Salt Lake Chamber honors 2022 Athena, Pathfinder award winners

Seven women were honored recently at the 46th Annual Women & Business Conference and Athena awards luncheon in Salt Lake City. The event was hosted by the Salt Lake Chamber.

Vicki Varela, managing director of the Utah Office of Tourism in the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity, received the 2022 Athena Leadership Award. Varela leads Utah’s national and international strategy to create a prosperous and responsible visitor economy.

Varela’s experience includes serving as vice president of Kennecott Land, deputy chief of staff and spokesperson for Gov. Mike Leavitt and assistant commissioner of higher education, and leading statewide issue campaigns, including securing citizen support that laid the groundwork for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. She started her career as a journalist with the Associated Press and later the Deseret News.

“Vicki Varela has been a pillar of public service in Utah for decades and one of the chief champions of all our state has to offer,” Derek Miller, president and CEO of the Salt Lake Chamber, said in announcing the award.

“Her leadership spans from serving in former Gov. Leavitt’s office, higher education, and her most recent work with former Gov. Herbert and Gov. Cox in leading the Utah Office of Tourism. Vicki truly embodies the Utah brand of ‘Life Elevated’ and does her best to lift others and showcase what Utah has to offer.”

Six women received Pathfinder Awards at the conference. The awards are presented annually to community leaders who create new paths promoting the development and recognition of women in business. They are:

• Heather Doggett, chief operations officer, Loveland Living Planet Aquarium. Doggett has worked at four zoological organizations during over 30 years in the zoo and aquarium profession. Her experience includes leading staff training, guest engagement, community relations and conservation education departments at several conservation organizations across the country, including the National Aquarium, Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo, Riverbanks Zoo and Garden and the Santa Barbara Zoological Gardens.

• Marlise Fisher, Utah regional president, WaFd Bank, overseeing retail and commercial banking operations. Fisher has worked in the banking industry for over 30 years, including as a stockbroker, financial advisor and the registered principal for Mountain West and Heritage Savings Banks prior to joining Washington Federal as a branch manager at the main office in downtown Salt Lake City. She later became Utah Division manager and then regional president.

• Natalie Kaddas, president and CEO, Kaddas Enterprises. Kaddas leads a second-generation family business that specializes in manufacturing thermoform plastic products and custom solutions for the energy, transportation and aerospace industries.

• Kacie Malouf, co-founder, Malouf Cos., and board chair, Malouf Foundation. Malouf and her husband, Sam Malouf, founded a small business in 2003 that has grown to employ nearly 1,600 people and operates with 21,000 retail partners in 56 countries.

In 2016, the Maloufs established the Malouf Foundation to confront child sexual exploitation, specifically sex trafficking and online abuse. In 2020, she joined the executive team at Downeast, a company Malouf acquired. She works on the women’s apparel line and designs the Jewelry for a Cause collection that raises money for survivors of human trafficking and sexual exploitation. Malouf is also a majority partner at Tamarak Capital, where she actively supports entrepreneurs and mentors other female founders.

• Sui L. Lang Panoke, senior vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion, Zions Bank. Panoke is a leader, social entrepreneur and international trainer and facilitator. At Zions Bank, she is responsible for directing the bank’s strategic vision, developing a comprehensive DEI strategy, and delivering on a plan of action to promote diversity, equity and inclusion across the bank and the communities that it serves.

She also is the founder of Rethink International, a global social enterprise and international training organization, and also founded the Rethink Tank, a social think tank that brings together people with diverse points of view for the purpose of building bridges across social, cultural, racial and political differences. She also founded Women Politics Media, a global leadership and media training organization that trains women, people of color and emerging young leaders to use the media as a vehicle to impact public policy.

• Astrid Tuminez, president, Utah Valley University. Born in the Philippines, Tuminez served as an executive at Microsoft, where she led corporate, external, and legal affairs in Southeas Asia. She also served as vice dean of research at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. Tuminez has worked in philanthropy and venture capital in New York City and is a permanent member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

The conference also featured award-winning journalist and motivational speaker Vicki Hitzges’ opening keynote address focusing on how stress is one of the silent problems facing women, what causes it and how one can reduce and remove stress through fun-focused activities. Attendees also heard from speakers on a variety of topics that included lessons on mentorship and empowerment, mental health in the workplace and more.