During her eight years as CEO of Minneapolis-based CURiO Brands, which manages several lines of beauty, wellness, and home-fragrance products, Anne Sempowski Ward has led a successful founder exit and private equity investor transition as well as a strategic acquisition that more than doubled the company’s valuation. She also is leading CURiO’s diversity initiatives; the company’s workforce is now 73 percent female and 44 percent BIPOC.

Outside of her work at CURiO, Ward leads the Minnesota Women Corporate Directors Women of Color Initiative, which seeks to increase the number of BIPOC women on corporate boards.