Titans of Their Industries: A Discussion With Debi Chirichella, CFO of Hearst Magazines; Peggy Koenig, Chair of Abry Partners, and Ita Ekpoudom, Partner at Gingerbread Capital
From left to right: Ita Ekpoudom - partner at Gingerbread Capital, Peggy Koenig - Chair of Abry Partners, and Debi Chirichella - CFO of Hearst Magazine.
The second day of the International Conference continued with the diversity panel, which featured three female leaders in three very different industries: Debi Chirichella, the CFO of Hearst Magazines; Peggy Koenig, Chair of Abry Partners, a private equity company; and Ita Ekpoudom, a partner at Gingerbread Capital, a Venture Capital firm. Despite their varied industries and skillsets, they all share common experiences and have all fought to promote gender equity in the workplace.
Chirichella graduated with a degree in chemical engineering and subsequently “fell into media.” After working in industries related to her degree for a short while, Chirichella went to business school and then entered the media world. Ever since, Chirichella has occupied the position of COO or CFO at various media firms.
Koenig also works closely with media, but her path to the media world was very different. Koenig wanted to work as a journalist when she was younger, but due to the “people [she] met along the way,” she ended up on Wall Street. Koenig, however, explains that she came back full circle. She is an expert in investing in films, TV, and magazines, and Abry Partners invests heavily in media alongside marketing and logistic services.
Similar to Koenig, Ekpoudom invests in companies - but as a venture capitalist, rather than a private equity firm. Ekpoudom began her career as a trader at Goldman Sachs. However, finding that she enjoyed Wall Street’s fast-paced environment but not her job, she left and soon eventually transitioned into venture capital. She is the co-founder of Tigress Ventures as well as a partner at Gingerbread Partners, both of which focus on investing in female-led companies.
Each of these women had to develop their careers in fields dominated by men. As such, each faced their own challenges in navigating their respective careers. Chirichella, for example, was often the only woman in a room, and she noted the different treatment she received in comparison to men. Additionally, she reflected on opportunities that she was passed over for. In Chirichella’s first promotion to CFO, she noted that her male mentor often chose women for the role of CFO, but men for the role of CEO. Koenig also worked in a primarily male C-Suite environment, and Ekpoudom, similarly, was one of five women working on the trading floor at Goldman Sachs.
Given their experiences, Chirichella, Koenig, and Ekpoudom all have hopes for the future of women in the workplace and how it might change. All three believe that having a greater number of women in the workplace is beneficial to a company socially and economically. Chirchella explains that having a lack of gender diversity results in having an incomplete range of ideas and opinions. Koenig similarly explained that “everyone looks at life through a certain lens,” and creating a more diverse workplace gives people the “potential to see through lenses that are not just your own.”
In the future, the panel hopes to continue opening opportunities for other women. Ekpoudom jokingly proposed that, like the Paypal mafia, she wanted a “Gingerbread Capital mafia” for female founders. Koenig actively recruits women in Abry Partners, not only to increase the number of women in associate positions, but also to create cohorts of women who can support each other.
Ultimately, however, all these women are striving towards a future in which gender equity is the norm, not the exception. As Chirichella put it, “hopefully, in 2050, we don’t have to have these conversations anymore. You don’t have to talk about promoting diversity in the workplace and you don’t have to try to move women up because it’s just happening naturally and fluidly. When I think about my daughters, I’m hoping that’s the world that they have.”