Voice of Experience: Aileen Blake, Executive Vice President and Corporate Controller, Northern Trust
by Liz O’Donnell (Boston)
“A couple of jobs I took along the way weren’t jobs I had my sight set on,” says Aileen Blake, Executive Vice President and Corporate Controller for Northern Trust, “but someone I trusted said they would be good opportunities. At the end of the day, those opportunities opened doors for me.”
For the most part, Blake has followed a direct and proven path. She studied accounting and business in college, took the CPA exam, and became a public accountant for PricewaterhouseCoopers. From there she held several jobs at major consumer packaged goods companies including Quaker Oats and Pepsi, did a stint overseas, and got an MBA from Kellogg School of Management.
Despite this classic pedigree, Blake tells her junior staff to always keep their considerations broad. “Think about the kinds of experiences you want to get and the kinds of tools you want to add to the tool kit,” she says. She believes that even challenging experiences can support a career trajectory.
“When I went to work in the UK, I was only six years out of college,” she says. “I was thrown into a challenging situation. There were cultural things that I didn’t get.”
What she learned, she says, is that different people have different priorities and jobs fit into people’s lives in different ways. Blake says she also learned the importance of giving people enough context to do their jobs and make decisions.
If Blake sounds driven, it is because she most definitely is. She grew up one of seven children of a self-employed, hard-working father. She says her parents gave her a strong moral compass. “They taught me to ask if I am using my talents to the level I should be.”
Now that Blake has children of her own, motherhood has given her a new perspective. “Two weeks after I returned from maternity leave, Lehman collapsed and the market went haywire,” she says, “but children ground you and remind you the world’s okay.”
Family forces her to be judicious about how she uses her time. In addition to her professional duties, she has laundry to do and kids to put to bed at night. “Be unapologetic,” she says, “You can’t feel bad if your career comes first and you can’t feel bad if your family comes first.”
As a working mother, Blake remains just as driven as she’s always been. She is active in mentoring programs and tries to stay active in the company through committees and affinity groups such as a woman’s leadership forum. Plus she is active with several nonprofit organizations. “It’s important for developing a part of who we are,” she says. “Plus it helps you marry the personal with the professional.”
