Women Of Influence

Even though retailers may be struggling through the coronavirus pandemic, few of their customers are defaulting on their credit card bills. As the crisis unfolded, Alliance Data Systems Corp. managers looked back to the 2008 recession for credit management models to follow and what to avoid, CEO Ralph Andretta said."During the Great Recession, I’m not sure Alliance Data had a deep enough bench when it came to the forbearance programs they offered customers," he said. "That has changed...

For a few weeks this year, Jenny Saunders felt a bit like a Disney princess. The lights in FCBank's headquarters are motion-sensitive. At the start of the pandemic, the bank's president was one of the few people working in the office, triggering the lights as she transitioned between rooms amid the largely empty space. Now more of the FCBank team is back in person, although Saunders said the work environment has become more "flexible" with people in and out regularly...

Watershed Distillery started 2020 hot — posting two of its best months of business ever. But by mid-March the coronavirus pandemic scuttled all those aspirations for the year. And it was a high hopes year. Watershed marks 10 years of business this month and though it is celebrating, the plan is what it once would have been. “If it was February 15 and you told me what we’d sell in August I would have been super disappointed,” owner Greg Lehman said...

Lece Lohr hasn't met much of the leadership team at Columbus-based Highlights for Children Inc. in person. That's because Lohr started her new job as the company's president of consumer business in April, just a few weeks after the onset of the coronavirus pandemic sent most of us home from our offices. "I was completely uncertain of how it would be becoming a new president via Zoom," Lohr said during a recent taping of our Women of Influence podcast...

Few industries have been battered as much by Covid-19 as the restaurant industry. An estimated 11% of the state’s restaurants have closed for good and the fear is that number could rise if relief from operating restrictions, additional aid or both don’t arrive. Ohio Restaurant Association President and CEO John Barker spoke with Columbus Business First for this episode of crisis management. “People are feeling like they really want to get their business going again,” he said...

Rhea Cunningham was preparing herself for a busy fall, with the start of part-time law school adding to her already full calendar of a full-time job and a busy family life. Then, during a routine visit, her doctor asked if she'd noticed some swelling in her neck. It wasn't long before she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. “I never took on the diagnosis as a sign of defeat," Cunningham said during a recent taping of our Women of Influence podcast...

Central Ohio's hospitals have teamed up for years to try to reduce high rates of infant mortality, and the coronavirus pandemic has laid bare even more disparities in healthcare. Statewide, hospitals are redoubling examination of how to reduce inequity, not only through public policy but their own care coordination and community outreach, said Mike Abrams, CEO of the Ohio Hospital Association...

Rhea Cunningham knows how it feels to be the only Black woman in the room. Cunningham is chief financial officer and director of human resources at New Albany-based roofing company Feazel, putting her in a leadership position in an industry that's not known for high levels of diversity...

Origin Malt’s mission is more than bringing barley back to Midwest farms. Co-founder Victor Thorne also wants to increase diversity in an industry of farming, malting and making beer and spirits where there aren’t many people of color. Thorne is multiracial. His father’s family is from Barbados while his mother’s side is from rural Clermont County here in Ohio. In this episode of Newsmakers, he talks about that experience ­— both its privileges and its problems...

Walter Carpenter is a first-time restaurant owner, but he’s doing so with decades of experience. The owner of The Royce, which is now open at Polaris Fashion Place, has more than 30 years in the industry starting as a cook at historic Columbus brand G.D. Ritzy’s and more than 20 years with Cameron Mitchell Restaurants where he worked in and helped open many of that company’s sites...