Page 48 - BusinessWest October 27, 2021

Women
IMPACTA PROGRAM OF BUSINESSWEST
WOMEN
BusinessWest
A Success in Business, She Is Also a Force in the Community
MBy George O’Brien
addy Landrau was returning home from a lengthy business trip to Texas. As the car that picked her up at the airport was approaching her home in the Bright- wood section of Springfield, she was
surprised to see a small crowd of people, including her husband, Carlos Landrau, gathered on her porch.
As she walked toward the door, she recognized the five young girls who lived next door and other children from the neighborhood, but still didn’t know quite why they were there. She would soon find out.
“They were there ... with their report cards,”
she told BusinessWest as she fought back tears (unsuccessfully), adding that the girls, especially, couldn’t wait — quite literally — to show them off to the person they deemed most responsible for the higher grades they’d achieved.
“Maddy believes that there
is a narrow path — be it to education, financial literacy, or workplace success. All you have to do is make the path wider. And she does it!”
“They would come to me, and I’d be saying to them, ‘this is your education ... you have to do well; education is your ticket out of here. No one can take away that A, no can take away your grades,’” she said, adding that the girls from her neighborhood are just some of the many she’s counseled on a wide range of matters, but especially education and its importance to quality of life.
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Women of IMPACT IMPACT A PROGRAM OF BUSINESSWEST
There are many ways to explain why Madeline (Maddy) Landrau has been named a Woman of Impact for 2021, but that story — and the setting for it — probably do it best.
Program
Indeed, mentoring young people has long been a
big part of her life and career, the latter dominated
by a series of assignments at MassMutual, the latest
as program engagement manager, a position with a broad range of responsibilities in (and on behalf of) the community, as we’ll see.
As for the setting ... that’s another huge part of this
story.
Landrau left Brooklyn for Springfield at th
Engagement
of a friend more than 30 years ago. She settled in the North End and the Brightwood neighborhood, one of
the poorest in the city (and the state, for th
OCTOBER 27, 2021
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Madeline
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Manager,
Women of MassMutual