feeds the worms in her worm hut. She picks vegetables from the organic garden. She creates a habitat for endangered butterflies. She rescues native bromeliads from hurricanes, reinstalling them into tree canopies. She coaches her team members on how to be environmentalists. She plays with her Australian Shepard, Yukon.

However, two things supersede Tammy’s love for her work. It’s her love for her two beautiful daughters, Emily Blandon Kovar, a Ph.D. student at UGA, concert pianist, and Professor of Keyboard at Clemson University, and Bailey Dorton, who works with animals and occasionally with her mom. My legacy to the world is my gift of creating Bailey and Emily. I know the world is a better place. ■

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Perseverance is the Key

Tara

T

ara Sherbert wears many hats, juggles many balls, and still looks trim, chic, and relaxed. She is a wife, mother, daughter, community advocate, Chief Executive Officer of Moxie Investment Funds, a tax credit investment fund; TMS Development and Construction Management, a full-service development and construction management firm; Sherbert Consulting, Inc., a full-service provider of accounting, tax, consulting, development, and management services to the real estate tax credit industry; and The Sherbert Group, parent company of Framework Architecture, a firm specializing in adaptive-reuse architecture and planning, and historic preservation and rehabilitation, and Sherbert CPA, PC, a full-service CPA firm, founded in 2006

by Chief Operating Officer Bill Sherbert, Tara’s husband and father of their two daughters, Cassi and Brandi.

When asked how she maintains a balance between her family and her business lives, Tara observes, “Being a wife and working mother is just a different dynamic, being a mom constantly traveling and away and not filling that stay-at-home function that my mom served, which is a very important role. So, it will be interesting to see how things unfold when my girls get older—which direction they’ll decide to follow—whether it’s the more aggressive work route I’ve always taken or the more home-based choice.

Given their work ethic and how many hours they put into a week with their dance and studies, I would see them going more the work route . . . but time will tell.”

Tara’s professional journey has taken her places where women have traditionally feared to tread. “We are very much a predominately male industry,” she observes. That is not to say women cannot succeed. “I would say that the females really excel in the investment and asset management arenas; they’re much more predominant there. Boot on the ground and hard hats are very limited on the female side

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and mostly focused on the male side. Though I think that trend is going to change quickly.”

Identified as one of the “Top 25 Women in Business” by the Charlotte Business Journal, Tara is an elected member of the Zenith Group of the Women Presidents’ Organization and is a recipient of the coveted Historic Non-Residential Development that Best Exemplifies Major Community Impact Award. Before she set out on her path in 2006, Tara honed her business skills as a principal with the Reznick Group, where she headed up the firm’s real estate consulting practice. She learned far more than the ins and outs of a competitive, constantly changing industry. She learned by example how to conduct business with passion from a man she admired as one of the industry’s best. “David Reznick, founding partner of the old CPA firm of which I was a partner; what was striking to me about him was this undying passion for what he did, and I would just observe him, and his energy, and how he would take two or three phone calls and conference calls at one time and just bounce in between rooms and just love, love what he did, and he definitely had a profound effect on the career that I chose, and always wanting to have the kind of passion for doing what he did.”

Tara has been working on tax credit projects for over 23 years, during which time she has also structured, developed, and invested in real estate projects valued in excess of $3 billion. “Our service offerings extend to all asset classes within the affordable housing, conventional real estate, and notfor-profit industries,” she explains. The multiple companies she has established and grown for over two decades are in the business of representing investors and developers on nationwide transactions, including historic tax credits, lowincome tax credits, new market tax credits, and Opportunity Zones. Proposed by Senators Tim Scott and Cory Booker and Representatives Ron Kind and Pat Tiberi and supported

• automne 2024 • édition de leadership • readelysian.com

JUST BREATHE THROUGH THE SITUATION, BELIEVE IN WHAT YOU’RE DOING, AND HAVE FAITH THAT IT ALWAYS DOES WORK OUT.”

by Sean Parker’s Economic Innovation Group, Opportunity Zones are designated as low-income census tracts that, in turn, are eligible for a special 25% tax deduction rate under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, signed into law by President Donald Trump. The first Opportunity Zones were designated in April 2018, and today, number 8,764—which presents itself as a new opportunity for Tara’s businesses. “Opportunity Zones are essentially a Gold Rush for those looking to reinvest capital gains,” she points out. “But if you’re going to take advantage of this once-in-a-generation legislation, you’re going to need a partner who has a shovel and knows where to dig.”

Tara recently completed the development and construction management of Drayton Mills Lofts in Spartanburg, South Carolina, a vast, $65 million historic rehabilitation. The complex features 289 luxury apartments, 60,000 square feet of retail space, and environmentally friendly public outdoor space. “We really focus on states that have state subsidies in addition to the federal subsidies that focus on historic rehabilitations. South Carolina has very much become at the top of our list because it’s a growing state. It is full of energy coming from all directions, and it is really pro-development.”

Such energy was poured into the largest project of its kind that had ever been attempted in South Carolina.

“Shortly after TMS Development purchased the former spinning and weaving buildings at Drayton Mill in November 2014, we walked through the vacant structures, finding all sorts of artifacts left behind when the business closed 20 years earlier. Company logbooks, machinery, and even the set of master keys to the mill laid dormant there—much like the mill itself, waiting for a new life, its ‘awakening.’” Today, the master keys hang on Tara’s office wall.

Currently, Tara is developing and investing in the University Center at Knowledge Park in Rock Hill, South Carolina, a $200 million project that includes Class A

office spaces, a food hall, and the largest indoor arena in both the Carolinas. “We want it to be very impactful for the community,” Tara explains. Each community differs.

“For example, we do a lot of work in Iowa, where you have a lot of main downtown buildings. Then North and South Carolina are predominantly industrial mills.”

As for her family, Tara doesn’t hesitate to say she couldn’t do it without the love and encouragement of her mother and father. “My parents live in South Carolina. They are great parents. They’re very supportive of my husband and me and our businesses, and they basically have just followed right along with us geographically as we’ve moved through our careers. In fact, they actually work with us in our offices. My father is also an accountant who worked in manufacturing.

He spiked my interest in mills and manufacturing from the time I was very young. He comes with me to see the plants we are working to re-purpose for new use and the future, so it’s kind of coming full circle.” Tara, Bill, and the girls get her parents’ full attention these days—but that was not always the case.

“My brother and only sibling was in a car accident during my freshman year of college. He was paralyzed from the accident and died a couple of years ago after dealing with a lot of physical issues that resulted from the accident. So, a lot of energy went into his situation.” Time and attention from her entire family went into taking care of him so “he was able to have a life that meant something,” but it changed the whole family dynamic.

“I’m a big fan and believer that all things happen for a reason,” Tara reflects. “You have to have faith that, when things seem really bad, try not to get caught up in that moment because that doesn’t do any good for anybody. Just breathe through the situation, believe in what you’re doing, and have faith that it always does work out.”■

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Understand Your Roots

BEATRICE

B

eatrice Sibblies is the Managing Partner of BOS Development, a community-focused real estate development and brokerage firm that works in partnership with faith-based communities and institutions to optimize their real estate portfolio and with opportunity zone stakeholders and other community-based groups to create vibrant, affordable neighborhoods with a full- spectrum of services necessary for a flourishing community. The company’s debut project was 88 Morningside, an 80,000-square-foot residential coop and community facility building structured on a 99-year ground lease from a Presbyterian church. Ms. Sibblies led the project design, which received numerous accolades for the building’s sleek, high-quality interior and exterior design. BOS Development’s current projects are focused on hospitality, farm-to-table experiences, and education.

Beatrice graduated from Yale University in 1990 with a BA in economics and political science. Her academic pursuits continued at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned her Executive MBA in business administration in 2005.

A community activist, she sits on the boards of numerous nonprofit and civic engagement organizations, several of which she was the co-founder and/or early champion.

In 2021, she founded Village Harlem, an Industry 4.0 platform that provides the physical and digital real estate to scale emerging farm-to-table food brands and leverage technology to operate a culturally sensitive and sustainable supply chain. She is the co-chair of Harlem Park to Park, an economic development organization founded in 2009 that successfully catalyzed the growth of local businesses in the central Harlem community, growing from a network of nine entrepreneurs to over 300 companies within a decade.

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She serves on the board of the Urban Design Forum, a convening organization for thought leaders on urban design and development. She is the current vice-chair of the Higher Heights Leadership Fund, which focuses on developing Black women’s political leadership skills and opportunities.

Before forming BOS Development, Ms. Sibblies worked at J.P. Morgan Chase, first as Vice President of Emerging Markets Research and then as Vice President of Structured Finance. She served as a senior banker on a team formed to develop the firm’s commercial loan and bond securitization business and the emerging markets structured finance platform. As Vice President and sovereign debt analyst for Mexico, she was part of J.P. Morgan’s award-winning research team in emerging markets. Following the September 11th terrorist attacks, Beatrice served as an economic strategist in planning for the recovery of Lower Manhattan, tasked with evaluating the feasibility and potential economic impact of various public/private investments under consideration to revitalize Lower Manhattan, with a particular focus on residential, retail and transportation investments. After serving at the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation for three years, Beatrice formed BOS Development.

Beatrice is following in the footsteps of her parents. “I started out in Jamaica. My parents were small-scale real estate developers. Transforming a challenged property that my father acquired in central Kingston, the family built a modest portfolio of two-family homes and apartments over the years. My mom ran the books while my dad managed the construction. Without realizing it, I absorbed the whole thing with wide-open eyes. As the youngest child and with an aptitude for math, my household “job” was to support mom in managing the family checkbook, and that inspired me to understand how capital enables you to create a place.”

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DANCE IS WHAT I DO AS A REAL ESTATE DEVELOPER. I MAKE BUILDINGS DANCE; I MAKE INTERIOR DESIGN DANCE.”

”I left Jamaica to study overseas, and as my education and career evolved, I became increasingly intrigued by the financing and building of real assets. What I love about real estate is that the work is fully interdisciplinary – you have to understand and master design, finance, marketing, trends, etc. While my access point to development was initially my financial background, more and more I am drawn to the creative aspects of development. What I love to do, as I did with 88 Morningside, is to shape spaces that inspire and draw you in, what I call designing from the inside out.”

Beatrice is now an adopted daughter of Harlem. Everyone says that living in New York is a hustle. It’s a hustle, it’s a mambo, it’s a jive. You are constantly on the move, making it happen, and that is dance. I grew up studying dance, and dance was my freedom of expression. Dance is what I do as a real estate developer. I make buildings dance; I make interior design dance. You feel choreographed when you walk in, that you are in a place you want to be, and that you will have a good time. Dance is important to Harlem because that dance is the vibe of Harlem. Dance is who we are, and I’m happy to support the arts.

I have lived in Harlem for 20 years, and it’s really interesting to see the transition that has taken place. What I’m committed to is that transition broadens access for the families that have been here for generations, welcomes new families like mine that now call it home, and preserves Harlem’s unique cultural legacy. I believe a key part of achieving that is not only building affordable housing but also thoughtfully developing the commercial and civic real estate infrastructure to support education and opportunity.

Very few of the commercial buildings in Harlem are owned

by African Americans despite Harlem’s storied history as a Black Mecca. “One of the things we have to think about is

long-term ownership in our community. If you control your real estate, it actually helps you survive and thrive through economic cycles and transformation. For example, while jazz once bloomed in Harlem, we now practically have no active jazz venues. One of Harlem’s last iconic jazz clubs was the Lenox Lounge, a bar formerly located between 124th and 125th Streets at 288 Lenox Avenue. Established in 1939

by Ralph Greco, it was renowned as a home for many of the great jazz artists, such as Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane, and the favorite hangout of Harlem Renaissance writers James Baldwin and Langston Hughes.

“After thriving for generations, Lenox Lounge suddenly closed when the lease matured, and the rent doubled in 2012. Today, it’s the location for a Wells Fargo bank.”

On the other hand, Sylvia’s Harlem Restaurant, founded in 1962 by Sylvia Woods, “the Queen of Soul Food,” continues to thrive as it celebrates its 62nd anniversary this year. “Sylvia’s survives because they own and control their real estate,” Beatrice explains. “When I came to Harlem, commercial rents were $40 to $50 per square foot. Now, you’re lucky if you can find space for $100 per square foot on the main commercial corridors, and even with the changing retail environment, there is a relatively low retail vacancy in Harlem. As Harlem gets ready for another cycle of economic development, it will be key to focus on that commercial real estate infrastructure and build a permanent legacy of ownership to anchor local entrepreneurs and cultural venues and serve as an avenue for wealth-building for future generations!” “to have someone like Beatrice—of color, a female, and an advocate in the forefront—is critical for us to understand our passion and the financial rewards for our communities and us as individuals,” Keron Edwards points out. “And Beatrice has got more blessings in store for us to come.” ■

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Let Your Money Work For You

lori

G

rowing up, Lori R. Taylor’s adoptive father, a teacher, was very tactical. “You can never make money by writing,” he would tell her. In a way, it’s a challenge she not only rose to meet, but conquered.

After studying journalism and business, it turns out Lori was able to make money by copywriting, earning her first seven figures at a publicly traded company by the time she was 25. It was around that time that she also found her biological father, a man who didn’t know about her but embraced her as part of the family—and that family was one of entrepreneurs.

Lori has since founded and run myriad companies and projects, from marketing to pet food to sending a repository of humanity’s spirit and culture to the moon. As 55 approaches, it turns out she’s still rising to the occasion.

“A lot of things I did in my life, I wasn’t intentional, they just kind of happened,” she said. “And I think I would tell other entrepreneurs there’s really no dream you can’t dream, and there’s no limits. You’re choosing what your limits are every day. It’s not what resources you have, it’s how resourceful you can be.”

Lori’s career is a testament to her remarkable ability to intertwine business acumen, innovative spirit, and a deep commitment to philanthropy. From her pioneering efforts in the marketing world to her visionary ventures in space exploration, Lori’s journey is one of significant impact and inspiring achievements.

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Lori’s professional journey began with an 18-year tenure at RR Donnelley, a Fortune 500 integrated communications company. Her skills in direct marketing earned her the prestigious Gold, Silver, and Bronze awards from the Direct Marketing Association. Lori’s expertise did not go unnoticed; she was named a Forbes Top 50 Social Media Power Influencer and a Forbes Top 20 Female Social Media Influencer. During her time at RR Donnelley, Lori managed direct marketing activities for Fortune 500 accounts, including Procter & Gamble.

She played a pivotal role in launching national brands such as Tide, Crest White Strips, Charmin, Puffs, and IAMS, showcasing her ability to drive brand success.

In 2009, Taylor founded REV Media Marketing, an omnichannel marketing agency that quickly rose to prominence. The agency hit eight figures in its first year, reflecting Lori’s expertise in direct marketing and strategic business consulting. Her impressive portfolio includes collaborations with renowned personalities and organizations such as Tony Robbins, Natalie Jill Fitness, Derek Jeter’s Turn 2 Foundation, Jane Fonda’s World Fitness Day, Donna Karan’s foundation Urban Zen, and the COPS television series.

Lori’s entrepreneurial spirit led to the creation of TruPet LLC in 2014, a company dedicated to premium freeze-dried dog food. TruPet, under Lori’s leadership, quickly gained recognition and was honored by INC 500 as the 39th fastestgrowing brand in America in 2018. The company’s success

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IT’S NOT WHAT RESOURCES YOU HAVE, IT’S HOW RESOURCEFUL YOU CAN BE.” culminated in a nine-figure acquisition by Better Choice Company Inc. in 2019, marking another milestone.

Beyond her business achievements, Lori’s dedication to philanthropy is profound. She helped raise over $4 billion for Disabled American Veterans, building a base of more than 10 million donors through small donations.

Lori is also a top-selling fiction author, with her Soul Mutts series celebrating the powerful bond between people and their pets. Her latest project, The Tardigees, aims to teach children about science, exploration, and emotional intelligence through the adventures of resilient “moss piglets.”

Lori’s ventures extend beyond the terrestrial realm. She co-founded Galactic Legacy Labs, a Web3 company focused on the tech arts community, alongside Nova Spivack, Lanette Phillips, and Chris Habachy. The company’s historic Lunaprise mission to the moon will preserve human knowledge and culture for over a billion years through indestructible nanofiche technology. This groundbreaking project supports the nonprofit Arch Mission Foundation, which is dedicated to backing up humanity’s history.

The successful SpaceX-supported lunar landing marked a significant milestone for Galactic Legacy Labs, making it the first woman-led company to compete in the billionaire boys’ race to the moon. The Lunaprise mission underscores Lori’s commitment to preserving the heart of humanity’s story and inspiring future generations to dream big.

Her latest nonfiction book, The Only PR That Matters, focuses on personal responsibility and emotional

intelligence. “I want to set people free by having them accept responsibility,” she said. Her new project Stubborn Angels, in which she refers to herself as a “word artist,” once again disproving her adoptive father, focuses on spiritual intelligence and being the best version of yourself.

Along with a new album and animated series spinning out of the Galactic Legacy Labs project, Lori’s learned to embrace the part of herself she put aside.

“I never want to be a burden, so anytime I come into a new relationship, I’m trying to overdeliver, because in my mind I think I was constantly auditioning for a role in my family, even though I wasn’t. So, I became this performer, achiever, and super-competitive,” she said. “I feel like I’m going back and checking all the creative boxes, bringing back the part of me that my dad shut down.”

Because she never wanted to be a burden, Lori often found ways over the years to take over a project, do it herself, overdeliver. Now she realizes she would have had much more time for herself, and her creative spirit, had she hired people to run her various companies.

“If I could do it over again, I would not do different projects, but I would have been so much smarter, delegating my role as CEO, being on the board of directors instead of being the CEO of three different companies,” she said. “I just never did that. I never let my money work for me in that capacity. So, everything I do now is focused on how do I put the right people in place to do this faster and better and in a way that elevates other people.” ■

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philanthropy

Guiding Light in Animal Welfare

BY SONIA HENRY

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY CATHY BISSELL

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Philanthropist and animal welfare champion, Cathy Bissell, Founder of BISSELL Pet Foundation and ELYSIAN “Inspiring Woman.”

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY CATHY BISSELL

mmanuel Kant once wrote, “We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.” By this standard, Cathy Bissell has a heart as big as the moon. The philanthropist and animal welfare champion has made it her mission to save pets’ lives by helping to reduce the number of animals in shelters across North America and Europe, bring awareness to animal welfare issues, and promote the importance of pet adoption.

Bissell, who was featured in the pages of Elysian in 2021 for her pioneering work with BISSELL Pet Foundation, was recently honored at the 2024 Annual Unconditional Love Gala, sponsored by the Southampton Animal Shelter Foundation (SASF), with the SASF Lifetime Achievement Award. The Foundation, established in 2011, has impacted the lives of more than 750,000 pets and directed over $30 million to shelters and programs to support animal welfare and provide resources to underserved communities. “We are honored to recognize Cathy Bissell for her lifelong commitment to animal welfare,” said Jordan Lippner, Chair of the Board of Directors at SASF. It is just the latest accolade for Bissell, who has quietly built BISSELL Pet Foundation into one of the world’s most prominent organizations dedicated to animal welfare. Through her leadership, the foundation has flourished and grown into a powerhouse of philanthropy. The foundation has become a shining beacon in the realm of animal welfare, with a legacy and commitment to improving the lives of animals in need. Bissell’s name has become synonymous with compassion, innovation, and effective leadership in the pursuit of ensuring every pet has a chance to be safe, healthy, and loved.

At

the heart of BISSELL Pet Foundation’s mission is a deep-seated belief that every pet deserves a loving home. That belief drives the foundation’s multifaceted approach, which encompasses adoption, spay/neuter, crisis and disaster response, transport, vaccinations, microchipping, and more. The Foundation, led by Cathy, works tirelessly to address the root causes of pet homelessness to alleviate suffering and to create sustainable solutions for long-term change.

One of the critical pillars of the foundation’s work is its focus on pet adoption and homelessness, which is rooted in Cathy’s 2008 adoption of a black lab named Bear. According to Cathy, though she grew up with animals and even worked in a veterinary clinic at one point, Bear was the first pet she had ever adopted. The 6-year-old dog with soulful eyes came from the local Humane Society when his family gave him up because they got a new puppy and didn’t have time for him. According to Cathy, Bear was a gorgeous, regal, and gentle dog who fit in beautifully with her family, including her other dogs and a cat. Bear “became part of the family instantly,” she told ELYSIAN, and she and her husband, Mark, “fell in love.”

Cathy’s biggest regret is that she didn’t adopt sooner, but she knows that there is always one pet that changes you and makes a difference. She realized she couldn’t bring all the pets in shelters to live with her, but she could work to find a loving home for every pet. Starting BISSELL Pet Foundation was the next best thing to help homeless pets everywhere.

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THE GREATNESS OF A NATION AND ITS MORAL PROGRESS CAN BE JUDGED BY THE WAY ITS ANIMALS ARE TREATED.” —MAHATMA GANDHI

As a result, recognizing the staggering number of animals that find themselves without homes each year, in 2016 BISSELL Pet Foundation implemented Empty the Shelters™, a reduced-fee adoption event. This program has been the largest funded adoption event in the nation, with four quarterly events each year. 226,296 pets have been adopted through the program since its inception. 762 organizations from 47 states and Canada have participated.

In addition to its adoption efforts, BISSELL Pet Foundation combats animal cruelty through its crisis and disaster response and its Animal Incident Management program.

Another area where BISSELL Pet Foundation excels is in its support of spay and neuter programs. According to Cathy, “The BISSELL Pet Foundation team has been redefining how it approaches spay/neuter for both community and shelter pets. With a national veterinarian shortage, our shelters are in crisis, and access to veterinary care has become increasingly complicated,” she said.

Recognizing the importance of population control in reducing the number of animals euthanized yearly, under Cathy’s leadership, BISSELL Pet Foundation launched the Fix the Future™ initiative in 2023 to deploy veterinarians to underserved shelters and communities. The foundation currently contracts with a network of more than 200 veterinarians in 16 states to provide spay/neuter, vaccines, and microchips to prepare shelter pets for adoption and offers free clinics to provide access to communities in need. Fix the Future™ also includes a voucher program to offset the cost of spay/ neuter in communities where the foundation has partnerships with local veterinarians. The foundation-funded vouchers remove the financial barrier for pet owners, allowing pets to stay in homes without unplanned litters, which reduces the burden on animal control and shelters.

T

hrough outreach and partnership programs, educational resources for shelters easily accessible on the foundation’s website, and community and public events like ELYSIAN’S Catwalk Furbaby, an inaugural event that first occurred during the 2023 New York Fashion Week when BISSELL Foundation partnered with ELYSIAN to spotlight animal shelters around the country and raise money for animal welfare awareness, BISSELL Pet Foundation works to foster a culture of empathy and respect for all living beings.

As always, Cathy Bissell’s visionary leadership is central to the success of BISSELL Pet Foundation. Her experience and expertise have kept BISSELL Pet Foundation at the forefront of the animal welfare movement, and her unwavering dedication and tireless advocacy have inspired countless others to join the fight for animal welfare, ensuring quality of life for animals and preventing suffering, making her a true pioneer in the field.

Cathy and her namesake foundation are shining examples of what can be achieved when compassion meets commitment and leadership meets action. Through innovative programs, strategic partnerships, and unwavering dedication to its mission, the foundation and Cathy Bissell have made a tangible and lasting impact on the lives of animals in need. As it continues to grow and evolve, BISSELL Pet Foundation will undoubtedly remain a driving force for positive change in the animal advocacy movement for years to come.

Perhaps Cathy said it best when Mika Brzezinski interviewed her on MSNBC’s Know Your Values “Women in Charge” series when she remarked, “It’s never too late to make a difference.” ■

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business & finance

the keys to

Navigating

your way in

Business

BY VERITY GALSWORTHY

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ILLUSTRATION BY CRISTINA CONTI / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

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March 2022 at the World Economic Forum, eleven women CEOs were asked the question, “If you could go back in time and take all your lived experiences with you, what professional and career advice would you give your younger self ?” The answers were varied . . . and surprising.

ANNA-KATRINA SHEDLETSKY, CEO and Founder of INSTRUMENTAL, a global AI and Data Platform hardware and software designer and manufacturer, said, “Embrace the reality that nothing in the plan you make yourself may happen the way you anticipated. That’s okay; there’s no need to stress. There will be beautiful discoveries to be made on the way that may take you far off track—and there are wonderful futures down those paths, too.” She advises women to learn about negotiation beyond what is taught in business classes. “Years after I started working, I realized so much of what was going on around me hadn’t been apparent before. That understanding made me more effective as a team member and, later, as a leader.”

ELLISON ANNE WILLIAMS, CEO and Founder of ENVEIL, a pioneering technology company that offers solutions for secure data usage, collaboration, and AI with its ZeroReveal™ technology, advises, “Don’t be a student of the school of hard knocks. Ask for help and seek experienced insights early and often—you don’t have to learn all of the lessons on your own. I’m blessed to have been surrounded by a number of fantastic mentors and colleagues who have helped me achieve more than I could myself.” She also points out that careers are nonlinear and that each opportunity brings you closer to achieving a rich and rewarding career.

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ILLUSTRATION BY CRISTINA CONTI / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

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PONSI TRIVISVAVET, CEO of INARI, the SEEDesign™ Company, is creating new breeding technology to push the boundaries of what is possible by designing nature-positive seeds for a more sustainable food system. A combination of AIpowered predictive design and a pioneered multiplex gene editing toolbox enables Inari to unlock the full potential of seed and advance critical solutions with broad applications for growing more food with fewer resources. This includes products that will exponentially increase yield while reducing the environmental impact on land, water, and nitrogen use – delivering a naturepositive impact while creating value for the entire value chain, starting with farmers.” Ponsi has always told herself, “Never settle. You can find something that you love, and that creates a broader impact; those two things are not mutually exclusive. I am passionate about global agriculture, and I am grateful that my work at Inari allows me the unique opportunity to contribute to the global food system.” She recommends to women who are venturing into the business world or are already established “to dream big and really go for it. When you have big goals, it doesn’t matter how hard or how many times you fall down. Your purpose will get you on your feet again, and your drive will keep you propelling forward so you can achieve great things.”

DIANA PAREDES, CEO and Founder of SUADE, a creator of the proprietary data models FIRE (Financial Regulatory Data Standard) and RUUF, an industry platform that facilitates open discussions between industry professionals on regulatory topics.

She suggests, “Worrying is a waste of life: There is not a single thing I can think of that was aided or prevented because I worried about it. You must trust yourself and know that when the moment comes, you will take action and that spending any headspace on random possible negative scenarios NEVER helps. Preparing yourself for an event is very different from worrying about it.”

She also says, “BE PRESENT. Being an entrepreneur and leading a team is the best job in the world, so enjoy it! It’s a privilege that people have taken the leap and decided to follow you into battle, so be grateful. Be present to how lucky you are. As you stop worrying and accept things for what they are, you start executing at your best. Don’t dwell on the lows, and make sure to celebrate successes. The best way to be fearless is to clear your headspace and be in the moment, wherever you are, as part of your journey.”

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hat, then, are the lessons a woman in business should learn? Believe it or not, these are nothing new. These lessons and tips were outlined in the Equal Pay Act of 1963 from successful women business owners, executives, and entrepreneurs: 1. IDENTIFY YOUR PURPOSE: Mission-driven women entrepreneurs ask themselves why they want to start or engage in a specific business. Reflect on what you want to do, whether you fully utilize your talents and skills, who your customer is, and your market niche. Think about why you want to start a business. What are you trying to achieve? Narrow your focus and define your mission.

2. EMBRACE THE OPPORTUNITY TO GROW: Building a business requires time, commitment, willingness, and the ability to accept and embrace challenges, solve problems, and go outside your comfort zone. Ginni Rometty, former CEO of IBM, said, “I learned always to take on things I’d never done before. Growth and comfort do not co-exist.” And Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, said, “Do not be afraid to make decisions. Do not be afraid to make mistakes.” Meet challenges head-on, try

new things without trepidation, and carve out time and resources to expand and grow your company yearly.

3. BE TENACIOUS: Stay motivated and never give up.

Creative thinking is one of the most essential tools in your business toolbox. Set boundaries because no matter what you think, you only have a finite amount of energy—and if you over do, likely as not the quality of your work will suffer. Candice Carpenter Olson, the former Co-DEO of Fullbridge, a world-leading education technology company, said, “If you are committed to creating value and aren’t afraid of hard times, obstacles become utterly unimportant. A nuisance, perhaps, but with no real power.

The world respects creation; people will get out of your way.”

4. CONNECT WITH OTHERS: Interaction with others and trading ideas keeps your perspective fresh and fluid. Join a professional group in your industry. Reach out to other women in the same line of business as yours. Chynna Morgan, the founder and CEO of Gif Out Loud, which creates experiential marketing campaigns, suggests, “Find one or two organizations that align with your purpose, join them, be an active member, and provide your insights and values. Over time, they can be your champions and bring in future leads.”

5. ADOPT A LEARNING ATTITUDE: The world is your oyster when it comes to learning. Learning is fueled by curiosity; you should go beyond your boundaries to stay curious. Take a course or seminar to expand your knowledge, whether it relates to your business or something outside your business that interests you. Sign up for conferences in your field to exchange knowledge, ideas, and perspectives with others. Keep up with industry news and developments. PADMASREE WARRIOR, Founder, President, and CO of FABLE, the most significant social reading app and platform for social reading and book clubs, says, “The ability to learn is the most important quality a leader can have.”

6. ASK FOR HELP: Many women business leaders find this difficult, especially with men. However, you are hindering your own growth if you fail to ask others for advice. If you are in a position to hire, look for people who can fulfill something you can’t, or do not have time to, do—intelligent, capable team members—the operative words here are “team members” because an individual can have a degree from an Ivy League college. Still, no amount of education will be useful if she doesn’t know how to be part of a team. Again, Cynna Morgan says, “As business owners, sometimes we believe we’re supposed to have all the answers, but the truth is, asking for help is what makes you a great business owner. Knowing your strengths and bringing in people to help you with your weaknesses is vital in building a great company.” Or, as industrialist Andrew Carnegie said, “The secret of success lies not in doing your own work, but in recognizing the right man to do it.”

7. INVEST IN FINANCIAL KNOWLEDGE: This is perhaps the best advice of all. If you cannot manage your money, never depend upon someone else to manage it for you. Be aware of your expenses right down to the penny. Monitor your revenue.

Constantly stay on top of your profit margin. Track your cash flow. Set financial goals. Know your tax obligations. No, you can’t do it all yourself—which is why you should hire a qualified, proven business accountant who works with you hand-in-glove so you’re aware of every dime coming in—and every dime going out.

Follow these seven steps—whether you are a new or seasoned businesswoman—and stick to them. Because if you do, you can be assured of success. Just keep up that I CAN DO IT! mentality, and don’t let anyone stand in the way of your success! ■

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FOUNDER & CEO OF DRC VENTURES AND CHIEF SCIENCE FORMULATOR OF THE ROOT BRANDS

LESLIE ROHLAND

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A Culinary Adventure Awaits 196

LESLIE ROHLAND

• automne 2024 • édition de leadership • readelysian.com

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ORCHID PAULMEIER

JAMIE DASKALIS

Imagine savoring the rich, diverse flavors of South Carolina, where every meal tells a story. This year, we celebrate the tenth anniversary of the South Carolina Chef Ambassador program, an initiative launched in 2014 by South Carolina Parks, Recreation and Tourism and the S.C. Department of Agriculture. This program shines a spotlight on chefs who create incredible dishes using high-quality, local ingredients to tell the stories and history of their communities, becoming true culinary leaders.

Picture yourself on a culinary tour through South Carolina’s top restaurants and kitchens, guided by our Chef Ambassadors. These talented chefs bring South Carolina’s culinary landscape to life, offering you a taste of the state’s unique ingredients and rich culinary heritage—waypoints from the mountain to the sea.

South Carolina’s vibrant food scene is a testament to its thriving farmto-table culture. Whether you’re enjoying culinary trails, cooking classes, or food festivals, each bite connects you to South Carolina’s roots and traditions.

Each year, a select group of chefs is chosen to represent the state’s culinary excellence. A panel of food and hospitality professionals reviews the nominations, selecting those who best embody the spirit of South Carolina’s vibrant food scene.

Thirteen remarkable women have been named Chef Ambassadors since the program’s inception: • Kiki Cyrus, Columbia - ‘18 • Jamie Daskalis, Myrtle Beach - ‘20 • Amy Fortes, Rock Hill - ‘17 • Tania Harris, Greenville - ‘19 • Erica McCier, Abbeville - ‘23 • Sarah McClure, Landrum - ‘18 • Orchid Paulmeier, Hilton Head Island - ‘16 • Jessica Shillato, Columbia - ‘19 • Heidi Trull, Belton - ‘15 • Kelly Vogelheim, Florence - ‘19 • Heidi Vukov, Myrtle Beach - ‘18 • Michelle Weaver, Charleston - ‘18 • Teryi Youngblood, Greenville - ‘16 Let’s get to know a few of them.

2024 Chef Ambassador Leslie Rohland

Leslie Rohland is a visionary and the proprietor of multiple Bluffton enterprises, including The Juice Hive, May River Coffee Roasters, Bluffton Pasta Shoppe, and The Cottage. She started out at a pizza kiosk in Salt Lake City, where she discovered her passion for crafting delicious food and serving customers.

As a 2024 South Carolina Chef Ambassador, Leslie is one of three chefs who will spend this year sharing their knowledge and experiences with the public. She is excited to promote healthy nutrition and highlight South Carolina’s rich agricultural bounty and heritage through cooking demonstrations and other events.

One of Leslie’s signature dishes at The Cottage is her shrimp and grits, a hearty and comforting dish featuring sautéed shrimp, onion, garlic, mushroom, and smoked bacon over cheddar and goat cheese coarse-ground yellow grits, finished with scallions and a side of cornbread. This dish exemplifies her approach to cooking: using fresh, local ingredients to create consistently delicious and visually appealing meals.

Leslie is passionate about showcasing the versatility and richness of South Carolina’s culinary scene. She looks forward to sharing the vibrant and ever-evolving food culture of South Carolina with locals and visitors alike.

2020-21 Chef Ambassador Jamie Daskalis

Growing up immersed in her father’s bustling New York restaurants, Jamie Daskalis was destined for a culinary career. With a degree from the Culinary Institute of America in Baking and Pastry, Jamie’s journey led her to Myrtle Beach, where she opened the beloved Johnny D’s Waffles and Bakery. Her innovative dishes quickly captured the hearts of locals and visitors alike.

Jamie’s passion extends beyond the kitchen. As a mother of a child with autism, she uses her platform to host events advocating for autism awareness. Her commitment to the community has

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earned her accolades, including “Best Chef ” by South Carolina Woman Magazine and Grand Strand Magazine.

Jamie celebrates local ingredients like Adluh grits and flour from Columbia, which are central to many of her dishes. Her signature Brisket Skillet features brisket braised in her unique barbecue rub and a special blend of liquids, then shredded and cooked. It is then grilled with sweet tea-pickled jalapeños and baby portabella mushrooms, topped with smoked Gouda and two eggs, and served on signature home fries.

Jamie’s philosophy is simple: She values her guests and strives to create memorable dining experiences with fresh, delicious dishes in a warm, welcoming environment.

Chef Orchid Paulmeier, a finalist on season seven of The Next Food Network Star, has won over many fans at her Hilton Head and Blufton restaurants, One Hot Mama’s American Grille.

The daughter of Filipino immigrants, Orchid first learned her way around the kitchen from her mother and grandmother. She opened One Hot Mama’s in 2007.

As a young girl, Orchid mastered the art of Filipino cooking, which laid the foundation for her open-minded approach to cuisine. Her dishes reflect a blend of cultural influences, with a strong emphasis on Southern cooking. One must-try dish is her slow-smoked barbecue, a tribute to South Carolina’s rich barbecue heritage. The smoky, tender meat captures the essence of traditional Southern flavors.

Orchid is passionate about using local ingredients like collards and green peanuts, as well as celebrating and promoting South Carolina’s rich food heritage. She continues to shine a light on the state’s culinary heritage, inviting others to discover the delicious and authentic tastes of the Lowcountry.

ERICA MCCIER

2016 Chef Ambassador Orchid Paulmeier

2023 Chef Ambassador Erica McCier

Chef Erica McCier’s culinary journey began with a lifechanging health crisis. In 2008, after experiencing kidney failure

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JESSICA SHILLATO

SARAH MCCLURE

and undergoing dialysis, Erica found solace and inspiration in cooking shows. A successful kidney transplant in 2013 paved the way for a new direction in life—one centered around her passion for food.

In 2021, Erica opened Indigenous Underground in Abbeville, bringing a fresh perspective to the local dining scene with her fusion of Southern and global flavors. Her signature dish, Soul Rolls, illustrates her innovative approach, combining seasoned collard greens and black-eyed peas in a spring roll served with a house-made chili sauce.

Erica’s dedication to using local ingredients, like fresh produce from Southern Oaks Jerseys Farm & Creamery and stone-ground grits from Atkin Milling Company, sets her apart.

Her story is one of resilience and creativity, making her an inspiring ambassador for South Carolina’s rich culinary heritage.

2019 Chef Ambassador Jessica Shillato

Chef Jessica Shillato was a 2023 James Beard semifinalist for “Best Chef.” She brings a personal and inventive touch to Southern cuisine at the Spotted Salamander in Columbia. A Kentucky native with deep Southern roots, Jessica has transformed her family’s culinary traditions into delightful, modern dishes that captivate diners.

Jessica’s trek began at Johnson & Wales in Charleston. In 2008, she and her husband started Spotted Salamander as a catering business, which later expanded into a beloved café. Her commitment to using seasonal, local ingredients has made the café a favorite among locals.

One of Jessica’s standout creations is her deviled eggs, a Southern classic with a twist. Topped with innovative additions like country ham jam, Adluh cornbread crumbs, and chicken chicharrones with hot sauce, these deviled eggs are both traditional and creative.

In her cooking demonstrations and educational programs, Jessica emphasizes the rich bounty of South Carolina’s produce, seafood, and meats, showcasing their potential in her ever-evolving menu.

Jessica’s dedication to blending tradition with creativity makes her a true ambassador of South Carolina’s dynamic food scene. Her passion for local ingredients and inventive cooking invites everyone to experience the unique flavors of the Palmetto State.

2018 Chef Ambassador Sarah McClure

Sarah McClure’s path to becoming a chef wasn’t straightforward. Initially, she pursued art history at Wofford College, but financial challenges and a newfound passion for cooking changed her direction. Today she is the executive chef and manager of Southside Smokehouse in Landrum, set against the backdrop of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

At Southside Smokehouse, Sarah creates dishes that showcase her creativity. In the mood for something from the bayou? Try her red beans and rice with Cajun sausage or her shrimp Creole.

The bar boasts more than 300 American whiskey options, and flights are available.

Sarah’s inspiration to dive into the culinary world came while working with Chef Peter Dale at The National in Athens. There, she learned the importance of sourcing local ingredients and experimenting with diverse flavors. She particularly values South Carolina’s amazing peaches and fresh produce, which play a significant role in her dishes.

Sarah aims to change perceptions of Southern cuisine. She’s passionate about showcasing the diversity and depth of Southern food, challenging old stereotypes, and proving that barbecue and other Southern staples can shine in a sophisticated dining atmosphere.

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back story

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LYSIAN Magazine celebrated the launch of its Summer Wellness Issue featuring Kimmy Powell, owner of Woodhouse Spa–Savannah, during the spa’s grand opening at the Riverworks Eastern Wharf. The event, held with the Savannah Chamber of Commerce, included a meet-and-greet with wellness summit speakers and an exclusive shopping at Syd Nichole Fashion and Flowers, as well as champagne and exquisite hors d’oeuvres by Erica Davis Lowcountry.

Guests enjoyed the spa’s luxurious atmosphere, promoting relaxation and self-care.

The next day, at the historic Club Bardo, ELYSIAN hosted our Transformative Health & Wellness Summit, featuring diverse speakers exploring various health approaches. The event, moderated by ELYSIAN founder Karen Floyd, included a keynote by Dr. Christiana Rahm on advancements in wellness and also presentations by speakers on bone health, cancer resilience, functional medicine, spa relaxation, and more. Attendees engaged with experts, fostering meaningful connections in the venue’s inspiring atmosphere. The virtual summit is now available at ELYSIANTV.com, extending the summit’s impact globally. ■

Row one – 1st image: Kimmy Powell is unveiled as ELYSIAN’s Summer 2024 cover. Row one – 2nd image: The Woodhouse Spas team cuts the ribbon for their Savannah grand opening.

Row one – 3rd image: Kimmy and her mother see the summer issue for the first time. • Row two – 1st image: Karen Floyd interviews Katherine Birchenough of OptimalSelf MD, on the benefits of functional medicine. Row two – 2nd image: The lobby of Woodhouse Spa – Savannah created a warm atmosphere for its ribbon cutting. Row two – 3rd image: Dr. Christina Rahm shares diet, anti-aging, and wellness tips with Karen Floyd. • Row three – 1st image: Dr. Amarinthia Curtis of Gibbes Cancer Center outlines strategies for wellness and resilience when dealing with cancer.

Row three – 2nd image: Speakers gather at ELYSIAN’s Health & Wellness summit. Row three – 3rd image: Christiana Purves shares her experiences as an athlete, fitness coach, spokesperson and consultant dealing with Type 1 diabetes. • Row four – 1st image: Kimmy Powell and Ariel Clay, COO of Woodhouse Spas, speak on the business of beauty. Row four – 2nd and 3rd image: Karen Floyd and Kimmy Powell celebrate the launch of the summer magazine and the new spa. Row four – 4th image: Karen Floyd and Jana Davis, registered dietician, talk about women’s bone health.

JENN CADY PHOTOGRAPHY

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