Graybar’s Kathy Mazzarella is the ‘Dean’ of Women Leaders in Distribution

When describing Kathy Mazzarella in her nomination of the Graybar executive for MDM’s inaugural Women in Distribution awards, C.H. Briggs Co. Inc. CEO Julia Klein paid Mazzarella one of the highest compliments possible.

“Kathy is the ‘dean’ of women leaders in our industry,” Klein wrote. “Her leadership of Graybar speaks for itself, and her reputation as a customer- and employee-centered CEO is legendary.”

Legendary is an apt word for Mazzarella, who began her Graybar career in 1980 as a customer sales and service representative. After seven years in that role, she worked her way up to sales manager for the St. Louis-based electrical distributor.

From there, Mazzarella ascended to a series of sales, marketing and product manager positions, eventually becoming a vice president of human resources and strategic planning before stepping into the C-suite as COO in 2010.

Just two years after that promotion, Mazzarella was appointed president and CEO, and in 2013 she added chairman to her resume. Today, she is one of only 37 women to lead a Fortune 500 company. Graybar’s 2020 sales were $7.3 billion.

But the titles that Mazzarella has held, and the impressive revenues that Graybar has attained, don’t begin to measure the true impact that she has made on her company and the distribution industry. In his Women in Distribution nomination of Mazzarella, Andy Hoar of Paradigm B2B said that when she spoke at B2B Next, she “really connected — not just as a CEO but as a leader, a person who truly cares about people.”

A new lens on diversity

Mazzarella showed that empathy during the recent National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors Digital Summit. On a panel with other leaders, “The Distribution CEO Panel: Leading in a Time of Transition,” Mazzarella addressed the importance of diversity in both her company and the distribution industry.

“People often think about diversity through the lens of the traditional demographics, whether it’s gender, ethnicity,” she said. “I tend to look at it a little broader than that. It’s about creating an inclusive workplace that represents the communities and the customers in which we serve. That’s going to vary across the United States. Why does diversity matter? Because it’s just the right thing to do. It’s not about hitting a number. It’s not about hitting a quota. It’s just the right thing to do. People with different perspectives and different life experiences bring a fresh and innovative view toward the opportunities and the challenges that we face today and into the future.

“Diversity and inclusion are vital to the future success not only of our organizations but of our industry. To me, it’s about a cultural shift in the way that we think about how do we hire people and how do we bring them into our workforce and make sure they feel valued? It’s about broadening the idea about diversity beyond race and gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation. It’s about asking how we can provide opportunities for people in underserved communities or people who don’t get the chance.”

That’s a key reason why Mazzarella was selected into the inaugural class of Women in Distribution winners. And it’s a reason why MDM has asked Mazzarella to deliver a keynote at MDM’s Future of Distribution Summit on April 13.

Her presentation, “Building a Resilient Distribution Organization,” will discuss the benefits of creating an inclusive and resilient culture within an organization and how the industry can continue to improve and become more diverse. Not only will this legendary executive speak from experience, but she’ll speak from the heart.