Nancy Padberg learned hard work in the cornfields of Iowa detasseling corn while playing golf for high school and eventually at a Big 12 college. She was also known for becoming the top Girl Scout salesperson as a young girl. All this experience created a solid work ethic.
Padberg went on to spend 25 years leading media and marketing firms, owning her own digital marketing firm and applying business acumen, a healthy culture of trust and respect and value to grow her firm by 60% in four years. Her ability to inspire in leading versus managing has served her and Catholic Education Arizona well where she serves as the president and chief executive officer.
Catholic Education is a nonprofit organization funding underserved children with education scholarships from K-12 in Arizona for more than 26 years. The nonprofit’s mission is to change lives, serve society and transform culture.
Under Padberg’s guidance, the organization has a vision to provide a path through education for underserved children to become future leaders. In the next five years, Padberg and her team will be growing Catholic Education Arizona’s Arizona Corporate Tax Credit Revenue and Individual Arizona Tax Revenue while launching its new division of non-tax revenue. The goal is to grow the new division to $250 million in the next 24 years.
“Nancy is a titan because she has sales, marketing, and leadership experience, she is driven, compassionate, and authentic, and has built the firm on helping others externally and internally,” said her staff. “She enjoys seeing colleagues collaborate and helps them reach their professional and personal goals.”
Padberg strives to share her experience and her willingness to mentor and foster others as a frequent speaker for the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce and Phoenix Business Journal. She serves on the board of directors at Catholic Charities and Grand Canyon University and was selected as one of the outstanding 25 businesswomen in Arizona by the Phoenix Business Journal.
She believes in consistency and frequent communication for ideas, feedback, and cross-functional collaboration that ultimately strengthens and reinforces relationships. “When a leader has high emotional intelligence, they build stronger relationships and teams, inspire and motivate teams, and help conflict resolution as well as enhanced decision making,” said Padberg.
Offering her younger self advice, Padberg said to understand early on that education is the foundation for success. “Pick your target, head down and follow through,” she said. “Stay true to your commitment and your goals.”
