Geisha Williams: First Latina CEO of a Fortune 500 Company

Geisha Williams: First Latina CEO of a Fortune 500 Company

After I graduated from the University of Miami with a degree in engineering, I went to work for a local energy company. There, I had the good fortune of working for this person who ended up being a lifelong mentor of mine. He asked me one day, “Geisha, what are your long-term career aspirations?” And I said, “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe I’d like to be a manager or a supervisor someday.” He said, “No. I mean long-term.” Well, I was thinking long-term. At that time, women like me didn’t run corporations. Latinas didn’t run corporations. Immigrants didn’t run corporations. But he looked at me and said, “Geisha, somebody has to run this company some day. Why not you?”

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“Firsts”: TIME’s New Video Series on 45 Groundbreaking Women

"Firsts": TIME's New Video Series on 45 Groundbreaking Women

On Sept. 7, TIME will unveil Firsts, a multimedia project featuring candid interviews with 45 groundbreaking women. Some of these women — Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres, Aretha Franklin — you know well, and will get to know better through their stories of setbacks and success. Others, you may be meeting for the first time. All of them are extraordinary.

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