By Karen M. Thomas

Debra Sandler considers her job a blessing. She is worldwide president for McNeil Nutritionals, L.L.C., a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary that offers consumers nutritionally based products like Splenda, an artificial sweetener that can be used in the battle against obesity and diabetes.
It’s a fight she takes personally. Her grandmother suffered from diabetes. “She lived with us – she first lost both legs and then her life,” Sandler says. She launched Splenda, allowing her to tap into her personal experience and do something meaningful at the same time. The sugar substitute has since become the top artificial sweetener in America, generating sales that topped $410 million in 2006. It’s what Sandler calls “working on a strong passion point.”
And that’s a lesson she wants to impart to her young daughter Kiah – that she can find work that matters, climb to the top of the corporate ladder and balance family – a tall order but one that Ms. Sandler herself has accomplished.
Sandler, 49, has honed leadership abilities, made courageous decisions and forged superb marketing skills to shape an illustrious career. Raised in Trinidad and Tobago, in addition to English, Sandler speaks French and Spanish and earned an MBA from the Stern School of Business at New York University.
She climbed the ranks at PepsiCo, Inc., starting as a package marketing analyst and then quickly received promotions while focusing on the company’s consumer goods and restaurant businesses.
At PepsiCo, Sandler noticed a strong African-American male network. She had mentors and sponsors,but she also understood the power of networking and invited herself to an informal dinner.
“I said ‘How come you guys are always getting together and not inviting the women to the table?’ They laughed, invited me and to subsequent meetings after that,” Sandler said. “It was pretty bold of me at the time. I was a marketing director and these were vice presidents who had been with the company for a long time. The thing that gave me the courage to challenge is that I did have burgeoning relationships with some of them where I felt I could say ‘Let me in.’”
Sandler says that those trying to climb the ladder may assume that they are being excluded or are intimidated to ask for an invitation. She says that instead of accepting that assumption, one should work hard at building relationships.
“In corporate America, as you move up, it’s not only about the work and the results, it’s about the relationships. The thing that makes it hard is that these relationships don’t just fall in your lap. You have to really work at them. For women, especially women of color, you have to think what is the avenue. ‘I don’t play golf, I don’t play sports, how do I start to build a conversation that isn’t about just my latest business results?’,” Sandler says.
In 1997, at the age of 37, Sandler found herself at crossroads. After 13 years of aggressively climbing the corporate ladder, she gave birth to her daughter at the same time her division was splitting off into a separate company. Up until that moment, she had been solely dedicated to her career. She traveled 80 percent of the time. But while home on maternity leave, she realized she was burned out. And she became riveted by a story that received endless coverage at the time. A Boston nanny was accused of shaking a baby to death. The baby’s parents were both prominent physicians who hired the nanny from a well-known agency.
“I was home trying to decide to hire a nanny. At some point, this just didn’t seem like the right course of action. A lot of things were pointing me in the direction of taking time off and just enjoy my daughter’s first years,” she says.
Sandler heard the whispers. She knew that some thought she would kill her career. Others predicted she would be bored. But the timing seemed right. She stepped out and spent nearly two years simply enjoying her child, taking tennis and dance lessons and even joined a scrapbooking club.
“The time out was fabulously enjoyable,” she says.
Returning to the workplace, though, was a far more challenging endeavor. Sandler encountered recruiters who assumed her ambition and skills were dead because she chose to step off the ladder.
“It was very frustrating. I just don’t think women who choose to stay home should have to face that, but it’s the first question – ‘Maybe you are no longer ambitious.’ There’s an assumption that you have to take a major step backward in your career and you should be OK with that. That was 10 years ago, and now it’s a bit different, but not as different as I think it should be,” she says.
What was clear to Sandler is that she was different – not less ambitious. When the time came to return to the workforce, she clearly defined what she wanted to do. She wanted meaningful work – if she had to leave her child at home, it had to be for a good reason. And she knew she wanted to work with new products.
In the end, it wasn’t the recruiters who helped her land her current position. It was her strong network, built and nurtured throughout her corporate career and even during her time off.
“I think maintaining your network is critical,” she says. “That is what got me the job at J & J, not any recruiter or job posting. It was my network. And it’s very simple, a call every once in a while, an e-mail, a breakfast or lunch and staying current. I did keep up with business and the Wall Street Journal – it was a different level of priority in my life, but it was still there.”
Sandler said the opportunity at McNeil “was almost kismet.” She admired Johnson & Johnson for its strong business results and ethics and she was intrigued with the idea of working with new food products that were being offered by a healthcare company. And there was that strong passion point – helping others manage or stave off the onset of diabetes.
At McNeil, Sandler carefully balances work and family while creating an environment that allows her team to do the same. Her daughter is now 12.
“She is very clear about what she needs and when that gets out of whack, she lets me know,” Sandler says. “My priorities are in order. It used to be about work, now I have a more balanced view.”
One key part of offering that balance to her team is what she calls the innovation room. An open space in the corporate building, the room has walls that resemble a blue sky and features a painted window. It’s a space where workers are encouraged to think outside the box or perhaps bring their children.
“It’s a place to relax, put your feet up. There are toys in there to stimulate thinking and there are times when yes, my daughter is there and it becomes a family room. It’s an open, creative space so we can go in, read, sit and chat,” Sandler says.
Sandler is open with her team. As a single mom, if she must miss a meeting to attend a science fair or a teacher conference, she simply says so. As a result, her team feels free to tell her when they face family challenges. And while most people assume itis women who benefit most from a family-friendly environment, Sandler says that the male members of her team are also more comfortable.
“Men are working to be much more engaged with kids and the family. They can say ‘For my family, this is not a good thing.’ So I love when the guys come to me and say ‘Debra, I have to work from home today.’ I am thrilled that I am having these conversations with men on my team all the time,” she says.
Creating a more flexible environment has, in the long run, been very productive, Sandler says.
“You may not get all the work done between 9 and 5, but my thing is who cares?,” she says. “The work is getting done. I don’t particularly care if you need to go home to put the kids to bed and then sign on later. That’s fine with me. People are grateful for the flexibility. They want to show that there is no loss in productivity, in fact, they actually end up working more.”
As co-chair for women leadership at Johnson & Johnson, Sandler hopes to extend that notion of balance and flexibility throughout the corporation, regardless of one’s ranking. It’s an issue that she says will help better position corporations in the future.
“Those who win in the future are corporations who do find the balance that allows flexibility that women need in their lives,” she says. “If you choose to step out, you have to get those high potential women back in. Today those who off ramp don’t go back to the same corporation. We have to figure this out.”