Wonder Woman in Business, Sonia Zeledon

Sonia Zeledon, Esq.

Sonia Zeledon is the Director, Associate General Counsel, Ethics, Head of Compliance and Data Privacy, for The Hershey Company.  Previously, she held various positions at Nokia Corporations and worked at several Amlaw 10 law firms.  

Ms. Zeledon serves on The Hispanic National Bar Association (HNBA) Executive Committee as General Counsel.  She is a frequent speaker on compliance and privacy, including the biases in technologies such as AI. She earned a B.A. in Economics and Math from Wellesley College; she also holds a J.D. from the University of Miami School of Law.

Enjoy the podcast.

Sonia Zeledon

Connect with Sonia

LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonia-zeledon-she-her-3b39512/

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Freeman Means Business

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Wonder Woman in Business, Melissa Jones

Melissa Jones

Managing Partner

Melissa Jones is a trial lawyer who provides experienced and practical counsel in complex business disputes, appellate matters and internal investigations. She has represented clients from a broad range of industries in complex civil litigation matters in both state and federal court, including the agribusiness, and oil and gas industries. Her practice includes an emphasis on Proposition 65 defense as well. Additionally, Melissa has held various leadership roles at the firm. She is the Firm Managing Partner and serves on the firm’s Executive Committee. Melissa is a former office managing partner for the firm’s three California offices and also recently served as the chair of the Partner Compensation Committee.

Melissa’s experience includes litigating claims for breach of contract, fraud, negligent misrepresentation, misappropriation of trade secrets, product liability, false advertising, and unfair competition. She has worked on internal investigations for both publicly traded and private companies on complex compliance and accounting issues and has represented companies in government enforcement actions, including matters involving the California Attorney General’s office and the Air Resources Board.

Melissa regularly defends companies in litigation claims related to California’s Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act (Proposition 65) and Unfair Competition Law (17200) and advises companies on Prop 65 compliance. She leads the Firm’s Prop 65 defense and compliance team. Her Prop 65 clients range from large retailers to vendors and manufacturers, in industries including apparel, footwear, handbags, eyewear, fitness products, children’s products, furniture, electronics, hobby and crafts, automotive, personal care products and accessories, food and dietary supplements and natural foods. She has defended Prop 65 actions and advised clients in matters regarding listed chemicals including lead, Bisphenol A (BPA), phthalates (BBP, DBP, DINP, DIDP, and DEHP), carbon monoxide, cadmium, 4-MEI, crystalline silica, acrylamide, arsenic, trisphosphate (TDCPP, TCEP), Diethanolamine and Cocomide-DEA. She also advises clients on other California regulations.

Before joining Stoel Rives, Melissa was a litigation partner at Morrison & Foerster LLP, where she worked for 10 years. After law school, she clerked for the Honorable Harry Pregerson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

She has been an active member of the legal community, serving as President to the Sacramento Chapter of the Federal Bar Association, as a Lawyer Representative to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference, the Chair of the Eastern District Conference, a Board Member for Women Lawyers of Sacramento, and as a member of the Eastern District’s Judicial Advisory Committee.

Enjoy the podcast.

Melissa Jones

Connect with Melissa

Website

https://www.stoel.com/people/melissa-a-jones

LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissajonesesq/

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Wonder Woman in Business, Patrice Tanaka

Patrice Tanaka

Joyful Planet

Patrice Tanaka is a best-selling author, public speaker on business and life purpose, serial entrepreneur and co-founder of three award-winning, PR & Marketing agencies and the consultancy, Joyful Planet, focused on helping individuals and organizations discover and actively live their purpose to unleash greater success, fulfillment and joy in their personal lives, workplaces and communities. Life and organizational purpose are the subjects of Patrice’s best-selling books, Beat the Curve and Performance360. Patrice has been honored by PRWeek (Hall of Fame inductee), PRSA Foundation (Paladin Award), PRSA (Paul M. Lund Award for Public Service), New York Women in Communications (Matrix Award), Working Mother magazine (“Mothering that Works” Award), Girl Scouts of Greater New York (“Women of Distinction” Award), University of Hawaii (“Distinguished Alumni Award), among others. Patrice has lived in New York City for most of her adult life, but calls Hawaii “home” and she is committed to living her life with the “Aloha Spirit.”

Patrice was born and raised in Hawaii then moved to NYC in her early 20’s. She considers NYC home, but even FAR AWAY from Hawaii tries to live her life with the ALOHA SPIRIT. After a 35+ year career in PR, co-founding 3 award-winning agencies she started her consultancy, Joyful Planet LLC. She is very involved in different “communities,” including Girl Scouts GNY, Dancing Classrooms, Phelophepa Train of Hope in South Africa, Diversity Action Alliance, NY Women in Communications, Women’s Forum NY

One of her favorite professional accomplishments is having lead a group of colleagues in a management buyback to start an employee-owned PR agency, PT&Co. and building it by focusing on our “business purpose” – to create GREAT WORK, GREAT WORKPLACE, GREAT COMMUNITIES THAT WORK. This business purpose-focused and drove our start-up agency to be recognized WITHIN 8 YEARS as…#1 MOST CREATIVE AND #2 BEST WORKPLACE among all PR agencies in the U.S.

Over the past 5 years, her proudest accomplishment has been:

• Helping thousands of people gain greater clarity about their life and leadership purpose so they can leverage their talent, expertise, and passion in service of other people and our planet.

• My vision is 7.7 BILLION PEOPLE living their life purpose and helping to create a more joyful planet. Joyful Planet is both my vision and the name of my consultancy

• Because discovering and living your life purpose is a “competitive advantage” in business and life, I’m focused on helping groups that could REALLY BENEFIT from having a competitive advantage like WOMEN, GIRLS, COLLEGE STUDENTS, PEOPLE OF COLOR, YOUNG PEOPLE STARTING OUT IN THEIR JOBS/CAREERS.

Patrice considers Desmond Tutu, an Anglican cleric who won a Nobel Peace Prize as one of her greatest inspirations for his tireless work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. She had the pleasure of meeting him through my work for the Phelophepa Train of Hope in SA. Desmond Tutu and his wife Leah are Honorary Patrons for the Phelophepa, two 19-car trains that travel throughout SA delivering primary health care to REMOTE, underserved areas of the country. What she didn’t know until she met Desmond Tutu is how “overflowing with joy” he is as a human. He is the embodiment of JOY! He inspires me because although he’s EXPERIENCED AND fought AGAINST the brutality of Apartheid he is a bubbling, GURGLING fountain of JOY!

Patrice personally has the strongly held belief that women should lift each other up and believes that achieving GENDER EQUITY is the GREATEST CHALLENGE OF OUR LIFETIME. We must SEAT MORE women at every LEADERSHIP TABLE. We can best achieve this by creating a STRONG SISTERHOOD of WOMEN, helping one other obtain seats at these leadership tables. She is a big believer in “sisterhood” – women helping women to succeed. That is why she has always been involved in women’s organizations to foster a “sisterhood.”

• Patrice belongs to the following organizations that lift women:

  • Girl Scouts (she has been a Girl Scout since she was 5 years old!)

  • Women’s Forum NY

  • New York Women in Communications

  • Asian Pacific American Women’s Leadership Institute/CAPAW

One of Patrice’s biggest challenges in starting and growing a business involved successfully winning new business. However, she has succeeded. She believes you can make this happen in two mutually reinforcing ways:

• Building a reputation for doing great work and, at the same time

• Building your network of support – and always be contributing to that network so when you reach out, support will be there for you. Most of the business she won at her PR agencies was through one and often BOTH of these MUTUAL REINFORCING strategies. She won some of our BIGGEST CLIENTS THIS WAY: Avon, Charles Schwab & Co., Dyson, Godiva, Liz Claiborne, Microsoft, Target, Wyndham Hotels, Wines from Rioja (Spain) 

FUN FACTS: a ballroom dancer and has won championships and she wrote a book about this called, “Becoming Ginger Rogers.” 

Enjoy the podcast.

Patrice Tanaka

Connect with Patrice:

Patrice Tanaka l Founder & Chief Joy Officer

Joyful Planet LLC
One River Place  #2610
New York, New York 10036

Email Patrice@JoyfulPlanet.com

Social: LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram

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Wonder Woman in Business, Candace Washington

Candace Washington

Candace D. Washington, MBA, Founder and Chief Learning Officer (CLO), Pivotal Impact, LLC

Talent, leadership, and culture development leader, Candace D. Washington, helping organizations build tools and inclusive cultures that equip emerging leaders to authentically navigate real-world challenges, accelerate performance, and thrive at their highest potential. As a diverse leader, having learned the hard way from years struggling post undergrad to succeed in the marketplace, Candace teaches skills beyond book smarts pivotal to leadership success like how to build winning relationships, emotional intelligence, self-awareness, effectively communicate, influence up, and cope with culture shock in non-diverse environments, among others. Organizations partner with Pivotal Impact to accelerate success of emerging leader’s by building capacity for individual and organizational effectiveness. She has lived the lessons she teaches and is committed to demystify the workplace and build cultures that help future leaders navigate smarter, farther, and faster.

Before launching Pivotal Impact, Candace served as Senior Lead of Training and Development at the University of Chicago. She holds over 15 years of experience in Fortune 500 companies, not-for- profit organizations, and higher education institutions.

Candace is an alum of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with a B.S. in Advertising communications and received her MBA, with emphasis in Learning and Development from Roosevelt University. She is known for her passion and exceptional record of bridging skill gaps with performance driven solutions that accelerate leadership and elevate outcomes. She is on the Board of Directors of a not-for-profit that develops urban leaders for global impact and is an advisor to several national youth development organizations.

When not immersed in her work, Candace loves spending time traveling with friends/ family, connecting with different cultures, mentoring, dancing (although not good at it  ) and most importantly, playing with her adorable niece and nephew!

She lives in and LOVES Chicago! Go BEARS!

Enjoy the podcast.

Candace Washington

Connect with Candace

Candace D. Washington, MBA (She, Her)

Chief Executive Officer | P: 312.650.9557

Candace@PivotalimpactLearning.com

www.PivotalimpactLearning.com

Accelerating Leadership. Elevating Outcomes. TM

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Wonder Woman in Business, Meghan Lundeen

Meghan Lundeen

Meghan Lundeen is an entrepreneur that has started four businesses.  She is also an HR Business Partner for a Fortune 100 company with a passion for all things talent and leveraging talent to compete in an ever-changing business landscape. Her background is in communications and she’s supported the CIO and CFO’s of a Fortune 100 company as a communication consultant.

Meghan started her professional career in the news business, working in Peoria, IL, followed by a top 40 market in South Carolina.  She left the news business to work for a federally funded Housing Authority. After a short time, she became the Director of Business Development & Marketing for the Housing Authority, where she founded the Access to Resource and Referral Opportunities, also known as the ARRO program, all while leading strategy and implementation of the authority’s first public image campaign. 

Meghan graduated from Illinois State University with a Bachelor of Science in Mass Communication. She has a Master of Science in Organizational Leadership with an emphasis on Human Resource Management from Colorado State University. She was in the 2010 class of 40 Leaders Under 40, and is a recipient of the Prescott E. Bloom Distinguished Service award.  

Meghan co-chairs the self-reliance grant review team for Heart of Illinois United Way, founded the Tri-County Interagency Council, helped launch Emerging Philanthropists of Central Illinois within the Community Foundation, and more.  Meghan is a past president of the Board of Directors for Peoria Friendship House and the former chair of the Board for Methodist College. She also led a fundraiser for several years to rappel off historic buildings for Peoria Friendship House, where she humbly served on the Board for six years.

Meghan lives for her husband, two girls, and any international travel she can possibly squeeze in.  This January, she went to her 15th country and has a long list of locations she’s working on as soon as Covid-19 is over.

Enjoy the podcast.

Meghan Lundeen

Connect with Meghan

Email:

Lundeen_Meghan@cat.com

LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/meghan-lundeen-shrm-scp-941ab19/

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Wonder Woman in Business Monique Burt Williams

Monique Burt Williams, CEO

Monique Burt Williams is the Chief Executive Officer of Cadence Counsel, a certified Women’s Business Enterprise and sister corporation to both Lateral Link and Bridgeline Solutions. She is deeply committed to helping corporations and other organizations diversify their in-house legal divisions as they strive to reflect a global economy.  

Monique formerly worked for a prominent boutique litigation firm, and was subsequently asked to join the legal services division of a global workforce solutions company.  While there, she created a consulting practice to address the various concerns of corporate law departments: legal operations and administration, playbook development and outside counsel management, cost containment, permanent and interim search, talent development, diversity and inclusion initiatives, and remote workforce management.  Immediately prior to joining Cadence Counsel, Monique directed national business and strategy development for one of the largest privately held legal outsourcing providers in the country.

She earned a B.A. with honors from the University of Michigan, and her J.D. (Order of the Barristers) from the Indiana University Mauer School of Law.  In addition, she studied International Business Transactions at the Université de Paris – Panthéon-Sorbonne in Paris, France. 

Enjoy the podcast.

Monique Burt Williams

Contact Monique:

MONIQUE BURT WILLIAMS
CEO, CADENCE COUNSEL

Certified Women Business Enterprise (WBE)

330 North Wabash Avenue, Suite 2300
Chicago, IL 60611

O. 812.219.4968 C. 812.219.4968 F. 866.728.3096

mburtwilliams@cadencecounsel.comwww.CadenceCounsel.com
Connect with me on LinkedIn

Together with our sister divisions, Lateral Link and Bridgeline Solutions, we deliver top permanent and temporary legal talent to law firms and corporations worldwide.

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