Edwina Woodbury
By Nancy Oates

opping a plane to Taipei for a day, then flying 20-some hours home again sounds exciting; but it also was debilitating, said Edwina Woodbury (BSBA '73), who lived that life working among corporate titans as chief financial officer of Avon Products.

When a new chairman took over at Avon in 1988, just as Woodbury was poised to move to Europe to run operations for the global corporation, she took a once-in-a-career opportunity to leave the high-powered executive life in New York and start down a new career path. The North Carolina native and her husband, Dennis McGill, a food industry consultant, quit their jobs, sold their home and moved to Chapel Hill with no particular business lined up.

"Some would say that's foolish," Woodbury said. "But no one said it to my face."

Most applauded her decision to leave the executive arena for a simpler, down-to-earth life. Others were disappointed that one of only 10 female CFOs of Fortune 500 companies would abandon that elite group. But Woodbury never has had any regrets.

"As a member of senior management of a big company, you have influence, but you are far removed from the consumer," she said. "Increasing shareholder value was important, but it didn't get me out of bed in the morning. I wanted to touch the consumer directly, and I wanted to run my own business."

When the opportunity came to buy the assets of Chapel Hill Press in 1999, she and McGill took it, even though neither knew anything about publishing. But Woodbury did know about business - what drove it, its indicators of success and how to deliver customer service. The company published 17 books last year and has 13 in the works so far this year. She expects the volume next year to support achievement of her profitability target for the business. The work fulfills the objectives she delineated when she decided to leave the corporate world.

"I didn't want work to consume my life; I wanted to work with people who were interesting and fun; and I wanted to feel I was making a difference," she said.

Chapel Hill Press produces books by people who have lived interesting lives but who might not be published if they didn't do it themselves. People walk through Woodbury's door with their life in a shoebox, and, with the help of a stable of editorial and graphic design free-lancers, she turns the mementos, photos and ideas into a book that can hold its own against any in a bookstore, Woodbury said.

She still works long hours, "but that's just me," she said. And she still wakes up every morning and considers what more she would like - not more worldly goods (she has enough of those) but more time to give back and make a difference.

"I'm not the kind who will settle into a job and do it all my life," she said. "The clean sheet of paper is a mixed blessing. When you design your own life, you have no one to blame if you don't like it."

Right now though, she likes it - a 10-minute commute, walks in clean air, frequent visits to her parents who live nearby.

"Isn't this wicked to live the life I have chosen?" she said.