Your local Girl Scout troop could be incubating the next Fortune 500 CEO.
Eight female leaders of Fortune 500 companies were once Daisies, Brownies, Juniors or more, according to an analysis by Fortune personal.
“It is no surprise that so many women in leadership roles were once scouts,” said Girl Scouts of America general director Bonnie Barczykowski Fortune when asked about the results.
Current Fortune 500 CEOs who are Girl Scouts alumni include Mary Barra of General Motors, Sarah London of Centene, Safra Catz of Oracle, Phebe Novakovic of General Dynamics, Gina Boswell of Bath & Body Works, Penny Pennington of Edward Jones Investments and Kathleen Mazzarella of Graybar Electric. .
Famous for their seasonal selection of delicious desserts including Thin Mints, Trefoils, Tagalongs and Caramel deLites, the Girl Scouts actually run the largest girl-led entrepreneurial program in the world, selling over 200 million boxes a year and generating approximately 1 billion dollars, according to Barczykowski.
“It’s a period of time where they engage in financial education and learn how to promote their cookie business as young entrepreneurs,” Barczykowski said.
Many of these CEOs have said this Fortune that the experience really mattered for their careers.
“Being a Girl Scout has given me the opportunity to explore new ideas and step outside of my comfort zone, which has helped me gain confidence and trust in my abilities,” said Mazzarella, who has led Graybar Electric since 2012. Fortune in a statement sent via email. “The timeless life lessons I learned as a Girl Scout have influenced me throughout my career and continue to shape how I lead today.”
Pennington, who joined Edward Jones in 2000 before becoming managing partner in 2019, spent several years as a Girl Scout in the early 1970s.
“Brownies and Girl Scouts left a lasting impression on me: my confidence in learning new things, the fun of working as a troop, and the commitment of the adults who led us,” Pennington said in an emailed statement . “These are values that I still talk about today and that I carry forward into life, decades later.”
The list also extends to former members of Fortune 500 top executives, such as former IBM CEO Ginni Rometty, former Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson, and former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg. Other company leaders include former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, former JCPenny CEO Jill Soltau, and former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer.
The 2023 Fortune 500 marked a new milestone for women leaders, with more than 10% of America’s largest companies ranked by revenue run by women for the first time.
The latter has changed in the past year due to recent exits, including Walgreens Boots Alliance’s Roz Brewer, Rite Aid’s Elizabeth Burr, American Electric Power’s Julie Sloat and Commercial Metals’ Barbara Smith. However, newcomers like Nicole Kivisto of MDU Resources, Michelle Gass of Levi Strauss & Co. and Denise Dignam of Chemours have ensured that 52 out of 500 companies still remain led by women. (And yes, eight out of 52 members from the Girl Scout ranks represent a higher percentage than female CEOs in the Fortune 500, 15.3% to 10.4%.)
The 2024 Fortune 500 will debut in June. Last year, the top 10 companies alone reported $3.7 trillion in revenue, with the total accounting for two-thirds of U.S. GDP.
On my honor
According to Barczykowski, one in three women in the United States was once a scout, but the CEO himself wasn’t one of them.
“There is always a mic drop when I say I was never a part of Scouting,” Barczykowski said.
Founded in 1912 with the mission of teaching girls valuable skills like camping, community service and first aid, Girl Scouts of the USA has since grown to more than one million active members and 50 million alumni .
“When I meet women from across the nation and ask them about their experience in Girl Scouts, whether they were in Girl Scouts for one year, three years, 10 years or 13, they all have memories and experiences that connect to that experience. It had influenced them in their lives,” Barczykowski said.
The organization’s influence extends across the country with 111 councils and even into space. The first American woman to walk in space, Kathryn Sullivan, said her priority was to “fill her sash” with badges as a young member of the troop.
The group’s reach also extends to politics; the halls of Capitol Hill and the White House are filled with former members. According to the Girl Scouts, 56% of women attending the 117th Congress (2021-2022) were alumni. Additionally, every female secretary of state in U.S. history was a former Girl Scout or Girl Guide student, including Madeleine Albright, Condoleeza Rice, and Hillary Clinton.
“The majority of women astronauts were once Girl Scouts, the majority of our members of the Senate and House were once Girl Scouts,” Barczykowski said.
Hollywood also boasts a roster of Girl Scout stars, including Carrie Fisher, Tracee Ellis Ross and Reese Witherspoon. Music superstar Taylor Swift worked as a Girl Scout in her native Pennsylvania and donated free tickets to her 2018 Reputation tour to troops in New Jersey and Connecticut. Even more, the Girl Scouts can count on actual royalty as former members Meghan MarkleDuchess of Sussex, and Grace Kelly, Princess of Monaco.
“When I think about some of the leaders who lead different organizations, both nonprofits and corporations and foundations, they were once Girl Scouts,” Barczykowski said. “Again, no surprise when you hear about the skills they developed from when they were young that they carried into these amazing careers.”
Badges and business
Fortune 500 and Global 500 companies have partnered with GSUSA to fund new programs and curricula for girls, complete with themed badges to fill their belts.
Priscilla Almodovar, CEO of Fannie Mae, said this Fortune she was a “big fan of badges” as a Girl Scout, and still remembers her first camping trip with her troop.
“The badges made me curious to try and learn new things, gave me the confidence to develop new skills and gain knowledge, and taught me to hold myself accountable,” Almodovar said in an emailed statement. “I also learned about teamwork and working together with other girls.”
Priscilla Almodovar
GM CEO Mary Barra, former Brownie, said so Fortune that being a Girl Scout “exposes girls and young women to new experiences and opportunities they may never have imagined” and helped introduce new STEM-themed badges.
In 2020, his company announced a $1 million grant to help the organization develop STEM programming and teach members about vehicle design, engineering and manufacturing.
“We are proud of our work with the Girl Scouts of the USA to help launch a series of STEM and automotive badges,” Barra, GM’s CEO, said in an emailed statement. “We need more women in STEM fields, and Girl Scouts is an incredible organization that inspires the innovators of the future.”
It’s a sentiment echoed by Fortune 500 boss Gina Boswell, CEO of Bath & Body Works, whose company provided some seed funding for an immersive 220-acre STEM and Leadership Campus in Galloway, Ohio.
Boswell said Fortune she was “a proud Girl Scout from the time I was six until my freshman year of high school.”
“One of the greatest takeaways from my Girl Scouts experience was the importance of community, service to others, and creating a sense of belonging,” Boswell said in an email statement. “When you become a Girl Scout, you realize for the first time that there is more to life than your individual self: you realize that you are part of a larger collective.”
But it also seems like all those cookie sales actually taught a business lesson along the way.