WIA
WIA Profile: Tracy Leone
Just under a decade ago, the adult industry — especially the DVD sector — was still blatantly a man’s world, but that didn’t stop Tracy Leone from daring to break ground with her own style of business savvy and candy-sweet approach to customer service.
WIA Profile: Caroline Karolinko
When Caroline Karolinko joined Segpay in 2018, she did not know a lot about the adult industry. After graduating from the University of Florida with a master’s degree in speech-language pathology, she worked with autistic youth and others with behavioral disorders.
WIA Profile: Claudia Sousa
When it comes to selling sexual wellness, Claudia Sousa has a little trick up her sleeve: Keep customers laughing, and they’ll open their minds — and buy more sex toys.
WIA Profile: Eva Garcia
Throughout her career, even before she became chief communications officer for Erika Lust and her acclaimed brands such as Lust Cinema, XConfessions and Else Cinema, Eva Garcia always felt drawn to projects that positively impact society and the environment.
WIA Profile: Stacey Monroe
The pleasure industry’s focus on sex toys — especially given their increasing mainstream popularity — often overshadows the lingerie sector. Here, all consumers need to bring sensual fantasies to life is a human body and a little imagination.
WIA Profile: Lea Lexis
Lea Lexis was an elite gymnast for 10 years in her home country of Romania. Her parents encouraged her to pursue the sport at an early age, perhaps sensing that it would help channel her restless nature, which to this day drives her to seek outlets for her high level of energy.
WIA Profile: Celine Menting
Paris may be known as the City of Love, but Celine Menting felt that the south of France left much to be desired in the romance department. In response to her region’s lack of inclusive adult brick-and-mortars, Menting founded and currently manages retail pleasure shop La Clef des Charmes.
WIA Profile: Brett Rossi
In 2019, after almost a decade of performing for adult studios, Brett Rossi attended UCLA to earn her paramedic license. After working as an EMT during the pandemic, however, she quickly realized the career was not for her.
WIA Profile: Stephanie Keating
From We-Vibe to WOW Tech to Lovehoney Group, there have been plenty of big changes behind the scenes at the home of brands like Womanizer, Fifty Shades of Grey and pjur, but at least one thing has remained the same: Sales and Marketing Director Stephanie Keating.
WIA Profile: Sarah C.
After graduating from high school, Sarah C. attended college for a year before realizing she wanted to pursue a more adventurous path. Joining the army as military police taught her the value of discipline and teamwork, while instilling in her a strong work ethic that she still carries with her today.
WIA Profile: Kim Marks
Loaded buzzwords like “eco-friendly” and “inclusive” aren't just marketing fodder to Kim Marks. As founder and CEO of the small Oregon-based retail chain As You Like It, Marks lives her ethos in every business step she takes.
WIA Profile: Shelly H.
Shelly began to feel a little stagnant and started seeking growth opportunities. That was when she started looking into the film industry. Fast-forwarding to now, she has joined one of the fastest growing studio networks in the adult space: Model Media.
WIA Profile: Zoë Ligon
As a boutique owner, sex educator, sexuality influencer, author and sex toy co-designer, Zoë Ligon is as trendy and widespread as the air pulse clitoral stimulators she sells online.
WIA Profile: Wendy Nelson
Before joining NETbilling, Wendy Nelson was the head buyer for a California-based firm that delivered high-end promotional gifts and awards to premium golf clubs and pro shops, as well as the LPGA and PGA Tours.
WIA Profile: Kathi Pepper
Where there’s a will to educate the curious and those lacking in sexual knowledge, there’s a woman ready to lead the way. In Mississippi, where sex education leaves much to be desired, Kathi Pepper is that leading lady.
WIA Profile: Andra Chirnogeanu
Andra Chirnogeanu has overseen many projects over the years, from her earliest days as a social media specialist for a cam studio to serving as CEO of a premium social media platform.
WIA Profile: Jackie Richerson
It’s hard to imagine Jackie Richerson as a green retail part-timer from small-town Kentucky. After all, today’s Richerson is an old pro at the sex toy game, for whom phone calls to Europe to lend her manufacturing expertise are the norm.
WIA Profile: Charlotte Stokely
Charlotte Stokely is parlaying her nearly two-decade career as an acclaimed adult star into a talent-empowering role as chairwoman of The Cupcake Girls, a national nonprofit that champions and supports sex workers while combating sex trafficking.
WIA Profile: Jane Morgan
The new world of pleasure products is a far cry from the days when adult boutiques were seedy “sex shops” where customers hid their faces while slinking out the door carrying vibrators in black plastic bags.
WIA Profile: Silvia B.
Overcoming the language barrier by tapping into her outgoing personality, she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in management and public relations and went on to earn her MBA at the University of New York in Prague.