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Andrea Robinson is one of the world's few women to earn the prestigious Master Sommelier title. She has earned it with historic firsts, a camera-ready charm honed over multiple television shows, and a portfolio of groundbreaking collaborations that challenge how we think about wine, business, and what it means to reinvent yourself on your own terms.
Transformation is something Robinson knows intimately as a wine expert, author and educator for programs like the Institute of Culinary Education. She left a promising Wall Street career to pursue her passion for wine, starting from the bottom—literally. She began by volunteering to clean spit buckets at wine schools in New York in exchange for free classes at the renowned Windows on the World Wine School, founded by legendary wine educator Kevin Zraly.
The pivot paid off. She became the first American woman to compete in the Concours Mondial des Sommeliers (Sommelier World Championship), and the first woman named Best Sommelier in the United States by the Sommelier Society of America. Today, she’s one of only 25 women in the U.S. and 279 professionals worldwide to hold the Master Sommelier credential, a feat with a pass rate of around four percent. 
That is exactly the kind of bold, values-driven leap that made Robinson a natural fit for TFR Shoes. A master of perfect pairings, Robinson gravitates toward the HELENE slingback in Champagne—a fitting nod to her go-to pour.
“Can you imagine why?” she laughs.
As for her favorite wine, “it’s not what most professionals probably would say, but I think I end up at white because of the champagne.”
For Robinson, every choice—from career pivots to style—tells a story.
<h6 dir="ltr">From Wall Street to Wine Country</h6>
Robinson’s wine journey started almost by accident. While studying finance in college, she took a wine-tasting class for fun. 
“I had that lightbulb moment,” she recalls. “It's history, it's science, it's gastronomy, it's art, it's connection, it's culture.”
Her passion for wine had been sparked—equal parts sensory pleasure and intellectual rigor—and followed her to Wall Street. When her analyst program at Morgan Stanley ended, she realized if she didn’t jump now, she may “never have the guts to do it.” So she broke the golden handcuffs, skipped business school, and traveled through Europe on a UL public-transit pass and a youth hostel card, immersing herself in the centuries-old traditions of winemaking “in the hilltop town of Tuscany.” The same region where every pair of TFR shoes is handcrafted!
The result was an entrepreneurial career that blended hospitality with strategy, sensory experience with storytelling. She quickly became a media entity. She hosted three food, wine and beverage shows—Simply Wine with Andrea Immer (Fine Living Network), Pairings with Andrea (Fine Living and Food Network), and Quench (livestreamed monthly on Robinson’s YouTube channel), bringing beverage education to a national audience with her signature wit and warmth. 
She is also the force behind <a href="https://swirledcup.tv/" title="The Swirled Cup">The Swirled Cup</a>, now streaming on Delta Studio. The independent film marks two significant anniversaries: the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the 50th anniversary of the 1976 Paris Tasting — the historic blind tasting that, in Andrea's words, "transformed an 8,000 year old industry in 50 years time."
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The three-time James Beard Award winner’s inviting, inclusive approach to wine is as rooted in education as it is in deep expertise. Robinson teaches, writes, speaks, and consults for major hospitality brands like Delta Air Lines, where she’s curated the wine program since 2007. All while demystifying wine for newcomers and connoisseurs alike. 
Napa Valley is home base now, but Robinson never fully left Wall Street behind. Her financial background shapes how she pitches, how she consults, and how she builds relationships with clients like Norwegian Cruise Line and Starwood Hotels—approaching each one as a business problem first, a wine pairing second.
“Wine comes with its own trappings of superiority and self-importance and the stuffy sommelier thing,” Robinson says, explaining the delicate balance. “My approach is [to] become a big student of [a client’s] business, try to get a real clear picture of what they care about, and then ask them if I've gotten that right.”
When working with brands or hosting a tasting, her perspective on both business and wine has a common thread: validation. Whether it’s a brand partner feeling seen in her proposals or a guest discovering a flavor profile that confirms their instincts, Robinson finds joy in giving others that moment of recognition—and the confidence that comes with it.
“I really take the world of wine and invite everybody into the sandbox,” she says.
“As long as the discussion around wine highlights the fun, the connectedness, the authenticity— everybody gets it. As long as you're not talking down to people, the people who already knew the answer just feel validated.” 
<h6 dir="ltr">Unmatchable Experiences, Unmatchable Women </h6>
TFR stands for Timeless Form Reimagined. For Robinson, that could just as easily describe wine. Rooted in place, shaped by tradition, and constantly being rediscovered — it is a category that rewards the women willing to redefine it on their own terms.
“It’s timeless in the sense that it is always connected to a place.”
To Robinson, “fine wine” has soul, identity, and intention tied to its source. She makes a point to mention environmental responsibility, and believes wine should be respected and preserved over being treated as commodity.
“Improvement requires treating the land as the resource that it is, rather than something to be leveraged [and] monetized.” 
Robinson's version of an unmatchable experience involves wine, but it is really about women.
She would host a long lunch with the late Margrit Mondavi, whose legacy in Napa Valley spans wine, philanthropy, and the arts, and South African vineyard activist Rosa Kruger, who has spent her career preserving ancient vines that most of the industry would have torn out decades ago. In regions like Napa, vineyards are typically replanted every 30 years. Kruger's vines are 60 to 130 years old — and still producing.
“As people age, we are less productive, but we’re more interesting and have more to say,” Robinson says. “The wines from old vines are kind of cool that way too.” 
To Robinson, these kinds of conversations—where history meets hospitality, and tradition meets reinvention—are what elevate a moment into something lasting. 
“Experiences are kind of by definition unmatchable,” she says. “And so investing in the best of them is so wise, because that’s all we’re here for.”

Master Sommelier Andrea Robinson: On Reinvention, Wine, and the Art of the Perfect Pairing

Trailblazers

Maria Teresa de Filippis was not supposed to be there. 
In 1958, Formula One was a world built entirely for men. It was fast, dangerous, and closed to anyone who didn’t fit the mold. When de Filippis arrived at the 1958 French Grand Prix, she was turned away with a remark so dismissive it has been documented ever since. She was told, in plain terms, that the only helmet a woman needed was one for her hair.
She showed up to the next race anyway.
Born in Naples, Italy in 1926, Maria Teresa was the youngest of five children. She discovered motorsport through her brothers, who, convinced she would back down, dared her to enter a local hillclimb race near the Amalfi Coast. She was 22. She climbed behind the wheel of a Fiat 500, ran the course, and won her class.
That set off a chain of events that led her to one of Formula One’s biggest stages, where she drove a Maserati 250F alongside legends like Juan Manuel Fangio. She earned her place through years of sports car racing, a second-place finish in the Italian Sports Car Championship, and strong performances that drew the attention of none other than Maserati. The company brought her into its official racing effort. 
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Filippis at the 1958 Belgian Grand Prix in her Maserati 250F
Fangio himself <a href="https://velocetoday.com/farewell-maria-teresa-de-filippis/">took notice</a>, and not always approvingly. 
"Fangio told me I drove too fast," she later recalled with characteristic lightness, "that I should try to go a little slower."
Coming from the man widely regarded as the greatest Formula One driver of all time, it was less a criticism than a compliment.
When she qualified for the 1958 Belgian Grand Prix and finished the race, she became the first woman in history to compete in a Formula One World Championship event.
Her time in Formula One was brief, but her impact lasted. In the years that followed, racing lost several people close to her, including her team boss Jean Behra. She stepped away from professional competition in 1959, but she stayed connected to the sport for the rest of her life.
She helped open doors for others in motorsport and later served as Vice-President of the International Club of Former F1 Grand Prix Drivers.
When she died in January 2016 at age 89, tributes from across the racing world showed how much her presence had meant.
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0726/3951/2858/files/Filippis_and_Villoresi.jpg?v=1781033000" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">Filippis and fellow Maserati driver Luigi Villoresi 
No woman competed in a Formula One race for another 15 years after de Filippis. That gap is its own kind of testament to how far ahead of her time she was, and how much courage it took to be there at all. 
"I was either courageous or reckless, or foolhardy," <a href="https://www.footmanjames.co.uk/blog/maria-teresa-de-filippis-on-the-track">she once said</a>. "Call it what you want. I just liked to go at full speed."
That is what the <a href="https://tfrshoes.com/products/teresa-20mm-midnight-metallic">TERESA</a> sandal carries forward.
TERESA is built for you — the woman who commits to a direction and sees it through. An adjustable rear strap keeps the fit secure through every kind of day: the long ones, the unpredictable ones, the ones that asked more of you than you expected when you got dressed that morning.
Named for a woman who showed up where she was not expected, and stayed the course.
Made for women who do the same.

Full Speed Ahead: The Woman Behind TERESA

Our version of a ballet flat gets its name from Hélène de Pourtalès, a pioneer for women in sports and an Olympic champion. As one of the first women to compete in the Olympic games, Hélène paved the way for today’s greats: Katie, Simone, Sha’Carri, Diana, Ilona and so many others.
It’s no secret that we endorse women’s empowerment and equality here at TFR, which means we were, obviously, glued to our televisions for much of July and August watching the Summer Olympics in Paris. For the first time in Olympic history, these 2024 games had an equal number of men and women competing. But it was the women who shone in these games, bringing home more than half of the medals for powerhouses like Team USA, China and Australia, and breaking many records along the way. 
It took a long time to get to gender parity. The first modern Olympics, held in Athens in 1896, had 241 athletes. And they were all males. That same year, it was announced that women would be allowed to compete in the next games to be held in Paris in 1900. There, women were allowed to compete in no more than five disciplines: golf, tennis, sailing, croquet, and equestrianism. Unsurprisingly, this was not welcomed news. But it opened the door for the first 20 women to compete in an Olympic games, including Hélène de Pourtalès.
Hélène’s sport was sailing, an interest ignited by her father when she was a child. She also had great female mentors in the sport, including Baroness Julie von Rothschild, whose passion and competitive spirit earned her the title of “fastest yachting lady” of her day. Hélène married Hermann de Pourtalès, a fellow yachtsman who shared her passion for sailing. They competed together in multiple regattas, eventually qualifying for the 1900 Olympics where they won two medals for Switzerland––a gold and silver––and Hélène became the first female Olympic Gold medalist on May 22, 1900, at the age of 32. 
Hélène's fame after the 1900 Games was short-lived, not least due to the prevailing negative sentiment among the press and rest of society about women in sport. She spent the rest of her life in anonymity. Hélène's passion, competitive spirit, and fearlessness in a place where she wasn’t fully welcome are an inspiration for the women of TFR.
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Sport Meets Sophistication: Introducing Helene

Our inaugural loafer, the Katharine, gets its name from trailblazer and Washington Post luminary, Katharine Graham. Though Miss Graham was born into The Washington Post––her financier father having purchased it in 1933––it was under Katharine’s leadership that the face of journalism was forever changed.
Katharine was led to her position at the helm of The Washington Post when her husband, president and former publisher of The Washington Post, Phillip Graham, committed suicide. But it was not a seamless transition. In the 1970s, women in journalism, let alone positions of authority, were uncommon. While we celebrate Katharine’s headstrong leadership today, it took her years to find her voice in a male-dominated industry. 
Though she was one of the first female CEOs of a Fortune 500 company, as well as one of the first female publishers, it was Graham’s decision to publish the Pentagon Papers, effectively exposing the Watergate scandal and eventually leading to the resignation of Richard Nixon, that helped solidify the magnitude of her cultural contribution. What binds Katharine to the women who inspire TFR, however, is her determination, grace, and conviction.
The Katharine loafer is imbued with elegance and versatility, a nod to the woman who forever altered journalism, paving the way for female CEOs, publishers, and writers. You could say we’ve got big shoes to fill.
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Katherine Graham speaking to newsroom employees during pressmen's strike

Why Katharine, and Who Is She?

It’s early September in Berlin and digital artist and TFR guest collaborator Gretchen Andrew has a busy month. She’s a woman who is going places, in her career quest to see if the Internet can make her a famous artist, and in the most literal sense: She takes our Zoom call on foot, speed-walking to catch a glimpse of “Facetune Portraits,” the exhibition she’s showing at Berlin Art Week, before the sun goes down. 
For the brand launch of TFR, Andrew designed “Dreams to Reality,” a series of NFTs celebrating the first collection of footwear. Andrew splits her time between London and Park City and travels often (“Facetune Portraits” tours in Paris, Miami, San Francisco, New York and Dubai in the next six months), so the collaboration was a true fit, pairing an artist manifested from an experiment on the Internet with the ambitious mission to invent a luxury dress shoe with the insole of a sneaker. 
“For the digital collectible we decided to go for an animation that reflects Tori’s journey in making the shoes and also the literal and metaphorical journeys we hope the women who wear them go on, ‘from dreams to reality,’” Andrew says of the NFTs in collaboration with TFR’s eponymous founder, Tori Forbes-Roberts. Each of the three pieces of digital collectible art come with an animated, mixed-media illustration of a TFR shoe rendering becoming real, and an affirmation for the wearer.   
For the photo shoot for the collaboration, the artist, whose self-described style includes elevated sporty looks for “literally running from one thing to the next,” wore the Katharine loafer from the collection and “loved the way it felt both powerful and comfortable.” 
On Owning Your Likeness—And Your Power
As a format, NFTs mirror the footwear line’s unmatchable designs. (Any person who has limped in heels can appreciate that, like an elusive dress shoe that feels like walking on clouds, NFTs are unique because they can’t be replicated.) Andrew’s NFT collection for the brand ties into her larger body of work through themes of manifestation, which Andrew explains as her way of hacking the Internet. In her art project and career challenge to become a successful artist online, Andrew set out to use search engines to build associations between her and a famous artist, attacking the “subconscious of the Internet.” 
“I was using these very girly and frivolous ideas of vision boards and affirmations and manifestation, but I was using them in a technically structured way where they were changing Google search results,” Andrew says, pointing to the power a democratized Internet gives the end user. The results were effective. “They were manipulating these big tech algorithms.”
In her touring exhibition, Andrew’s featured collection of portraits employ custom robotics to apply the same face-tune filters that social media users try on to beautify themselves—but using physical paint instead of digital filters. 
Andrew’s robot distorts the faces and bodies of her subjects to expose “where the power is in how we represent ourselves,” by visualizing in the physical world what AI does to our likenesses in the online world. Like an alarm to remind us of our humanity, the work seems to tap the viewer on the shoulder and say, particularly to women: We have power, and we are giving it away to technology. 
“These tools seem like they're very self-empowering because they let us decide how we want to be represented. But then they go into this algorithmic system where someone else has determined that if you look this way, you're more likely to get exposure on these platforms,” Andrew says. 
“The sense of choice disappears quite quickly.”
Andrew has used the robotics to face-tune her own portraits as well as influencers and singers whose careers rely on social media—all of whom understand the pressure to aesthetically appeal to the algorithm while promoting their creative work. 
“I also know if I post a pretty photo, my next three photos will get more traction,” Andrew says, explaining the catch-22, where creators are on social media to work but “are rewarded if we look pretty.” 
What makes the artist’s commentary interesting on a meta level is the irony of using the very manipulation tools and technology she’s commenting on to make the art. After all, visibly distorting subjects’ physical personhood, rather than their online avatars, demonstrates the harm more starkly. So does Andrew see AI’s influence on the algorithms as perilous, or as a tool in her artist palette? While she believes it’s generally bad to normalize using AI tools and filters to manipulate reality, part of how she views her role as an Internet artist is to educate on how the technology works by taking it to an “absurd” level.
Andrew says the wisest course to chart is not to run from (or attempt to outrun) technology but to “rearrange our expectations and personal relationships to it.” She believes the future of AI will be “a lot like the way that capitalism is in our world where it's pervasive; it impacts everything; it changes our priorities.” 
“No creator can fully exist outside of the capitalist system. And that I think is going to be true for AI and, and artists as well.” 
On Making Yourself Unmatchable in the Future of Work 
Andrew spends a lot of time thinking about what makes us human—vulnerability, emotional capacity, desires and unfulfilled dreams—and reframing the negative connotations associated with our fragility as assets in the mixed universe of the future.
If using AI at work is as inevitable as it seems, Andrew’s advice for creators and high-performing women in industries where the future of work is changing is to try to remember you’re not competing with the AI. 
“There are a billion versions of AI and a billion bots and none of them are you.” 
According to the artist, the key is in your humanity, and being yourself. 
“Make yourself irreplaceable,” Andrew says. “Who are you that is different than any other person in the world? If you can believe that who you are matters even to yourself, then you’re the only you that will ever exist.” 
Andrew’s self-transformation and global success are proof of believing in your inner power, answering the question in her virtual experiment on how the algorithm manipulates us—and what happens when we manipulate back. 
As a creator who believes an artist’s job is being celebrated for their unique self, Andrew says, like an irreplaceable NFT, each unique human is inherently unmatchable. 
More than a decade after a false start in Silicon Valley using her degree in information systems and theory (she loved tech but hated her job), Andrew has found a way to use technology to show the public how it’s misused. 
“That was like 15 years ago. Here we are and I’m running around Berlin because I've got this big exhibition opening. ‘It's worked’ is kind of the point.” 
System hacked.

Member Spotlight: Gretchen Andrew

Marie Curie was the first woman in France to receive a PhD in Physics and the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize. She received the award for her work in Physics in 1903, an honor she shared with her husband and another colleague, Pierre Becquerel. She’s also the only person––male or female––to receive two Nobel Prizes in separate disciplines, with the second honor achieved in Chemistry, on her own, in 1911.
Her accomplishments are an inspiration for women who work in STEM, but the way she got there likely resonates with all of us. Marie was often described as “quiet, dignified, unassuming,” which sound to us like euphemisms for those likely to be underestimated. But what she really demonstrated was an uncommon intelligence, intensity, and will. She pushed herself hard to be the smartest and hardest worker in the room. She was someone who wanted to win on merit. Because good gets noticed, right? Not always.
Despite being the best and brightest, her contributions in the discovery of radioactivity that ultimately led to the first Nobel prize were still downplayed. Her skeptics among the French Academy of Sciences tried to exclude her from the award and give it to her two male research partners: her husband and Becquerel. Rightfully, her husband advocated for her and her role in their discoveries. Ultimately, the three shared the prize. A supportive partner, whether you work in the same field or not, continues to be a key attribute for many successful women today. 
Marie was also a working mom. She and her husband, Pierre, had two daughters together. Long before the days of daycare, society norms at the time would have her leave work to raise her children. Instead, her father-in-law stepped in to help raise the girls. She was heavily judged by those around her for not spending more time raising her children. Despite all of her professional achievements, the press tried to alter her story, emphasizing her role as mother, wife, and humanitarian, downplaying her role in science. Those were the roles that women were expected to play. More than 100 years later, these expectations are not entirely extinguished.
Thankfully, Marie overcame obstacles in her career and still found time to pave the way for others to follow her lead. She was a teacher, tutor, and mentor for girls in science, including her daughters. One of them followed in her mom’s footsteps, became a scientist, and also won a Nobel prize. Marie knew that our success as pioneers shouldn’t be defined by the destinations we reach, but by our ability to pave new paths for others on their way to bigger and better places.
 
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Be A Marie

For a woman whose career has spanned nearly six decades across politics, media and consulting as an executive, author and speaker on women in business, Gail Evans has walked in many shoes. To celebrate the launch of TFR’s first collection of high-performance luxury shoes—and the unstoppable women who wear them—we sat down with the leadership expert to discuss career longevity, navigating transitions, and how to keep putting one foot forward, even when the road ahead is unknown.
Skimming Evans’ resume, it’s clear she’s left her mark over a long career. The trailblazer has contributed to defining cornerstones of American policy and the news cycle we know today. Evans first got her start on Capitol Hill, where she worked as a special advisor to LBJ on equal opportunity and the Civil Rights Act, setting up the president’s committee that eventually became the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 1965. She was among the first employees when CNN launched in 1980 in Atlanta, where she’s still based. For decades, she’s been a sought-after consultant in politics and women’s leadership. 
Put simply, if anyone could be described as unstoppable, it’s Evans: She has had a pioneering career with such impact, she once tried to retire as an 80th birthday present to herself—and it didn’t stick. 
“That lasted for six weeks,” she says with a laugh. Because of the demand for her leadership and expertise (and her insatiable drive), she quickly boomeranged back into consulting when the first intriguing project came across her desk. 
Even in her 80s, Evans is proving she’s far from finished. She’s still consulting on women-centered projects for clients like Delta Air Lines (on an initiative to get more women into top management positions), the <a href="https://thehgbfoundation.org/">Helen Gurley Brown Foundation</a>, and in politics where she began. 
Embracing Evolutions
Fast forward from her time in the White House, and Evans was writing books and lecturing about women in business. 
“I feel as though my life is circular,” she says. “I took a 30-year detour to have a career to discover all the things that I believed when I was 21 were true. And now I come back to it 50 years later and actually have the empirical evidence that it was true.”
It might feel nice to be right, but Evans would’ve rather been wrong about where women would be today, even if her book <a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/play-like-a-man-win-like-a-woman-gail-evans/1004707261">“Play Like a Man, Win Like a Woman”</a> is still in print and selling copies 25 years later. 
“I really believed, when I wrote it, that books like that would be irrelevant 25 years later,” she says with a frankness that’s characteristic of her books, lectures (and this interview). “That actually isn't exciting to me because that means 25 years later we're still dealing with issues we dealt with 25 years ago that I wish for my daughters and granddaughters and great-granddaughters would just be gone.”
Reflecting on her journey in male-dominated spaces, Evans has seen some progress but not enough.
“Every place I went, it just seemed like there were 14 men and me in the room,” she says of where she started. “I think that's changed today. It's probably five men and me. But it's still a battle.”
On the evolution of roles for women in her various industries, Evans is blunt, but she also tells a great story, the kind with juicy historical trivia that commands respect for being in the room where it happens. She has been in the game long enough that she was there as an early contributor—but not exactly getting the credit for it. When asked about her role in shaping the landmark policy of the Civil Rights Act, we get to talking about job titles of the time, and Evans spills the tea. 
“I can tell you, back in those days, by and large, a little in the Kennedy administration, and then the Johnson administration, [for] the majority of women, the title was ‘Secretaries’—except that we were researchers,” she recalls. “We were everything. We did everything that the boss needed for the background to make it happen.” 
Story time. Evans has a treasure trove of illuminating anecdotes that, when weaved together, offer a timeline of how far we’ve come, even if we do have further to go. 
“It was a very different kind of world. We had a lot of freedom and a lot of policy got written and researched by young women and probably young men who worked on Capitol Hill and worked in the agencies,” she says of the White House “secretaries” who were actually writing the policy that became equal opportunity law. 
It was on Capitol Hill that Evans found agency and ownership over her career, but the role Evans says she learned the most from was being one of CNN’s early employees. She joined CNN a month after the network was on air, at a time when few believed it would succeed. She quickly learned that there’s nothing you can't do if you're strategic, smart, and willing to work hard.
“Everybody laughed at us and said, ‘You're nobody, you can't do it.’ They called us the Chicken Noodle Network, and every day we came in and said, ‘Okay, we can figure this out.’ And we did.” 
Unlocking Your Inner Power—and Your Best Performance
For Evans, finding your inner power is the driving force behind tuning out the haters and turning a tough transition into a brilliant transformation. Evans’ twofold philosophy to unlock her power—staying present and avoiding the trap of multitasking—has guided her through decades of high-stakes work. 
“When you are multitasking, you are never fully focused,” she says. “If you want to access your real power, you can't be doing 12 things at once.”
Presence, on the other hand, leads to better decision-making and fewer mistakes. Evans says she gets all of her power from focusing on the present moment, a trick that works even when you’re not perfect. 
“Most people live in the past or in the future,” Evans says. “I show up ready to play, focused on what's happening now. And you have a lot more power, knowledge, [and] ability if you're in the present.” 
In addition to the countless pearls of wisdom Evans brings from her experience in live TV and entrepreneurship, Evans embodies the TFR philosophy that a frictionless life leads to peak performance. Whether it’s a crisis strategy, a grounding mindset or a <a href="https://tfrshoes.com/products/marie-20mm-foam">supportive slingback</a> to get you through your week, the tools in your playbook should empower you to thrive under pressure and perform your best. 
“Very successful people in very stressful businesses stay calm and frictionless when things are at their worst,” Evans says. 
When things inevitably go wrong, Evans says inner power is finding the courage to cut your losses, strategize your next steps, and move forward with clarity. For her, inner power isn’t about perfection. It comes from knowing you’re already good enough, equipped to overcome setbacks, adapt and grow without feeling the need to constantly "fix" yourself.
Evans’ parting advice for today’s young professional women: Never settle for less than you can truly achieve.

Member Spotlight: Gail Evans

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Ali Harnell has spent 35 years shaping the live entertainment industry and advocating for women’s progress. Over Zoom in her office at <a title="Ali Harnell Live Nation TFR Shoes" href="https://www.livenation.com/" target="_blank">Live Nation</a>, the music industry veteran presents as a stylish executive with a casual, rocker-chic vibe that tracks with her career in Nashville—hair in undone waves, a classic denim jacket, and chunky gold rings against the backdrop of industry awards and a vintage Indigo Girls concert flyer.
Today, as Global President and Chief Strategy Officer of the Live Nation Women division at Live Nation Entertainment, Harnell’s career in the music industry has been defined by live performances and tours for some of the biggest acts in live entertainment. For The Formation blog, she shares her story with TFR in The Extra Mile interview series, celebrating the unstoppable women who are shaping the future of their industries.
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Women Paving the Way in Entertainment
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At Live Nation, Harnell produces live tours and leads the company’s division dedicated to driving progress for women, which she founded when she joined in 2019. As a tour promoter at the $28B global entertainment company in over 40 countries, Harnell’s team handles the nuts and bolts of tours from sales to production, sourcing venues, managing ticketing, bringing the talent’s production into the venue, and paying vendors. As head of Live Nation Women, Harnell works to drive the culture at Live Nation as a great company for women to work.
The division focuses on three pillars: advancing women internally at the company through resources, programs, and benefits; advocating for women across the industry; and amplifying the voices of women using Live Nation’s global platform and reach.
Under Harnell’s leadership, women’s advocacy initiatives have included Live Nation Women Circles, a peer-to-peer mentorship program, Live Nation Women Summits, and programs like Listen with Live Nation Women, which has covered topics from business and wealth-building for women to support for caregiving.
For her division’s amplification pillar, Harnell ensures that the industry’s big names have the platform to share their voices and bring their work to live audiences. In the last six years with Live Nation, Harnell has launched the tours of household names like Oprah, Katie Couric, Grammy-Award-winning artist and activist Brandi Carlile and podcast megastar Alex Cooper of <a title="Call Her Daddy Ali Harnell TFR Shoes" href="https://www.callherdaddy.com/" target="_blank">Call Her Daddy</a>—women who have reshaped their fields through originality.
"I got to do Katie Couric's book tour, which was great because, for me growing up, Katie was just such a beacon and north star of what women could do,” Harnell says of promoting the beloved journalist’s 11-city book tour for her memoir, Going There, in 2021.
In the American capital of country music, Harnell has stood by artists like Maren Morris, who briefly <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2023/9/19/23880804/maren-morris-country-music" target="_blank">distanced herself from country music in 2023</a> over political differences. “I love working with [Morris], who is very vocal and always fighting for what's right and never afraid and never backs down,” Harnell says.
Harnell produced Cooper’s sold-out <a rel="noopener" href="https://deadline.com/2024/09/alex-cooper-unwell-tour-adds-new-dates-1236074214/" target="_blank">Unwell Tours</a> prior to the influencer’s $125 million deal with SiriusXM for the Call Her Daddy podcast, which garners 13.5 million monthly listeners. “Alex came to play,” Harnell says of Cooper. “She knows how to market. She knows how to engage with her community so authentically.”
But the ultimate unmatchable woman for Harnell is the inimitable Oprah, whose hugely successful tour, Oprah’s 2020 Vision, Your Life in Focus, to a sold-out audience of 15,000 women was Harnell’s first large-scale arena tour at Live Nation.
For Harnell, this year’s Grammy Awards were a testament to the power of women in music. They left Harnell feeling inspired and hopeful.
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"You saw so many incredible artists who are one of a kind and who are expressing themselves in completely new and exciting ways,” she says.
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“Unmatchable art is just that: unique, singular, innovative, fresh,” she explains, pointing to this year’s Grammy stage. Harnell calls leading artists like breakouts Doechii and Chappell Roan and icons Beyoncé and Lady Gaga “powerhouses” who not only speak to culture but become it.
Representation isn’t just about visibility for the entertainment executive; it’s about changing the landscape of entertainment itself. As Women’s History Month highlights the contributions of trailblazers past and present, Harnell is proud to champion artists who not only break boundaries in their craft but also take a stand for what matters. “You can’t be what you can’t see,” she says, emphasizing the importance of these moments for the next generation of artists and fans alike. She says Live Nation is committed to women artists and their fans. “That's what we do. That is the culture of art and music and connection.”
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A Mindset for Manifestation
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Before her current role at Live Nation, Harnell paused between contracts to spend two weeks answering the question, “What would I do if I could do anything?" The answer was focusing on what she did best, live entertainment, but specifically in service of more opportunities for women.
Harnell took a gold journal she’d received as a 50th birthday present and advice from her songwriter friend Brandy Clark to sit and write early in the morning. For those pivotal two weeks, each morning at 5 a.m., she drafted what became the pitch that led her to Live Nation. The company’s CEO, Michael Rapino, reviewed her pitch for a division dedicated to women in live entertainment, and Live Nation Women was born.
When it comes to investing in herself, Harnell enjoys rituals like her dream-job manifestation and little luxuries, like her gold journal or <a href="https://tfrshoes.com/collections/marie/products/marie-20mm-pewter-metallic" title="TFR Marie Slingback in Champagne Metallic">TFR’s Marie slingback in Champagne Metallic</a> with sneaker-like support for high performance and a fresh, functional take on executive style. When Harnell was honored by Save the Music in 2024 in front of her industry peers, family and friends, she treated herself to a new suit to wear for the occasion.
"There is something about feeling your best,” Harnell says of the confidence investment pieces can give you “when you walk into a room or a space.”
Having spent decades at the forefront of the entertainment industry, Harnell has learned that mindset is everything. To get through a typical day, she emphasizes centering positive thoughts and affirmations, and setting intentions.
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“To perform at my best I have to meditate. I swear it’s my super power. It’s been a long road to getting to where my practice is today, but it has changed my life.”
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Her advice is to create your own balance for the season of life you’re in, citing the Rainer Maria Rilke quote: “No feeling is final.” At 57, Harnell’s children are grown and it’s a “different level of parenting and connection.” What works for Harnell today in her 50s is something she’s well aware isn’t the advice she’d give to her younger self or a mom raising kids today.
"I look back and I have no idea how I survived it and remained successful,” she says of the years closing deals and then racing home “to make dinner and make sure homework is done.” For working parents, she says figuring out your support network is “paramount.” Harnell draws a metaphor of a rollercoaster: Look at what scares you and then look at all the people who are already on the ride figuring out how to do it.
And while Harnell says there is no magic wand, you can start by giving yourself grace.
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"Do your best and know that you're doing your best,” she says. “And if you need help, ask for it and find community, and you're gonna get through it and you're gonna get it done because we're getting it done.”
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Ali Harnell in her office in Nashville, TN