Women's Leadership Symposium

Paula Bennett is a highly experienced CEO from the retail industry, with proven success at creating brand value and driving profitable growth across omnichannel platforms. She has an excellent record at building portfolio companies for public, private and private equity investors, and led the successful IPO of J. Jill (NYSE:JILL) in March 2017. Paula served on the Board of At Home (NYSE:HOME) and its Nominating & Governance Committee through transition to a private company in July 2021. 

As CEO of J.Jill from 2008 to 2018, Paula transformed the business and culture to create an industry-leading omnichannel brand. She has held senior leadership positions at Eileen Fisher, Tiffany & Co., Calvin Klein, and Bloomingdale’s, where she developed and leveraged her extensive experience in women’s apparel, jewelry and decorative home categories across sales, marketing, CRM, merchandising, product development and omni-channel business and team development. 

Paula is an active supporter of the advancement of women in business. She serves on the Board of Women’s Forum of New York. She is a member of C200, an invitation-only organization comprised of female entrepreneurs and corporate innovators. Paula is a Managing Director at Golden Seeds Capital and a member of Paradigm for Parity. A proud graduate of The Ohio State University, Paula is an active member of the Dean’s Advisory Council of Fisher College of Business at OSU, a member of the Fisher Leadership Initiative, and founder of the Women in Leadership Fund to advance mentorship of female students at Fisher.

Before embarking on her new adventure at Sana Foods by The Real Coconut Products Co. LLC, Camille was most recently the vice president of marketing at General Mills and business unit director for Cheerios, Wheaties, Nature Valley and Cascadian Farms. She was responsible for the growth and profitability of the $2.5B business unit, including vision and strategy development and marketing and new product innovation. During her career she led several businesses including Pillsbury, Green Giant, Yoplait, Nature Valley and Cheerios.

One of 10 children, Camille was born in London, England, and has lived in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Columbus, Ohio. She earned her bachelor's degree and an MBA from The Ohio State University and was the first woman selected to receive Fisher's Distinguished Leadership Alumni Award. In 2014, she was named one of the "100 Most Creative People in Business" by Fast Company, received Adweek's Brand Genius Award, and was recognized by Brand Innovators as one of the "Women to Watch."

Currently, Camille lives in Seattle and has two adult children.

Joyce began her 36-year professional career in the Columbus office of Price Waterhouse and was admitted to the partnership of PwC in 1998 as a lead client service tax partner. During her PwC career, Joyce was selected for a tour of duty in the Washington National Tax Services office and held various client service and internal management leadership roles while working in the Detroit, Atlanta and Dallas offices.

After retiring in 2020, Joyce joined the Founders Group of the Fisher Leadership Initiative and became a liaison for United to Learn, a Dallas-based education nonprofit with a stated mission of changing lives by transforming the relationship between schools and community. She and her dog, Bella, are a registered therapy team and love to visit students and teachers at J.P. Starks Elementary School in Dallas.

Joyce earned her bachelor's degree in business administration from The Ohio State University in 1984. Joyce received the Excellence in Service Alumni Award in 2022.