CINDY MAUDE | CEO
CALLAHAN CREEK

Starting a business is like tending a garden—the care you put in early shows up in what blooms long afterward. The right gardener can teach you a lot. For Cindy Maude, the master gardener was Sondra Busch. Working under Busch earlier in her career at a Topeka advertising agency taught Maude a great deal about cultivating success.

“She created a culture where people were empowered to grow and constantly learn new things,” says Maude, who joined Busch when her mentor launched Callahan Creek—and went on to buy the company from her. From Busch, Maude learned about the value of treating people with respect, and about placing a higher value on the quality of the work—and the people who created it—than on herself.

Callahan Creek provides marketing, advertising and promotional services for retail customers. Its success, Maude says, lies not only in its people, but in the enduring values that guide decision-making and in the big ideas that make clients successful.

To women seeking their career place, she says: “Follow your passions, take the initiative to learn as much as you can, be respectful to everyone, always hire people smarter than you are, and be honest and true to yourself and what you value. Oh, yeah, and have FUN!”

LOTUS MILLIN | CHIEF ADMINISTRATION OFFICER
WALTON CONSTRUCTION CO.

Lotus Millin didn’t have to look far—or long—to find an inspirational figure. She was right there in the delivery room the day Millin was born. Her mother, Millin says, “is a strong female mentor who taught me that the only boundaries that exist are those that I choose to set myself.” That influence gave Millin a strong work ethic, pride in producing a quality product and, she says, “a love for what you do every day.”

She carries that love into the offices of Walton Construction, where earlier this year she was named chief administration officer. There, she draws on more than two decades of experience with the company to oversee a wide range of corporate services: human resources/diversity, risk management, business information systems, talent development and process business analysis, national asset management and more.

Why a career in construction? “I love to build things,” Millin says, and she thrives on solving problems, something she finds no shortage of in that sector.

To young female executives charting their own career courses, Millin says: “Be yourself—do not think that in order to succeed you have to be someone you are not. I encourage you to learn about the different management techniques and philosophies, but take the best practices and develop your own personal style.”

JULIE QUIRIN | CEO, SAINT LUKE'S HOSPITAL

How important is the role of a mentor in a young woman’s career? Consider what Ruthita Fike, then the chief operating officer at Shawnee Mission Medical Center, meant to a green employee named Julie Quirin in the early 1990s. “I think she saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself at the time,” Quirin says. There was something to that vision: Quirin went on to become a senior hospital executive herself, first as CEO at Saint Luke’s South for six years, and now at the health system’s Plaza-area main campus.

In that role, Quirin has found what many never will over the course of a career: An exact fit. “I am fortunate to work for an organization where the values are perfectly aligned with my personal values,” she says. The people around her are vitally important, she says, because those who need a hospital’s services usually find themselves in difficult—and emotional—situations. That, she says, is where her staff makes the difference. Also important are the trust-based relationships Quirin says she’s developed with board members, physicians, hospital employees and the business community.

Her advice to women in the early phase of their careers? “Always be authentic. … I think it’s important to be yourself, understand your natural style and assess your strengths and weaknesses in order to improve.”

MARY JO GREGORY | CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER
SISTERS OF CHARITY OF LEAVENWORTH HEALTH SYSTEM

Mother. Wife. Nurse. Mary Jo Gregory’s adult life has been grounded in nurturing. It’s not unusual for women to step off the career treadmill to raise a family. It is unusual to do so for 12 full years, raising three sons, before coming back to reach the highest levels of one’s profession. That’s where Gregory is today with the Sisters of Charity’s system of hospitals in Wyandotte and Leavenworth counties. “It is humbling,” she says, “to be entrusted to continue the legacy” of the organization.

After serving in hospital systems in Florida, California, Arizona and Massachusetts, including roles as chief executive, Gregory came to the SCL in 2006, and found a mentor in Sister Sue Miller, community director for the organization. Sister Sue’s wisdom and joyful spirit have been inspirational, Gregory says.

Gregory’s career advice to young women reads like a Hallmark card: “Create your own vision built on a value foundation. Strive to live a life that matters. Learn and keep learning about your chosen industry and life. Show respect, share both successes and concerns and be hopeful and confident in the future. Take time to laugh—especially at yourself—and realize that every day, every experience holds new opportunities.”