Our Podcast

BY petevanepps

Military-to-Corporate History With Mary Lou White (Episode 163)

If you were ever wondering about military-to-corporate history or the history of Cameron-Brooks, this is the episode for you. On this show, we welcome Mary Lou White to the program. Mary Lou is one of the founding members of Cameron-Brooks and has been helping Junior Military Officers move from the military to Corporate America for over 45 years! As you can imagine, she has seen a lot in that time.

In this episode, we take it all the way to the beginning. As a native of California, she met Roger Cameron and Rene Brooks. Roger and Rene were both working for a company names Career Seminars at that time. The company worked with JMOs but also did other types of recruiting. After Career Seminars underwent a restructuring, Roger and Rene decided to build their own company focused on helping military officers transition to the business world. The rest, as they say, is military-to-corporate history.

Mary Lou takes us on a journey from the early days of Cameron-Brooks, her favorite candidate (spoiler alert: she married him), life before technology, and the way things “used to be.” Throughout our conversation, there were a few things I took away:

  1. Mary Lou is a very special person. She’s funny, insightful, and dedicated. Her enthusiasm and attention to detail are unparalleled. She has devoted her career, over four and half decades, to the meaningful work of helping others reach their professional goals. In the process, she built an encyclopedic body of knowledge and a Rolodex (see what I did there) of lasting relationships.
  2. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Though the technology, equipment, processes, and people have changed along the way, the core mission of Cameron-Brooks has never wavered. Our goal is to change peoples’ lives by helping them reach their professional goals and dreams. Through Mary Lou’s experience, I think that message comes through loud and clear.
  3. Emulate Mary Lou! By that, I mean be servant-hearted. I’ve known her for about 20 years, and I can say with absolute certainty that she demonstrates a servant’s heart in everything that she does, and it’s one of the things that has allowed her to be so successful at Cameron-Brooks through the years.

I hope you enjoyed listening to this episode as much as I enjoyed recording it.

We are proud of the role we’ve played in military-to-corporate history. Contact us if you’re interested in learning more about your transition options.

You can also check out our Transition Guide on “3 Game-Changing Strategies for JMOs Making the Jump to Business” for additional transition tips.

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