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Always Learning
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By Pam Droog
Tammy Shields
St. Louis Regional Leader
CAP Gemini Ernst & Young
It’s a long trip from a tobacco farm in Virginia to the top spot
at the area office of one of the nation’s largest consulting firms.
But Tammy Shields made that journey, becoming the St. Louis regional
leader at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, and she did it before she reached
age 40. She heads Cap Gemini’s management and information technology
consulting initiatives for St. Louis, Kansas City, Denver, Des Moines
and Omaha, with responsibility for 350-plus associates.
Shields was born in Dry Fork, Va., and grew up on a 350-plus tobacco
farm. “I had the honor of working on the farm in summer, pulling,
stringing and drying tobacco and taking it to market,” she says.
However, at age 13, Shields says she realized tobacco farming was
not her calling. She thought being a medical technician might be,
“but I quickly realized blood and I would not work well together,”
she says. At Averett College, she dropped a class and filled the
time slot with an introductory data processing course. “I loved
it,” she says. “I loved problem-solving and working on the computer.”
She switched her major to computer science and business management.
After graduating, Shields taught data processing at a community
college. “I realized it didn’t pay much more than working on the
farm,” she says, so she decided to get some practical experience
for a few years, and then return to teaching.
Shields landed a job as an analyst with EDS in Dallas. She was promoted
to the research department, where she helped develop a case tool
for generating codes, subsequently she became a systems engineer
manager.
After five years, Shields joined ElectroMotive, a division of General
Electric located outside Chicago. “I implemented systems to build
locomotives,” she says. “It was a hoot. The circuit boards are phenomenal.
We had a 50-acre warehouse where we put locomotives together.”
But after a year and a half, Shields had enough of Chicago’s harsh
climate. She joined Booz Allen & Hamilton in Dallas, but her first
assignment was for Monsanto in St. Louis. “I was living in Chicago,
my office was in Dallas and I worked in St. Louis,” she recalls.
The Monsanto job involved “reengineering virtually every aspect
of the business, from manufacturing to ordering to finances,” Shields
says. She headed up a sub-team on the project for more than one
year. And she got to know Ernst & Young St. Louis, which was evaluating
software for Monsanto. “I liked their business model, which said,
we do strategy and actually implement it, we don’t just talk about
it.” In 1992 the company offered Shields a job. “I accepted even
though it gets cold here sometimes,” she says. “But I thought it
would be okay to live and work and have an office in one city.”
At Ernst & Young, though she consulted for Anheuser-Busch, Enterprise
Rent-A-Car and Farmland Industries, Shields has concentrated mostly
on life science projects—from crop chemicals and biotechnology to
pharmaceuticals and medical devices.
As St. Louis regional leader, to which she was promoted in 2001,
Shields develops relationships with potential clients and helps
them determine solutions to accelerate their growth or achieve cost-reduction
goals. That broad range of responsibilities means there’s no such
thing as a typical day. She spends a lot of time in meetings and
on conference calls—not infrequently at odd hours in the mornings
and evenings, “because so many of our clients are global.”
Cap Gemini itself is global, with a seat on the French stock exchange
and corporate headquarters in Paris. Shields has traveled there
and to other international capitals a number of times, but she still
has a clear regional viewpoint. “I tell anyone who will listen that
the St. Louis region is the world’s best-kept secret,” she says.
“It’s right on the edge of new advancements in life sciences and
biotechnology.”
Shields encourages businesses seeking opportunities to consider
relocating here. “There is a good work force available here, not
only in the skill and talent level, but the work ethic is very dedicated
and focused,” she says.
Her regional wish list includes continuing to revitalize downtown
to attract younger workers. Shields herself recently purchased a
home in Soulard. “I’m part of that revitalization,” she says. “I
wanted to be part of a community atmosphere.”
Shields devotes time to projects that encourage diversity. For example,
at Cap Gemini, she was instrumental in launching the St. Louis Diversity
Initiative, which helps the company promote diversity in its work
force.
In addition, she’s president of the board of the Greater Missouri
Leadership Challenge, a one-year program that allows women to gain
insight into assuming leadership in politics, urban renewal, education
and business.
Shields also serves on the board of the University of Missouri–St.
Louis Information Systems Board of Visitors, which helps the college
develop its business curriculum.
And, she helps raise money for the Jack Buck Cystic Fibrosis golf
tournament, the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure and the Multiple
Sclerosis Society. Recently, Shields has been actively involved
in the B+ Foundation to raise funds for research and education regarding
Fanconi’s Anemia.
The busy executive and civic leader still occasionally yearns for
the simple life on the farm. “I’m the only one of the 11 grandkids
who lives more than 20 miles away,” Shields says. To reconnect to
the outdoors, she’s an avid water skier and golfer. And, in the
future, she still plans to teach—maybe golf!
But until she can teach, she’ll continue to learn. “Being in a constant
learning mode is one of the big advantages of working with so many
different kinds of clients over the years,” Shields says. “It’s
fun and rewarding to line up the variables and put the puzzle together.”
Pam Droog is a St. Louis-based free-lance writer.
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