Whether by fate or hard work and a bit of serendipity, Stephanie Lucie often seems to be in the right place at the right time in her life.

The Staktek Holdings Inc. senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary steadily worked her way through the ranks at private firms before making the move in-house. She circled the country from the Great Lakes region of her roots to Austin, making stops in the Northeast and on the West Coast along the way. She has leveraged her securities experience to her advantage, working for growing companies — Compaq Computer Corp.; Alta Vista Co.; Cirrus Logic Inc.; and Staktek — as they sought to capitalize on cutting-edge technology by going public or expanding through mergers and acquisitions. And she has parlayed her general legal and business expertise to positive effect in the corporate environment.