Title: What's your motto?

Our Leaders and Their Inspiration
Anita Sharpe and Kevin Salwen, both veterans of The Wall Street Journal, came up with the idea for MOTTO after observing that they, and many of the people they knew, were vitally interested in their careers; but were not captivated by most traditional business media. They recognized that business is one of the most; if not the most; powerful force in society today. Business has the capacity to change the world. So Salwen and Sharpe created a media company that puts purpose and passion on the same plane as profit, and targets a community of people who want to make a difference as they make a living.


Anita Sharpe
Co-Founding Editor

For Anita Sharpe the journey to MOTTO may have started in grade school. Despite a slew of elementary school teachers who would laugh at the idea of a young Anita going into writing and editing, the girl with an aptitude toward math loved her high school English classes so much that she decided to major in English at Vanderbilt University where she graduated magna cum laude. Following her heart started her on a journey that led to a career in journalism, first as editor-in-chief of the Atlanta Business Chronicle, where she helped increase circulation nearly tenfold, and later as a writer with The Wall Street Journal, where she won a Pulitzer Prize for her investigative journalism. As her reporting career deepened, she grew less interested in pointing her finger at the darkness and more interested in pointing toward the light. Now she follows her heart everyday by using her writing, editing, creative and business skills to bring the light that's in her to the public as co-founding editor of MOTTO.


Kevin Salwen
Co-Founding Editor

Kevin Salwen knows what it's like to love his work, and for him there is no other option. Before he and Sharpe started the company that created MOTTO, Kevin had an 18-year career at The Wall Street Journal, where the perks of the job included flying on Air Force One (with President George H.W. Bush) and on NASA's “Vomit Comet,” the agency's plane for zero-gravity experiments (“The most fun I ever had throwing up,” he says.)

While there, most recently as national small-business editor, he launched two publications, covered two presidential administrations, wrote two different columns and appeared each week on CNBC's “Power Lunch” as an expert on small business issues. But, as much as his job once excited him, in the late 1990s, he realized that he had begun “career sleepwalking,” never quite dreading the job but decreasingly excited about it.
Knowing that it was time to wake up during the work hours, Kevin took a leap and left the WSJ, teaming up with Sharpe to begin the journey that has become MOTTO.

Member Since: Thursday, April 12 2007

Last Visit: 866 days ago.

Profile Viewed: 1814 times (last viewed 1 minute ago)