The Career Roadmap

How did local leaders get to where they are now? What risks did they take, and how did they overcome adversity?  Successful professionals will join us to explore their career roadmaps. Listen as they retrace the steps that led them to their current roles, and find out how the decisions they made resulted in success.

Hear from:

• Paxton Badham, president, Etix
• Penn Holderness, Walk West
• Ashton Mae Smith,community and employee engagement manager, Citrix

Take a Stand Against Hunger
YPN is taking a stand against hunger during Hunger Action Month in September by helping the Interfaith Food Shuttle's BackPack Buddies. At this event,the Community Involvement Task Force will be collecting canned goods for BackPack Buddies, which provides children from low-income households with 10 to 12 pounds of nutritious kid-friendly groceries for the weekend when free school lunches and breakfasts are not available. So challenge your co-workers and friends, grab cans from your pantry, and help YPN as we work to end hunger in our community.

About the Speakers

Paxton Badham
Paxton Badham joined Etix in 2015 as president. Prior to Etix, Badham was a co-founder and managing director of a middle-market private equity investment firm and worked in The Carlyle Group's U.S. Buyout Fund on large-cap leveraged buyouts. In addition, he has held roles at Carolina Tractor & Equipment Company and McColl Partners. Badham is a graduate of Duke University and Harvard Business School.

Penn Holderness
Penn Holderness is an 18-year veteran of the TV business. Since college (UVA) he’s been a sports director in Colorado and Orlando, a TV host for Designer Finals, an ESPN reporter, and most recently a news anchor in Raleigh. And after those 18 years, he quit! He now runs a video production/digital marketing company Walk West, formerly Greenroom Communications.

Ashton Mae Smith 
Ashton Mae Smith is the community and employee engagement manager for the Citrix Raleigh office. She handles community relationships and partnerships in the Raleigh (and larger Triangle) community, with a focus on expanding and deepening employee engagement and enhancing Citrix’s reputation as a good corporate citizen. Outside of work, she stays active in the community by serving with a number of local organizations including the Dix Park Master Plan Advisory Committee, the Wake County Commission for Women, the Chamber’s Board of Directors, the Friends the City of Raleigh Museum, and DHIC (an affordable housing nonprofit).
 
A graduate of Leadership Raleigh and a planning-meeting junkie, she’s also a member of the Urban Land Institute’s Triangle chapter, once ran for Raleigh City Council, and writes a weekly, Raleigh-centric newsletter called Raleigh, Over-easy. Raised in Raleigh and a graduate of NC State’s College of Design, she spent some years selling residential real estate locally and then teaching English on an Italian island before settling back in Raleigh. You can find her on the internet @ashtonmae.

RSVP by Sept. 21

Questions?
Call 919.664.7063 or email Katie Craig

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