Her Story
About Shannon
I'm the National Accounts Manager for Ferguson Integrated, where I oversee operations at four locations - Thousand Oaks, Kentucky, Ohio, and North Carolina. We have a contract with Amgen, a pharmaceutical company, and I manage the entire process of purchasing and supplying spare parts for the machines they use to make drugs. I work directly with the supply chain and oversee our buyers, receiving team, and financial team. I actually came from a huge background in retail management and operations management, but I decided I didn't want to work weekends anymore and needed to get out of retail. I got hired here more for my management skills, and when we were short-staffed, I jumped in and started doing buying alongside my buyers and learned that whole realm. What I really love is the operations management side - running reporting, analyzing data, doing presentations, explaining the data and the budget. That's the part I loved when I got my MBA, and I feel like this is what I'm passionate about - performance and explaining results, not so much the sales stuff that was more on the retail side.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Shannon
01What do you attribute your success to?
I think it comes from when I was younger. My parents were a very middle-class family - they had the house and the minivan, and we went on one vacation a year, and it was very steady. But there were things that my parents couldn't do, things that they've always wanted to do. My mom wanted to go back to school, and they couldn't afford it. I saw all these things, and I said, I want to be able to do whatever I want to do, whenever I want to do it. So I saved up from a very young age and bought my first rental property at 30. That has allowed a lot of passive income for me to be able to go to school, to have a little bit of extra money. I just really want to be able to not just pay my bills, but be able to have extra to do things that I want to do. If I want to get on a plane and go on a two-week vacation, I can. That independence is important to me - not having to rely on someone. I watched my mom, and she relied on my dad a lot financially, and eventually their 34-year marriage didn't work out. I've always thought to myself, I need to have my own money. I cannot be relying on anyone. I always look at that, and I think, okay, that's motivation for me. Now I'm able to take my mom on trips, we go to the spa, and we go do things, and it's nice. I don't have to ask for permission or have someone else pay for it. That's my drive.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
If you set a goal, be true to yourself and complete that goal. I earned my MBA at [AGE], and I had no degree until I was [AGE]. I went back to school on my own. So if you're unhappy, you can do anything that you want to do, as long as you have a plan and you follow through with that plan.
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