VICTORIA FASH

FASH--Victoria. Victoria Fash, one of the first female Chief Executive Officers of a Fortune 500 Company who led the way for future generations of women executives in business, passed away on October 9, 2024 in Monterey, California. Catalyst, a global nonprofit focused on advancing women in the workplace, highlighted Victoria Fash's legacy as "a trailblazer for women in leadership in business, rising to a CEO position at a time when women were less than 1% of Fortune 100 CEOs, alongside women like Carleton S. Fiorina of Hewlett-Packard Company and Andrea Jung of Avon products." At the height of her career, Fash served as President and Chief Executive Officer of IMS Health (NYSE:RX), a Fortune 500 Corporation valued at $14 billion with over 8,000 employees working in 102 countries worldwide. After graduating Phi Beta Kappa with a Bachelors and Masters (1979) degree from the University of Illinois, Fash began her career in the newly emerging field of computer science. She was hired by the Georgia Institute of Technology to install its computer mainframe software and Management Science of America (MSA), a computer software company, recruited her shortly thereafter. Subsequently, Dun & Bradstreet Corporation (NYSE:DNB), a Fortune 500 conglomerate, acquired MSA and added the company to their holdings of household names such as D&B, Moody's, Nielsen, Gartner Group, and IMS. However, D&B's growth had slowed, and Wall Street concluded it should be broken up to release shareholder value. Robert E. Wiseman, COO of D&B, assigned Fash to the strategic planning team. Thus began her meteoric rise through the executive ranks. Starting as Vice President of Business Operations Planning in 1994, Fash quickly achieved promotion only a year later to Senior Vice President of Business Strategy, becoming the only woman on D&B's Executive Management team. D&B then made a uniquely daring move - splitting into three separately traded companies: D&B, A.C. Nielsen, and a new corporation, Cognizant. For her leadership in the trivestiture, Fash was appointed Chief Financial Officer of Cognizant (NYSE:CZT), a Fortune 500 Corporation, in 1996. Cognizant became a darling of Wall Street for rapid growth, excellent bottom- line results and consistent performance. CZT subsequently spun off Nielsen Media Research (NYSE:NMR) and Gartner Group (NASDAQ:GART), producing IMS Health (NYSE:RX), a pure play technology information provider to the healthcare industry. In 1998, Fash was appointed Executive Vice President of IMS Health. Within one year, Fash was promoted to President and Chief Executive Officer at age 48. Fash managed IMS Health from its global headquarters in London. The company continued its unparalleled run of performance, generating $1.2 billion in revenues in 1998. At the peak of her career, age 49, a spinal disease forced Fash to retire in 2000. Born in Stillwater, Oklahoma on November 29, 1951, she died in Monterey, California on October 9, 2024. During Fash's tenure in executive management, she met or exceeded all financial targets to Wall Street, establishing a consistent reputation for delivering results, thus increasing shareholder value: the ultimate measure of a CEO. As a little girl, Fash walked for a mile down a dirt road to reach a one-room schoolhouse, rising out of humble beginnings to achieve the American Dream. Fash is survived by her brother, William L. Fash, Jr., Bowditch Professor of Archaeology, Harvard University; sister, Lauren Victoria Fash, an independent film director in Hollywood; daughter Quaker Melanie Warwick, an entrepreneur; and granddaughter Ruby A. Clark, a child psychologist.