Diane Paddison, 4word Founder and President, is a Harvard MBA graduate, former global executive of two Fortune 500 companies and one Fortune 1000 company, and serves as an independent director for two corporations and four not-for-profits. But her life’s passion is mentoring professional women. The leading advocate for the professional Christian women community, Paddison published Work, Love, Pray in 2011 while laying the foundation for 4word. The book cast a vision for women of faith who represent a growing share of the fulltime workforce, yet are underserved in resources compared to the men around them. Featuring 15 women leaders who found personal and business success while keeping faith at their core, Work, Love, Pray affirms and challenges women who feel uniquely called to the workplace. Diane’s heart for encouraging professional women took root in her early in her commercial real estate career, an industry where few women held mid-level roles, and were virtually absent in senior leadership. Crossing lines of tradition, Diane approached the top company executive – a man – to express her professional goals and ask for mentoring. He agreed, and since then, Diane has been purposeful in supporting women around her with the lessons she learned. Mentorship is a lifestyle: even when traveling to a regional office on business, she often reserves a lunch hour to gather women company-wide to foster relationships. She led the development of the CREW (Commercial Real Estate Women) “Bridging the C-Suite Gap” mentoring program, credited with the advancement of many participants to senior executive ranks since it launched. Diane Paddison speaks on life/work balance, mentoring/sponsorship, and impactful leadership at events across the country. She authors weekly posts at 4wordwomen.org, and is a featured columnist for Today’s Christian Women – a Christianity Today digital magazine. Diane serves on the board for the Harvard Business School Christian Fellowship Alumni Association. Diane and her husband, Chris, have four children and live in Dallas, Texas.