Our Mission

Inspiring one million women to see themselves as CEO is our goal. In a world of over eight billion people, it almost seems too small.

So, why bother?

  • People build their lives around what they see — and what they don’t. When only 9% of the Fortune 500 CEOs are women, the downstream message to young women is something like: “Don’t bother. Women don’t lead.”

    The result is that women often don’t see themselves as CEO material. The damage doesn’t stop there: when we miss out on talented female leaders, the paradigms she’d bring forward don’t exist. Who wins?

  • Is seeing believing? Or is believing seeing?

    At ABC to CEO, we want to inspire young women early to challenge what they see. We exist to sew seeds of possibility to women in formative stages, inviting them to play the biggest game they can.

  • When one million young women are practicing the strategies and belief systems that our CEO guests share, there will be more women at the top — and they’ll send positive ripples to the next generations to come.

    Whether a woman leads or doesn’t, each woman who dares to disrupt the status quo makes it easier for the ones in her wake to flourish.

“When more women are at the top, we believe there will be a tipping point that will make women becoming a CEO no longer headline news.”
— Sharon Fiehler, Founder ABC To CEO
Meet Our Founder

Inviting women to see themselves as the boss

After a long, successful career as a C-Suite Executive at what was then an $8 Billion Fortune 500 Company (Peabody Energy), Sharon Fiehler retired. By the end of her run with Peabody, she managed a global staff with an operating budget of approximately $250 million. She also chaired the board of the 8th District of the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Because Sharon didn’t think about the future possibility of CEO, she didn’t consider which roles would best prepare her to be qualified to be considered for a CEO role at Peabody or sometwhere else. Despite experiencing great success, when she reflected upon her career, she realized that becoming a CEO would have been a challenge she would have enjoyed, but it would have required many changes in her career path.

When she retired, Sharon identified a fault line in how she thought about things, setting out to help other women avoid her mistakes. It shouldn’t be remarkable or news-worthy for women to be CEO. Sharon is dedicated to helping young women see themselves as the leader at a young age — so they can go for the top spot, if they so choose to.

Get involved

Whether you're a student or parent seeking guidance or an investor interested in joining our mission, we’d love to connect with you.