I agree with the famous Madeleine Albright quote: ‘There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.’


the University of Maryland and worked at the U.S. Customs Service in Chicago for two years when her mother unexpectedly died, prompting Ambrose to return to Washington to help care for her two teenage siblings. At the time, then-Vice President


Nelson Rockefeller generously offered Ambrose her late mother’s job as assistant labor affairs adviser in his office. When Republican incumbent President Gerald Ford lost reelec- tion, Rockefeller recommended his Democratic employee to incoming Vice President Walter Mondale who, in turn, asked Ambrose to stay on. (“On Inaugural Day 1977, I worked for the outgoing VP in the morning and incoming VP in the afternoon— that seldom happens,” she says.) Four years later, when Jimmy Carter was defeated, Mondale advised Ambrose to attend law school to widen her professional prospects. After graduating from American


University Washington College of Law at 29, Ambrose joined White and Case’s D.C. office where she spent five invaluable years as an associate litiga- tor. With mixed feelings, she left the firm to accompany her law professor husband Barry Carter on his yearlong stint as visiting professor at Stanford Law School. When they returned


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to Washington, Ambrose worked on Capitol Hill as chief of staff for Rep. Peter Hoagland (D-Nebraska). While still working for Rep. Hoagland, she also did national scheduling for President Clinton’s first presidential cam- paign, an insanely detailed-oriented task that involved planning and overseeing every


move made by the presidential and vice presidential nominees and their spouses. “Basically, it means deciding what you want on the 7 o’clock news every night and doing all you can 10 days in advance to make it happen. It took me six months to recover, but we won, so it was worth it.” In 1994, she joined the Clinton administration. (Compared to the White House, she says, the Hill with its relatively flexible schedule is a wonderful place for working mothers.) Since her days in government,


Ambrose has made mentoring younger women a priority. She has many mentees throughout the world, some whom she has never met in per- son but knows through their monthly scheduled phone calls. Longtime mentee and friend


Alison Kutler first met Ambrose 22 years ago when she interned in Rep. Hoagland’s office. “Kathleen defi- nitely gave me a lot of running room,” she remembers. “My second day there, she had me write an amendment to the 1991 crime bill. It was crazy to let a college kid do this, but she thought I could handle it and supported me.” Like many others, Ambrose


eventually left government for better compensation. She went in-house as Vice President of International


Affairs at the American Chemistry Counsel and represented the industry internationally for eight years. Tough she recounts particularly challenging times—like the months after 9-11 when chemical companies were con- sidered the next possible terror targets —Ambrose considers her time on the job a “terrific learning experience.” Ten in 2004, she joined NOVA


Chemicals, a move which Ambrose describes as a major juncture in her career. Before NOVA, she knew the players in the chemical industry but had no idea how their businesses worked. “I didn’t go in-house as coun- sel but rather as head of public policy. NOVA’s CEO took me by the hand and showed me the corporate world. I sat with the executive committee, was a member of the senior team, and presented to the board all the time. It changed my life.” Prior to joining Siemens in March


2009, Ambrose was principal adviser at mining company Rio Tinto, whose huge open-pit copper mine in Salt Lake City, Utah, can be seen by the naked eye from space. As a lobbyist, says Ambrose, “You


need to stick with your moral com- pass. On balance you need to think things are going in the right direc- tion and that there’s enough there to justify working for that company.” Praised as a strong investor in


America in President Obama’s two most recent State of the Union Addresses, Siemens is one of the United States’ largest foreign inves- tors. “It’s a company rife with endless opportunities and numerous people to manage, which I like and find very gratifying,” Ambrose says. “At this point in my career, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be. “I subscribe to Sheryl Sandberg’s


philosophy—find what you love to do for your career and lean-in hard.” D&B


Patrick Folliard is a freelance writer based in Silver Spring, Md.


MAY/JUNE 2013 DIVERSITY & THE BAR® 19


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