Elizabeth W. Gordon , founder and President of Flourishing Business®

Elizabeth Gordon is the business advisor for entrepreneurs seeking to elevate their success. A sought after trusted confidante among business leaders, Elizabeth built Flourishing Business to provide the best business advice for entrepreneurs to reach their goals faster and easier. Through the strategic use of marketing, branding, competitive analysis and positioning, mergers and acquisitions, she is known for encouraging clients to be visionary leaders in their field, set themselves and their companies apart from the crowd with awareness and authenticity and to reach new heights of personal and business achievement.

Elizabeth is the author of the 52-week Amazon.com women in business bestseller The Chic Entrepreneur: Put Your Business in Higher Heels, a business strategy book that introduces Elizabeth’s unique nine-dimension methodology for creating a successful business and teaches how female entrepreneurs can supercharge their business growth using their strategic savvy, sass and style. Internationally acclaimed sales and business guru Brian Tracy called Elizabeth’s book, “a proven formula for thinking and acting to build a fast-growing, profitable business in any market.” For more information, visit www.chicentrepreneur.com.

Elizabeth is a 2008 recipient of The Atlanta Business Chronicle’s 40 Under 40 Up & Comer Award for Atlanta’s best and brightest professionals under the age of 40 for her business achievements, civic involvement and impact. Boards of directors she has served on include NAWBO, AAUW, Panta Rei. She was the founding president of the GSU Marketing Alumni Society and a charter member of Zonta Buckhead. She has mentored students through Family Refugee Services and 21st Century Leaders.

Elizabeth has keynoted conferences and events around the country and teaches entrepreneurs how to bridge the gap between being self-employed and owning a business of inherent value and teaches businesswomen to succeed as women and achieve greater leadership roles. Some of her trademark phrases include: Heel to Heel We Rise, Succeed with Style, and Lift Up Women, Lift Up the World.

Elizabeth has been a keynote speaker for the mayoral declaration of Female Entrepreneurship Day for Evansville, Indiana, the Advancing Hoosier Woman seminar in Jasper, Indiana, the Mind Your Own Business Conference in Charlotte, NC, and at Canyon Ranch in Arizona. Additional speaking venues have included PRO-Win, eWomenNetwork, the Atlanta Management Society, Duke Energy, American Business Women’s Association, Women in Nuclear, Georgian Club, 191 Club, Buckhead Club, Panta Rei. Elizabeth has also spoken to Agnes Scott College, Georgia State University, the University of Georgia, Clayton State University and the University of Alabama.

Prior to Flourishing Business, Elizabeth enjoyed a diverse 10-year career in the corporate world. A Senior Associate position at The Hackett Group boutique consulting firm gave her direct experience working with Fortune 500 and government client senior leadership on major initiatives for improving their efficiency and effectiveness in back office processes relative to competitors using benchmarking and best practices research.

Prior to that she held a progressive variety of positions at Arrow Electronics, the semiconductor distribution giant, playing a key role in the development, market education and awareness and sale of their intellectual property using a sophisticated web-based solution that allowed companies to better manage their supply chain, revolutionizing the way engineering and purchasing departments search for and choose electronic components. Her contributions spearheaded a significant change in the industry's value proposition as well as improved time-to-market and reduced obsolescence issues for thousands of customers around the country. She held the hands of hundred of clients from mom and pop machine shops to the US Army, illuminating the internet's capabilities for rapid adoption across engineering, purchasing and senior management.

Before Arrow, Elizabeth held management roles at McMaster-Carr Supply Company a 100-year old niche leader in industrial distribution, initially managing in the warehouse, overseeing shipping, receiving, order filling and inventory management, and later in the Sales Call Center, Marketing and Finance departments.

Elizabeth has consulted for companies like Krispy Kreme, Bank of America, 24 Hour Fitness, the Province of British Columbia, Ameriquest Mortgage, Wachovia and hundreds of mid-size businesses in industries ranging from high tech to machine shop. Her other employment credits include Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) in Charlotte, NC, Smith Barney outside of Philadelphia, The Northern Trust Company in Chicago, and consulting stints for the State of New Jersey and for a Pennsylvania State House Representative.

Elizabeth is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Wake Forest University, where she earned a BS in Business with a concentration in Finance and a minor in Economics. She received her master's degree in Marketing from Georgia State University.