Congratulations to Essilor's Woman of Leadership, Kathy Rismiller, President of Optical Lab Software Solutions, the leading software developer and technology partner for optical laboratories worldwide specializing in prescription eyewear manufacturing and business solutions for wholesale and retail labs. Kathy has a history of bringing change to Essilor. She helped form the Leadership Council, which fundamentally changed how the company approaches talent management. She is also President of Essilor Women's Network (EWN), whose mission is to inspire, develop, and empower women to contribute, at their highest level, to the overall success of the organization. "We have a lot of talented women, but most of the executives are men. I thought I could help with reconciling the gap as I'd had some success in this area at my previous company," she explains. "It's definitely one of my jobs I enjoy the most."
Kathy has a true philanthropic spirit and in keeping with that, serves on the employee advisory board of the Essilor Vision Foundation, which is committed to eliminating poor vision and its lifelong consequences, and to providing underprivileged people the opportunity to live a better life through better sight. Kathy is a tireless advocate for women. "Helping women build careers and confidence — those things are really important to me. I believe it's important to give back, and I do through my community service and internally within Essilor through the Essilor Women's Network." She has brought the confidence to pursue new ventures to all of her roles and considers herself a person who will "go out and do it," even if it hasn't been done before. Whether it's creating a new business unit, undertaking a first-of-its-kind business project or helping to launch a women's group, Kathy believes "if you have the influence, you can go out and do it."
