29 Dec From Corner Office to CEO of Everything
Women who traded corporate C-suites for self-built empires
By Nia Brown
Women are redefining power, moving from wielding influence within institutional systems to creating entirely new ones. These C-suite women are leaving their prominent corporate roles to create businesses that align with their values and vision. Rather than climbing someone else’s ladder, they are building their own structures.
Part of this push is driven by post-pandemic desires to have more flexible workloads and to call the shots as one’s own boss. The numbers tell the story. Women’s entrepreneurship has grown rapidly. In 2024, women started 49 percent of all new businesses, the highest rate in five years, according to Gusto Insights and the 2025 Impact of Women-Owned Businesses Report commissioned by Wells Fargo.
The report also revealed that female entrepreneurs were slightly more likely than their male counterparts to start a business because they wanted to be their own boss, with 30 percent saying they wanted to work on their own schedule.
What’s more, Asian, Black, and Latinx entrepreneurship has made durable gains since 2019. Gusto Insights reports that businesses started by Asian, Black, and Latinx entrepreneurs are up 17 percent, 67 percent, and 25 percent, respectively.
Celeste R. Warren is among the latest cadre of corporate executive women to transition to entrepreneurship. With a remarkable career as a C-suite executive at one of the world’s top Fortune 500 companies, she established herself as a transformative force at Merck.
Warren had an impressive 28-year tenure at the pharmaceutical firm, where she rose to the position of vice president and chief diversity and inclusion officer. During her decade-long leadership of the Global Diversity and Inclusion Center of Excellence, Warren implemented groundbreaking initiatives that fostered a culture of inclusivity and equity.
As her time at Merck was winding down, and she started sizing up her feelings about moving into this next journey as an entrepreneur, she “thought about the beautiful black panther. A black panther is a symbol of resilience, strength, and quiet confidence—thriving even in environments designed to keep it hidden,” Warren explained in a LinkedIn post.
For her, that is what true leadership looks like, especially in the wake of recent attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices. “It means standing strong in the face of resistance, moving with intention, and protecting the voices that too often go unheard,” Warren added. “Like the panther, inclusive leaders don’t just lead from the front—they lead from within. They create space, they challenge injustice, and they understand that real power comes from lifting others up.”
Today, the CEO of Celeste Warren Consulting LLC is walking a new path and being her own boss with courage and conviction, coupled with a desire to change not only people but also cultures. Warren notes that she had a lot of autonomy and trust at Merck. But she always intended to leave the company once she had accomplished all she had set out to do.
“I wanted to be able to go out on my own terms, chart my own path, and build my own table,” Warren says. “Not just get a seat at the table but get others to come and sit there with me so we can strategize and work to move forward together.”
After her retirement from Merck earlier this year, Warren founded her namesake consulting firm to provide services that empower companies, nonprofits, foundations, universities, and others to create fair and equitable opportunities for all, driving meaningful change and enhancing workplace culture. Instead of circumventing DEI strategic planning, she decided to lean into it.
In her book The Truth About Equity: What It Really Is, What It Isn’t, And Why Everyone Wins When We Get It Right, she emphasizes that “equity isn’t about giving some people an unfair advantage, but rather about providing tailored support to ensure everyone has the opportunity to succeed.” Warren maintains, “When equity is achieved, everyone benefits, fostering innovation, leadership, and lasting change.”
Before she departed Merck, Warren put a plan in place that included preparing her successor, preparing her team, and preparing the organization to move forward. She was part of an executive task force that put together a strategy to ensure Merck thrived from a social, economic, and political standpoint.
Like Warren, Nellie Borrero is charting new territory as an entrepreneur. Recognized for decades as one of the most powerful Latina women in Corporate America, Borrero had forged a long and successful career at Accenture, a professional services company with over 500,000 employees. She joined Accenture in 1986 as a recruiter and created the company’s first diversity and inclusion position in 1993.
Borrero rose to prominence, serving as the senior global inclusion and diversity managing director for 14 years, before leaving Accenture as the senior strategic adviser for global inclusion and diversity. She formed Nellie Borrero Inc., a consulting company, this year. Admittedly, “walking away from a mega brand and a career that brought me so many opportunities was very difficult,” Borrero says. “The fear I had was stepping away from an amazing organization that I felt such pride in representing around the world for so long. The question became for me, ‘Will I be able to represent my own brand at that same level of energy [and] with the same level of impact?’ How do I reposition my brand as a solopreneur?”
Those nagging questions kept Borrero up at night until one morning, brimming with affirmative self-talk, she told herself, “OK, just get over it.” She adds, “It’s almost like you have to go through this process of that internal narrative, where you’re feeding yourself all of these negative thoughts and concerns. You have to turn that narrative around and think about the positive, [which is] your skill set and your experience. In that moment, I really did shed that fear mentality and got to work with what I wanted this next phase to be.”
It was at this point that Borrero said she understood not only “what” she wanted to do but also the “why” behind it. She was determined to do what was necessary to amplify her voice at a time when a lot of the programs and strategies she poured her energy into were being pulled away, particularly in the United States.
Borrero is also the author of the book Unwavering: Rejecting Bias, Igniting Change, Celebrating Inclusion, in which she details her 38-year effort to build DEI practices. Her book focuses on ways to make diversity and inclusion an integral part of a company’s competitive advantage through bravery, strength, and vision.
Being your own boss often aligns with core values tied to autonomy and purpose. “The two words that I’m hanging onto right now are strategic and intentional,” Borrero says. This means, “having those C-level conversations, holding leadership workshops, and doing one-on-one executive coaching with the people I select to do so. Any project that I decide to take on will be because it is meeting the goal to amplify my voice and to make a difference. If something doesn’t feel authentic, then I will have to respectfully step away.” EW
Nia Brown is a frequent contributor to EW.