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When Susan A. Keller was studying for her bachelor’s degree at Miami University, her father gave her what would turn out to be a sage piece of advice.
When Dale Venturini took over as president of the Rhode Island Hospitality Association two decades ago, the group had only 30 members and she was the only full-time employee.
Just get married? Turning 60? Off to the beach? Just want to have fun? There’s a martini for that. And a martini glass made by Lolita Healy, president and CEO of Designs by Lolita.
Patricia Thompson had her sights set on becoming a math teacher when she attended the University of Rhode Island – that is until her first class as a freshman.
Steve Grasso remembers when he first met Jennifer Chasse, program manager at the Executive Development Center at Bryant University.
When Kathleen C. Hittner was about 9 years old, her 33-year-old uncle had a heart attack. She saw him taken away to the hospital in an ambulance.
Before she came on board as president of the Rhode Island Health Care Association (RIHCA) in early 2008, Virginia Burke had no experience as a political activist. She proved a fast learner.
When Sally E. Lapides, president and CEO of Residential Properties Ltd., co-founded her real estate company in 1981, she knew that marketing had to be paramount if she were to succeed. In a business that depends so heavily on strong relationships and name recognition, she wanted Residential to stand out.
Somehow, Tracy C. Baran manages to be a partner at a law firm, serve on numerous community organizations and boards, mentor teenage girls and be a wife and mother of two young boys.
Like rock stars Pink and Madonna, Mary Ann Shallcross Smith is best known by a moniker – Dr. Day Care.
If Nellie Gorbea has her way, affordable housing won’t be an issue for Rhode Islanders much longer. And she’s doing everything in her power as executive director of HousingWorks RI to make that ambition a reality.
Tia Bush has been with the same company, Amgen, since graduating from college 17 years ago. Her devotion to the company’s mission has led her through the ranks and across the country.
In planning a career path that would eventually lead to becoming vice president of one of the world’s largest multinational insurance companies, most people would not start at a fast food restaurant. Lisa Cooper did.
About a decade ago, Elizabeth B. Eckel was sitting in a marketing meeting at The Washington Trust Co. She and her co-workers were brainstorming, trying to come up with a new campaign – something that would be community oriented and help market the positive face of the bank.
In the lobby of Newport Grand, there is an oil portrait dating from the 1970s of a handsome man, with a strong face, white hair and blue eyes that almost twinkle on the canvas. He has the same smile as his only daughter, Diane Hurley, the CEO of Newport Grand LLC.
There were eight weddings held in 1984 at the Marriott Downtown Providence, the year that Director of Catering Donna DiOrio started with the company. In 2008 it expected to host about 100 weddings.
Of the 20 or so awards that Cheryl W. Snead and the business she founded, Banneker Industries Inc., have received over the last 18 years, one of the most recent has special meaning for her.
When it comes to running a business and making money, Kyla Coburn admits that her artistic side often gets the better of her.
Hard as it may be to believe today, with so many new restaurants in Providence, it was just three decades ago that the city’s dining scene consisted almost entirely of Chinese restaurants, steakhouses and spaghetti joints. Deborah Norman remembers those days well.
Connie McGreavy was green before it was chic.
When they call at 5 a.m., planning to take a day out of work, temporary employees working through Express Employment Professionals in Warwick often are surprised to hear the voice of the top woman in charge, Liliana V. Dolan.
Lisa G. Churchville, president and general manager of WJAR-TV NBC 10, has seen many dramatic changes in television, both as a form of entertainment and as a business responding to the ever-shifting demands of the market and its audience.
Ann Mulhall reaches into her filing cabinet brimming with 8-by-10s of smiling faces and randomly extracts a photo of a slightly overweight, middle-age man.
During Gail Skowron’s undergraduate college career – and, prior to that, during much of her childhood on Long Island – she wanted to be a veterinarian. So she took up a double major, studying chemistry and biology, to create the groundwork for graduate study in that field.
Stacey Pires Veroni isn’t ashamed to admit that she was scared at the start of her second day as a prosecutor in the state attorney general’s office in 1994.
Two years into the Business Women program I continue to be humbled by the accomplishments of the Rhode Islanders we recognize.
