Women Breaking the Mold

The campaign includes three short films celebrating entrepreneurial girls from across the world, as well as a 10-step guide to inclusive play.

Under her title of senior category leader of North American beverage closures for Coca-Cola Bottlers' Sales and Services Co. LLC in Atlanta, Penny Walter has a plethora of responsibilities: lead contractual negotiations; manage positive supplier relationships; support business requirements through data; ensure continuity of supply and quality at the lowest total delivered cost; and develop category strategies exceeding annual spend of $219 million across 19 billion closures, including innovation, quality, risk management and optimized conversion.

Born in Vienna, Barbara Walker started in sales support in the Viennese sales office of specialty chemicals producer Lubrizol Corp., expatriated to the United States, spent some time in research and development, then switched to information technology "as a result of being invited to participate as a core technical team member in the global implementation of an ERP system."

Marguerite Vezina started Straws by M Inc. in 2005. The idea for the business in Florida came from not being able to properly drink a milkshake without holding the straw in glassware and making a mess.

Maria Veracierto obtained a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering from Simón Bolívar University in Venezuela and started as a sales representative at Procter & Gamble Co. right out of college.

It was a coincidence that Chantal van Sambeek landed in the plastics industry, she said. She had almost finished her education in hotel management and was looking for a temporary job when she was hired as a customer service representative at plastics materials distributor Nexeo Plastics Inc. She said she was excited by the possibilities, applications for different materials, innovations and developments to tell customers.

Prior to working for Continental Structural Plastics Inc., Jessica Van Epps worked in bank management and in manufacturing in the purchasing department. She heard about an open buyer position at a facility of automotive supplier CSP in Conneaut, Ohio, from a friend and decided to apply.

Sophie Tuviahu started her career in the chemicals industry, always in the sales and product management area. After years spent at a large corporation, she decided that her strong point was "grow small into bigger and better," spending much of her career helping small industries reach the next stage. She was in the nonwoven, plastics and clean tech industries always supporting development and strategic growth in various positions.

After staying home for 11 years after her first child was born, Yoko Tanaka wanted "something different" from her previous job when she returned to the workforce. Working for Asahi Kasei Asaclean Americas Inc., a unit of Japanese conglomerate Asahi Kasei Group, is Tanaka's first plastics job.