* Photograph by Shane Van Boxtel / Image Studios
AFF Research, LLC
Anna Steinfest has to laugh when she talks about her entrée to the world of board service and advocacy.
“I was asked to be on diversity boards just because I have an accent,” says the Bulgaria native, noting that her long-time industry of banking generally lacks diversity — especially in the Upper Midwest.
But Steinfest quickly began to thrive as an advocate for supplier diversity and was able to put her finger on the right questions to ask in the space, becoming over the course of 15 years a seasoned and sought-after expert. How can small businesses build capacity? Who was nurturing the growth of these suppliers? The answers, Steinfest says, often came down to mentorship.
Today Steinfest is president and CEO of AFF Research, focusing on supplier diversity, and serves on the board of holdings for the Wisconsin Medical Society. She is also the founder and executive director of the Small Business Survival Alliance.
“Her multifaceted involvement showcases her commitment to making a positive impact on the health care and business sectors, as well as her dedication to fostering community growth and development,” wrote nominator Tara Carr.
Throughout her career Steinfest has herself not only been a passionate mentor and mentee, but she helps foster mentoring relationships that are building a stronger Wisconsin through her work as administrator of the Green Bay Packers Mentor-Protégé Program. The program, which was established in 2010, focuses particularly on connecting with businesses owned by minorities, women, veterans, service-disabled veterans or disabled persons.
“The impact of this program is huge,” Steinfest says. “The scale is huge, and the impact is huge — not only on the business, but on all the employees they hire. Diverse businesses hire diverse employees.”
Her efforts have paid off, contributing directly to economic growth in Wisconsin. Fourteen years in, she says, she is able to point to specific outcomes and success stories that help her know the program is moving the needle. One of the first-ever participants is now bringing in $20 million in annual revenue, she says.
“It is fun. Sometimes we think we know which route [a business] will go, but it’s not necessarily right, so we have to adjust fast,” she says. “We even have an alumni group … They stay together with this peer-to-peer mentoring concept, and they help each other like an interconnected community. It’s fantastic.”
Steinfest says a good mentor is willing to share knowledge and possesses high degrees of empathy and patience; your mentor should never be your manager. Furthermore, she says, a good mentoring relationship must incorporate elements of goal-setting and accountability to keep moving forward.
One of the best pieces of advice her own mentor gave her was not to call them mistakes — “we call them lessons.”
The wife of a fishpole-toting Packers fanatic whose mother was a personal acquaintance of Vince Lombardi, Steinfest says she once clashed with her husband over the concept of “real futbol.” So the irony is not lost on her that she’s now affiliated with the Packers. But she has come to embrace life in the New North region: “I love Green Bay,” she says.
