That mattered to me more than I had expected it to, because whatever else it was, it was mine, the work of my hands, and I did not want the people who had poisoned it to also be the reason it died.

Under new leadership the recovered funds, pulled back through asset seizures and settlements, went back into the company where they belonged.

I became chairwoman.

And then I did the thing that told me most clearly who I had become: I hired an experienced chief executive to run the daily operations, and I did not take the title of CEO for myself, and I did not disappear behind him either.

I simply stood where I actually was — at the top, in the open, the owner — and let a professional do the job while I did mine.

I had spent too many years making powerful men look brilliant from the shadows.