Black History Month: Columbus Urban League honors Gale King

Courtesy of ABC6
By Maria Durant
February 17, 2021

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX) — On February 27th the Columbus Urban League will honor five African American women that have impacted the Columbus community.

One of those women is Gale King, the Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer for Nationwide.

She started working at Nationwide 37 years ago, saying she’s lucky enough to work for a company that gets it.

“At that point in time there were not many minorities or women in positions of power, but I believe I joined a company that cared about people and would be on the journey to make improvements if needed,” King said.

King now has a career in the ‘C-suite.’ According to ‘Coqual’ a workplace think tank in New York, African Americans occupy only 3.2 percent of leadership roles in large companies. King expects that to change.

“I do believe that post-George Floyd, I believe that a new generation will expect more from corporations,” she said.

She says this generation will demand it.

And her advice to anyone seeking to better themselves in the corporate arena, she says to be relentless.

” When I talk about being relentless, I talk about doing the work, understanding what is required to be successful in a job, understanding what you need to do in order to be successful in a role and then go make it happen,” King said.