A Blog by Adrienne Wallace

Developing, showcasing and pursuing the next great role as an experienced business leader is something we take for granted. As an executive -level professional like me looks to transition, there is no downtime. The hunt and exit must be graceful and you must know who is looking, what you want, what they want , who to connect to and how to connect. Please have a listen to the podcast.

   How do we define necessity?  Must we have peanut butter and jelly on our bread?  It's a favorite treat of American children (sans the peanut allergies).  I certainly had it growing up with my sister and brothers and we had our choice of bread in my family's kitchen too.   My parents provided us with white, wheat, Jamaican hard dough and it was in abundance. We grew up well fed. We  were and are blessed beyond measure. A well respected mentor of mine used to say to me, "Better than I deserve" this was his answer when I asked how he was doing.  As I look at our survival in this time of global unrest, war, suffering, economic and social crisis,  I know now that he actually meant, "Blessed beyond measure in comparison to the rest of the world."  Drought, famine, warfare and factions, spiritual unrest,  the absence of birth control, disease is prevalent.  Children are suffering and dying. These are the things that have...

Poor countries are growing much faster than rich ones. Knowing that we each could decide at some point in our lives to take a step back and do something about it. By " it" I am not speaking of the growth rate, but in fact the poverty. How do we educate, engage, inform,remove unnecessary boundaries, and elevate groups globally through our work? Can we do this as a by product of our work as well? I say this is why some of the best companies have corporate responsibility teams. However we each can be and make responsible high impact decisions even if our employers don't set CR as a part of the was they do business. I visited that point of doing something in 2009 by serving as CEO with Girls Inc. I gave what I cannot get back and learned a lot. People tell me they had no idea about the now, 147 year old organization until I enacted strategy, program policy and organizational marketing tactics that allowed us to expand awareness and reach out through media social, ...

Adrienne Wallace, Norwalk resident and Girls Inc. of Southwestern Connecticut, Executive Director and CEO named to The 2010 - 40 Under 40. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE PRLog (Press Release) – Jun 16, 2010 – July 16, 2010 - (Greenwich, CT) Girls Inc. of Southwestern CT announces that Executive Director and CEO, Adrienne A. Wallace was selected by a panel of distinguished judges as an honoree of The Fairfield County 2010 “40 Under 40”. Several states in the Northeast rank their 40 top business leaders each year. The 2010 - 40 Under 40 is sponsored by the Fairfield County Business Journal. The competition recognizes 40 distinct business professionals under the age of 40 years for their exceptional leadership qualities, impact on their organizations, commitment to professional development and personal achievements setting them apart from their peers. This honor involves several area chambers of commerce recognizing rising young executive managers in Fairfield County companies and nonpro...

A dear loved one of mine had spent a late and cold evening telling me about what people were not doing for him and how he was not doing what he wanted to do in terms of work and his personal life. He "hates" living where he lives and not having a car and complained that the family did not get together as much since his mother passed and so many other things. I listened intently. I was listening because I love this person and also because I was telling myself that his echo of grace would soon come from all the words of his experience. His pain deserved to be put down and at this time there was nothing more important than that. It would soon come. He talked about work and job opportunities that he thought would come through for him and he blamed everyone outside of himself for the opportunities not working out for him; him not getting a job, respect, etc. It was all about him. I respectfully tried to make it clear to him that we sometimes get whatever it is that we are putt...