Q. What’s the best advice you were ever given?
A. My grandmother Edna [husband] David and I were with her when she bowed her head and died at age 96) gave me the best advice ever: Use your gifts.
Q. Who had the greatest influence on your career?
A. Both my parents. Daddy was larger than life and influenced me greatly. So did Mama. Besides kindness and caring, she instilled in me a sense of practicality, getting it done, doing what you say.
Q. Was there a mistake that became a learning experience?
A. When I was working on the supply side of Hardee’s Food Systems, I made a million-dollar mistake. Purdy Crawford, the CEO of Imasco [the Canadian company that owned HFS at the time], asked me, “Did you learn anything? I said, Oh, yeah.” I’m much better now at putting things into perspective. They may not matter five years from now.
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