28 Feb Member Spotlight: Sheri McCandless
I am honored to serve as BPW/FL’s President for 2021-2023, having been installed at the 100th Annual State Conference with the theme of women from history, particularly our founding mothers of Business and Professional Women’s Clubs of Florida back in 1919. We have a rich history in BPW of women who have paved the way for working women. Thus, I have chosen the theme for my term of “Connecting our Future to our Past with Pearls of Wisdom”.
I joined BPW in 1994 and am a member of BPW/Gold Coast. Gold Coast meets in Palm Beach Gardens on the central east coast of the state. I bring much BPW leadership experience, having served as President and in various leadership offices of my local organization (LO), as well as at the state level. I served as State President in 2000=2001 and as President of the BPW/FL Education Foundation in 2006. I look forward to using that experience to connect our rich history of women from our past to lead and help introduce what BPW has and can do for women as we educate and mentor a diverse new group of women on how we achieved all that we enjoy in the workplace today.
A bit about me personally; I am a native Floridian, born and raised in Boynton Beach. I am married to Hugh, my husband of 43 years, and we have a 42-year-old daughter, Heather, who gave us two granddaughters, Autumn, now 21, and Taylor, 14.
Professionally, I have transitioned several times in my working career. My first professional job was as a receptionist at a bank in my hometown. Then I went to work as a legal secretary for a general practice attorney who trained me on the job. After several years, I went to work as a legal secretary for a law firm in Palm Beach. I worked for 11 years for various law firms in the area and had become a Legal Assistant/Paralegal before I retired the legal profession in 1988 to help my husband full-time with the business he had started in 1986 doing Reprographics for architects. We owned and operated the business together and changed its focus to the first and largest copy center serving the legal industry in Palm Beach County until we sold it in 2009. I worked for the new owner for one year to help transition and train him and then started my own business as a Virtual/Onsite Administrative Assistant to solo-entrepreneurs. After five years, I closed that business and accepted a full-time position as the Front Desk Admin/Administrative Assistant with Meyer Jabara Hotels (a hotel management company) and The Meyer Companies (a family office that manages the family’s investments), where I have been for nearly 6 years now.
I look forward to working with an inspired and enthusiastic group of leaders, as well as with the BPW/FL membership to grow our organization, improve the value for members, and become a more well-known organization in our communities throughout the state.