CORPORATE Laura Melillo Barnum: Executive Director of Yum! Brands Foundation and Global Community Investment HOME LIFE Born and raised in Louisville, Laura worked in Washington, D.C., and New York City before a job opportunity brought her back home more than 20 years ago. Her family includes her husband Campbell, their two sons, Keefer, aged 17 and Baylor, 14, and their 11-year-old daughter, Brooks. BIG MOVE Laura majored in mass communication at Miami University of Ohio and planned to go into broadcasting. “I wanted to be Walter Cronkite,” she says. After college, she interned at WLKY in Louisville, then switched gears and went to Washington, D.C., to work in the United States Trade Representative’s Office. “I’ve always loved politics. We had political discussions in our house growing up, and my father would add some contextual substance to those conversations so we would understand the significance of events. I think it’s really due to my parents and their worldly vision that I was able to make the transition from Kentucky to a national and global arena.”
loved New York, she couldn’t pass up the chance to come home and work for Yum Brands, where she now manages the company’s community involvement and its partnerships with charitable organizations both locally and worldwide. “Having an opportunity to effect change and to help those in need while also maintaining a corporate role is a dream job for me,” she says. BALANCING ACT Laura’s personal struggle is familiar to all mothers. “It’s an ongoing challenge to be the mom you want to be and also to satisfy the side of you that needs to continue to grow and learn and develop intellectually,” she says. She credits the assistance she gets from family and friends and the supportive environment at Yum Brands in helping her find that balance. “I love to work. I need to work. It’s fulfilling and is a source of energy for me, and my children know that. But I try to structure it so that I can see them and be there for those important family events.”
Having an “opportunity to
effect change and to help those in need while also maintaining a corporate role is a dream job for me.
MEET THE PRESS Bringing together her love of politics and interest in media, Laura left her U.S. Trade Representative’s Office for a position in the White House press office, where she served under two presidents. “I was the single holdover from the Reagan to the Bush administration in the press office,” she says. She was also the youngest special assistant to the president and deputy press secretary in the history of the White House up to that point. While there, Laura witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. “I feel I had an incredible opportunity to be there at an incredible time in history.” DREAM JOB When George H.W. Bush left the White House, Laura took a public relations executive position with Macy’s in New York City. “We laugh in my house that I rode in Air Force One, then I was responsible for the Thanksgiving Day parade. Could I get better jobs than that?” she says. The answer, it turned out, was yes. As much as Laura
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PHOTO OP Not one to take herself too seriously, Laura is the first to laugh at her own goofs. One standout is from her time in the White House press office. “I was in a photo shoot with Mikhail Gorbachev and President Bush, and Gorbachev suddenly stopped to have his interpreter ask the president what was on the back of my dress. Everybody turned around, and I looked back to see it was toilet paper. Here I was with the leader of the free world and Gorbachev, and they’re talking about toilet paper on my dress! I have a lot of other stories, but that might have been one of my finest moments.”
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WORDS TO LIVE BY “Chance favors the prepared mind” is one of Laura’s favorite quotes. “I started in broadcast, then went to politics and the corporate arena, and now I’m in the philanthropic sector,” she says. “It all goes back to putting together your diverse experiences and being ready for the moment when it arrives. I firmly believe that, regardless of what those experiences are, the sum is always greater than the parts. Collectively, one plus one equals three.”
GOLDEN RULE Kindness and authenticity are two qualities Laura admires in other women. “A big part of that is about being supportive of people without judging them, and treating everyone with equal dignity and respect,” she says. “My father always taught us to never look up, never look down, but always look straight ahead. I’ve tried to do that my whole life.”