'A Marvelous Career'

When Roxie Jerde applied for a job at Hallmark in the 1980s, she had already run a sales department at a bank and completed management training at J.C. Penney.

But the greeting card company rejected her. A few years later, Jerde, armed with an M.B.A. in finance and organizational behavior from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, was hired. She worked at Hallmark for 11 years. She helped launch the firm's popular and profitable Shoebox Greetings unit, and she also worked in its mergers and acquisitions department.

Says Jerde: “I had a marvelous career there.”