Not backing down from a vision is just one admirable characteristic of the six women your Chamber and presenting sponsor Ford Motor Company honored during our 2016 Tribute to Women Business Leaders Awards luncheon on May 4 at the JW Marriott Hill Country Resort and Spa. The list of amazing and successful women in San Antonio grows longer every day, and the Chamber was pleased to feature motivational videos and moving speeches from this year’s winners, which included: Sheryl Sculley, Laura Ehrenberg-Chesler, Sheriff Susan Pamerleau, Magaly Chocano, Nancy Najim and Nancy Loeffler.
“Don’t look to your side,” Magaly Chocano, CEO and Founder of SWEB Development and the 2016 Promise Award honoree, preached to a full-house of San Antonio’s leading businesses. “Everybody has something to say,” Chocano argued, recalling the countless nay-sayers who told her that a web/app development company wasn’t going to work back in 2008. “The reality is that your gut is what’s going to take you the furthest.”
“I’m humbled and honored to receive this award,” San Antonio City Manager and recipient of the 2016 Executive Award Sheryl Sculley said. “My entire professional life has been dedicated to public service,” she said. “The work that we do is very valuable to the community. I know that we are making a difference each and every day.”
Accepting the 2016 Legacy Award was Nancy Loeffler, a civic and community leader and a leader in the fight to end cancer. As the only female chair of The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center Board, Loeffler’s resolve to fight cancer didn’t stem only from her battle with the disease, which she defeated in 2007, but from the loss of her brother-in-law when she was younger.
“I was so incensed by the fact that we had lost him, that he had a baby that he wanted to raise along with my sister,” Loeffler said. “That marked me for life, in a good way,” she added. “Great strides are being made here in San Antonio and all over America to cure this terrible disease.”
Laura Ehrenberg-Chesler, Co-founder of Crossvault Capital Management and winner of the Brenda Vickrey Award for Small Business, was not content with her position in the male-dominated banking industry. Unafraid to break through the glass ceiling, Chesler decided that enough was enough.
“I decided I wanted to be the master of my own destiny in a big way,” Laura Ehrenberg-Chesler said. “I approached my current business partner, Mary Lou, and asked her to be my business partner in a new venture which was Crossvault Capital,” she told the audience. “I am very honored and feel quite privileged to be among this group of outstanding San Antonio women, who really care about the city and who clearly move forward each day with the city’s best interests in mind,” Ehrenberg-Chesler concluded.
“I think for all of us in leadership positions, it’s about taking care of people,” Bexar County Sheriff Susan Pamerleau proclaimed in a video presented by Chief Deputy Manual Longoria who accepted the 2016 Freedom Award on her behalf. “If you take care of the people, they’ll take care of the mission,” Pamerleau said, drawing from her past in the military.
Nancy Najim, CEO of the San Antonio Humane Society and this year’s Hope Award honoree, attributes her successes in life to her mother, saying that her mother taught her that having faith in yourself, like a “little mustard seed,” can get you through difficult times. “With enough faith you can overcome any obstacle, any mountain, anything,” Najim said. “Obstacles become opportunities to move on and learn new things.”
What advice would these women give to those hoping to have long, illustrious careers like theirs?
“The most important job you’ll ever have is the one you’re in right now,” Sheriff Pamerleau added. “Because if you don’t do that well, you’re not going to get the opportunities for the next job or the next exciting adventure.”
Nancy Najim offered that focusing on the team around you can make all the difference in the world. “I never thought I was a leader,” Najim says, “but in helping everybody and trying to bring out the best in other people I think that’s what makes you a good leader.”
