Some 900 attendees gathered at the Business Journal’s 22nd Annual Women in Business Awards, where Lisa Vogel, co-president of RAJ Swim in Tustin, delivered the keynote address encouraging women in business to be open, humble and flexible.
Vogel took the helm of the family business with her younger brother Alex in 2007. She now leads public relations and marketing, licensing and compliance, design and merchandising.
Flexibility, she said, led to 46% year-over-year growth for RAJ, which makes swimsuits under license for wholesale accounts and has begun to open retail stores to sell them.
The 2016 honorees are:
• Nella Webster-O’Grady, principal at Palo Capital in Newport Beach
• Kimberly C. Sentovich, an executive vice president for San Francisco-based Gymboree Inc.
• Robin Follman-Otta, chief operating officer of RA Industries LLC/Markall Inc. in Santa Ana
• Lisa Wolter, executive director of Susan G. Komen Orange County in Costa Mesa
• Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks, president and chief executive at Earth Friendly Products in Cypress
The Business Journal will profile the Women in Business Award winners in our May 16 print edition.
