'No' Is Not An Option

Meg Columbia-Walsh ’85 is many things to many people. She is a Rider graduate, mom, coach, mentor, successful executive, entrepreneur and board member and has been a professor of entrepreneurism at Steven's Institute of Technology, FIT and Rutgers University. She is a lecturer on women in business and digital enterprise who has traveled across the globe. Columbia-Walsh has founded four companies and sold her most recent, Inverse Mobile, to Ernst & Young. She is a trusted advisor to the Fortune 100 in healthcare in all things digital and an entrepreneur on the digital frontier. 

She mentors young women, serves on numerous boards and has at least one or two books that need to be written about her coming-of-age professionally at the same time as the Internet was just gaining speed. Columbia-Walsh is a member of the Rider Hall of Fame for volleyball and basketball and continues that legacy as a basketball coach to a middle school team that includes her 12-year-old son, Brennan. 

At the same time, she does not want to be labeled as any one of those things.

"If I had let all the labels define me, I would not have been successful or secure," she explains. She has been both. "My philosophy is that one should maximize her strengths. For me, grit, perseverance and passion are probably the biggest assets I have. Truly, I wish we were measured based solely on talent and achievement, and not by gender, race, or sexual orientation as none of those matter to getting the job done. When I manage employees, I evaluate and promote them solely on hard work, organization and performance. Nothing else about them personally, or how they may be labeled, should influence that."  

Just recently, Columbia-Walsh was named one of the top 40 healthcare transformers worldwide and profiled in Forbes' “Self-Made Women” series featuring women who didn't come from a world of power or wealth but still found their path to success. 

Her upward career trajectory is a clear illustration that her core philosophy works. Though she came of age professionally in a very conservative (and male-centric) marketplace, she had learned growing up that fortitude is an asset. Starting as an associate, she quickly ascended to a corporate executive. She then started and ran four successful companies, including the first online advertising agency and web development firm in health care. A pioneer in the digital healthcare industry, she is also the founder and CEO of CBSHealthwatch, which she took public and became the base for the consumer portal of WebMD after the sale.

At the same time, Columbia-Walsh channels much of her energy into nonprofit groups she supports (see above under "passion”). At Rider, she is a founding member of the Rider Women's leadership Council. As a student, she was asked by then-president Frank N. Elliot to serve first on the President's Council as a student and then later on the Board of Trustees, where she became the youngest woman to serve on the board and served for nine years. As a key member of the RWCL, she offers mentoring and career advice for women in the Rider community, both students and alumni.

She has plenty of sound advice for those who are interested in succeeding as she has. "First, I never let being a woman define me or my abilities," she says. "In the beginning of my career, I faced really challenging situations early and I learned quickly; both through by my successes and my failures. I am not perfect, but I am very authentic. Students should know that they can do anything. They just have to define their goals, be laser focused and not stop striving to achieve them. Don't stop until you get what you want. Every single day, you can get up and make it happen. It takes effort, it takes organization and it takes determination (see: grit). But you either do it or you don't."

At Rider, Columbia-Walsh succeeded both academically and socially (you can find her name on the Basketball Hall of Fame wall in the Student Recreation Center). "I credit Rider with a lot of my success. It was the perfect place for me," she says. "I stay connected to Rider because of my positive experiences, being mentored by Coach Berenato (Rider's head women's basketball coach from 1982 to 1985), and other fantastic faculty like Virginia Cyrus, Howard Schultz, Myra Gutin, Pam Brown, Father Nolan and others. Now, I try to pay it forward by being a mentor. It's critical for women to support each other.  That is why the Rider Women’s Executive Council is so important.  Mentoring requires action, not just nice conversation.  Networking, connections, promoting mentees — it is all critical to supporting each other."

To get inspired, follow Meg Columbia-Walsh on LinkedIn and Twitter @mcolumbiawalsh. She is the proud mom of 12-year-old twins, Brennan and Patricia, and lives in Nutley, N.J.  

To learn more about how to become involved with the Rider Women's Leadership Council, contact Pam Mingle at [email protected].