Greenwich Magazine: Greenwich’s Maureen Polo Leads with Purpose at Hello Sunshine

Outside Greenwich Country Club, it’s a crisp winter evening in a long season of biting Northeastern nights. The valet attendants are racing back and forth from a packed lot. Upon entering the grand clubhouse, the temperature shifts. The buzz from the distant ballroom extends down the hallowed halls as far as the check-in table in the foyer, where young women with impeccable posture direct the guests. They convey warmth and confidence. They do not seem at all out of their element, despite not coming from this privileged world. Maureen Polo, CEO of Hello Sunshine and this evening’s Girls With Impact gala honoree, has lived in Greenwich for 15 years, but she also did not grow up in country club ballrooms.

Hello Sunshine, for those who don’t know (and just think it’s something we hoped to say more often last winter), is the media company founded by Reese Witherspoon, which is devoted to putting women at the center of stories across film (Where the Crawdads Sing), television (The Morning Show, Big Little Lies, Daisy Jones & the Six …), books and podcasts. It is built on the belief that storytelling can change the way women walk through the world.

Girls With Impact, the Greenwich-based nonprofit founded by Jennifer Openshaw to provide business and leadership prep to underprivileged teen girls and women, does that, too. The young women working the event and accepting their Emerging Leader awards illustrate that point… Read Full Story