A spotlight on individuals who are moving onward & upward

ADAM ROBINSON

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It didn't hit the three-star admiral until the e-mails started coming.

"It dawned on me after I started receiving a number of e-mails and other communications that this really was a big thing, and it was the breaking of another ceiling, a glass ceiling," says Vice Adm. Adam Robinson, the Navy's first Black surgeon general.

Robinson, 57, is in charge of every thing medical in the Navy. That means he has a hand in ensuring that members of the Navy go to the proper medical schools, that they know how to give emergency care anywhere--from veterans hospitals to war zones--and that the Navy is properly staffed with the tight medical technicians around the world.

He currently lives at the National Naval Medical Center campus in Bethesda, Md. He also is a board-certified colorectal surgeon and a second-generation doctor.

* Robinson's first J-O-B: "What young man in the '50s and '60 did not have a job delivering papers? My year-round job was delivering the Louisville Defender in Kentucky."

VICKI HAMILTON

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Blame it on the dissertations.

Vicki Hamilton's parents were both pursuing doctorates when she was 11, and she was responsible for helping to type the rough drafts. After spending many hours working on computers, she realized that the machines might be her best career ticket.

Now Hamilton is the senior vice president of enterprise performance for Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) in Atlanta, where she ensures that the media company's technology works efficiently.

She also is in charge of strategic planning and demand management.

"I have responsibilities across all of Turner and I'm responsible for demand management, strategic planning of technology investments, our project portfolio and investment portfolio," says Hamilton, 44, of Roswell, Ga. "It's really making the strategic decisions about what should be done first, second and third."

There aren't many women--let alone Black women--in positions such as this, Hamilton says. "I used to program, I used to do a system analysis and program in multiple languages. I chose management information systems because it had business as well as management of computers and allowed me to marry the two."

* Hamilton's first J-O-B: "The was a family down the street from me who had two kids. When I turned 12, I told my parents I was old enough to go to work and earn money to buy my own clothes. My job was to meet the kids after school and I baby-sat until their parents got home."

FLETCHER MAYES

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When you are the manager of a landmark Chicago hotel that has undergone $112 million in renovations and features 14-carat-gold paint on the walls, it's pretty hard to stifle excitement about its upcoming grand reopening.

Anyone visiting the hotel should look for Fletcher Mayes. He's the general manager of The Blackstone, a 23-floor boutique hotel in a primo downtown location. He'll be the one who everyone else defers to. He'll also be the one who, if you ask, can run down every nook and cranny of the hotel, including the $2,000 chaises in each lush guest room.

"They wanted me to be a part of this from inception," says Mayes, who comes to The Blackstone after 23 years of working for the Hyatt Corporation in Washington, D.C., Denver and Kansas City.

Managing such a grand location (where rooms likely will start around $300 a night) is a good step for someone in the hotel-management business, Mayes says.

"I worked my way up from the financial side [at Hyatt] and decided that there was more, and I wanted to be a manager," says Mayes, 49, who's been married 20 years and has two daughters. He's also a Howard University grad. "I'm probably where I'd like to be. This industry is not just about skill. It's about timing and people noticing your skills."

* Mayes' first J-O-B: He worked in a restaurant as a busboy. "I quit after five days and my mother said, 'See, that's why you're going to stay in school.'"

COPYRIGHT 2008 Johnson Publishing Co.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning