About Us : Founders

Leslie Grossman
Author, Entrepreneur and Women’s Leadership Expert

Leslie Grossman has been a leader and advocate for women's business success for more than 20 years.  She is cofounder of Women's Leadership Exchange, and its leadership development program, LEXCI; she is an expert in marketing to women in business; the author of SELLsation: How Companies Can Capture Today's Hottest Market: Women Business Owners and Executives;  and was an entrepreneur for 25 years, starting her first business at the age of 25.  As owner of a leading NYC marketing/PR firm in the 1990's, Leslie was responsible for the 8-year campaign that brought platinum jewelry back from the dead to become the preferred metal for brides all over the US.  Her marketing to women strategy evolved into a focus on business women as a result of her experience as a leader of many women's business associations, including serving as President of NAWBO, NYC and NY Chair of the Women's Leadership Forum, a division of the DNC.

When Leslie conceived of Women's Leadership Exchange® (WLE) it was a result of her combining her marketing expertise with her passion for developing women's businesses and leadership skills.  WLE is a multimedia company holding live conferences around the country, a website and virtual resource, which provides the connections and knowledge women need to propel their businesses and careers. In 2008, WLE launched LEXCI, a leadership and business development program for high-powered women business owners, executives and leaders of non-profits.

Grossman has been active for many years in the small business and women's business communities.  Her many awards include: Fashion  Group International's Entrepreneur of the Year, the NAWBO National President's Leadership Award , the Women in Communications Matrix Award.  With WLE cofounder Andrea March Leslie received the Enterprising Women Advocacy Award and the New York Enterprise Report Advocacy Award.

Grossman is a frequent speaker on women's leadership, entrepreneurship, branding, sales and marketing to women.   She credits her husband of 30 years, Richie Abrams, for his constant encouragement; and her son Josh and daughter Sara for inspiring her to make the world a better through the leadership of women.

You can contact Leslie by email.

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Andrea March
Co-Founder

Andrea March has successfully reinvented herself several times as a woman business owner and leader. Co-founding the Women's Leadership Exchange®, she says, is the fulfillment of her destiny, the culmination of all her previous experience, in business and in life.

After selling real estate for some years, she and her husband Sy launched a jewelry import and distribution company, Andrea March Accessories. Andrea, who had always had a passion for jewelry, was the salesperson as well as the designer for this affordable line of costume jewelry! Andrea and Sy ran this multi-million dollar business together for 20 years. In 1995, however, the industry changed, and Sy decided to retire. In her 40s, ambitious and energetic, with her daughter, Kerri, already on her own, Andrea pondered what to do with the rest of her life.

Watching a business program on CNBC one day, she realized she had no idea what they were talking about. Like many others, Andrea says, “I did not understand investing, and was probably not the exception - there were undoubtedly millions of people like me, with money to invest and no understanding of how to make smart decisions.” Thus was born Investment Expo, the company Andrea March founded and ran for the next five years.

Under her guidance Investment Expo became the largest financial strategies trade show/seminar program in the Northeast and South Florida, attracting up to 14,000 attendees annually. Andrea propelled Investment Expo into a first-class seminar business -- one of the leading providers of financial information in the U.S., with 50 seminars conducted by top financial gurus.

Four years later -- in 2001 -- Andrea met Leslie Grossman, who had attended one of her two-day events. The two experienced women business owners shared a powerful commitment to women entrepreneurs like themselves. That commitment became Women's Leadership Exchange®. Andrea and Leslie won the Enterprising Women Advocacy Award in 2005.

You can contact Andrea by email.