I didn’t find my way into business. I grew up in it.

I come from a long line of entrepreneurs and self-made builders. My grandfather, Harold Baynes, founded Baynes Electric Supply, and my other grandfather, Herbert Leonard, built Leonard’s Restaurant Group.

Some of my earliest memories are sitting in those environments, watching how decisions were made, how risk was taken, and how things were built from nothing. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was being trained.

My first job was in our family’s electrical supply business, where I worked everywhere, inside sales, the counter, the warehouse, hauling pipe and wire and learning how a business actually runs. There was no shortcut. You earned your place by understanding the whole thing.

At 22, while still in college and working full-time, I was given the opportunity to launch what became our second most successful branch. I sourced and negotiated the real estate in Boston, built out the location, ordered over 10,000 square feet of inventory, and led sales and marketing.

Year one was $2 million, and year two brought 60% growth. The go-to-market approach we built became the model for future expansion.

After college, I moved to Europe to earn my Master’s in Global Business and expand my perspective. That led into international marketing with Whole Foods, and then into the world of marketing technology and analytics at a $2B public tech company.

I was given the opportunity to take over a stagnant, mature division and rebuild it. We grew it over 1000% year over year, and that experience shaped how I operate. I learned how to step into something that looks fine on the surface but isn’t working underneath, and rebuild it into something that actually performs.

From there, I moved into executive leadership roles across public companies and high-growth environments, including building and scaling new divisions inside companies like Equifax and HubSpot. Over time, I became responsible for full go-to-market strategy, where marketing, sales, and customer success either work together or not at all. That became my lane: bringing clarity and structure to growth so it actually holds.

Alongside that, I built and sold my own companies across multiple industries. One of the most defining was Colorado Electrical Services, built from scratch to $2 million in six months.

More recently, I built and exited MOVE Leesburg, a space designed to bring people together to build, collaborate, and create momentum they couldn’t create alone. At its best, it felt electric.

But business has never been the whole story.

I experienced sexual violence at a young age by someone deeply connected to our family business. It changed the way I understand trust, safety, and resilience - and it’s part of what drives the work I care about today.

Throughout my career, I’ve taken time away to work in places that don’t show up on a resume, in India and South America, working with exiled orphans, survivors of trafficking, and communities in need of medical care.

One moment that will stay with me forever was watching my son, at 11 years old, step off a bus in Peru into a group of children who had been rescued from trafficking. They didn’t speak the same language, and it didn’t matter. His compassion was immediate. He was fearless. They became lifelong friends.

Today, I stay close to work around counter-trafficking, fatherlessness, and supporting single mothers, often behind the scenes, connecting people and helping multiply impact.

And at the center of everything is my role as a mother.

I’ve raised my son on my own for 17 years, and I’ve seen the weight and the resilience that come with growing up without a father.

Not long ago, after praying with a dying man during a trip to Ecuador, he came back in tears and told me it was the most powerful moment of his life. That’s the kind of perspective that shapes everything else.

If there’s a thread through all of this, it’s this:

I build. I grow. I help others do the same. And I care deeply about what we’re building and who it impacts along the way.