After high school, when most of Anne Sempowski Ward’s friends were headed to the University of Michigan a few miles down the road for college, Anne took herself in a different direction—toward Duke University in North Carolina and its school of Engineering.

Not that she knew exactly how to get there. The oldest child in a single-parent family from inner city Detroit, Anne grew up just having to make things work—from fixing the broken household toaster to assembling a ten-speed bike that came in pieces, in a box, for her tenth birthday. So, when it was time to go to Durham, N.C., she talked a friend headed the same general direction into letting her throw a few things in the trunk of his uncle’s car. And that’s how she launched her career.

Growing up in “a culture of grit,” as she puts it, Anne discovered her passion early in life: Building things that work. But learning to harness that passion was a slough: She nearly failed her freshman year at Duke and found her way after only bonding with the small handful of other women in the engineering program. They promised to get each other through and studied together for hours. And succeeded.

In the years since, she’s built brands, led teams, orchestrated acquisitions, and steered corporate turnarounds. Her latest passion is advancing the future of the WNBA Sky basketball team and women’s sports as an investor. “There’s a belief I have about women supporting other women: There are endless possibilities in this world for us,” she says. Click here to learn more about Anne and her mission.