Trudy Bourgeois

The Center for Workforce Excellence

Trudy Bourgeois is a former senior sales and marketing executive with more than 35 years of experience transforming companies into high performance organizations.  Trudy has extensive sales operations, talent management, strategic planning and marketing expertise. She is known for developing next- generation leaders. Trudy’s commitment to excellence, forward thinking and strategic skills led her to become the first African American female appointed to the VP level at Brown & Williamson Tobacco. Dollars and Sense Magazine honored Trudy as one of the “Best and Brightest Women Leaders.”

She was tapped by the CEO to spearhead B&W’s first multicultural marketing strategy. Trudy launched a pilot program targeted to the Hispanic population resulting in more than $55 million in incremental sales. During her corporate career, Trudy compiled a proven track record for serving as a leader who could create and sustain high-achieving teams based upon her three-prong approach — focusing on the customer first and foremost, developing and optimizing talent, and looking to the future to maintain relevancy and sustainable value. She also co-created the company’s first women’s employee resource group. This group was credited with partnering with the marketing department to enhance the female consumer experience.

The focus on creating a culture where every employee was treated fairly and afforded equal opportunities led to a reengineering of B&W’s talent management strategies.  These new strategies enhanced the company’s ability to upgrade talent and to be recognized as a great place to work.

In 2001, Trudy founded The Center for Workforce Excellence and is CEO of the company.  CWE is an in-demand leadership development company, with service offerings that include training, coaching, and consulting.  CWE specializes in workplace transformation through organizational cultural change. CWE develops leaders who can create inclusive cultures that produce better business results.

A renowned and respected authority on leadership development and diversity and inclusion, Trudy is a bestselling author of four leadership books.  She is coach, speaker and trusted advisor to C-suite executives. A featured blogger for The Huffington Post, Trudy has earned a reputation as a respected truth-teller who combines candor with humor to foster courageous conversations necessary for change to take place. She also writes for numerous magazines and digital publications including The Washington Post and Harvard Business Review.

Trudy has a Bachelor of Business Administration from Loyola University in New Orleans and has served on several nonprofit boards, including the Network of Executive Women, Southwestern University, Dallas Chapter of WBENC (Women’s Business Enterprise National Council) and The University of North Texas PLP (Professional Leadership Program) and numerous committees focusing on Special Olympics. She currently serves on the advisory committee for WOCIP (Women of Color in Pharma) a nonprofit organization dedicated to closing the representation gaps for women of color in the pharmaceutical industry. Trudy recently accepted an appointment to the Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Council for Conscious Capitalism and to the Global Consumer Goods CEO Pledge Committee in conjunction with LEAD (Leading Executives Advancing Diversity).

Trudy has been married to Mike Bourgeois for 38 years and is the proud mother of two children, Adam and Mary Ellen. The family welcomed a son-in-law (Ryan) in 2017.  Trudy resides in Prosper Texas.