Whitney Johnson

Welcome to the Forty Over 40 blog. We frequently spotlight one of our honorees and their thoughts on reinvention, mentorship and momentum…plus a peek into what makes them tick.

This Q & A is with Suzanne McKechnie Klahr Founder & CEO, BUILD; Lecturer, Harvard Law School & Stanford Law School. Suzanne is the CEO of BUILD, which teaches disadvantaged youth the skills of entrepreneurship. She lectures at both Harvard and Stanford Law Schools on social entrepreneurship. Prior to founding BUILD in 1999 she worked as a lawyer.

1) What was a pivotal momentum of reinvention for you?

When my firstborn, Alexander, was born prematurely with a condition that is typically fatal. While still running BUILD, I sat vigil by his crib in the neo-natal intensive care unit willing him to live.  I learned then about what matters most and how many important things are out of my control.  I vowed to live everyday with meaning and purpose and not be afraid. (Alexander is now a wildly healthy and happy 11 year old!)

2) Who has been a valuable mentor or sponsor?

I have two and they are wildly different.  The first would be my Grandmother Ruth who passed away 5 years ago on her 97^th birthday.  Ruth was a warrior.  She went to Cornell at 16 years old when women (especially Jewish women) rarely went to college. She graduated and travelled the country as a playwright.  She married late, had children later and went back to school in her 70s to get an advanced degree and founded a non-profit.  She was my champion, my ally, my support, and my very best friend.  I feel so lucky to have had her in my life.

The second is Twitter and Square Co-Founder, Jack Dorsey, who also serves on the BUILD Board of Directors. Jack is brilliant, creative and committed.  He sees the world in an expansive way and no matter how busy he is lives up to the commitments he makes to BUILD and our students. He is direct but never harsh, succinct but never rude, visionary while still being able to see the smaller critical details and he pushes me to be a better CEO and leader. Jack has said, “All the most important tools that entrepreneurs use to build companies are learned by BUILD students. It’s amazing to see. To have the support, the infrastructure and the mentorship that these kids have to build a business and to really gain the confidence to go out, speak, and create something new – it’s something that I wish I had when I was thirteen and fourteen.”

3) What is your biggest goal right now?

I want to scale BUILD from a great regional organization to a catalytic model to engage all students that we are leaving behind.

Check out Suzanne McKechnie Klahr’s full 40 Over 40 profile here!

Welcome to the Forty Over 40 blog. We frequently spotlight one of our honorees and their thoughts on reinvention, mentorship and momentum…plus a peek into what makes them tick.

This Q & A is with Didem Gürcüoglu Tekay a Managing Partner, Management Centre Türkiye (MCT), a leading Management Consulting Company for Organizational Change, Leadership and Management Development in Istanbul, Turkey.

Tekay and MCT repeatedly bring new voices and perspectives together from around the world, introducing the Turkish and Middle Eastern Business and HR community to what it means to lead and learn in organizational settings.

She showcases the work of famous US feminists keen to shift the world to a more relational way of working; she provokes people by presenting radically different views about whether modern business is a force for good or bad.

1) What was a pivotal momentum of reinvention for you?

Knowing and understanding my preferences for how I showed up; how I was present with people. Understanding my fears and where my boundaries were and where they needed to be. Learning to reveal more of my emotions, sharing rather than denying my needs and wants with others – all these helped me to step up and into my development edge, embracing my authority as a senior leader.

2) Who has been a valuable mentor or sponsor?

I have had different mentors and sponsors at different ages and stages of my life. In my 20’s my aunt was my most valued mentor; it was from her that I learned to admire, and be inspired by, learning and teaching.

Professionally my most important mentors have been found in my clients. If I ever thought that one of them would be valuable for my personal growth, I went and asked them for support and mentoring – and they always gave it. And within my company my partners I worked with for many years; always been my mentors – people I could trust to provide an honest and helpful perspective.

3) What is your biggest goal right now?

To reach out to as many young women as I can, using as many different forms of expression as possible, to share my three main learnings:

1. Take care of yourself… you have to know why this is important and how to do it.
2. Have a living dream… you need to have a dream for each of the different stages of your life, and this dream changes. The dream is what shows you the way.
3. Demonstrate accountability and resilience… results and progress, for yourself and others, doesn’t happen by itself.

4) How did you get your first job? How did you jump to your second job?

I was still at university and some months from graduation. One of my friends at the university was working for a company and I wondered if I could have a job like hers. I asked her to tell me if any opportunities to work at her company came up. Within two weeks she told me of such an opportunity, which I got on the back of my first interview!

I worked there for three and a half years, learning all the time before a new dream came to me – now I wanted to work for an international company where I could use my language skills and tap into those who were visionary and open minded. I searched for 8 months before I found the perfect firm… an international company, with brilliant people making a huge impact on the development of people. And this is now the company I lead!

5) How did you feel on your 30th birthday? What were you doing at that time?

I was feeling excited and curious about future. I was the mother of a one-year old baby girl and I was also working flat out. I had some real concerns about whether I was being a good enough mother and also doing good work in my professional capacity.

6) What was the last business book you read?

Collective Genius, The Art and Practice of Leading Innovation by Linda A. Hill.

7) What song can’t you get out of your head?

Beautiful Tango, Hindi Zahra

8) What is the best piece of advice you ever received?

Not to repeat any mistake, to learn from them and not to do the same mistake for the second time.

9) What is your “keep me going” quote?

“Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form”–Rumi

10) Who on the list of prior Honorees would you like to meet?

I would like to meet Farah Mohamed for her efforts and passion to cultivate a new generation of female leaders.

Check out Didem Gürcüoglu Tekay’s full 40 Over 40 profile here!

Welcome to the Forty Over 40 blog. We frequently spotlight one of our honorees and their thoughts on reinvention, mentorship and momentum…plus a peek into what makes them tick.

This Q&A is with Betsy Beers an American television and film producer whose credits include the Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, Private Practice, and How to Get Away with Murder and the upcoming new midseason drama The Catch, starring Emmy-nominated Mireille Enos and Peter Krause.

For her work on Grey’s Anatomy, Betsy and her fellow producers were awarded the Producer of the Year Award, the 2007 Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series Drama, and received the 2006 and 2007 Emmy nominations for Outstanding Drama Series. Betsy has been nominated three times by the Producers Guild of America for their Television Producer of the Year Award.  In 2014, Scandal was awarded the American Film Institute’s Television Program of the Year Award as well as a Peabody Award.

1)  What was a pivotal momentum of reinvention for you?

The realization that I was miserable doing what I was doing. I was an actor before I became a producer, and wanted it so badly I couldn’t see that my personality was not well suited to the job.

2)  Who has been a valuable mentor or sponsor?

I have been fortunate to have some great mentors – Gale Anne Hurd and Ruth Vitale were early bosses who went out of their way to show me the ropes. Director Mike Newell really encouraged me to produce. And of course, my producing partner Shonda Rhimes is awesome. I learn something from her every day.

3)  What is your biggest goal right now?

Immediate goal – I want to get a Shondaland comedy on the air!
Ongoing goal? Figuring out a way to take more time off.

4)  How did you get your first job? How did you jump to your second job?

When I moved to Los Angeles, I couldn’t get a job waitressing (I know, crazy, right?) so a friend suggested reading scripts and doing coverage for a movie company. I cobbled together some samples and got hired to do some free lance reading and script notes. One of the places I freelanced was a movie studio, where they soon hired me full time.

Sadly, the studio shut down after I had been there for less than a year. But during my time there I had worked closely with a senior executive, Ruth Vitale. When she found her next job, (running the late Gary David Goldberg’s feature company) she created a position for me. It was there I really learned how to pitch and develop screenplays. I owe her a lot.

5)  What time do you typically wake up? What do you do every morning?

I typically wake up around seven. I make breakfast while my husband walks the dog, I read the newspapers (we still get the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times delivered!) I check my emails and start working during or right after breakfast. Two to three mornings a week, I work out before heading into work.

6)  How did you feel on your 30th birthday? What were you doing at that time? 

I was terrified. I had recently moved to Los Angeles and wasn’t getting work as an actress. it was dawning on me that performing was not the best job for me, but I was struggling with the decision. it had been my path since I was five. I was embarking on, (little did I know it at the time) the journey to producing.

7)  How do you unplug? How often do you unplug?

How often do I unplug? Not enough! I really escape when I am working out since its tough to track me down at the gym! And I try to find time every weekend where, for part of the day,  I don’t work on reading or check email.

9)  What challenge / achievement are you most proud of?

I am proud that so much of what i love about the shows we produce – the characters, themes, emotional story lines- other people love too. It is incredibly gratifying having a passionate and loyal audience.

9)  What song can’t you get out of your head? 

It changes. The theme song for THE UNBREAKABLE KIMMY SCHMIDT was lodged in my head for quite a while. And….now it’s back..

10)  What is the best piece of advice you ever received?

Never be frightened to admit you don’t know what you are doing. When you ask for help, you learn something. And most people love to be asked.

11) What is your secret indulgence?

Sadly I have few that are secret.  Dark chocolate with hazelnut and HGTV.

Check out Betsy Beer’s full 40 Over 40 profile here!

Welcome to the Forty Over 40 blog. We frequently spotlight one of our honorees and their thoughts on reinvention, mentorship and momentum…plus a peek into what makes them tick.

This Q&A is with Diane Hessan the CEO of Startup Institute, a high-growth company in the next-generation education space. In this new company, Startup Institute, she is leading the charge to disrupt post-graduate education, helping students transform their careers and find jobs they love via an 8-week program that teaches the skills, mindset & networking to get a position in a high-growth company. In return, companies find the talent that can take them to a new level.

She is also Founder & Chairman of Communispace, which sold to Omnicom in 2011.  Diane founded Communispace in 2000, which was a major disruptor in the market research space. She pioneered an important new category in consumer research — the use of online communities to help major brands stay continuously connected to their consumers.

1) What was a pivotal momentum of reinvention for you?

Last year, I was sitting in a meeting of my senior leadership team at Communispace, the company I had founded in 2000, and where I was CEO.  We were planning for the upcoming year, and as I looked around the table, 2 things occurred to me:  1)This team is freaking awesome; and 2) They could run this company without me – or even better than I could. Suddenly I started to think that perhaps I had “another one” in me – that perhaps Communispace was not THE signature creation of my life, and that perhaps I ought to get going. I jumped.  Within one week, I made the decision to leave the company in the hands of the team, and to seek out a new chapter in my life.

2) Who has been a valuable mentor or sponsor?  

I am lucky to have dozens of mentors. I believe that in 2015, there is just not one person who can give you all of the advice and support you need. My best mentor is Bob Stringer, who used to be my executive coach, and who is now my life partner.  Bob is an expert in organizational climate and culture and also an angel investor. He is outrageously helpful with strategy and with people issues, and now I get my coaching for free!

3)  What is your biggest goal right now?  

I want to get 100 of my employees to become CEOs.

4)  What was the last business book you read? 

The last business book I read wasn’t a business book. It was called 11 Walks with Expert Eyes by Alexandra Horowitz.  In it, the author has memorized her NYC neighborhood and knows it like the back of her hand, or so she thinks. She then takes walks with 11 different people, such as an urban sociologist, a small animals expert, a typographer, a blind person, and more – and guess what?  The way they all see the neighborhood is completely different from her, and fascinating.  The point?  Diverse perspectives are so important in life and in business.  They stimulate new thinking and shake up our brain cells.

5)  What cause do you most want to advance?  

Right now, I am working with my new company, Startup Institute, to help people get the skills and network they need to find jobs they love in rapidly growing companies.  We have a hugely diverse group of students, and it is just insane that people are stuck at work that doesn’t excite them.  We fix that, and in turn, it helps to grow the innovation economies for the cities in which we operate. I especially love that 40% of our students are people of color, 40% are woman, and our age range is from 17-61.

6)  What is the best piece of advice you ever received?

You owe your children a happy mother.

Check out Diane Hessan’s full 40 Over 40 profile here!