Lydia Marshall is more comfortable talking about the impact that CARE -- the international relief and development organization -- has had on her than what she has done for it. If pressed, however, Marshall, a CARE board member for fourteen years and its chair for the last five, will gracefully admit that her leadership and organizational skills have helped the nonprofit's various constituencies work toward the common goal of increasing economic self-sufficiency and ending poverty.

The exchange tells a lot about Marshall. A giving person who is quick to credit others who have helped her -- a former boss at Citicorp, her social worker mother, her physician grandfather, her husband -- she is also justifiably proud of her own accomplishments.

After nine years in consumer banking at Citicorp, in 1985 Marshall was hired as a senior vice president at Sallie Mae, where she headed several corporate divisions before becoming an executive vice president. During her twelve years with the company, Marshall was a key player in Sallie Mae's transition from a lender-services business into a business focused on colleges and universities. "That change resulted in substantial growth," Marshall notes, "and it was very exciting to be a part of it."

In 1999, Marshall decided to do something completely different. The result, VentureThink, is a start-up that aims to create, build, and manage e-commerce businesses. With the budding firm scheduled to launch its first business in September, Marshall, in a summertime interview in her temporary office space in northern Virginia, preferred not to reveal too much about the thirteen-member operation. But the excitement of running her own firm with a first-rate crew of employees was evident. "It's great to wake up every morning and do something that is totally energizing," she says with satisfaction.

This adventurous spirit, however, is nothing new. As a high-school student at a Quaker school, Marshall, a Rochester, New York, native, spent a "terrific" year in Germany, where she mastered the language and helped break down racial stereotypes. After graduating from Wellesley, she took a position in retailing that inspired her to enroll in the MBA Program. One of only three African-American women in her class, Marshall thrived at HBS and credits the School with teaching her "the fundamentals of writing, speaking, and dealing with people" -- skills, she notes, she is thankful for every day.

As a senior executive, Marshall works to balance -- and satisfy -- the needs of her shareholders, customers, and employees. Her work with CARE often gives her a firsthand view of poverty that, she says, "makes me realize how blessed I am." A proud mother, Marshall admits to feeling "slightly breathless" trying to keep up with her 10-year-old son and college-sophomore daughter.

Crediting her mother with instilling in her a social conscience, Marshall says fondly, "She fought for many important things, from civil rights to health care. I hope that as I get older, I will have enough gumption to take a leadership role the way she did." For Lydia Marshall, such hopes are already a reality.

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