Blythe McGarvie
Expert on going global, finance and leadership

Blythe McGarvie has served on 10 public corporate boards, currently serving as a member of the boards of directors of public companies Sonoco, LKQ, Apple Hospitality REIT and two private companies Wawa, Inc. and Cineworld. She was the Audit Committee Chair for Accenture for ten years after the company went public, Viacom, and Pepsi Bottling Group. She currently chairs two Audit and other committees including Nominating and Governance, Financial Policy, and Finance. She also served on the board of Travelers, chairing the $80 billion Investment Committee, avoiding write-offs during the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009. In 2024, building on organized coursework and real-time experiences, McGarvie continues to be asked to present her points-of-view on decision-making to strengthen business effectiveness.

In July 2021, Blythe completed the University of Cambridge 7-week course on ESG and Sustainability. In 2019, Blythe earned the CERT Certificate in Cybersecurity Oversight and presented Corporate Governance topics to various audiences. In 2018, she served as a Commissioner for the NACD’s Blue Ribbon Commission initiative focused on adaptive governance: to better assess and respond to complex, difficult-to-identify risks that would have a profound economic, operational, and/or reputational effect, producing a popular report from the Commission.

Women Inc. named her as a 2018 Most Influential Director. In 2012, 2010, and 2008, NACD/Directorship selected Blythe as one of the Top 100 “Most Renowned and Influentials” in corporate governance.

Prior to leading LIF Group, Blythe served as Chief Financial Officer based in Paris and transformed the global technology capabilities of BIC Group, a French company traded on the Euronext. She was a pioneering Chief Financial Officer at Hannaford Bros. Co. as one of only ten female CFOs in the Fortune 500 in 1995 for 5 years until selling the company. She has also served as chief administrative officer – Pacific Rim for Sara Lee Corporation where she had responsibility for growing the business through acquisitions, improving the information technology and finance processes, and hiring leaders in the region.

Blythe is a certified public accountant (CPA).  She earned an MBA from Northwestern University’s J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management, which selected her for the Schaffner Award, presented annually to an alumnus who is preeminent in his or her field and who provided outstanding service to Kellogg.

Her bestselling book, Shaking the Globe, subtitled Courageous Decision-Making in a Changing World (published by John Wiley & Sons in 2009) provides entrepreneurs and executives with research and action ideas to overcome obstacles in a competitive and interconnected world.  She is the author of Fit In Stand Out, subtitled Mastering the FISO Factor: The Key to Leadership Effectiveness in Business and Life (published by McGraw-Hill in 2005).