Today we’d like to introduce you to Michele Ashby.
Michele, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I started out as a stockbroker and decided to specialize in gold stocks. I became one of the top 5 brokers in the US specializing in gold stocks and became a mining analyst working for regional brokerage firms in Denver, CO, covering gold stocks in the US and Canada. Over my tenure, I covered hundreds of exploration, development and producing gold companies based in the US and Canada.
While I was an analyst, it became apparent to me that the industry was in need of more market attention. That is when I came up with the brilliant idea to form a trade association for the gold industry, the Denver Gold Group, It was an arduous process, which took a few years to catch on, but ultimately, became the pre-eminent investor organization for mining companies to belong to and is now an institution. I quit being an analyst and ran the trade association full time for 18 years. I worked with the CEO’s of all the producing gold mining companies which are publicly traded around the world, and their largest institutional investors. That gave me quite the reputation in both mining and finance and in 2005, I was invited to join my first public board of a mining company.
When I left the Denver Gold Group in 2005, I started a new venture from scratch, leveraging my contacts and expanding into other resource markets in energy and base metals as well as expanding the geographic areas I was working. I started over in the basement of my house with a computer and a filing cabinet. I was working in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Europe and the UK. It was a whirlwind and my timing was just right for the bull market in those sectors from 2005-2011. After the peak in 2011, I started to think about winding my company down.
In 2013, I decided to close that business since the resource markets had fallen off and were heading downward for a long bear market, and I went to work for a consulting firm as a Senior Executive Consultant. I worked in major corporations Deloitte, Ericsson and Kimberly Clark, coaching and consulting with their executive teams for two years. I was also on few more public boards as an independent director and had my own financial consulting business on the side.
In 2016, I was looking to add another corporate board seat to serve on, and that is when I started to talk to other women about getting on boards. I mentored a few and then in 2017, I decided to put together another new venture. This time to train other women how to get on corporate boards and help companies find them. ACE Board Certification Programs were launched in 2018, and have been going strong ever since. Since launching ACE LLC, I have trained women in the US and Canada and helped place them on corporate boards. I am committed to training an army of women, 1,000 women to get ready for boards. That is how I got here.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Of course, there have been obstacles and challenges! As a woman in male-dominated industries and an entrepreneur, I have had my fair share of bumps and bruises.
There were people who didn’t want me to start the gold mining association, and they told me that to my face. But then there were others who encouraged me to keep going so I did, and it paid off in the long run.
I was a divorced mother of two children and raised them on my own for 14 years while working full time and struggling to pay bills in those start-up years. Then my daughter was diagnosed with a rare bone cancer when she was 18. She passed away when she was 19 and that was the hardest and saddest thing I have been through. I formed a non-profit in her honor to fund research and was successful in donating $1 million to cancer research over 15 years. There are now 2 clinical trials in the US that are specifically for the type of cancer she had. That makes me feel good. Dealing with her loss and running the trade association and the non-profit foundation all at once, was a very tough time.
ACE LLC – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
ACE LLC is all about getting women prepared and educated about corporate boards and helping them to get on them. We are training an army of women, 1,000 to get on corporate boards. Only 20% of boards in the US are women and we need more women on boards. It is proven that diversity of gender on boards, creates better outcomes. But most women don’t know how to get on boards. That is where we come in. ACE offers two programs, One on-line introductory series of 4 modules to teach the basics, and the other, an in-depth ACE Board Certification Program offered a few times a year to give women all they need to get on boards and contribute in the boardroom.
The ACE Board courses have been developed and are implemented by Michele Ashby, the Founder and CEO of ACE LLC. The program is the only one in the US which offers a board-ready certification for women completing the in-depth course which is eight weeks long. ACE grads are getting on boards and in CEO roles too. Results have been positive from both course offerings, with over 300 women taking the ACE Introductory course on-line and over 70 women who are now certified board candidates after completing the eight weeks course and passing their certification exams from Corporate Directors Int’l who issue the certification exams and designations.
I was named one of the Top 25 Most Powerful Women in Business in Colorado for 2019 – I love doing board work and consider myself a business nerd. I am an engaged Independent Director with collective corporate board experience of 20 years on six corporate boards. I am currently an Independent Director for McEwen Mining Inc., MUX:NYSE, as well as a subject matter expert on corporate boards, a keynote speaker and an executive business consultant.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Being recognized as the Founder of the Denver Gold Group at their 30 years anniversary Gala dinner in 2019 and being asked to emcee the event. It was a great celebration of the success of the association and it was wonderful to be acknowledged there for all of the work I put in to build it into an institution.
Pricing:
- ACE Introductory On-Line Course is $59.50 Fall Special
- ACE Board Certification Program is $7,995 with Early Bird Discounts available
Contact Info:
- Address: 2635 N. Madison St.
Denver, CO 80205 - Website: www.acellc.consulting
- Phone: 720-635-1005
- Email: michele@acellc.consulting
- Other: www.linkedin.com/in/micheleashby1
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