When Ann Gildroy Fox ‘94 first walked on the Circle as a student, she immediately took to heart  the school’s motto, Cui servire est regnare: “to serve is to rule.” Fox carried this ethic of service from the Circle to the front lines of Iraq as a Captain in the United States Marine Corps. After serving overseas and helping rebuild the Iraqi Army’s infrastructure from 2001-05 and 2007-08, she earned her MBA from Harvard Business School. Today, Fox is in her eleventh year as President and CEO of Nine Energy Service, a Houston-based energy services company. She also serves as Vice President of Groton’s Board of Trustees. In 2009, she received Groton’s Cui Servire Est Regnare Award, which honors alumni who have truly lived the school’s mission of service.

As Groton celebrates 50 years of coeducation, Fox reflects on her experiences as a student-athlete, Marine officer, and corporate leader, ultimately inspiring us how the values she learned on the Circle continue to shape her leadership and commitment to service today.

What sport(s) did you play at Groton? What was your favorite part of being on a team?

“I played soccer, ice hockey, and crew. Sports came to me a lot more naturally than the academics at Groton. I gained a lot of humility in the classroom at Groton, and I am grateful for it. The camaraderie and character built on the fields of Groton were essential ingredients for me.”

Did you start any of those sports at Groton?

“I did. I started Crew at Groton. Crew is not even something—I don’t even think I knew what Crew meant.”

Have you noticed any significant changes in Groton sports since you were a student here?

“So, for me, it’s hard to opine because I’m not on the fields today. I felt recognized as a female athlete when I was there. Now some of the folks that had earlier Groton experiences could probably tell you different stories about being a female athlete at Groton. I had a great experience, and my coaches were and still are dear to me.”

“I felt very valued. Hopefully that’s how female athletes at Groton feel today. Actually, it was the first place I went to and could join an all-female hockey team. So [in] all of my former hockey teams, I was always ‘the one girl,’ and Groton was the first place I skated with a bunch of other great female hockey players.”

Our motto Cui Servire Est Regnare is something you clearly value. How has your understanding of “service” evolved since your student days?

“Well, I had no concept of service coming into Groton. so that was something I really learned at Groton. Everything you do at Groton is about how you [are] serv[ing] others and how you [are] mak[ing] whatever community or space you’re in better than when you left it. You learn to respect others in the classroom.  It was the first time I found myself in a diverse community with very different views and cultural traditions than my own. In fact, I think most of us started as pretty self-focused kids, and thanks to the wonderful faculty at Groton we emerged conscious of the impact of our voice and actions on others.   We learned to be ever mindful of the needs of others.”

Are there any aspects of your Groton experience that shaped your experience later on in your career or in the military?

“I think Groton really instills a lot of personal accountability. You’re responsible for what you do or do not do on any given day. And you don’t have mom and dad there to tell you ‘pack this, do this, be this way.’ And so I think that level of responsibility and personal accountability is very, very important and that comes at a young age for Grotonians.

I also found that it was a very intense environment with very high expectations. There are many times at Groton when you become overwhelmed and you think, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t get the number of things done that the school wants me to get done in the next five days, 15 days, 30 days. How am I going to get through this?’

When [you] get through it and figure out how to put one foot in front of the other, [that’s] really important because that’s determination and tenacity. Stress is important. If you never feel stress and the first time you feel it is in a real-world situation, that’s potentially dangerous for yourself or people around you.”

Are there any lessons you learned from, not just your time at Groton, but also serving in the military and from your other experiences that you would like to pass down to the current Groton Students?

“Yes.

I would say that how you act during periods [when] you’re under intense scrutiny, intense pressure, or you have extreme expectations on you—how you treat yourself and how you treat other people will make all the difference.

So I think it’s very hard, but very important to remember during those periods of time that you still need to be a kind, decent, fair individual. And whatever you’re feeling, if you project it, it will set the tone for how other people feel. So if you come out as an insecure leader in those periods of high stress and you project that, then your team will feel that level of stress and uncertainty.  One person in a position of authority has the opportunity to positively or negatively the outcome for large groups he/she leads.”

Both the Marines and your current job are fields dominated by men. What are some of the challenges you have faced because of that, and what has motivated you to overcome them? What helps you navigate being a woman in those fields?

“I think always whenever you’re a minority in something, it brings unique challenges. My own view, having been a minority as it relates to gender in both the Marine Corps and the oil and gas sector, I would say for me, the biggest thing is not to be the victim.

In my experience, people want to see you overcome adversity; they don’t want to see you complain about it. And when you don’t victimize yourself, people around you may say: ‘Maybe this one particular thing wasn’t very fair that happened to you.’ Then, they start to become more open to what maybe should be changed.

I also find that I try to be very a-emotional in these circumstances. It’s important to understand the stereotypes around whatever minority position you’re in and then you must manage your own reaction to those false perceptions of you. Hate doesn’t solve hate in my experience. I also have been around many people who may not have been exposed to diverse situations, and their views are not formed by experience rather from their upbringing.  I would be aware and sensitive to that fact since often those views are more malleable.  It’s all really about influencing people and what is the best way to draw people towards you so that you can better manage an outcome, manage an expectation. Not many people want to approach a spitting snake, but I have found the great majority of people will listen deeply especially once you gain their respect.

I think I’ve really shaped some of the views of the men that I work with and specifically their views on their daughters’ potential careers [and] aspirations for them. I would say I’ve positively impacted many, many people that I’ve worked with [who] maybe wouldn’t have otherwise thought that there were so many opportunities for their daughters.”

You spoke about how being a good leader means you have to instill confidence in others. How do you find confidence within yourself? How do you stay calm under pressure when leading in the military and the workforce?

“At times, it’s really hard, because you can come into situations with a great deal of uncertainty, where sometimes if you’re a humble leader—humility is really important to good leadership—you can also have self-doubt.  That terrible self-doubt can creep in at the worst times. And I think you have to say: ‘Okay, I may not understand everything I need to do in the situation that’s about to face me, but do I think I will be fair? Do I think I’ll be honest? Will I try my best and work my hardest? Do I think people around me are better off with me making the decisions with the information that comes my way or should someone else be at the helm?’

In deeply challenging leadership situations you often come to the conclusion that those situations would be deeply challenging for anyone. If you are self-aware then you know if there is someone better suited for the task and you should yield that position, but if not then just do the best you can with confidence. I find solace in that I hold the folks that I work with—whether it’s in the military or here at Nine—in very high regard. Even if I make a mistake, it’s not because I’m trying to serve myself. Usually, people are really forgiving of mistakes if it’s not for a selfish purpose.  You can recover from most anything as long as you do not breach your integrity.”

Which experience out of all of yours do you think is the most valuable and the one that you have learned the most from? If you had to choose one, the one that you’re most grateful for are most thankful for, including your current occupation, like anything.

“Wow, that’s a really tough one. Because I’m actively grateful for many things. I would say [it is] important for anyone to have a great amount of gratitude frequently. Nobody makes their way by themselves, right? There’s so many factors that go into your journey. So for me to point to one is really difficult.

I would say that I’m deeply grateful for Groton because Groton fundamentally reshaped me as a person, and it did so over a long period of time. I was there for five years. The person who came to the school had some capabilities and raw qualities, but she definitely didn’t have the depth of character present at graduation.  Groton served as a platform to look at the world in a very different way.

So had I not started at Groton, I might have ended up a very different person with strong ambitions around just my own pursuit of self. You know, that can be scary for people like you guys with so many capabilities and talents, right? Because if you don’t get the character piece right, you can abuse those innate capabilities and create great harm for the world.  I take comfort that Grotonians do the opposite.”