These Philly-area CEOs want to ‘unlock opportunities for more women’

Not everyone is going to become a CEO. But for professionals looking to advance their careers, interest abounds in how top leaders climbed the ladder and spend their time, at work and even on the weekends.

For those hoping to replicate the success of CEOs who are women, the group they can look to is small. Just a handful of Philadelphia-area public companies have women in that role.

The most recent additions to that club are Lori Koch, who was appointed to head Delaware-based DuPont in May and Winnie Park, who became CEO of retailer Five Below in December.

In the local business community more broadly, women have stepped into significant leadership roles in recent years — including Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, the city’s first female mayor.

Several local CEOs spoke with The Inquirer, sharing lessons learned and how they believe more women can rise into business leadership. Here‘s what they had to say.

Above Chellie Cameron’s desk hangs a black-and-white photo of some 50 middle-aged white men in tuxedos, sitting around a table at an event for the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia at the Park Hyatt at the Bellevue hotel ballroom. She estimates it was taken in 1933.

“It was a bunch of guys looking at the camera … a representation of the leadership and what the chamber was then,” said Cameron, who became the CEO and president of the chamber in 2022. “When you look at the chamber today, it’s really different.”

She doesn’t dwell on the fact that she’s the first woman to lead the chamber in its 224-year history, because she’s the type of person “who just kind of puts her head down and gets to work,” said Cameron, who was CEO of Philadelphia International Airport before joining the Chamber.

Yet the picture above her desk, which was there before she arrived, is an ever-present reminder.

Cameron said she gained leadership skills during her time in the military, where women mentors were few. She joined the Air Force shortly after graduating from college in 1990 and spent seven years on active duty.

She also recalls the value of her early experience as a secretary for a natural gas company. A female executive pushed her to understand the finances and operations and took her to Toastmasters classes. Cameron, back then, had an “unreasonable fear” of public speaking.

“I ended up doing 10 years of Toastmasters because of her,” she said.

Being a CEO doesn’t mean she’s got it all figured out. One thing she still thinks about: “Making sure that you don’t apologize,” said Cameron.

And make sure, she said, “That you own your positions, that you own where you are, that you’re kind — but kindness is not weakness."

Carole Ben-Maimon, CEO of Larimar Therapeutics, remembers rushing to day-care pickup when her kids were young to avoid a $15 per minute late pickup fee.

“A lot of my colleagues and bosses weren’t always sensitive to the fact that, yes, I had to be home to pick up my kids at 6 — but I was also back online at 10,” said Ben-Maimon.

Traveling for work was a challenge when her kids were young, so she had frank conversations with her bosses about limiting the number and length of those trips. She also benefited from having a “good nanny” and help from her kids' grandparents, she said.

“More women would be in the workforce and in leadership positions, if the entire society was more sensitive about how to support them and how to be more aware of the challenges,” said Ben-Maimon.

Now, years later, Ben-Maimon is a grandmother, and helps out with childcare backup when her daughter is running late. And she has the opportunity to shape her workplace’s culture.

Larimar Therapeutics, based in Bala Cynwyd, is developing a drug for a rare genetic disease called Friedreich’s ataxia. Ben-Maimon has been there since the company launched in 2016, and it now has more than 65 employees.

Ben-Maimon was “very surprised” to find out that so few women lead public companies given that “quite a few” women are CEOs in her industry, including smaller or privately held firms.

“It’s not so much the opportunities aren’t there,” said Ben-Maimon. “A lot of times there’s just not a lot of flexibility and willingness to allow women to both be mothers and wives and still be CEOs.”

She wants her company to be family-friendly, and has tried to build a culture where people respect each other’s time off, whether that’s for coaching their child’s sport or caring for elderly parents.

“You don’t live to work, you work to live,” she said. “It’s really important to make sure we’re respectful of that, and I think that goes a long way.”

Prema Katari Gupta, CEO of the Center City District, believes in creating an “ecosystem” for success.

“No one gets to where they are by themself. It always takes a village,” she said.

Gupta stepped into her role at CCD, a business advocacy group, in 2024. The 34-year-old organization has a roughly $33 million dollar annual budget.

A woman who aspires to lead in business should build a “cabinet” of female mentors, she said, noting that she herself has surrounded herself with a small network of other female CEOs.

Men are also part of the equation, she said. She and her husband share childcare responsibilities 50-50.

Gupta also points to three male mentors who helped accelerate her career: John Grady, former president of PIDC; Matt Bergheiser, president of University City District; Paul Levy, founding CEO of CCD, who all hired her for jobs that elevated her career.

“They saw my potential,” she said. “Were it not for these three individuals believing in me — quite honestly, when maybe I couldn’t even believe in myself — I wouldn’t have the career I’ve had.”

Making space for all workers’ lives beyond their jobs could help more women advance in their careers, said Gupta. Because of the way work changed for many during the pandemic, and also because of the adoption of smartphones, there is less of a separation between work and life, she said, but she is inspired by her “Gen-Z cohorts” who she said have established better boundaries.

Building a workplace that is based on trusting workers to do their jobs is the “baseline,” said Gupta.

Gupta has benefited from that trust. When her mother was battling cancer and also when she had her second child, her manager gave her flexibility to work remotely as needed.

“I was grateful that I didn’t have to ask permission if a kid was sick and I had to go home and get them. I was trusted to make up the hours, and, as a result, probably worked twice as hard,” she said. “I think that’s how we unlock opportunities for more women.”

Susan Hardwick was thinking about retiring when American Water’s board approached her about becoming a CEO.

“Being the CEO is what everybody aspires to, right? I mean, everybody sort of thinks that,” said Hardwick, who was CFO at the time. “I was thinking, I really just want to retire.”

But she couldn’t walk away from the opportunity. Since 2022, she‘s been at the helm of a water utility company with 14 million customers in 24 states.

“To be in this type of a role, you really have to know who you are, be confident in what your strengths are,” she said, ”and also understand where your weaknesses are, and be able to leverage both."

So what needs to change for more women to advance in the workplace into similar roles like hers?

“Women need to be more confident,” she said.

“I’m probably guilty of it too,” she added. ”Women are too quick to say, ‘well, you know, I’m not sure I can do it, maybe I need this experience first, or maybe I need to … learn this.’”

Hardwick describes herself as having a strong personality, as being very direct and decisive — which can be interpreted negatively. While she encourages women to turn up their self-assurance, she wouldn’t tell them to fundamentally change their personalities to get ahead.

“We all have to stay true to ourselves,” she said. “We just need to find our own way to sort of move the narrative, push the envelope a bit, get what we deserve, what we all deserve, male, female, young, old.”