Despite the success of Estée Lauder, Lillian Vernon and Mary Kay, family businesses have not always been places where women could thrive.
In past decades, many family firms implicitly or explicitly barred women from certain roles, from the plant to the executive suite or boardroom.
Before family enterprise was recognized as a field of study, and before family business owners began meeting to share strategies for overcoming challenges, no one realized that the “talks in Mom’s kitchen” were actually the precursors to “family governance.”
In the 21st century, there are fewer societal barriers to women’s participation in their family firms. Families who create governance structures are providing more ways for family members of any gender to contribute to the success of the family business, whether or not they are employed there.
This year’s Transformational Women in Family Business Awards honor women who are committed to the future of their family enterprises. Whether they work in the business, serve on the board or participate in family governance, they’re bringing their expertise and innovative ideas to the table and setting their families up for a sustainable future in business together.
Their achievements illustrate how important it is for family enterprises to encourage all family members to reach their full potential.
“When I started in family governance, I had a very young family,” says Katy Wilder Schaaf, a director and vice chair of the board at E. Ritter & Company, who balances her board service with motherhood and a psychology practice.
“It was challenging, but I felt tremendously supported. I appreciate people who are willing to say that there’s a lot of complexity to this situation. It was really helpful for me as a very young mother and as a person who felt strongly about continuing my personal career and my work with the family.”
Many of these honorees will be speaking at our upcoming Transformational Women in Family Business event, June 13-14, 2024, at the Swissotel Chicago.
LISA DANIEL
Education Committee Chair, Family Council | Lodge Cast Iron | South Pittsburg, Tenn.
Lisa Daniel is a married-in member of the Lodge family. She and her husband, fifth-generation member Jay Daniel, live in Sarasota, Fla., where they own and operate Intechgrate Systems, an IT services company they founded. Daniel was born and raised in a small town in Pennsylvania along with her eight siblings. She is chair of the Lodge family council’s education committee and her husband, Jay, is a member of Lodge Cast Iron’s board. read more >
LETITIA HUSSEY BEAUREGARD
Board Chair | Hussey Seating Company | North Berwick, Maine
Letitia Hussey Beauregard, sixth-generation board chair of Hussey Seating Company, never aspired to hold that position. “I had no interest in working for the company, and no interest in being on the board.” Unlike other members of her generation, Beauregard had never even taken a summer job at Hussey Seating, a manufacturer of spectator and audience seating that was founded in 1835 as a maker of plows. read more >
STEPHANIE CHEN KIM
Chief Administrative Officer | Telamon Corp. | Carmel, Ind.
Telamon Corp. is “in the business of connecting,” says Stephanie Chen Kim, the company’s chief administrative officer and a second-generation family member. And throughout a varied career with the company, she has focused on connections among different parts of the business; with employees, customers and suppliers; and with the broader community. read more >
KATY WILDER SCHAAF
Director & Vice Chair | E. Ritter & Company | Marked Tree, Ark.
Katy Wilder Schaaf’s experience proves that family governance can be a powerful way to connect family members to their business — and to each other. Schaaf, a fifth-generation member of the Ritter family, did not grow up near the Marked Tree, Ark., headquarters of E. Ritter & Company. read more >
BRANDI HARLEAUX
CEO | South Post Oak Recycling Center | Houston, Texas
Brandi Harleaux likes to say her career path took her “from pixie dust to real dust.” More than a decade ago, she was enjoying a successful career at the Walt Disney Company — where she was the head of organizational development, talent management, learning and development for Disney Interactive — when an executive coach asked her a question she hadn’t fully considered: “What’s next for you?” read more >
MEGHAN JUDAY
Chairman of the Board; Member of Family Council | IDEAL Industries | Sycamore, Ill.
Meghan Juday became chairman of the IDEAL Industries board in February 2020 and was almost immediately launched into what she calls “the absolute biggest challenge” of her career. Weeks into the job — and with a CEO who had started just six months previously — the company had to navigate COVID-19 shutdowns. read more >
CHRISTINA SORBARA
Vice President, Corporate Knowledge | Sorbara Group of Companies | Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Ask Christina Sorbara why she works in her family’s 82-year-old real estate development business and she’ll give you a concise answer: “It’s in my blood.” Sorbara, a third-generation family member, began by taking a summer job in the business at age 12. After graduating from Brown University, where she studied business economics and international relations, she lived and worked in Europe for a year. She then returned to Toronto, where she worked outside the family firm before joining Sorbara Group of Companies full-time in 2006. read more >
LISA WOJCIK KISER
Vice President | Beacon Adhesives Co. Inc. | Mount Vernon, N.Y.
Lisa Kiser decided to join her family business in 2013 “partially because of timing, and partially what I saw in big corporations.” She was the first fourth-generation member to take a job at Beacon Adhesives, a manufacturer of specialty adhesives for consumer and industrial markets. Kiser, who earned a degree in marketing from Tulane University, worked for five years in New York City at Deutsch, a major advertising agency, rising to account manager. Her grandfather, Milton (Mickey) Meshirer, who at the time was still actively serving as Beacon’s CEO/chief chemist, encouraged her to get involved in the family business. read more >
RENEE TOGHER
President/CEO | Azteca Foods Inc. | Chicago, Ill.
Renee Togher was 8 years old when her parents, Art and Joanne Velasquez, founded the company (then named Azteca Corn Products Corporation) with nine other Mexican-American investors, all members of the Azteca Lions Club in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood. She remembers riding along in the family station wagon as her mother delivered tortillas to customers. The company has undergone many changes since then. Togher worked at Azteca as a student, “doing mostly what everybody else didn’t want to do.” read more >
JENNY DINNEN
President, Sales & Marketing | MacKenzie Corp. | Co-Founder | Next Gen Collaborative | Orange County, Calif.
KATIE RUCKER
President, Operations | MacKenzie Corp. | Co-Founder | Next Gen Collaborative | Orange County, Calif.
Jenny Dinnen and Katie Rucker are twin sisters who don’t look very much alike and have different personalities. “I always say that, as twins, we make one really great person,” says Rucker, the curly-haired sister. “Because we both bring different strengths to the table.” As children, they didn’t get along. “We could not be more opposite,” says Dinnen, the straight-haired twin. read more >
GILLIAN BLEIMANN-BOUCARD
CEO | Berjé Inc. | Carteret, N.J.
Prior to 2022, if you worked for Berjé Inc. and were hoping for facetime with second-generation CEO Kim Bleimann or his executive team, your best bet was to stick around the office late. Sometimes until 8 p.m. That was just part of the culture at the company, a supplier of essential oils and aromatic chemicals. But when Berjé’s third-generation CEO, Gillian Bleimann-Boucard, took the reins from her father two years ago, she wondered if there might be a way to continue the company’s success while striking a better, more inclusive work-life balance for her team. read more >
JILL R. SCHRAGE
Cultural Steward & Philanthropist | Centier Bank | Merrillville, Ind.
When Centier Bank was preparing to celebrate its 100th birthday, the marketing director called Jill R. Schrage, the wife of the bank’s president, and asked if she would like to help brainstorm ways to celebrate. “Here I am, 28 years later — I have not left,” Schrage says. Schrage’s official title at Centier Bank — events coordinator — understates how strongly her influence has been felt throughout Indiana’s largest private, family-owned bank for more than a quarter century. read more >
LAURA KOHLER
Chief Sustainable Living Officer | Kohler Co. | Kohler, Wis.
When Laura Kohler graduated from high school in Kohler, Wis.— the home of her family business, Kohler Co., a manufacturer of kitchen and bath products — she couldn’t wait to leave for Duke University. “I graduated in a class of 32 people. My mother was on the school board, and my father was running the main company in the small town of 1,200 people,” Kohler says. “I thought, ‘I just need to get out of town.’” She soon realized, though, that “there’s no running and hiding” from a family business. read more >
KRISTIN FOWLER
Executive Vice President | Horizon Pest Control | Midland Park, N.J.
The co-leadership dynamic can be tricky at any company. Add to that the sibling dynamic, however, and things tend to really get interesting. Kristin Fowler serves as executive vice president of Horizon Pest Control alongside her older brother, CEO Bernie Holst III. They took over the Midland Park, N.J-.based company from their father, Bernie Holst Jr., who founded Horizon in 1970. Fowler says she and her brother “trust each other implicitly.” read more >
THEEANNA STEVENS
Vice President, Dealer Principal | Stevens Management Company | Fresno, Calif.
TheeAnna Stevens doesn’t recall ever encountering obstacles in career. Or, at least, she never viewed them that way. “Everyone says, ‘Oh, there’s a glass ceiling’ and so forth, and I’ve always had an attitude that there is none, that you make your own,” she explains. “You can overcome just about anything if you set your mind to it. So, I can’t say that over the years I’ve had obstacles.” That attitude is part of what’s made Stevens a trusted mainstay among central California business owners. read more >