Sarah Greene Lehman
CEO | Zartico Inc.
What accomplishments are you most proud of?
I’ve always believed that the real measure of leadership is what you leave behind. Not the growth metrics from your best quarter, but whether the companies, the people and the communities you touched are stronger because you were there. That belief has guided every decision I’ve made as a leader, including the ones that required the most conviction.
At ENVE, I made the call to keep manufacturing in the U.S. when every competitor went to Asia. It was harder and more expensive. It also protected our proprietary technology and our people. Those wheels are still made 100% in the U.S. today.
At Zartico, I’m most proud of what we are building. We developed a proprietary data model, now protected by two patents, that reveals how visitors move through and spend in communities. No one had done this before. The visitor economy is nearly 10% of global GDP and touches every community in America — yet it is one of the least measured sectors in the modern economy. We are changing that. Destination leaders can now make real decisions based on real intelligence, not lagging quarterly reports. When we do our job, we transform communities for the better.
The most gratifying aspect of my career is developing people at every level, including several who have gone on to become CEOs and senior executives. When you help someone discover what they’re capable of, that impact multiplies far beyond any single company or role. It’s the kind of legacy that actually means something.
After 25 years of marriage and three kids, I hope what they took from watching their mom change industries at 50, while learning entirely new skills and staying genuinely curious the whole way through, is that it’s never too late to grow. That adaptability isn’t a soft skill, it’s the skill — and that laughter is the thing that gets you through all of it.
What unique strengths do you bring to your professional and other roles?
My career has never followed a straight line, and I’ve come to see that as my greatest asset.
I started in biotech and pharma, where the stakes are high and the data has to be right. I learned operational rigor, regulatory complexity and what it means to build products that actually matter to people’s lives. From there, I moved into consumer products and manufacturing at ENVE, leading a global brand where quality, craftsmanship and customer loyalty drove everything. Then I came to B2B SaaS and the visitor economy, an industry I had no background in, and joined Zartico at 50.
After leading two fundamentally different companies, I’ve come to believe three things remain true regardless of industry. First, great products solve real and specific problems. At ENVE, it was performance and craftsmanship for serious cyclists. At Zartico, it was the chance to finally give an industry that champions communities and drives economic vitality the intelligence it needed to do its job even better. The discipline of finding the genuine problem before building the solution is something I carry into every role.
Second, people do business with people and brands they trust. I’ve seen this hold in B2C and B2B, in manufacturing and in SaaS, in boom markets and in difficult ones. Trust is built through consistency, transparency and doing what you say you’ll do. It is slow to build and fast to lose. Every decision I make as a leader runs through that filter.
Third, people want to work for leaders and causes they believe in. Culture is not a perk. It’s a strategy. The teams I’ve built show up with energy and conviction because they believe the work matters. The leaders who attract and retain exceptional people are the ones who can answer two questions clearly: What are we building and why does it matter? When those answers are compelling and when they are lived out loud by leadership every single day, people bring their best. They tackle hard problems with creativity and commitment. They find meaning at the intersection of what they are good at and what the world actually needs.
Those three principles have proven true across every industry, every business model and every stage of growth.
What key advice would you offer to other aspiring leaders?
Start with AI. Today. Not tomorrow, not after the next planning cycle. The world is changing at a pace that rewards the curious and leaves the hesitant behind. The only way to truly understand what’s possible is to immerse yourself in it. Use the tools. Break things. Learn. The leaders who thrive in the next decade will be the ones who got comfortable being beginners again.
Before you lead anyone else, lead yourself. That means knowing what you stand for before the pressure arrives, not during it. It means taking your own energy, clarity and well-being seriously because you cannot pour from an empty cup. Your team doesn’t need you to have all the answers. They need to trust that you are grounded, that you are honest and that you show up fully. Your energy is their energy.
Play bigger than feels comfortable. Most leaders I know are capable of far more than they allow themselves to pursue. The ceiling is almost always one you built yourself, which means you can also be the one to raise it.
This is one of the most exciting times in history to be a leader. The tools are extraordinary, the problems are real and the opportunity to build something that genuinely matters has never been greater.