{"id":75473,"date":"2019-03-05T14:18:19","date_gmt":"2019-03-05T20:18:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/?p=75473"},"modified":"2019-03-05T14:43:00","modified_gmt":"2019-03-05T20:43:00","slug":"wp-engine-ceo-heather-brunner-named-divinc-executive-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/case-studies\/wp-engine-ceo-heather-brunner-named-divinc-executive-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"WP Engine CEO Heather Brunner Named DivInc Executive of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">WP Engine CEO Heather Brunner has been named <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/divincatx\/videos\/562887770874869\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Executive of the Year<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/divinc.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DivInc<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the first tech pre-accelerator in Texas focused on championing diversity within the startup ecosystem. Their mission is to empower people of color and women entrepreneurs and help them overcome barriers to building successful high growth businesses by providing them with access to education, mentorship, and networks. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At its inaugural <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/divinc.org\/awards\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Champions of Change Awards<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which was held at Austin City Hall last Friday night, DivInc recognized finalists in five categories, including Executive of the Year, Diversity and Inclusion Leader of the Year, Program of the Year, Investor of the Year, and Champion of the Year, which was awarded to City of Austin Mayor Steve Adler. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Winners for each category were selected by a committee made up of distinguished community leaders and influencers who submitted their suggestions for nominees in each category. Once those submissions are recorded, the committee voted on finalists for each. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Finalists who joined Heather in the Executive of the Year category included: <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Raul Alvarez, Executive Director at Community Advancement Network <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Marcus Carey, Founder &amp; CEO at Threatcare<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Brian Reaves, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at Dell, Inc. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Leslie Wingo, President &amp; CEO at Sanders\\Wingo<br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure id=\"attachment_75482\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-75482\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-75482 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/DivInc-Awards-2019-1-1024x626.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"626\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/case-studies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/DivInc-Awards-2019-1-1024x626.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/wpengine.com\/case-studies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/DivInc-Awards-2019-1-300x183.jpg 300w, https:\/\/wpengine.com\/case-studies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/DivInc-Awards-2019-1-768x470.jpg 768w, https:\/\/wpengine.com\/case-studies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/DivInc-Awards-2019-1-235x144.jpg 235w, https:\/\/wpengine.com\/case-studies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/DivInc-Awards-2019-1-817x500.jpg 817w, https:\/\/wpengine.com\/case-studies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/DivInc-Awards-2019-1-1500x917.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-75482\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">WP Engine Employees Jeremy Bagley, Katie Childress, and Jessica Illarramendi join WP Engine CEO Heather Brunner and City of Austin Mayor Steve Adler at DivInc&#8217;s inaugural Champions of Change Awards at Austin City Hall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Finalists in every category were chosen for their efforts to make Austin a more diverse and inclusive community. The selection committee included: Lisa Graham, Mindy Gulati, Muna Hussaini, Cameron LaHaise, Christine McCarey, Ikechi Nwabuisi, Brion Oaks, Colette Pierce-Burnette, James Russell, Zoe Schlag, Eugene Sepulveda, Madge Vasquez,\u00a0and Johnathan Wojtewicz <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DivInc\u2019s Executive of the Year award comes on the heels of Heather\u2019s recognition <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/blog\/wp-engine-ceo-heather-brunner-receives-great-place-to-work-for-all-leadership-award\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">last week<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.greatplacetowork.com\/for-all-awards\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2019 Great Place to Work For All Leadership Award<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> honoree. That award also focused on Heather\u2019s efforts to build a more inclusive workplace and work culture, and her success leading WP Engine to more fully maximize the human potential within its workforce. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Heather\u2019s leadership at WP Engine has been instrumental in helping the company build an enduring, predictable business, particularly after a key investment from Silver Lake last January, as well as the recent acquisition of StudioPress. Heather also heads a diverse leadership team and has overseen WP Engine\u2019s growth as the company surpassed $132 million in revenue and 90,000 customers in over 150 countries at the beginning of 2019.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WP Engine CEO Heather Brunner has been named Executive of the Year by DivInc, the first tech pre-accelerator in Texas focused on championing diversity within the startup ecosystem. Their mission is to empower people of color and women entrepreneurs and help them overcome barriers to building successful high growth businesses by providing them with access<span class=\"tile__ellipses\">&hellip;<\/span><span class=\"tile__ellipses--animated\"><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":200,"featured_media":75489,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-company","category-culture"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>WP Engine CEO Heather Brunner Named DivInc Executive of the Year<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"WP Engine CEO Heather Brunner has been named Executive of the Year by DivInc, a tech 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