Maggie Wilderotter, Chairman and CEO of Wilderotter Vineyard in the Sierra Foothills, is a leader in luxury hospitality and a champion of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. With an unmatched dedication to inclusive leadership, she has trained more than 850 women and minority men for their first board assignments through her transformative Board Bootcamps. In this episode, she shares her journey, career challenges, and insights on the importance of DE&I in boardrooms. Tune in to be inspired by Maggie’s commitment to empowering others and her vision for a more inclusive world.
Bio: Maggie Wilderotter is a seasoned executive who, as CEO, has led both Fortune 500 companies and start-ups in her career. In addition, she has extensive Board leadership serving on over 35 public company and 14 private company Boards of Directors.
Today, Maggie serves on the public boards of Costco Wholesale Corporation, Bank of America, Sana Biotechnology and is Board Chair at DocuSign. She serves on the private boards of Tanium, Sonoma Biotherapeutics, and Legends Hospitality. In addition, Maggie is also a Senior Advisor to a number of companies including Accenture, Okta, the Blackstone Group, Atairos Private Equity, Sixth Street Partners and Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue.
Maggie was Chief Executive Officer of Frontier Communications from November, 2004 to April, 2015, and then Executive Chairman of the company until April, 2016. During her tenure with Frontier, the company grew from a regional telephone company with customer revenues of less than $1 billion to a national broadband, voice and video provider with operations in 29 states and annualized revenues in excess of $10 billion.
Previously, her career included being the Senior Vice President of Global Business Strategy and ran the Worldwide Public Sector at Microsoft. Before this, she was President and CEO of Wink Communications Inc., Executive Vice President of National Operations for AT&T Wireless Services Inc., Chief Executive Officer of AT&T’s Aviation Communications Division, and a Senior Vice President of McCaw Cellular Communications Inc.
Maggie previously served on the President’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC) as both Vice Chairman and Chairman during her 4-year tenure ending in 2014. Mrs. Wilderotter also served until January, 2017 on the President’s special Commission responsible for a recommendation report to the new President of the United States on Enhancing National Cybersecurity.
Her educational credentials include a bachelor’s degree in economics from the College of the Holy Cross. She has been awarded an Honorary Doctor of Engineering degree from the Stevens Institute of Technology and an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Rochester.
Maggie’s Something Extra: “I think we need to be in the moment with the people that we care about both at the office as well as personally, and make sure you have that balance of being intentional about how you spend your time.”
Guest Links:
– Lisa Nichols, Host
– Jenny Heal, Executive Producer
– Joe Szynkowski and Landon Burke, Marketing Support
– Portside Media, Podcast Engineer
