The Lighthouse Effect: Nine Steps to Cultivating Everyday Gratitude
Steadfast, selfless, and unwavering, human lighthouses help others overcome adversity in even the darkest of times. So how do we foster these illuminating qualities in ourselves and our colleagues? Pemberton and Carmen Ortiz-McGhee will describe the nine attributes of a human lighthouse and share how to cultivate the lighthouse effect through connected culture, feedback, and recognition at work.
Learning Objectives:
- Gain actionable strategies for creating an organizational culture that drives engagement.
- Learn how small, everyday moments of gratitude can be a bridge to inclusion and belonging.
- Reflect on and develop a deeper appreciation for the human lighthouses in your own life.
Carmen Ortiz-McGhee
Carmen Ortiz-McGhee is the Chief Operating Officer of the National Association of Investment Companies (NAIC), the trade association and largest network of diverse-owned private equity firms and hedge funds. The NAIC’s membership is comprised of more than 130 members managing over $250 billion in institutional capital. As Chief Operating Officer, Carmen provides strategic oversight over all NAIC programs and initiatives, and leads the organization’s key industry alliances and corporate partnerships.
Prior to joining NAIC, Carmen served as Senior Vice President at Aon plc. In this role, she was responsible for driving growth across all risk and health product lines in the Mid-Atlantic. Carmen guided the turnaround of the sales team, improved culture and performance, and pushed the team to its highest revenue generation and overall best performance in over a decade. Carmen also served as a member of Aon’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee. In 2014, she was tapped as one of Business Insurance Magazine’s Top 25 Women to Watch.
Before joining Aon, Carmen was Vice President of Investor Relations for a boutique real estate private equity firm with $1 billion in assets under management. Prior to her time in real estate private equity, Carmen spent her career leading a variety of national nonprofits that advocate on behalf of ethnically diverse professionals, asset managers and entrepreneurs. Previously, Carmen was President of The Marathon Club (TMC), an organization established to accelerate relationships among the best and brightest business minds in the U.S. to create enhanced wealth creation and deal flow for ethnically diverse professionals. Carmen led programs both in the US and abroad.
Prior to leading TMC, Carmen created value for a number of non-profit organizations. In her various roles at these organizations, Carmen led corporate fundraising strategies; membership recruitment efforts, raising the diversity and number of participants; content development, innovating unique approaches and managing the logistical implementation of the annual meetings, trade shows & conferences.
Carmen is a passionate advocate for diverse and women-owned businesses and regularly speaks at conferences and events on various issues related to empowerment of women in business, scaling diverse businesses, authentic leadership, among others. A proud graduate of the University of Virginia, she currently serves as Chair of the Governance & Nominations Committee of the Communities in Schools national board, she sits on the Hispanics in Philanthropy PowerUp Fund Impact Cabinet, as well as on the MBA Fund I Investment Committee.
Steve Pemberton
Steve joined Workhuman in December of 2017 as chief human resources officer (CHRO) and works with HR leaders and senior management executives worldwide to help build workplaces where every employee feels recognized, respected, and appreciated for who they are and what they do. He champions and promotes our Workhuman movement to inspire HR leaders to embrace more humanity and foster a sense of purpose in the workplace. Steve is focused on building upon Workhuman’s award-winning culture, which has set a new industry standard through its own power usage of recognition and positivity.
Before joining Workhuman, Steve served in senior HR executive roles for Walgreens Boots Alliance and Monster.com. A frequent presenter on Capitol Hill, in 2015, he was appointed by U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez to serve on the Advisory Committee for the Competitive Integrated Employment of People with Disabilities.