Leisa: Hello, I’m Leisa Holland Nelson and welcome to another edition of Woman Mean Business where we’re going to take you up close and personal with extraordinary women doing extraordinary things. My guest today is Gindi Vincent, Counsel for ExxonMobil; Gindi, welcome to Women Mean Business.

Gindi: Thanks for having me Leisa.

Leisa: I’m going to bet that as a kid you didn’t wake up dreaming you’d grow up and be Counsel at ExxonMobil.

Gindi: Far from it.

Leisa: Tell us how you got there.

Gindi: Well my dad was a preacher and my mom was a school teacher and we grew up really poor and I had no idea what I’d be; maybe a doctor, I wandered all the way around as a kid. And then I went to college, took some science courses and thought no, this isn’t for me. And I was engaging in a debate with a History professor towards the end of my career, not knowing what I’d do, and he said you know, you should go to law school. So off I went to law school, not with a lawyer in the family or having any idea what it meant, so a far cry from where I am today.

Leisa: What was it about law school that you wanted to do it or made you excel there?

Gindi: Well I love to write and I’ve loved to write since I was a kid. I still write; I write books, I write blogs still to this day and I knew that I’d get the opportunity to write as a lawyer. And I didn’t even foresee the opportunity to speak that came up later. And so law school for me – the research, the learning, the writing – it wasn’t so much career-specific as was interest-specific that ended up sparking my interest.

Leisa: And it really gave you a platform because I know you do much more than counsel at ExxonMobil; tell us a little bit quickly about that.

Gindi: So my day job is counsel at ExxonMobil and then in my free time I get the opportunity to travel around the country and talk to women about leadership, encourage women in their potential. I’ve written a book about leadership and I write a daily blog and meeting people all over the country and learning from them has been one of the greatest experiences of my life.

Leisa: Well thank you for being here and sharing with us.

Gindi: Thanks for having me.

Leisa: There you have it, another extraordinary woman doing extraordinary things. I’m Leisa Holland Nelson, President, Co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of ContentActive, Houston’s leading web and mobile technology company. You can find me at ContentActive.com or follow me on Twitter @LHNelson. We’ll be back again next week for another edition of Women Mean Business.