Donna Carpenter Quotes
15 quotes from Donna Carpenter — Co-founder of Burton Snowboards with Jake Burton Carpenter..
“With a promotion, a woman will give you five reasons why she's not ready. A man will give you five reasons why he should've had that job yesterday.”
“In the beginning, we were excluded from ski areas and we were excluded from their trade shows, so we always saw ourselves as a very inclusive community.”
“Jake and I woke up one day in 2002 looked around a room of leaders, and realized that, out of 25 global leaders, there were only two women.”
“This was not going to bode well for our company — not just that it didn't match our values, but that we were never going to be innovative, or be able to pull from the best talent, or reach the women's market unless we had women in the room.”
“It was an incredibly empowering experience, and everybody came back even more determined than ever to work on gender diversity here.”
“We created the Women's Leadership Initiative, which was a comprehensive effort and is still ongoing.”
“This was not going to bode well for our company — not just that it didn't match our values, which it didn't, but that we were never going to be innovative, or be able to pull from the best talent, or reach the women's market unless we had women in the room.”
“On our 'date' weekends, we'd put on hazmat suits and dip the wood-core boards Jake had made that week into polyurethane. Nasty stuff. We've come a long way since then.”
“You will not believe this, but my cancer has come back.”
“People take it for granted now. They don't even realize that the name Burton isn't a company. It's a person. Obviously, it's the biggest brand in snowboarding. The man himself is even bigger.”
“What you learn from watching other companies' mistakes is that you can't be too humble. Your biggest threat is your ego. I'm reminded of that all the time. Fortunately, not in a catastrophic way.”
“I learned long ago that if I don't take care of myself, I'm useless to others. Jake has been seriously ill twice in the last five years so I've had to take on double duty.”
“We welcome women into our sport through the images and language we use. It's all about empowering women regardless of age or ability. Anyone can be a Burton girl; it's just an attitude.”
“Vermont's more than a place; it's a spirit of community. That's a value all Vermonters share. By staying here, we bring a little Vermont to the rest of the world.”
“I saw a sport there from a very young age. Then it was sort of a fad that came and went, but it never left for me.”
