Airport Experience® News - Leadership 2022

NIKKI TINSLEY HARLAND: Thank you so much for joining me to talk about your careers as strong women in leadership. Let’s start with role models. Cassandra, who has been that influence for you? CASSANDRA BOZEMAN: My role models have been a market basket. I didn’t pull all that I needed from any one person, there are so many that have poured into me. From my mother, I learned how to treat people to yield results – be good to all and the benefits will come. When I went to college, she told Dr. Benjamin Newhouse, my undergraduate dean at Tuskegee University, “I’m not bringing you junk. Don’t send me junk home. I’ve worked really hard on this one, so I need you to continue on that path.” I think it became amission for him to respond to that. One early memory of him taking an interest in me was to better my communication skills. His encouragement led me to begin Tuskegee’s first Toastmasters chapter. It changedmy life and I became a Toastmaster at 19. My mother said, “I’m not bringing you junk. Don’t send me junk home.”

NIKKI: Your mother is quite a formidable woman. I love her style! Nicole, you also had a male role model early on. NICOLE BURNS: Yes, I grew up in the convenience store industry, a predominantly male environment. One of my best role models was a manager that took me under his wing and said, “I see potential in you here.” Knowing it was my first job, he’d say things like, “Let me show you how to present yourself in a meeting, how to stand your own ground when you’re surrounded by others who are further along in their careers.” He was great in not only helping me navigate being young but also being a female in that type of environment. NIKKI: I love to see how both of you had men who wanted you to succeed.Maria, you starteda consulting business late in your career and shortly after joined us as an ACDBE partner. What has been the most significant barrier you’ve encountered as a female leader? MARIA SOLDANI: Sadly, it’s stereotypes. Being a young Hispanic woman, people would only see the physical assets but ignore the intelligence. I’m fully bilingual and bicultural but I continually had to tell

people how I wanted to be perceived. I’m a little older and a lot wiser now so I play it to the max and wear a Guayabera shirt – a Cuban national shirt - to a meeting. If you’re going to categorize me to what you perceive then I’m going to be the classiest one there!

CASSANDRA: I’ve also experienced that. Not only am I a woman, but I’m an African American woman, and I’ve found over the years that people have preconceived notions. Yet, I simply ask myself if that’s going to be my issue, or someone else’s issue? I’ve always allowed it to be the latter because I don’t have an issue being in the room. I believe I’ve been placed in situations because I’m supposed to be there.

From Left to Right: Cassandra Bozeman , Vice President of Business Development; Nicole Burns , Regional Vice President of Retail Operations; Véronique Dubois , Vice President of Accounting; Larissa C. Dubose , National Director of Beverages; Maria F. Soldani, CEO of Maria Soldani Consultants, LLC, and an ACDBE Partner

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