b'GINA DROSOS MAJORSINDUCTEESignet Jewelers portfolio includes Zales as well as Kay Jewelers, Jared, Banter (formerly Piercing Pagoda), Diamonds Direct, and Blue Nile.Every vacation we took as children had to start with somethingThis whole entrepreneurial idea of, Wow, you can create some-educational. Then my brother and I would beg to go to the beachthing from nothing in the world of business really caught me.for a few days afterwards. If we could find a Revolutionary WarDrosos applied to business schools instead of law schools, earn-battlefield near the ocean, that was a big score, Drosos says. ing admission to the University of Pennsylvanias Wharton School Her father, a teacher-turned-lawyer who rose to become aof Business.deputy attorney general in Georgia, was a source of inspiration andIve loved the idea of doing something with your career that helped guide her career path. you think can make a difference in the world, like my dad did. But He was in public service for his whole career. I had a highI love doing it from a business angle, she says.affection for what he did. I thought he really made a difference in the world, and I valued that, she says. THE BUSINESS BUG Drosos wanted to follow in her fathers footsteps and become aThe business bug drew Drosos to Procter & Gamble in 1987 lawyer, so he recommended she study business before heading toafter she graduated from Wharton. She stayed there for 25 years. law school. It was there that a vacation would shape her life, again. At P&G, she led multifunctional teams, so while she was honing As a junior at the University of Georgia, she and her roommateher marketing skills, she was also learning about other facets of the couldnt afford a spring break trip so they connected with a boatbusiness, including research and development, finance, manufac-captain in Florida and chartered eight sailboats to the Bahamas.turing, and the supply chain.They then sold spots on the boats to their classmates, whileWhen you work in a consumer-oriented business, like jewel-Drosos and her roommate sailed for free. ry is, then having a background where you always start with the It was then that Drosos caught what she described as thecustomer first, where you really try to dissect their experience and business bug.their needs and their desires, really helps, says Drosos.NATIONAL JEWELER 39'