For Carine S. Clark, life is about building others.
She seizes every opportunity — from answering job questions at a pool party to helping people get into MBA programs to organizing her hairdresser’s son’s first flight — to give others a hand. “I try to lift as I rise,” Clark says.
Clark was a shy fifth-grader who ate lunch alone, but now she’s a member of several boards for technology and education, a four-time president and CEO, and a member of the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games. While that may seem like an impossible leap, Clark stepped up to the plate even when life threw her curveballs.
“My parents taught us what it meant to have courage over comfort and that the universe favors the brave. Even when something seems scary, I do it anyway,” Clark says.
That bravery propelled her into the tech industry as a woman. “There were no real role models for us. We kind of had to just figure it out. Maybe that’s why we’re so tough,” Clark says. But she didn’t do it alone. “I had mentors who were men who opened the door for me and shoved me through it, and then they locked it behind me because they knew I could do it when I didn’t know I could.”
Now, Clark devotes her time to mentoring others. Her office is open to interns and executives alike, and she frequently preaches that everyone can mentor the next generation. “They can go faster and further than we did,” she says.
That desire to help others was strengthened by Clark’s battle with Stage 3 ovarian cancer. “I was going to fight it on my own terms,” she says, and she chose to have her port placed with no anesthesia because she wanted to show the cancer what kind of host it had picked. “When you think you’re going to die, it changes you forever, so you don’t spend time on things that don’t matter.”
Now, Clark advocates for people battling cancer by helping them get support, treatment at the Huntsman Cancer Institute and access to clinical trials. She fundraises for cancer resources and participates in charity bike rides.
“The rent that we pay to live on this planet is to help other people,” Clark says. It’s safe to say she’s an ideal tenant. To Main Page