Athena award finalist: Robin Heller: Western Union vice president finds the right 'bounce' with career, community and family.

• Author: Cote, Mike
• Position: [spirit of] ATHENA - Occupation overview

A plush Tigger sits in the corner of Robin Heller's office at Western Union in Englewood. Like Winnie the Pooh's high-energy feline friend, you could say Heller's got bounce. In her 22 years at Western Union and its former parent company, First Data, she's changed jobs 21 times.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

"You don't have success if you're not learning and not challenging yourself," the 44-year-old Athena finalist says. "If you're going to stay in that status quo area, it's going to become pretty boring and mundane. I don't do well in that space. I'm not routine and I'm not maintenance. I think that's why I've had such a fun ride with my career."

Heller rose to her current rank as executive vice president for operations and information technology at Western Union from evolving beyond her background in finance and accounting. Back in her days on the finance side at First Data, she oversaw a small team of MBA's and CPAs. These days she directs 2,500 people around the globe,

"When I'm on the road, I'm out there on the floor with them," says Heller, who grew up in Iowa. 'I want to know what they're doing, how they're doing and what obstacles and barriers are out there for them to do what they need to do that I need to remove, because that's my role ... I'm supposed to help make their job life easier."

Western Union generates about 85 percent of its revenues from consumer products--primarily the wire transfers immigrant workers use to send money home.

"It's someone who left their home in the Philippines to go to Dubai to help do the building there to send it back home to help their children through college, build homes," Heller says. "I get pretty touched by what we do in that arena."

When First Data decided to spin off Western Union, executives tapped Heller to lead the effort. Western Union will mark its fourth anniversary in September as an independent company.

"I'd spent a lot of time in these operational roles pulling things together, consolidating things, so they figured I'd probably know how to take them apart," said Heller, who relocated to Denver in 1993 from a First Data operation in Omaha, Neb. "I just had a lot of years of experience so I could lead the people through this huge transformation and change."

Transformation and change have been a constant in Heller's career, and she's shared what she's learned over the years through her work with the University of Colorado Denver, the Women's Vision Foundation and Junior Achievement. And...