Hasta La Creative!

As the 32-year-old CEO of Travelocity in the mid-2000s, Michelle Peluso was one of the youngest CEOs in the country. She had engineered a major turnaround in both profitability and brand perception. And under her direction, the beloved and effective brand-building Roaming Gnome had become synonymous with Travelocity.

However, as is often the case in the C-suite, she was working 18-hour days, and frequent travel meant little time at home. When she gave birth to a daughter in 2009, Ms. Peluso realized she needed to make a change. So she actually did what many executives say they’re going to do — quit her job to spend more time at home with her family.

“I lived, and loved, Travelocity for so long, and it was a really hard decision. When I gave birth to my daughter — I had been agonizing about it for nine months when I was pregnant — I had been on the road every week, and I just said “I can’t do it,'” Ms. Peluso said. “So I began a six-month transition.”

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