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Carol Tomé, who spent 18 years as chief financial officer of The Home Depot, took over as CEO of UPS in March of 2020. Her initial thought was to spend the first three months traveling the world and getting to know the company. A week after she was named CEO, however, the world was dealing with the biggest global health crisis since the 1918 influenza epidemic.

In an NRF Retail Converge keynote conversation with Stephanie Mehta, editor-in-chief of Fast Company, Tomé discussed the highlights and lessons learned in her whirlwind first year and a half at the helm of the giant freight company, beginning with managing the pandemic.

“I thought it would all come to a crashing halt,” Tomé said, “but it didn’t. Instead, it took off as ecommerce exploded. In the second quarter of 2020, we had to hire 40,000 people just to handle the packages coming our way.”

Raising children is hard, and raising children as an LGBTQ parent presents unique challenges.

Brokerage project manager and 23-year UPSer Barbara Alayon and her wife, Michelle, have two sons, Marcel (17) and Dominic (20). As a family, they enjoy music, family trips, camping and cooking together. Currently, they’re making their way through a list of classic movies.

Barbara defines motherhood as “unconditional love with mutual respect,” and says it came easy to her because of the great example set by her own mother.

Connecting with people is what drives this driver

From coworkers to customers to cuddly canines, Jenny Rosado is friend to all.

“Many people think being a package car driver is a lonely job. But I’m a real people person, and going on the road and meeting people is one of the reasons I love this work,” Jenny said.

For her, being on the job is a chance to be part of a community, to interact with different people and see how they live and think. And she makes it her mission to generate smiles wherever she goes.

“It’s great. I come to work and I’m delivering to my friends. Some of them are like family. So we have a really good time out here.” Jenny said. “In fact, one of my customers just texted to let me know the LGBTQ flag is up at the local church.”

When Jen Pollreis lost her leg as the result of a motorcycle accident and subsequent surgeries, she was told she would never walk again. But this Super UPSer refused to take “never” for an answer. Jen’s determination, energy and positive attitude are an inspiration to her UPS coworkers as well as other amputees.