When it comes to impact, Shelly Lombard is a triple threat: experienced board member, finance wiz, and investor in distressed businesses. She spent 35 years on Wall Street where she specialized in investing in companies that needed an operating turnaround and/or a balance sheet restructuring. That work led her to board service and serving as a director for companies ranging from early stage and pre-IPO to the Fortune 500. She found that her finance expertise provided real value when it mattered most. On one board, she was able to work with the CFO to do a rights offering, pay down debt, refinance the bonds and ultimately put the company on a firmer financial foundation.

Oftentimes the only woman and the only person of color in the room, she also knows that her presence is its own kind of impact, especially for others in leadership who may look to follow in her footsteps. “When we have meetings with management, I see the faces of the women and I see the faces of the people of color who walk into the boardroom and, for the very first time, see somebody who looks like them.” Shelly is now a full-time board member as well as a limited partner in a venture fund that supports women and people of color who have founded consumer brands.

Despite her myriad accomplishments, when Shelly considers where her impact has been most profound, she points to a new role: founder. In 2023, Shelly launched Schmooze, a start-up focused on helping young professionals connect, expand, and deepen their networks. She got the inspiration for Schmooze from her career transition.

“I had taken a very demanding Wall Street job but the trade-off was that it allowed me to work from home so I could spend more time with my kids. When I left that job, I really wanted to do something different. I’ve always wanted to create something,” Shelly explains. “But after almost 10 years of working from home (and this was before Zoom or LinkedIn) my network was stale. Any business relationships I had developed over the years had lapsed and that hurt me. I learned the hard way that relationships matter.”

Shelly understood that for professionals, building a business network or community is critical, whether they’re looking to move up within their own companies or they’re trying to make a transition to something new. “To advance, women need to be able to build both internal relationships and external relationships—whether it’s with clients, colleagues, with senior management or mentees,” Shelly explains. She designed Schmooze as a new way of building business relationships that breaks the mold of golf trips and box seats at a football game.  “People use shared experiences to build relationships. When I worked on Wall Street, we very often took clients to sports events. I love sports – football, basketball, all sports. But I noticed that the women very often just went to dinner and they might miss out. So I wanted to provide a series of events that could appeal to women and men who want to schmooze over something other than sports.”

The idea, says Shelly, is to create spaces where participants can invite a colleague, a client, a potential client or a contact, and use that as a shared experience to build a business relationship. “You are having fun or learning together while also developing those relationships that are going to nurture you, that are going to help you achieve whatever your goals are, whether it’s building a business, making partner, or getting on a board. You need to invest in those relationships that’ll help you get there.”

Schmooze hosts events like its signature “Manicures, Massages and Margaritas” event, virtual poker nights, and panels on themes like “Investing in Women’s Sports” and “The Power of Self-Promotion and How to Do It Gracefully.” With its newsletter and panels of experts, Schmooze features advice from other successful women on how to build business relationships that sustain and elevate. It all comes down to one central idea: when it comes to business, relationships matter. “Relationships can close gaps,” Shelly says. “They help you get ahead at work, get clients, get on boards.”  That’s why organizations like Athena are so important because relationships are so important.”

To date, the Schmooze newsletter and events have attracted over 1,200 female professionals, helping them to build their professional community and their confidence. While being an entrepreneur brings its own challenges, the satisfaction Shelly gets from helping women professionals build their careers is worth it.  This latest chapter, she says, is the best yet.

Erin Essenmacher - Chief Experience & Strategy Officer

Erin Essenmacher is the Chief Experience and Strategy Officer of Athena Alliance, where she leads Athena Academy’s Board Readiness course. As a former President and Chief Strategy Officer for the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD), she led the organization's renaissance as a thought leader on emerging issues ranging from cyber, digital transformation and competitive disruption to geopolitical disruption, ESG, diversity, and culture.