Catalyzing

As a child of the 1970s and 1980s who lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, many of my friends’ parents were divorced, including mine. The majority of both parents also worked, once again including mine, so my brother and I went to a daycare center until we were old enough to become latchkey kids....

I’m sure many of you have heard of the saying “black don’t crack” to describe the tendency for Black women to retain a youthful appearance as we age.  When I hear the phrase, however, I think of a 2013 article published in The Root titled, Black May Not Crack, but We’re Aging Faster Inside. 

Laura Colby is a senior reporter at Bloomberg News, where she covers women in the global economy and diversity in business. She is the author of Road to Power: How GM’s Mary Barra Shattered the Glass Ceiling, which explores the rise of the first female CEO of a major automotive company. Here, we ask Laura a few questions about her interest in writing a book about Barra who is also one of the few women who currently hold CEO positions at S&P 500 companies. 

Early in my career I didn't thoroughly understand what mentorship was or how it worked. I was lucky that my mentor relationships formed organically, but as my career progressed I began to understand how much of an impact my mentors had on me, and that I too made an impact on them.