The House of LR&C Co-Founder and CEO Christine Day Shares the 'Subtle Power Moves' That Amplify Her Voice The former Starbucks executive and Lululemon CEO has learned how to navigate the complexity that comes with being a woman leader in a still largely male-dominated corporate world.

"'Underestimate me at your own peril' is what my mother would have said," recalls The House of LR&C co-founder/CEO Christine Day as she reflects on this year's International Women's Day. Over the course of a 30-year career that saw her heading the Asia Pacific Group at Starbucks and serving as CEO at Lululemon, Day has learned how to reset the balance of power as a retail executive who, at times, was the only woman in the room where decisions were being made. As she puts it: "In a meeting, if I wasn't being heard and other people were saying what I was saying and then being heard, I learned how to jump back in and say, 'Thanks Bob, for echoing my idea — I'd like to build on that and say the following.'"

Refining what she refers to as "subtle power moves" has served Day incredibly well, paving the way for success after success. Now, she's putting her immediate energy into The House of LR&C ("love," "respect" and "care"), the mission-driven fashion company she co-founded with Grammy-winning entertainer Ciara and her husband, NFL quarterback Russell Wilson. The House of LR&C is committed to making the fashion industry more inclusive and community-led and creating large-scale positive change. To that end, 3% of the company's net revenue goes to Ciara and Wilson's Why Not You Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to education, children's health and fighting poverty.

Day connected with Ciara and Wilson through a mutual friend, and when Wilson ultimately asked her for help with his men's fashion brand and the development of Ciara's line, Day was happy to lend her expertise — on one condition. "I said, 'Look, I'll do this if we create sustainable fashion, we set it up as a public benefit corp and we strive to become a B Corp so that we measure everything we do through a third party,'" Day says. "And they said, 'Absolutely, we're all about impact and raising the bar.' Leveling up, as Ciara would say."