[Noozhawk’s note: One in a series on the honorees at the Goleta Chamber of Commerce’s 70th annual Goleta’s Finest Community Awards Gala, to be held Nov. 23 at The Ritz-Carlton Bacara.]
Kathy Odell is CEO-elect of Women’s Economic Ventures, a nonprofit business organization that combines classroom training, capital and individual technical assistance to support the small business entrepreneur through start-up, stabilization and growth phases. She will assume the CEO role on Jan. 1.
Odell began her entrepreneurial career in 1985 as co-founder of Medical Concepts Inc. that, over a five-year period, became the world’s leading designer and manufacturer of video systems for minimally invasive surgery. The company was acquired by Karl Storz Endoscopy in 1990.
From 2002 to 2008, she served as CEO of Goleta-based Inogen Inc., a manufacturer of advanced therapy devices for treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. During her tenure, the company received more than $53 million in venture capital. Today, Inogen is a public company with a $2 billion market cap traded on Nasdaq under INGN.
From 1998 to 2012, Odell was a director of Pacific Capital Bancorp N.A., a regional community bank with $6.5 billion in assets, and served as chairwoman of the Compensation Committee and as a member of the Enterprise Risk and Governance committees.
In addition to her work with Women’s Economic Ventures, Odell serves on the boards of the UCSB Economic Forecast Project and the Sustainable Change Alliance, a community-based impact investing group.
For her community, business and entrepreneurial leadership, Odell will be honored by the Goleta Chamber of Commerce on Saturday with the Goleta’s Finest Woman of the Year Award.
The Goleta Chamber of Commerce’s 70th annual Goleta’s Finest Community Awards Gala will begin at 6 p.m. Saturday at The Ritz-Carlton Bacara, 8301 Hollister Ave. in Goleta. Click here for more information, or to purchase tickets.
— Kate Schwab represents the Goleta Chamber of Commerce.