Desirée Rogers
Appearances
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Breaking Barriers: Women Leading on Boards with Desirée Rogers, Marisa Murillo, and Shannon Nash 4-14-25
Boards are looking for expertise in particular ways, and you want them to think about you if you're, in fact, interested in board service.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Breaking Barriers: Women Leading on Boards with Desirée Rogers, Marisa Murillo, and Shannon Nash 4-14-25
Sure. I mean, my first board position, I knew nothing. I didn't even know what it was to serve on a board. So someone asked me if I'd be willing to serve on a board. And it was in education, as I recall, and helping children that maybe had some challenges in regards to being able to even attend or know what schools to attend. And I did it because
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Breaking Barriers: Women Leading on Boards with Desirée Rogers, Marisa Murillo, and Shannon Nash 4-14-25
Sure. So my career has been spent both in corporate and also in doing service in businesses. in more political environments. I like to say I worked for a president and governor and a, um, mayor. And so I was the first social secretary for president Obama. I guided tourism under Rahm Emanuel here in Chicago.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Breaking Barriers: Women Leading on Boards with Desirée Rogers, Marisa Murillo, and Shannon Nash 4-14-25
I thought it would be interesting and I would learn something. At the same time, I literally knew nothing, but I did just listen. I tried to just understand overall everything that I could possibly understand and ask questions. I think the key is not to be afraid to ask questions and You know, and you don't have to ask all of them in the boardroom and take everyone through that.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Breaking Barriers: Women Leading on Boards with Desirée Rogers, Marisa Murillo, and Shannon Nash 4-14-25
But, you know, being open to knowing that you only know what you know, right? You get more and more advanced as as the years go on. But that's what I remember most is I knew nothing.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Breaking Barriers: Women Leading on Boards with Desirée Rogers, Marisa Murillo, and Shannon Nash 4-14-25
And then early in my career, I was the director of the Illinois state lottery under, um, governor, um, Edgar. And so I bounced back between, um, government work, political work, working in administrations and also corporate and have served on a number of not-for-profit boards in my career.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Breaking Barriers: Women Leading on Boards with Desirée Rogers, Marisa Murillo, and Shannon Nash 4-14-25
I think for me, it's most focused on just entrepreneurship and creating wealth in my community. whether that be through jobs that we're offering or vendors that we're using. But really, with everything that's going on, I think it's increasingly important that I focus on community. And community is wider than color or sex. I just feel like there's so many things in motion to tear people apart.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Breaking Barriers: Women Leading on Boards with Desirée Rogers, Marisa Murillo, and Shannon Nash 4-14-25
How can I bring people together? is really what I'm most focused on. And through my work, I get to work with all kinds of people. Everyone needs skincare.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Breaking Barriers: Women Leading on Boards with Desirée Rogers, Marisa Murillo, and Shannon Nash 4-14-25
Thank you. Thank you.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Breaking Barriers: Women Leading on Boards with Desirée Rogers, Marisa Murillo, and Shannon Nash 4-14-25
Sure. My name is Desiree Rogers. I live in Chicago in New York, and I currently... own two brands, one, Fast and Fair, and the other is called Black Opal.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Breaking Barriers: Women Leading on Boards with Desirée Rogers, Marisa Murillo, and Shannon Nash 4-14-25
We specialize in melanin-rich skin, and the combined age of the two companies is 80 years old, so we believe in longevity for sure, and we are reinvigorating and relaunching these brands in the marketplace, and so we're sold anywhere from Sephora to Macy's to Ulta to Walmart, and so We really are enjoying bringing beauty and skin care to this community.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Breaking Barriers: Women Leading on Boards with Desirée Rogers, Marisa Murillo, and Shannon Nash 4-14-25
You know, so, I mean, I think that it's super important to, you don't just get to say, oh, I want to be on a board and I'm going to be on a board. That's just not how it works, at least In my opinion, I think it's about, you know, deciding for yourself, you know, what your interests are and putting your best foot forward.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Breaking Barriers: Women Leading on Boards with Desirée Rogers, Marisa Murillo, and Shannon Nash 4-14-25
And so I certainly agree with what's been said that gaining experience across multiple types of operations is extremely helpful. And I think, you know, certainly on, you know, whether it's, you know, your non-for-profit boards starting early and, you know, as a newbie, people are much more forgiving and will help you learn how to read the financials.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Breaking Barriers: Women Leading on Boards with Desirée Rogers, Marisa Murillo, and Shannon Nash 4-14-25
And, you know, you can witness, you know, people that maybe have had an extended period of time on boards and and how they conduct themselves. And so the beginning is really a learning process and learning as much as you can. And then also thinking about what your expertise is. And, you know, I think that that's important.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Breaking Barriers: Women Leading on Boards with Desirée Rogers, Marisa Murillo, and Shannon Nash 4-14-25
People will look at my resume and say, well, this person, what does this person do? It looks very like mixed. And I don't know what this person does. And I need to take a step back and say, okay, what do I do well? And what I've been focused on in my career is this whole idea of,
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Breaking Barriers: Women Leading on Boards with Desirée Rogers, Marisa Murillo, and Shannon Nash 4-14-25
of thinking about more mature organizations or products and services and how do they get enhanced, reconfigured, refreshed to, in fact, do well in a new environment. And so that's been my work across both non-for-profit, government, and also corporate. And so I think one of the other things that are important with board service is many times they are looking for particular expertise.
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Breaking Barriers: Women Leading on Boards with Desirée Rogers, Marisa Murillo, and Shannon Nash 4-14-25
So, you know, just knowing what your expertise is. And again, at the beginning, I said, I don't think you can ask to be on a board. But I do think that networking that was mentioned earlier and having people understand what you're good at is a really good tactic because