Jelena McWilliams, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, addressed a crowd of 600, including 60 young women leaders, at the fifth annual Olympia Snowe Women’s Leadership Institute luncheon Dec. 10 at Portland’s Holiday Inn by the Bay.
“It is the hustle of being hungry, the strength of believing in yourself and the gift for thinking that nothing is impossible that can get you from a penniless immigrant to chairman of the FDIC,” said McWilliams, who emigrated from the former Yugoslavia at age 18. “If you can meet someone like Olympia Snowe, who is willing to invest her time, energy and brand in you, you are blessed.”
McWilliams began serving on the U.S. Senate Small Business Subcommittee in 2010, while Snowe was its ranking member. Snowe retired from the Senate in 2013, then established the institute that has since mentored hundreds of young women, called Olympia’s Leaders, from high schools statewide.