About the Publication · Est. 2017
Founded by a McKinsey partner who got tired of leadership advice written for people who already had power.
Maren Holloway left a seven-year career advising Fortune 500 CEOs to start a publication for the women in the rooms she used to brief — the directors, VPs, and operators who needed sharper intelligence, not softer inspiration. Eight years later, Dominant Women is read by 84,000+ women leaders across 62 countries.
Photographed for Issue No. 84, March 2025. Styling by Ines Atelier.
We do not publish motivation. We do not publish tips. We publish the operating manual for women who refuse to lead quietly — research-backed, sharply edited, and written for women who want to win on their own terms.
Maren Holloway, photographed in the Dominant Women editorial library, January 2025.
The Founder
Maren Holloway
Maren spent seven years as a partner at McKinsey & Company advising CEOs, CHROs, and boards through transformations, integrations, and leadership transitions. In 2017 she launched a one-person newsletter because she could not find honest writing for the women in those boardrooms — the operators who wanted strategy, not pep talks.
The newsletter sold out its first paid sponsorship within a month. It expanded into a full publishing platform in 2020 and now supports a 14-person editorial team, a nine-person advisory board, and a flagship podcast ranked in the top three of Apple Podcasts' Business > Careers category.
- 2017 Founded Dominant Women as a single-author newsletter
- 2019 Named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list
- 2021 Contributing author, Harvard Business Review
- 2024 Bestselling author, The Authority Stack
Editorial Advisory Board
The nine people behind every essay we publish.
Two bestselling authors, one Pulitzer nominee, three former Fortune 500 CHROs, and three senior operators — convened quarterly to vet our editorial standards, fact-check our research, and pressure-test our framing before any piece goes to print.
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Dr. Renata Caldwell
Chair of the Advisory Board
Former CHRO, Goldman Sachs. Pulitzer nominee for The Quiet Room (2022).
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Naomi Tsukamoto
Bestselling Author
Former CHRO, Microsoft. Author, The Leverage Letter.
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Isabel Ferraro
Bestselling Author
Author, Power, Plainly. Former COO, Bumble.
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Margaret Whitlock
Former Fortune 500 CHRO
Former CHRO, Pfizer. Board director, two S&P 500 companies.
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Priya Anand
Senior Operator
Managing Director, YPO New York Chapter. Founder, Anand & Co.
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Adaeze Okonkwo
Senior Operator
Former CFO, Etsy. Board director, two growth-stage companies.
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Caroline Veatch
Former Fortune 500 CHRO
Former CHRO, JPMorgan Chase. Lecturer, Wharton.
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Layla Mansour
Senior Operator
Partner, Sequoia. Board director, three venture-backed companies.
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Theodora Kingsley
Senior Operator
Former Editor, The Atlantic's Business section. Visiting fellow, Yale.
The board meets quarterly. Minutes are published in full to subscribers each January.
How We Publish
Four standards we will not compromise, written in plain language so you can hold us to them.
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01
Independence.
Our editorial team and our advisory board operate independently of every commercial partner, advertiser, and sponsor. Brand partners including Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, and Bumble have no advance sight of essays and no veto over coverage. Our editorial decisions are made by writers, not by sales.
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02
Sourcing.
Every factual claim in a Dominant Women essay cites a primary, verifiable source — peer-reviewed research, court filings, company disclosures, or named on-record interviews. We name our sources, link our data, and publish our corrections within seven days.
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03
Research depth.
Our essays average 6.4 minutes of read time — roughly three times the industry benchmark for leadership content — because we refuse to compress nuance. Every long-form piece is reviewed by at least one subject-matter expert on the advisory board before publication.
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04
Reader accountability.
We publish an annual reader survey — the most recent drew 12,400 responses — and we disclose our methodology, our demographics, and our correction log publicly. If a piece is wrong, we say so, in the same place we said it the first time, with the correction dated and visible.
The Authority Brief · Free Weekly
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A six-minute read on negotiation, executive presence, power dynamics, and personal brand — researched by our editorial team, vetted by our advisory board, and delivered to your inbox before your first meeting of the week.
- 41%Director, VP, SVP, or C-suite
- $187KMedian household income
- 62Countries in our readership
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