20 Most Inspiring Women Leaders 2024

At the core of Annette Logan-Parker’s journey lies a profound story of resilience, compassion, and unwavering determination. When your own child can be counted among those medically complex and vulnerable children battling for their health, and even their lives, you learn a few things.

Aude Slama is not just the Managing Director and President of Slama Global Search. She is a woman of principles that make a true impact on individuals she comes across every day. She has values and navigates strictly within trustworthy, quality networks. She impacts everything she does: in both her professional and personal life.

Very few people truly exemplify and embody the essence of the credit union movement, “People Helping People,” like Christie L. Clark. This is how Christie leads ACT 1st Federal Credit Union and what she instills in each credit union team member. “To have Accountability to the “Not for Profit, But for People” code of conduct we increase awareness of the exceptional benefits of being a member of a credit union. Introducing and offering low-cost products and services that truly fulfill member financial needs continually builds Credibility as it relates to the credit union’s commitment to everyone’s on-going financial wellness.

Clare Ducksbury is an inspirational leader, an advanced thought-leader in the mass claims/class actions space, and most importantly, a pioneering leader who strives to educate her team to progress collective action knowledge and expertise within their respective disciplines. Clare is a people person with a particular focus on ensuring the core values of Case Pilots are reflected in everything her team does.

Devee McNally will be the first person to say her intention was never to own a business. She never thought she would be working with a team, collaborating, creating, and developing thoughtful products in a beautiful office space. From the start, her only goal was to provide households with the Junk Drawer Organizer® because it would solve a problem and make their lives more joyful. However, after the initial success of her flagship item, she was driven and inspired to create other innovative, useful products which over time has led to establishing the madesmart® brand as an industry leader in home organization with approximately 400 items that provide storage and organization throughout the home.

In the last four years, Emily Goodstein has built a successful, growing, values-focused business and she has learned more than a few lessons along the way. Emily is the Founder and CEO of Greater Good Strategy, which has grown from a one-woman shop into a team of more than 60 digital marketing and fundraising experts along with a badass 4-woman executive team specializing in research, fundraising strategy, content creation, graphic design, digital analysis, and more

One of Jenni McKenna’s, Owner & CEO of McKenna Property, qualities that have made her a great leader is her dedication to customer service. She is always thinking about the level of customer service they provide to both the tenants and owners. When implementing new procedures and systems, a serious discussion is held between all team members on how they can leverage these additions to improve their customer service. “This results in most of our systems being oriented around the experience of the client and ensuring that they have nothing but pleasant thoughts of us.

Jennifer Thornton is on a mission to help progressive organizations foster an environment of learning, experimentation, and innovation and meet the demands of exponential growth for business.

“This is the way we’ve always done it.” Those eight words have a lot to answer for.

Maria DeLorenzis Reyes has over 30 years of experience working in corporations and then starting and building her own business. The combination of corporate and entrepreneurial experience, coupled with business education in varied industries is one of her most significant qualities. Most people come with either corporate or business ownership backgrounds. Maria has the unique perspective of seeing things from both sides – inside multi-million and billion-dollar organizations and building her own businesses and that of her clients.

The C-suite is beginning to take on a new look. Historically, women as CEOs were unheard of. However, while still not the majority, it is no longer an anomaly. According to a March 2023 Challenger, Gray & Christmas report, 32 percent of new CEOs were women in the first three months of 2023, an all-time high.

Companies increasingly understand that having more diversity at the top is suitable for businesses. When Inspire Clean Energy’s (Inspire) former CEO decided to step down a year ago, he and the company’s founder hand-selected Stephanie F. Donner, who was then serving as Inspire’s Chief Legal Counsel and People Officer, to step up into the role. Stephanie has since brought transformative change to both Inspire’s revenue and culture. 

Trudy Darwin’s first corporate job after graduating from University in the late ’90s was with what the industry labeled a dot.com, where she worked on the marketing side of web development for eCommerce companies, moving to web-based sales and digital brand awareness. From this, she moved quickly up the proverbial ladder to become Director of Marketing and Sales for global U.S. businesses in industries such as; Telecom, Technology, Training, and Publishing. During this time, she received ongoing training in sales management and leadership styles.