Forty Under 40: Stephanie Stephens

For Stephanie Stephens, success in her career has everything to do with being a role model for her daughter.

“It’s been really important to me to show her that, as a woman, in what is still kind of a man’s world, you can succeed and you can do it by being honest, having integrity and by not compromising your values,” she said.

At Jarden Consumer Solutions, where she has worked since 2012, Stephens is responsible for selling small kitchen appliances — including Mr. Coffee and Oster brands — to Wal-Mart Stores Inc., and also for the company’s shopper marketing.

“Marketing has been a way to flex a new muscle and start using more of my creative and strategic side,” after 17 years in sales, she said.

Her resume includes eight years at clothing supplier Vanity Fair Brand, and three at a DVD distribution company.

But as a political science graduate in 1998 from the University of Arkansas, Stephens envisioned a career behind the scenes in politics, after working on various campaigns in college.

“I was going to go save the world,” she said. “And then you graduate and they say, ‘Oh yeah, you have to volunteer. We don’t actually pay you money to do stuff like that.’”

To pay the bills, she got a job at Walmart, where she worked as transportation supervisor until 2001.

Her community involvement includes about 18 years with P.E.O Sisterhood, a women’s education organization.