In a time of uncertainty, PNW women leaders are charting a course ahead
'Are you a make-it-happen person? Be a make-it-happen person.'
This quote from local CEO Molly Moon Neitzel, founder and CEO of Molly Moon's Homemade Ice Cream, embodies the spirit of the day at the third annual Puget Sound Business Journal Women Who Lead Summit, where hundreds of leaders gathered to share their skills and experiences.
As we face a time of collective uncertainty, I'm struck by the commitment of our leadership community to lifting one another to drive change. As Schwabe's first female CEO, I've had the privilege of leading for over eight years alongside a board of directors comprising 60% women lawyers. At Schwabe, women in leadership are not the exception — they are the standard. However, many of us at the summit share the experience of being a first in a leadership role or the only woman in the room.
The common thread of bringing your whole self into leadership is key to helping all of us grow both personally and professionally and paving the way for others. We are fortunate to have many outstanding examples of authentic and bold leadership right here in Washington, leading global organizations, local businesses, health care organizations, nonprofits, public sector agencies and more.
Of the many powerful conversations we've had at the summit, here are three takeaways for all of us who seek to lead with greater intention and purpose.
Values-driven leadership can guide you through chaos — and lead to stronger outcomes. Lean into your values and use them as your north star when facing tough conversations or decisions.
Keynote speaker Alice Shobe, Amazon's global director of community impact, shared a valuable takeaway with all of us to 'be here, not there.' As leaders, we often feel pulled in a million directions, but one of the most powerful things we can do is focus on being fully present.
Stay connected to people who challenge and inspire you. As we recognize the five-year anniversary of the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, I don't take for granted the energy and inspiration that comes from gathering and building community. Finding meaningful ways to connect with entrepreneurs, executives and emerging leaders broadens our perspective and enhances our ability to navigate emerging challenges.
Thank you to all the speakers and attendees for making this a memorable celebration of PNW leadership. Let's hold onto the inspiration from this year's summit — and keep showing up, lifting others and making it happen.
Schwabe is committed to advancing women in business and law by giving back to our region, providing excellent legal services to our clients, and representing our communities. Our understanding of seven key industry sectors allows us to help clients achieve success through ideas, advice, and exceptional legal counsel: consumer products; manufacturing and retail; health care and life sciences; Indian country and Alaska native corporations; natural resources; ports and maritime; real estate and construction; and technology.
Graciela Gomez Cower serves as chief executive officer at Schwabe.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Eater
22 minutes ago
- Eater
A Fast-Casual Taiwanese Spot Joins the Midtown Lunch Fray
Yumpling, a Taiwanese fast-casual food business, began as a flea market stand before expanding with a Midtown food truck under the same name. In 2020, owner Chris Yu and partners opened a full-on takeout restaurant in Long Island City, which, over the past five years, has cemented itself as a standby in the Queens neighborhood. Now, he has returned to the neighborhood where it all began, opening a new outpost of Yumpling that joins the Midtown lunch fray, a couple of blocks from where the food truck launched. First announced in 2024, Yumpling Midtown is finally open as of this week: 'Truck days have proven that our food will do well in the city and, since we are more fast-casual than dine-in, we are hoping the young millennial work crowd will treat us well,' Yu told Eater upon initially announcing the expansion. The menu is similar to the LIC restaurant: their pan-fried dumplings (pork, chicken, veggie, or a mix), rice bowls (with fried pork chop, crispy chicken, lou rou fan, or basil eggplant), and noodle dishes, such as the classic beef noodle soup. There are a few seats, but the intent is to keep things moving. It follows on the heels of another Taiwanese spot that opened in the neighborhood last month, Jabä, over on East 58th Street, which showcases the cuisine in a sit-down environment. Yumpling Midtown is nearby at 16 E. 52nd Street, near Madison Avenue, accessible to office workers farther east and those closer to Rockefeller Center. Yumpling's set-up brings to mind spots like Milu, the fast-casual Chinese American bowl spot that debuted in Gramercy from Eleven Madison Park alum, Connie Chung, during the pandemic (it opened and then closed in Williamsburg, and there's a second remaining outpost in Battery Park's Brookfield Place). In the past five years, there have been several new bowl spots diversifying office lunch options in Manhattan, taking it to far more intriguing and personal places than your average Chipotle. These include the Indian-leaning and well-financed Inday, which has rebranded and cannibalized another bowl spot; Dùndú, just south of Grand Central, with Nigerian bowls; Sopo, a Korean bowl spot near Penn Station; and ThisBowl, a poke-ish bowl spot hailing from Sydney, now with two Manhattan locations, that has managed to make fast-casual cool in a chrome setting that could be a fashion boutique. See More: NYC Restaurant News NYC Restaurant Openings
Miami Herald
30 minutes ago
- Miami Herald
McDonald's is facing a harsh new reality as customer behavior shifts
When it was first founded in 1940 as a burger joint selling 15-cent sandwiches, it was hard to imagine that McDonald's (MCD) would eventually grow into the world's biggest fast-food chain. But McDonald's has carefully curated its offerings over the years, sticking to a robust menu of classics while finding ways to introduce new items that resonate with customers. Don't miss the move: Subscribe to TheStreet's free daily newsletter While McDonald's has enjoyed staying far ahead of the competition for some time, that lead has certainly come with some challenges as well. One of its biggest was the release of the 2004 documentary "Super Size Me," in which indie filmmaker Morgan Spurlock ate McDonald's three times a day for 30 days and experienced weight gain and worsening health. The press the film drummed up caused McDonald's revenue to dip that year, and six weeks after the film's release, it removed its Super Size options from its menu. Related: McDonald's menu finally brings back most-wanted fan favorite But the tarnish didn't last long. McDonald's continued to grow in the aftermath, proving it was capable of navigating even the harshest headwinds, which it was certainly forced to face again when the Covid pandemic hit in 2020. Now it will need to batten down the hatches, as new trends are starting to affect its bottom line - not to mention customers' perception of the brand. Image source:On June 10, finance broker Redburn Atlantic downgraded McDonald's from a buy to a sell rating, making a concerning prediction about customer behavior in the current climate. "As more Americans turn to GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic to lose weight, McDonald's could see as much as a $428 million annual impact to revenue, representing about 1% of system sales," Redburn analysts Chris Luyckx and Edward Lewis wrote in a note. More Restaurants Beloved Mexican restaurant closing iconic location after 63 yearsMajor restaurant chain quietly closes several locationsIconic restaurant closing its doors after 32 years "A 1% drag today could easily build to 10% or more over time, particularly for brands skewed toward lower-income consumers or group occasions." Related: McDonald's analyst grills new stock price target on McCrispy reaction Redburn Atlantic is not the only business to knock McDonald's down. The fast-food giant has also earned hold-equivalent ratings at Morgan Stanley, Loop Capital, and Erste Group. McDonald's reported troubling news during its first earnings call of 2025, including the second quarter of sales declines in a row. The company earned $1.87 billion in net revenue in Q1, which is a decline from $1.93 billion made in the same period of 2024. Same-store sales also dropped by 3.6%, the biggest drop the fast-food chain has seen since the pandemic. McDonald's has also seen a pullback in business from lower-income customers who are curtailing unnecessary spending. McDonald's has adjusted its strategy to handle the tone of the current climate, rolling out big changes to its value menu in January with a focus on app-exclusive offers. But as McDonald's prices have risen 40% since 2019, for some, it's still simply too expensive to eat there. CEO Chris Kempczinski addressed the elephant in the room on a call with analysts, saying, "geopolitical tensions added to the economic uncertainty and dampened consumer sentiment more than we expected." However, Kempczinski remained positive, saying in a release that while consumers are "grappling with uncertainty," he remains optimistic in the company's "ability to navigate even the toughest of market conditions and gain market share." Related: McDonald's announces major store change to win back customers The Arena Media Brands, LLC THESTREET is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc.
Chicago Tribune
33 minutes ago
- Chicago Tribune
How the Vatican manages money and where Pope Leo XIV might find more
VATICAN CITY — The world's smallest country has a big budget problem. The Vatican doesn't tax its residents or issue bonds. It primarily finances the Catholic Church's central government through donations that have been plunging, ticket sales for the Vatican Museums, as well as income from investments and an underperforming real estate portfolio. The last year the Holy See published a consolidated budget, in 2022, it projected $878 million, with the bulk paying for embassies around the world and Vatican media operations. In recent years, it hasn't been able to cover costs. That leaves Pope Leo XIV facing challenges to drum up the funds needed to pull his city-state out of the red. Anyone can donate money to the Vatican, but the regular sources come in two main forms. Canon law requires bishops around the world to pay an annual fee, with amounts varying and at bishops' discretion 'according to the resources of their dioceses.' U.S. bishops contributed over one-third of the $22 million collected annually under the provision from 2021-2023, according to Vatican data. The other main source of annual donations is more well-known to ordinary Catholics: Peter's Pence, a special collection usually taken on the last Sunday of June. From 2021-2023, individual Catholics in the U.S. gave an average $27 million (23.7 million euros) to Peter's Pence, more than half the global total. American generosity hasn't prevented overall Peter's Pence contributions from cratering. After hitting a high of $101 million in 2006, contributions hovered around $75 million during the 2010's then tanked to $47 million during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many churches were closed. Donations remained low in the following years, amid revelations of the Vatican's bungled investment in a London property, a former Harrod's warehouse that it hoped to develop into luxury apartments. The scandal and ensuing trial confirmed that the vast majority of Peter's Pence contributions had funded the Holy See's budgetary shortfalls, not papal charity initiatives as many parishioners had been led to believe. Peter's Pence donations rose slightly in 2023 and Vatican officials expect more growth going forward, in part because there has traditionally been a bump immediately after papal elections. The Vatican bank and the city state's governorate, which controls the museums, also make annual contributions to the pope. As recently as a decade ago, the bank gave the pope around $62.7 million a year to help with the budget. But the amounts have dwindled; the bank gave nothing specifically to the pope in 2023, despite registering a net profit of $34.2 million, according to its financial statements. The governorate's giving has likewise dropped off. Some Vatican officials ask how the Holy See can credibly ask donors to be more generous when its own institutions are holding back. Leo will need to attract donations from outside the U.S., no small task given the different culture of philanthropy, said the Rev. Robert Gahl, director of the Church Management Program at Catholic University of America's business school. He noted that in Europe there is much less of a tradition (and tax advantage) of individual philanthropy, with corporations and government entities doing most of the donating or allocating designated tax dollars. Even more important is leaving behind the 'mendicant mentality' of fundraising to address a particular problem, and instead encouraging Catholics to invest in the church as a project, he said. Speaking right after Leo's installation ceremony in St. Peter's Square, which drew around 200,000 people, Gahl asked: 'Don't you think there were a lot of people there that would have loved to contribute to that and to the pontificate?' In the U.S., donation baskets are passed around at every Sunday Mass. Not so at the Vatican. The Vatican has 4,249 properties in Italy and 1,200 more in London, Paris, Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland. Only about one-fifth are rented at fair market value, according to the annual report from the APSA patrimony office, which manages them. Some 70% generate no income because they house Vatican or other church offices; the remaining 10% are rented at reduced rents to Vatican employees. In 2023, these properties only generated $39.9 million in profit. Financial analysts have long identified such undervalued real estate as a source of potential revenue. But Ward Fitzgerald, the president of the U.S.-based Papal Foundation, which finances papal charities, said the Vatican should also be willing to sell properties, especially those too expensive to maintain. Many bishops are wrestling with similar downsizing questions as the number of church-going Catholics in parts of the U.S. and Europe shrinks and once-full churches stand empty. Toward that end, the Vatican recently sold the property housing its embassy in Tokyo's high-end Sanbancho neighborhood, near the Imperial Palace, to a developer building a 13-story apartment complex, according to the Kensetsu News trade journal. Yet there has long been institutional reluctance to part with even money-losing properties. Witness the Vatican announcement in 2021 that the cash-strapped Fatebenefratelli Catholic hospital in Rome, run by a religious order, would not be sold. Pope Francis simultaneously created a Vatican fundraising foundation to keep it and other Catholic hospitals afloat. 'They have to come to grips with the fact that they own so much real estate that is not serving the mission of the church,' said Fitzgerald, who built a career in real estate private equity.
