Our annual picks of the industry’s rising stars – a brave, bold group that’s trailblazing a unique path to success.

Kate Plummer

Clearmount (asi/45440)

There’s “growing up in the business,” and then there’s the literal definition of it, when you “officially” started working at your family’s supplier company at 21, but really at six, “because tiny hands stuff catalogs really well,” says Kate Plummer, the scion at Clearmount (asi/45440) in Canada. Now 31, Kate’s world was upended in April when her mother, the head of the company and a woman so fiercely talented and outspoken she was known in the industry by her first name alone – “Ros” – passed away suddenly, leaving not just a hole in Kate’s world, but a crater. But Kate is nothing if not resilient.

“I really feel like the company is poised for a great change this coming year, and I’m excited about all the seeds I’ve planted coming to fruition,” she says. “But it’s also loaded in the idea of a family business. It’s a lot of responsibility to take on what your parents have made and improve and grow. My mom always said that we weren’t just a collection of employees but families that we provide for. So these families are now in my decisions. Heavy is the crown and all that.”

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