Growth Accelerator: Adviser Sheri Alexander overcomes personal challenges and professional obstacles, climbing to the top of the profession in the process.

Sheri Alexander bumped up against the glass ceiling. Then she shattered it.

Among the first women in employee benefits to make the leap from service - where most positions were traditionally held by women - to the male-dominated world of sales, some 35 years later Alexander has become one of the industry's top sales execs. Along with a lot of grit, smarts and perseverance, she did it by emphasizing service.

"Sales incorporates so much service," Alexander says. "We women started in support, taking care of clients and supporting sales. So when it was our turn in sales, we knew how to do it."

Alexander broke into the industry back in 1980, working as a disability claims processor at brokerage and benefit consultants Gardner & White. After a decade with the Indianapolis-based firm, she joined the Marsh & McLennan insurance and benefits agency, taking her first job in sales. At Marsh, Alexander excelled, quickly becoming her division's top salesperson two years in a row. Then, in 2005, after 15 years with Marsh, she joined Gregory & Appel Insurance, a privately-held Indiana firm, where...