The ceremonial ringing of the New York Stock Exchange opening bell Monday morning was symbolic in multiple ways for Jane Park.
The Seattle entrepreneur, believed to be the first Korean-American woman to take a company public as CEO on the NYSE, was flanked by the all-women leadership team at Athena Consumer Acquisition Corp., with Park’s immigrant parents among the family members cheering on the screens behind them.
Athena Consumer went public as a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) on Oct. 20, raising $230 million that it will use to acquire a consumer company. Athena’s chair, venture capitalist Isabelle Freidheim, previously took a similar approach with Athena Technology Acquisition Corp., with cybersecurity veteran Phyllis Newhouse.
Park immigrated to Canada with her family at 4 years old. A Yale Law School graduate and former Starbucks executive, she went on to found and lead Julep Beauty, a physical retail chain and e-commerce brand that was acquired by private equity giant Warburg Pincus. She went on to found sustainable gift-wrap company Tokki, leading the company through a pivot during the pandemic.
“I think one of the most important constructs you have in your mind as an immigrant is that you can travel through different worlds,” Park told us in a recent recording for an upcoming episode of the GeekWire Podcast. “And once it’s possible for there to be more than one world, then you can make up your own rules.”
Even with her experience traversing different worlds, she hadn’t imagined that she would end up leading a special purpose acquisition company. But she decided to take the call based on the leadership team Freidheim was assembling.
“It took some convincing, a little bit. I wasn’t sure if I had the right capabilities. I have always sat on the entrepreneur side. So to be on the acquiring/money side is a new perspective and vantage point for me,” she said. “I don’t think I would have taken the call if it wasn’t the fact that it was an all-female SPAC.”
In addition to Park as CEO, Athena Consumer’s management team includes Jennifer Carr-Smith, board chair of Blue Apron, who is Athena’s president and chief operating officer; and Angelina Smith, Athena chief financial officer, a finance and operations executive from the Seattle region who has held leadership positions at companies including Zulily, glassybaby, and Inspo Network.
Park has shared personal stories about her family’s journey as immigrants, including a heartfelt open letter to her mom in May amid the wave of anti-Asian violence. Her father was separated from his parents during the Korean War, and hasn’t seen them since. As a 9-year-old, he took care of his own 6-year-old sister, surviving the winter by digging up frozen sweet potatoes overlooked by farmers during the harvest.
“For somebody like that, to see his daughter achieve something like this in two generations, it is something, really, really meaningful for him,” Park said. “And it took a lot of sacrifice and hard work on their part.”
Listen to our full conversation with Athena Consumer CEO Jane Park on the next episode of the GeekWire Podcast on Saturday, Nov. 6. Subscribe to GeekWire in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or wherever you listen.
