Journey

"My professional journey started when I saw a picture of a concentration/rape camp…I knew I couldn’t continue in my life without doing something about it." — Zainab Salbi

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Susan McPherson ON Journey

Senior Vice President and Director of Global Marketing, Fenton

Q: Please share with us the story of how your professional journey began and has brought you to where you are today.

A: My first—and most important — job was working as a waitress. Truly. If you want to be a great waitress, you have to know how to talk to people and what makes them tick. You learn first-hand the concepts of sales and marketing, and you quickly understand what it means to work your butt off. These are skills I’ve carried ... READ MORE »

Tereza Nemessanyi ON Journey

Founder & CEO, Honestly Now

Q: Please share with us the story of how your professional journey began and has brought you to where you are today.

A: I knew since middle school that I wanted to work at the intersection of media and business. I studied communications in college and started as a journalist in Prague, when Eastern Europe was in the midst of transformation, but quickly moved into TV startups. That was the early 90’s and we launched the first commercial TV network in post-Communist Europe. ... READ MORE »

Charlotte Beyer ON Journey

Founder, Institute for Private Investors

Q: Please share with us the story of how your professional journey began and has brought you to where you are today.

A: Like many entrepreneurs, I began in a spare room (not the garage which was a mess!) in my house in the suburbs. After a twenty-year career on Wall Street working for a bank and then investment firms, where I had fought for each promotion and often felt ‘out of step’ with the male culture, I had a deep yearning to ... READ MORE »

Hibaaq Osman ON Journey

Founder & CEO, Karama

Q: Please share with us the story of how your professional journey began and has brought you to where you are today.

A: I stumbled upon the greatest things that I did. Growing up in Somalia, Sudan and Ethiopia, there were certain issues that compelled me, including women’s rights, empowerment and protection. As my situation changed, I could not go back home, but I worked on these issues wherever I could, as they were the things that resonated most strongly with me personally. ... READ MORE »

Natalia Oberti Noguera ON Journey

Founder & CEO, Pipeline Fellowship

Q: Please share with us the story of how your professional journey began and has brought you to where you are today.

A: In 2008, I launched a professional network of women social entrepreneurs (and intrapreneurs) called New York Women Social Entrepreneurs (NYWSE) and grew the community from six women to over 1,200 members. I kept hearing how difficult it was to secure funding as a for-profit social venture and realized that there are a lot of hybrid ventures and not enough hybrid investors. At the same time, ... READ MORE »

Tanya Becker ON Journey

Co-Founder , Physique 57

Q: Please share with us the story of how your professional journey began and has brought you to where you are today.

A: My professional journey in the fitness industry began in 1993 when I answered an ad in the Village Voice that was looking for dancers to teach the Lotte Berk method. At the time it was the only studio in NYC, in fact the only one in the country, that was teaching ballet barre exercise classes. After taking my first class, ... READ MORE »