Jane Bertch’s founder story challenges one of the most persistent myths in business: that clarity must come before action. After leaving corporate banking and building La Cuisine Paris into the largest English language French cooking school in Paris, she proves that reinvention is not a reckless leap, but a disciplined practice of testing, listening, adapting, and continuing before the path feels fully safe. Her next chapter, focused on women’s development, retreats, and entrepreneurial support, extends that same thesis into a broader leadership lesson for women who are ready to stop waiting for permission and begin again.

Caregiving is one of the largest hidden systems holding families, workplaces, and healthcare together, yet it is still too often treated as a private burden rather than a business and leadership issue. In this companion piece, Nicole àBeckett, Founder and CEO of HeroGeneration, reveals how her own experience caring for both parents became the foundation for an AI powered platform built to reduce overwhelm, organize support, and give families a more humane way through crisis. Her story is a case study in what happens when personal pain becomes disciplined innovation, and when a founder has the courage to build in a market that has been overlooked because women have carried so much of the unpaid labor in silence.

Nearly 44 percent of working moms are not returning to the workforce. This is not a confidence or ambition problem. It is a systems failure. In this year end conversation, Molly McCartan, Founder and CEO of The Mom Pact, breaks down why working moms are being pushed out and what leadership must change to support real life transitions.