Pecola Blount
Pecola Blount is the definition of a modern “Renaissance Woman”, with experience in Controlling & Finance at both the Operations and Corporate level, her extensive career began as a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) major in Electronic Engineering & Technology, assuming her positions in Robotics, Automation, & Design across several industries including Transportation, Infrastructure, Automotive, Food Packaging, and Manufacturing. Accomplishments that ultimately landed her a role with one of the leading, Industrial Automation, Fortune 500 companies in the world, amidst one of the largest, US Government mandated projects in recent history. Where her contributions attributed to recognitions such as “Supplier of the Year” award, several years in a row. Here she took advantage of many opportunities, utilizing her skills as a proven technical leader and influencer to branch into management of day-to-day operations. All while continuing her higher education pursuits earning a double MBA & MS in Project Management, which combined with her natural leadership abilities, allowed her to excel exceedingly well as a management professional. Her proven and dedicated performance across this 16+ year span, didn’t go unnoticed yet again, rewarding her further, with positions in Financial Analysis and Corporate Accounting.
She’s always envisioned climbing the corporate ladder, but never imagined that would lead to CEO of her very own enterprise. Throughout her career and life as a mother, she’s led with empathy, compassion, authority, and democracy, on the foundation of moral and ethical excellence, with the greatest intent to help others discover their own individual strengths and value. She believes this was a critical element in finding the courage to becoming the best version of oneself, life’s ultimate goal. Pecola, takes pride in being an empowering leader with a near flawless execution of producing distinguished results and exercising her strengths in emotional intelligence, to break barriers and eliminate unconscious bias’. She has often been compared to the Napoleon expression, in that her impact and influence comes like an “Iron fist in a velvet glove”
It is my experiences that I’ve endured and conquered within my personal life, that have helped me not only become successful within my career, but also overcome the challenges of being a woman and minority in male dominated roles. Thus, it is a combination of both my personal and professional experiences that I can bring such a dynamic product to the world. Throughout the years I have always had a passion and desire for learning, mentoring, and genuinely helping others, traits I admired of my mother. I’ve always lived by the philosophy that everyone crosses paths for a reason and therefore, there is something that I can learn from each and every person I’m blessed to meet. Whether it is learning what to do or what not to do, every encounter has a purpose. Hence, the importance of refraining from being judgmental of others, as we all have seasons of triumph and tragedy. Prematurely judging others in their stormy season can have life altering impacts within our own lives. We must always treat everyone with fairness & kindness, not just when the crowd is watching. This is CHARACTER! I’m on a constant quest for knowledge and spreading wisdom. Bearing witness to the struggles and sacrifices of my mother, as well as knowing the journey traveled by those before me, inspired me at a young age to make sure that I not only take advantage of the freedoms my ancestors prepared for me, but to take that knowledge and pay it forward. I was once a child and I have now become my ancestor’s future. As it has been revealed within my purpose and presented within The Rites of Passage, it is now my turn to serve MY future.
Daniela Mendes-Soares
Daniela raises the standards and sets the bar for role models for generations to come, as she is a true example of what hard work and determination can accomplish. She is very dynamic, self-motivated and driven to produce results no matter the challenge presented. Passionate about learning and growing professionally, she has always gone above and beyond expectations, as her persistence and dedication has proven to be rewarding time over time. Her contributions to the Global Financial industry are nothing short of exemplary. Growing up in the beautiful country of Brazil, she learned at an early age, the rewards of exercising discipline, responsibility, and accountability. Daniela defines herself as a restless individual when it comes to setting and achieving goals in both her personal and professional life. She approaches unexpected challenges and bouts of opposition as opportunities to navigate and learn new things.
Upon completing her collegiate studies, Daniela started her career as a Project Manager with one of the leading Fortune 500 Global Medical suppliers in the world. Here, she was responsible for the entire life cycle and installation process of life saving medical devices. In this position, she was able to improve her intrapersonal skills in time-management, organizational planning, multitasking and group collaboration. Skills that will prove to be rewarding, in her once in a lifetime opportunity to pursue, yet another passion and relocate to the U.S.
In pursuit of these new challenges and familiar dreams, Daniela switched her career path to focus on Operations Controlling and Finance, a long-awaited passion. Accepting a position as Project Controller Analyst, she further sharpened her knowledge and skills in the application of daily analytical reasoning and problem solving. In this role she excelled in the execution in process improvement, financial forecasting and project profitability to name a few. Her precision and meticulousness have contributed to many successes throughout her challenging experiences within controlling and operations during this 13+ year career span.
Daniela enjoys collaborating with others while sharing her knowledge, passion, and skills, “putting them to good use,” as she would say, in efforts to ensure organizations and projects are set to achieve their financial objectives. Emphasizing the importance of building interpersonal relationships, she believes that knowledge exchange is a great way for growth. Passionate for numbers, data analysis, controls, strategy, economic indicators and logical reasoning, Daniela is always available to help and collaborate with others, to reach a common goal of maximum profitability and growth. My experience working with Daniela has been nothing short of AMAZING. Mai Tai’s, LLC is honored to welcome Daniela as Chief Financial Officer.