This month, we are proud to sponsor our president and CEO, Barbara Hogan! If you went back in time and told the high school, Barbara, that someday she'd receive an MBA and own not one but two companies, she'd never believed you. She honestly never thought she'd even receive a bachelor's degree, yet she surprised herself by double majoring in undergrad, earning a Bachelor's in Psychology and a Bachelor’s in Social Justice. Although her dream was ministry, she was a Temp at GE the summer before she graduated college. While there, she found that she enjoyed the challenges of business and realized that ministry was not confined to the walls of a church. Barbara's passion is helping people, and the Marketplace provides an excellent opportunity to live her dreams. Her career continued to grow, and she eventually became a project manager through a third party with P&G., where she met her husband of twenty-eight years. As their family expanded, she became a stay-at-home mom for fourteen years. Until 2010, when Barbara and her business partner and husband, Bryan, launched Afidence IT Consulting. Afidence became an award-winning company while experiencing rapid growth.

At the end 2016, Barbara launched Timbelo, Inc. as a WBENC, a woman-owned and certified tech product company. After a successful launch in 2017, Hogan sold the product division in early 2018, and continued Timbelo, Inc. as a strategic business advisory firm. Timbelo’s purpose is to create atmospheres that empower personal and professional transformation through strategic consulting, executive coaching, and leadership cohorts.

The Timbelo venture provided an opportunity to give back and help others through a “cause.” As a result, Hogan gravitated towards anti-trafficking to be the Timbelo, Inc. cause. Why? Due to childhood experiences like the loss of a sibling, the premature death of her father, relocating across the country, and then experiencing sexual abuse by a “family friend,” Hogan developed a deep sense of justice and empathy for others. Others who might also be lost and trapped.  This led her to focus the Cause of her new business on anti-human-trafficking. Even though she wasn't trafficked herself, she understood what it felt like to be trapped, alone, and even blamed for her abuse.

Previously, dedication to this Cause mainly comprised of financially supporting anti-trafficking groups. However, nearly two years ago now, her staff Hannah Shotwell and Spencer Hogan started taking Timbelo in a more hands on approach to our cause. This new project began with our Cause Blog, where we hoped to educate ourselves and others, and has since grown to our Pledge Against Human Trafficking! Our Pledge calls other businesses into action against human trafficking with us. We've come so far and learned so much, yet we also understand that there is much work to be done and we here at Timbelo are proud to have such a strong leader with us every step of the way!