There is something magnetic about Peggy Scott. When she talks, her excitement seems to physically travel from her mouth to the fingertips of her hands that she quickly holds out when making a point, almost like she is getting ready for a bear hug. She delivers wisdom-filled quotes like “the best predictor of future performance is in the past,” “you can’t get blood out of a turnip,” and her favorite: “the impossible just takes a little longer.” She is a quick thinker and mover, and when asked a question, she answers it, gets excited about another thought and then quickly jumps into a story about teamwork in the workplace, believing in people and why challenges are so much fun.
“I am drawn to companies that have tremendous opportunity for growth or tremendous challenges,” says Scott, 67. “Whenever anyone says to me, ‘this is impossible,’ I say it’s not. It just might take a little bit longer.”
Scott’s biography is a five-page, front-and-back, narrative of a life filled with academic awards, industry career highs and many career firsts. Her name is often followed by an alphabet soup of letters—CFO, CEO, COO, CPA, and she has won countless awards, including the Wall Street Journal’s National Financial Executive of the Year, as the first woman and only Louisianan.
“I never realized when I shattered the glass ceiling that they would piece it together and give it back to me as an award,” she says. Scott’s excitement combined with her tenacity, intelligence, fortitude and confidence have made her an asset to the many companies she has helped fix and grow over the last four decades, her supporters say.
Read the full story about Scott’s long career and her current projects from the latest edition of Business Report, which features this year’s Business Awards and Hall of Fame members. Send comments to editor@businessreport.com.
