Preview: Amy Heintz (plus my thoughts on the L Brand breakup)

About five years ago, several of Amy Heintz's friends and colleagues at Battelle started moving into management positions. But that's not what Heintz wanted to do. The chemist and materials scientist had her sights set on a pair of recognitions within the company: Inventor of the Year and Distinguished Inventor, the latter of which requires 14 U.S. patents. So she eschewed the management path, stayed the course on the technical side, earning the Inventor of the Year recognition in 2016 and ultimately crossing that 14 patent-threshold. Then she decided she wanted to do more. In 2018 she was named Battelle's first technical fellow, a position she herself had proposed. (The company has since added a second fellow and Heintz expects there will be more.) In her role, she sets the technical direction for the $5 billion research nonprofit's material science work, and is fulfilling her desire to "do something bigger." Heintz talked about her career path during a recent taping of our Women of Influence podcast while sharing her best advice for other women in their careers. It's important to know when the time is right for a new position or a potential promotion, she said, or when you'd be better served by staying where you are.