Event planner loves freedom from glass ceilings

As a publicity assistant at big Hollywood film studios, Cynthia Tucker knew that she faced a glass ceiling. Today, as the owner of her own wedding- and event-planning company, Ladybug Productions, Tucker can climb as high as her creativity, business sense and personal aspirations will allow.

Growing up in the 1970s and '80s, the L.A. native dreamed of being a Hollywood publicist just like her Aunt Roz Stevenson, who worked for Universal Pictures.

"I thought it was so glamorous and so wonderful," Tucker remembers.

With her aunt's guidance, Tucker went to the University of California-Santa Barbara and majored in communications and African-American studies. She also completed a summer internship in a public-relations firm.

After graduation in December 1994, Tucker landed a job at the Walt Disney Co., assisting the head of the international home-video publicity division. While she loved her day-to-day duties, including researching the history of Disney characters, she most enjoyed planning special publicity events. It tapped into the joy she felt as a child, organizing events like her Girl Scout troop's annual cookie drive.

In 1995, while at Disney, Tucker met Lynn Allen Jeter, who owned her own special-events and public-relations company.

"I thought, 'Oh, my gosh!' People get paid to do what I just love to do," Tucker says. She had a two-year unpaid internship with Jeter, learning the ins and outs of the business while also working 40-hour weeks at Disney.

Tucker knew it was time to leave Disney in 1998, when her boss told her that promotion within the department would not be possible. She moved to upstart studio DreamWorks SKG, working as an assistant to publicist Joyce Simpson.

Three months later, Simpson decided to move back East but was determined to help Tucker get another position at DreamWorks. She mentioned an opening in the special-events department. "My eyes lit up," remembers Tucker. "I said, 'I would love a chance to do this.'"

Soon Tucker was helping Chip Sullivan, who ran the department, organize a three-day retreat for studio division heads.

"He was testing me out on my knowledge of how to run an event," she says. She passed with flying colors and was soon one of three event coordinators in the department, where she stayed for three years.

Although she was good at her job, Tucker knew that something wasn't quite right.