CATHY TIVOL | CEO
TIVOL

How many business leaders can spend an entire career helping clients create some of their fondest memories? Cathy Tivol is one. As standard-bearer for the family enterprise long associated with fine jewelry in Kansas City, her career satisfaction, she says, comes from “being part of celebrating happy moments in customers’ lives.”

So creating lasting relationships—and friendships—with customers is vital, as is having “the finest staff around,” she says, because it allows her to indulge in an all-too-rare leadership quality: Silence. “I’m smart enough to realize (most of the time!) when I should give my opinion and when I should be quiet,” she says.

When the new year rolls in, she will carry the family tradition into its second century; her grandfather, Charles Tivol, launched the company in 1910. In 36 years with the company, she has worked in every department, learning the operation from the inside out. She’s also been civic-minded, having served as president and board member for the Alzheimer’s Association’s Heart of America chapter.

Her advice to young executives: “Life is short; do what you love. Recognize work well-done verbally and in writing. Remember the community you work in with philanthropic contributions. Everything is a balancing act; try not to be hard on yourself.”

SUSAN MONTEE | MISSOURI STATE AUDITOR

Galen Humphrey went off to a place called Vietnam more than 40 years ago, and never came home to his wife and four children. “It was only after I had children of my own that I realized the strength it took to get us through many years of uncertainty and difficult times,” says one of those children, Susan Montee. Her mother’s powerful influence, and her grandmother’s, provided lifelong lessons in determination.

After serving on the St. Joseph City Council and as Buchanan County auditor, Montee was elected state auditor in 2006, as her youngest was graduating from high school. She wants younger women to know that it is possible to have both a career and family: “When I first applied to law school I had no children, but by the time I finished my first year, I had two. Midway through my second year, my third child was on the way and I decided to withdraw.” Law school had to wait for 10 years.

But since then, Montee has worked in both large and small companies and started her own business before entering public life. “I never could have foreseen the road ahead for me, but I was confident enough to try new things,” she says. “I love the direction my life has taken and I encourage other women to keep their options open.”

SANDY PRAEGER | KANSAS INSURANCE COMMISSIONER

If you’re going to hold public office, it’s good to emulate someone who was popular in that line of work. For Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger, the model is former U.S. Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker. “She had the ability to stay true to her values and do the right thing, placing good public policy above politics” and focusing on what’s best for Kansas, Praeger says. “I believe that focus permeates our department, which means not only are we helping Kansans, but it results in high job satisfaction.”

Praeger has regulatory oversight for roughly 1,700 insurance companies and more than 65,000 agents in the state. She was elected commissioner in 2002, re-elected in 2006, and will seek a third term next year. She also has been mayor of Lawrence and served in both the Kansas House and Senate—testament to her broad appeal, as a Republican from one of the state’s few Democratic strongholds, Douglas County.

That appeal is reflected in her advice to career-mined women: “Seek out a mentor who exhibits the qualities of loyalty and a focus on doing the right thing. Find ways to instill in those you work with those same values, and remember every day to do or say something positive to one or more of your co-workers. The path to success is found through collegiality, not confrontation.”

ANN ST. PETER | FOUNDER GLOBAL PRAIRIE

“I love building and managing a high-performing team,” Anne St. Peter says, describing what she loves most about her work. That invariably requires consensus-building abilities, something she mastered well before she even had a career—as the oldest of six children. “I am convinced I am a strong builder of teams today because I had so many younger brothers and sisters growing up,” St. Peter says.
Add a powerful mentoring influence, and you have created a template for success. For St. Peter, that was her mother, a combination of energy, intelligence and compassion who went to medical school long before that was a norm for women. “She raised six great kids, was a wonderful wife to my dad, and she is still practicing medicine” back in New Jersey, St. Peter beams. “Her priorities have never changed: faith, family, community/friends, and her work. My mother has instilled in me a love of family, community and volunteering, a strong faith, and an incredible work ethic.”

To those young women who would follow her path, St. Peter says: “Be authentic.
Be supportive of other women along the way. Laugh often and don’t take yourself too seriously. Give back and make a difference in the life of a child. Have faith.”