Voice of Experience: Veronica Augustsson, CEO, Cinnober

Veronica AugustssonThis week The Glass Hammer is profiling successful women in the derivatives industry.

By Jessica Titlebaum

In just 12 years, Veronica Augustsson went from developer to CEO of Sweden’s Cinnober, an international independent software company delivering trading, clearing, and surveillance solutions.

After graduating from The Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm with a master’s degree in computer engineering, Augustsson began her career at Cinnober. Soon, she moved from developer into a technical sales support role and worked on a variety of projects in this position. She also spent 14 months in New York as onsite support at the American Stock Exchange (AMEX).

“I am very lucky to have the experience in New York because it is a big financial center,” Augustsson said. “While working on the AMEX trading floor, I was able to learn the rationale behind the trading.”

One of Augustsson’s biggest projects as an architect and developer was the trading system that Cinnober built for Turquoise, a European hybrid system launched by a conglomerate of banks to coordinate on and off exchange traded derivatives clearing.

Technology & the Derivatives Industry
The derivatives industry is quickly evolving because of Dodd Frank regulation, which among other things, has pushed off exchange-traded derivatives, also known as over the counter (OTC) contracts, on to exchange platforms.

Augustsson believes people with technology skills should get involved with regulatory matters.

“Technology is the driver and for the derivatives industry, it means there are no limitations,” she said. “My concern is that the regulators don’t know enough about technology so they sometimes make the wrong decisions when writing rules. I think the technology-skilled people need to be involved in regulation as well. Why, for example, is risk in real time not a requirement in many markets? Why is there not a discussion around real-time settlement?”

With the knowledge to ask the tough questions and the guts to start an industry discussion, it is no wonder Augustsson was able to climb the ladder at Cinnober. She was promoted to head of sales in January 2012 and offered the role of CEO just 10 months later.

Practice Makes Perfect
One of the factors Augustsson credits to her career success is that she played a variety of sports from the time she was four-years-old. Handball, which she played for 20 years, was her favorite.

“You have to understand the game and always be one step ahead,” she said. “I had very good split vision.”

According to the CEO, there are a lot of similarities between sports and the office.

“You learn the value of team work, how to give and take feedback on performance. Nowadays people often ask if I work a lot of over time. I just see it as I’m practicing,” she said.

Women in Tech Stand Out
While we’ve all heard about the challenges of being a woman in a male-dominated industry, with the tech industry being painted in a particularly harsh light, Augustsson asserts that being a woman in the male-dominated tech industry actually worked to her advantage.

“In a room full of men in grey suits, the woman will stand out,” she said.

Augustsson says that women shouldn’t be trained to change, but rather their differences accepted.

“In Europe there is now a debate about forcing more females to join boards to create diversification,” Augustsson explained. “In this debate I read about a mentor program for young women. I think that the women shall remain as they are and that the mentoring program should focus on educating the committees nominating candidates to the board, so that they understand the beauty of diversification.”

Critical Perspective
Not only does Augustsson have her responsibilities as CEO of Cinnober, but she’s also a mother of two. As a working mom, her kids have given her a critical perspective on technology and today’s culture.

“I have two kids and they know everything about angry birds, but not much about geography,” she said. “The emerging generation wants access to everything; they don’t think about what’s behind it since everything is accessible over the Internet. This provides me with the opportunity to see how the next generation is thinking and I very often have ‘aha moments’ that give me invaluable input into my job, both in creating a workplace that attracts young professionals and in building products and services for the future.”

Managing It All
To manage work and home life, Augustsson said that she tries to stay focused and does not let “worrying” get in the way of all of her responsibilities.

“I don’t think about what I need to do; I just carve out time to do it. I also go running and work out at the gym,” she said. “It helps me reset my brain.”

Having a Seat at the Table
Being one of the few female leaders in technology, Augustsson understands she is a role model for women in the field, which is why she advises women to believe in themselves. The key, she says, is having passion for what you do.

As a woman with a seat at the table, she also has a responsibility to see that the derivatives industry is in good hands – and her message to fellow decision makers is crucial.

“If we don’t take advantage of the female talent, we are only utilizing 50 percent of the available talent out there,” she said. “Very soon, [it will be] less than that because the ones graduating from University, at least in Sweden today, are 70 percent females.”

While the derivatives industry has a lot of adjusting to do as new regulatory and operational requirements are implemented, the markets will do extraordinarily well with Augustsson and others like her at the helm.