Athena award finalist: Anna Maria Larsen: to 'lift and serve' the greatest achievement.

• Author: Cote, Maria
• Position: [spirit of] ATHENA

At the age of 38, Anna Maria Larsen found herself at a crossroads. Her husband had just started a new business that involved a great deal of time and a huge investment. The couple had three small children, and financially, things were tough.

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"I realized we needed to put food on the table and a roof over their heads, so I went from full-time mom to working woman," she said.

Her career has evolved over the years. Today, the Athena Award finalist and her husband own Larsen Consulting International, an executive search, coaching and strategic consulting firm that has worked with everything from startups to Fortune 500 companies.

Larsen, who started the business in 1990, was startled when her husband left his company and suggested they work together.

"I told him, 'Are you insane?' I mean, we had just raised our boys. Then I considered his strengths, very different from mine, and decided to give it a try."

These days, her passion is oriented more toward working with individuals. Executive search is still part of the business, but she has another focus now.

"I actually flew back and forth to get a degree (in leadership coaching) from Georgetown University," Larsen says. "I love this part of my life. I reinvented myself when I was 38, and I feel as if I have the opportunity to do it again now."

The youthful looking business owner, who says she's in the upper range of middle age, smiles broadly when she talks about her family: Les, her husband of 38 years, her three sons and "three of the best daughters-in-law anyone could ask for."

The slight lines that appear near her eyes when Larsen grins are hardly enough proof that this energetic business owner could be old enough to have seven grandchildren, whose ages range from 1 to 11. Only her precise description of each of them reveal that nobody but a doting grandmother could speak with such warmth and detail about them.

That same enthusiasm shines through when she talks about the many charitable organizations she works with.

She's a second-term member of the national board of governors of the American Red Cross.

"We help millions of people every year," Larsen says. "In these rough times, and with so many disasters, we need people to realize that we still need support. But we've learned to run the...