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President, Top Guard Security, Norfolk
Virginia Business// June 27, 2024//
Top Guard Security President Nicole Stuart has one word to describe being a woman in her industry: lonely.
“Because the security industry has always been male dominated, it was unquestionably more difficult to be accepted as a leader in the field,” Stuart says. But during the past three decades, she’s seen increases in the number of women in the field — and the amount of respect she’s garnered as a female leader.
“Quite simply, I made the most of the opportunities that presented themselves,” Stuart says. Since the late 1990s, Stuart has seen her company grow from approximately 150 employees to 1,000, and she now runs one of the largest woman-owned businesses in Virginia.
Stuart also has served on the boards of the YWCA South Hampton Roads and Old Dominion University’s Strome College of Business, and she chaired an American Heart Association fundraising campaign. Over the years, her firm has contributed more than $1 million of value to community nonprofits. She also has her hands full as a mother of five.
“Being a woman in any underrepresented industry can bring a variety of challenges and pressures that men cannot relate to, such as balancing work and family demands,” Stuart says. “Raising five children in a 24/7 field certainly wasn’t for the faint of heart.”
