Mary Davis Holt is a consultant and principal of Mary Davis Holt Enterprises. She is also an engaged trustee of American Funds where she chairs the contracts committees for two board clusters. She is an executive coach and keynote speaker on business, women, and leadership. As an in-demand voice, Mary shares her hard-won insights and promotes new rules for success to a wide range of audiences. She also has worked with dozens of Fortune 500 corporations to successfully support their higher potential women through leadership development programs and coaching.
After her long corporate career and prior to starting her own company, she was a Partner at Flynn Heath Holt Leadership as entrepreneur and consultant in the women’s leadership development field. At Time Warner, with oversight Mary held executive positions that ranged from finance to information technology, marketing, human resources, manufacturing, and distribution. She held a number of leadership roles in the publishing group including Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Time Life, Inc.
Among her many career highlights, Mary led the management of worldwide manufacturing distribution for all of Time Inc.’s magazines (e.g., Time, Fortune, People, Sports Illustrated). She also served as president of Time Life Books and Time Life Kids. Her book, Break Your Own Rules: How to Change the Patterns of Thinking That Block Women’s Path to Power, which she co-authored with her FHHL business partners Jill Flynn and Kathryn Heath, landed on the best-seller lists of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and The Washington Post. Mary’s next book The Influence Effect, which she co-authored with her previous partners, was released in November of 2017.
Mary earned a B.A. from Salem College and an M.B.A. from New York University’s Graduate Business School. She has served on a number of non-profit boards. Mary is based in the Washington, DC area.
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