Innovation can happen at any age. When I was first starting out in my career I thought that my career opportunities would get narrower with each decision I made. Instead I learned that age and experience can give you the confidence, skills and vision to create opportunities. For me that meant leaving my career on Wall Street to first reinvent as an entrepreneur/investor and second as a thought leader around innovation.
The fifth annual Forty Women to Watch Over 40 list celebrates women who are doing the same — disrupting industries, starting businesses and creating new pathways to breakdown the systemic barriers that drive women to opt out of the workforce or miss the C-suite altogether.
The 2017 list includes names you will recognize as well as under-the-radar innovators whose inspiring stories we don’t often hear.
Lashinda Stair was born on the south side of Chicago to a barely 15-year-old mother. As a young black girl, it was unimaginable that she would grow up to become the highest-ranking female within the Detroit Police Department. She went on to graduate from two universities, meet 2 number of presidents, and 1 number of Secretaries of State and visit the U.S. Supreme Court for a one-on-one with Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
In 2014, she was named First Assistant Chief of Police, becoming the first female, and first African American, to hold such a position. Second only to Detroit’s Chief of Police, she helps drive the agency’s long-term success strategy. From shifting personnel paradigms to improving local law enforcement practices to her involvement with the Women in Blue and Women Behind the Badge initiatives, she is working to bring out the best the Detroit Police Department has to offer Detroit’s communities.
Stair has a passion for mentoring youth and teenage mothers and proudly shares her personal experiences. “I am humbled by my life experiences thus far, all of which has occurred because I have had individuals throughout my life who supported and cared enough to help mentor me,” said Stair. “These life experiences have shaped my perspective on the importance of education and the understanding of self-value and determination. It has inspired me to advocate for all young people; to encourage them to believe in themselves and follow their dreams, so they can one day be leaders in their own right.”
Madison Reed founder Amy Errett is bringing innovation to a billion-dollar industry that hasn’t seen real change in 50 years. She took on the at-home hair dye segment with an online model that delivers salon-quality hair coloring to the home with color kits, which are ammonia-free and serviced by an on-call team of licensed colorists. Now she is going after the salon side of the industry with the Madison Reed Color Bar concept, a faster and more affordable alternative to traditional salon hair color.
Errett says her vision is to build a billion-dollar brand that empowers women to look and feel their best. “I want all women to know there are no limitations to what they can accomplish personally and professionally,” she said. “And be empowered to own their beauty.”
This vison extends beyond her business to thinking about how to give her time and offer tangible advice to other women. “Beyond impressed” by the women entrepreneurs who “bravely spoke about what they endured at the hands of male venture capitalists,” Errett is committed to a solution to Silicon Valley’s sexual harassment crisis.
Nawal Nour is the Director of the African Women’s Health Center and other initiatives at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and a foremost expert in combatting female genital mutilation and cutting (FGM/C) internationally. She has been recognized for establishing the only U.S. health facility focused on meeting both the physical and emotional needs of women who have undergone FGM/C. Dr. Nour has the ultimate objective of eradicating FGM/C and decreasing maternal mortality.
Tiffany Shlain, an Emmy award winning filmmaker, is the CEO of Let it Ripple film studio, founder of The Webby Awards and cofounder of 50/50 Day, Character Day and The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. She has combined her background in technology and the web with her work as a filmmaker to engage people in conversation and action around complicated subjects that are shaping our world.
Shlain launched 50/50 Day in 2017 to explore the history of women in powerful leadership positions with 11,000 events in 50 states and 65 countries centered on her short film, “50/50: The Past, Present & Future of Women and Power.” She aims to truly move the needle on the global conversation about gender equality, ultimately reaching up to 100,000 per event.
Other honorees include:
Julie Wainright, the founder and CEO of The RealReal a startup disrupting the luxury retail industry, who as CEO of Pets.com, overcame the crash and fall of that company to take RealReal from zero to $500 million in six years. Yael Eisenstat a former CIA officer and national security advisor to former Vice President Joe Biden, who left the CIA last year and founded a global risk advisor consultancy. Andrea Guendelman, cofounder and CEO of BeVisible Latina, who is building bridges to help Latinas creatively envision and network for career growth and raise the visibility of Hispanic talent; and Ashton Applewhite, author of “This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism “and a leading voice opposing ageism, especially at its intersection with sexism.
Christina Vuleta (then founder of 40:20 Vision, now VP, Women’s Digital Network at Forbes) and I started this list in 2013 with the goal of inspiring women over 40 to persist while giving women in their 20s and 30s a new vision of the possibilities in front of them (and something to look forward to beyond 30 Under 30!). We hope you’ll be inspired by these fabulous 40+ women.
2017 Honorees: 40 Women to Watch Over 40
1. Allison Stanger, Russell Leng Professor of International Politics and Economics, Middlebury College
2. Amanda Upson, Founder, Tuck and Roll Productions
3. Amy Errett, Founder and CEO, Madison Reed
4. Amy Guarino, COO, Kyndi, Inc.
5. Andrea Guendelman, Co-founder and CEO, BeVisible Latinx
6. Ashton Applewhite, Ageism Activist and Author
7. Ayse Birsel, Co-founder, Birsel + Seck
8. Beverly Keel, Chair, Department of Recording Industry, Middle Tennessee State University
9. Binta Niambi Brown, Founder, Big Mouth Records
10. Carla McCall, Co-Managing Partner, AAFCPAs
11. Catherine Hoke, Founder and CEO, Defy Ventures
12. CLEVER: Cat Lincoln, Founder and CEO; Kristy Sammis, Founder and Chief Innovation Officer; Stefania Pomponi, President and Chief Evangelist
13. Cyndi Stivers, Director, TED Residency
14. Deb Mills Scofield, Founder, Mills-Scofield LLC
15. Debora Balardini, Founder, Punto Space
16. Elif Celik, Executive Vice President, Healthcare, Eczacibasi Holding, Istanbul
17. Eunice Heath, Global Director, Environment, Health, Safety and Sustainability, The Dow Chemical Company
18. Geisha Williams, CEO, Pacific Gas & Electric
19. Gloria Feldt, Co-Founder, Take The Lead
20. Hilary Super, President, Anthropologies Group Apparel, Accessories, Beauty, BHLDN
21. Irene Aldridge, President and Managing Director, Research, AbleMarkets.com
22. Julie Crosby, Partner, Cromono International
23. Julie Wainwright, Founder and CEO, TheRealReal
24. June Cohen, Co-Founder, Wait, What?
25. Karen Glass, Founder and Creative Director, Product Development, Ø GLASS
26. Kate Mitchell, Co-Founder and Partner, Scale Venture Partners
27. Kyra Phillips, Correspondent, CNN
28. Lashinda Stair, 1st Assistant Chief of Police, Detroit Police Department
29. Lauren Armstrong, Deputy General Counsel for Real Estate, MBTA and MassDOT
30. Libby Moore, Certified Life Coach, speaker, global adventurer
31. Lisa Ryan Howard, Senior Vice President of Advertising, The New York Times
32. Myung Lee, Executive Director, Cities of Service
33. Nathalie Molino Niño, Founder and CEO, BRAVA Investments
34. Nawal Nour, Director, African Women’s Health Center, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
35. Ruby Zefo, Vice President, Law & Policy Group, Chief Privacy & Security Counsel, Intel Corporation
36. Sherry Huss, Vice President, Maker Media and Co-Creator, Maker Faire
37. Tiffany Shlain, CEO, Let it Ripple film ftudio; Founder, The Webby Awards
38. Van Tucker, Founder and CEO, Nashville Fashion Alliance
39. Wendy Sachs, Author, Fearless and Free: How Smart Women Pivot and Relaunch Their Careers
40. Yael Eisenstat, Founder, Kilele Global
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