The following is this week’s I AM, YOU ARE, WE ARE Honoree by Ashton Greer and Nicole Van Hyfte
Diana Stewart is the President and majority owner of EnvirOx, a local company that employs 45 people in Vermilion County, manufacturing environmentally sustainable cleaning solutions. She is a second-generation owner of the company, much to her own surprise. Diana says, “I was going to be an artist. I had no intention of taking over the family business.” In fact, she started her professional journey as a student at Parsons School of Design in New York City, and through many twists and turns in life, she eventually realized she was not going to return for graduate school, and she called her father and asked for a place in the company.
Diana comes from a line of entrepreneurs. Her grandfather owned a company in Vermilion County, and then her father owned and sold that business and eventually started EnvirOx when Diana was only 14. She watched everything growing up from meetings and negotiations to office work. She was learning the ins and outs of the company from a very young age, so when she transitioned into working for the company as an adult, it was very natural for her to work her way through various roles, eventually leading to her promotion in 2015.
An EnvirOx employee boasts that, “The culture fostered here is very unique and attributes to the almost nonexistent turnover rate.” When asked about this, Diana says, “We focus on intensive team building at EnvirOx. We learned a lot through the pandemic; especially that work-life balance is important and can be achieved through remote work options and earned trust… I have an excellent team. We are a family.” Diana says that for her, because of the company culture, it actually is not lonely at the top. She feels supported by her staff as she also supports them.
As a mother to twin girls and a female leader in a typically male-dominated field, Diana is thankful for what the pandemic taught us all. She says, “As working women, the pandemic decompartmentalized our lives. For the first time ever, all of our roles had to exist all in one space. It broke the expectation of pretending we are not mothers with children.” Diana is especially committed to the children in the Danville area as EnvirOx proudly supports multiple organizations that help the kids throughout the community including United Way, Boys and Girls Club, Danville Family YMCA, DACC scholarships, Project Success, and Danville Public School Foundation, to name a few. She says, “The long term health of Danville depends on the children.”
In addition to being a present mother and leading an impactful company, Diana finds time to volunteer. She has been a member of the Danville Symphony Orchestra Board of Directors for some time, and she enjoys having that outlet to contribute towards the arts in Danville. She says, “The arts are extremely important to me. The arts organizations in Danville changed my life, so I want to give back in that way.” She prefers Danville to other places she has lived due to the cost of living, low traffic, pace of life and the proximity to other cities. Diana grew up in Covington and Danville and since her childhood, has lived in Atlanta, New York City, Cleveland, and Champaign, eventually returning home.
To top it off, through EnvirOx, Diana is making a name for Danville on a global level! EnvirOx was featured in Fresenius Medical Care GLOBAL Magazine under the heading Female Ingenuity to the Rescue (page 31).
Check it out here:
https://factsandfigures.freseniusmedicalcare.com/fileadmin/2022/fme_magazin_2022_en.pdf
If you have someone you would like to share,
visit https://forms.gle/deCPiQ1cxn1pDLhZ9
or contact Ashton Greer, City of Danville agreer@cityofdanville.org or
Nicole Van Hyfte, Vermilion Advantage nvanhyfte@vermilionadvantage.com.
