Armed with business and law degrees from Harvard, Sheila Lirio Marcelo had her hands full pursuing her career while raising two sons with her husband and taking care of her aging parents. In search of a solution, she first turned to the Yellow Pages, with little success. So in 2006, she founded Care.com, in part to support other mothers going after their professional ambitions. “The biggest factor for GDP growth globally has been women helping in the workplace,” Marcelo notes. “Yet the challenges for us in that economic imperative is that there’s a lack of care infrastructure; there’s a lack of developing the pipeline for women. There’s a bunch of different drivers.”
Now Care.com is the world’s largest resource for tracking down family caregivers—and the first public company to receive an investment from Google. It’s readying a rollout of new features for the app and website, but Marcelo’s got her hands full with plenty more, serving on the Boston Children’s Hospital board, working with public policy nonprofit Massachusetts Competitive Partnership on “women-omics” and mentoring fellow female entrepreneurs at another one of her ventures, WomenUp. And she’s not stopping there. “I’m realizing that speaking at more male-dominated conferences and venues is something that’s actually really important in the movement to improve female equality in the workplace,” Marcelo says. “And part of the reason for that is because there are so few women in the corner offices and on boards. We have to rely on men to make a difference here.”
“My parents, because they kind of role-modeled true gender parity. My mom was the main entrepreneur, doing the finance and the business. My dad was more nurturing— but they always worked together, so they didn’t fall into the stereotypes. And then George Bell. He was amazing as my boss at Upromise; he’s always been an incredible sponsor. I’ve always been fortunate in my career [to connect with] men who believed in me and helped guide me—Nick Beim, David Skok, Dado Banatao. And of course I also had a few women, like Joanie Nevins, who was a former CFO. But there were few, and that’s what I’m talking about. If we want to develop female leaders, we need to have more men, and time, to guide and sponsor women to grow.”
The Leader Board
Who inspires Boston’s movers and shakers? Ten local talents making a mark in their fields tell us who influenced them along the way.
By Sarah Hagman Aug. 4, 2017
Sheila Marcelo
Armed with business and law degrees from Harvard, Sheila Lirio Marcelo had her hands full pursuing her career while raising two sons with her husband and taking care of her aging parents. In search of a solution, she first turned to the Yellow Pages, with little success. So in 2006, she founded Care.com, in part to support other mothers going after their professional ambitions. “The biggest factor for GDP growth globally has been women helping in the workplace,” Marcelo notes. “Yet the challenges for us in that economic imperative is that there’s a lack of care infrastructure; there’s a lack of developing the pipeline for women. There’s a bunch of different drivers.”
Now Care.com is the world’s largest resource for tracking down family caregivers—and the first public company to receive an investment from Google. It’s readying a rollout of new features for the app and website, but Marcelo’s got her hands full with plenty more, serving on the Boston Children’s Hospital board, working with public policy nonprofit Massachusetts Competitive Partnership on “women-omics” and mentoring fellow female entrepreneurs at another one of her ventures, WomenUp. And she’s not stopping there. “I’m realizing that speaking at more male-dominated conferences and venues is something that’s actually really important in the movement to improve female equality in the workplace,” Marcelo says. “And part of the reason for that is because there are so few women in the corner offices and on boards. We have to rely on men to make a difference here.”
Who influenced you?
“My parents, because they kind of role-modeled true gender parity. My mom was the main entrepreneur, doing the finance and the business. My dad was more nurturing— but they always worked together, so they didn’t fall into the stereotypes. And then George Bell. He was amazing as my boss at Upromise; he’s always been an incredible sponsor. I’ve always been fortunate in my career [to connect with] men who believed in me and helped guide me—Nick Beim, David Skok, Dado Banatao. And of course I also had a few women, like Joanie Nevins, who was a former CFO. But there were few, and that’s what I’m talking about. If we want to develop female leaders, we need to have more men, and time, to guide and sponsor women to grow.”
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