Voice of Experience: Mareile Cusack, General Counsel, Ariel Investments

By Pamela Weinsaft (New York City)

“Change awakens the stranger in you. When you are faced with a different situation, that’s when you find your strength and are able to grow and become a better person,” said Mareile Cusack, General Counsel at Chicago investment firm, Ariel Investments.

That’s the voice of experience talking. Cusack was born in Haiti. At the age of two, she and her family fled to Guinea when her father, a government official, was exiled. They remained in northwest Africa until a nationalist movement forced all foreigners out five years later. “It was an unusual time. It wasn’t yet violent but foreigners were being looked upon with suspicion. I do remember, though, that the father of someone I knew suddenly disappeared because he was thought to be a spy. It was that kind environment, so my parents decided it was time to get out.” The family moved to France, where Cusack lived until she came to the United States to attend boarding school in Andover, Massachusetts at the age of 16.

Of the turmoil in her childhood, Cusack said, “These changes, while difficult at the time, made me a much stronger person. Nothing really scares me. I am able to meet new people, to challenge myself, to learn new things.” She added, “The confidence, resourcefulness, and fearlessness all come out of those experiences.”

Cusack went on to study at University of Pennsylvania, where she majored in English and History with a minor in Economics. Her primary goal was to ensure that she was properly positioned for law school.

As a child, she had been addicted to law shows, and even pretended to address imaginary juries in front of her bedroom mirror. So it is no surprise that Cusack attended University of Virginia Law School with the intention of becoming a litigator “just like Perry Mason.” However, shortly after she started practicing at Sachnoff Weaver (now combined with Reed Smith), she realized that she didn’t really like many aspects of litigation. “I didn’t like the posturing. I didn’t like the delays. I’m really basically a ‘results oriented’ person, so transactional matters are much more suited to my style,” she explained.

Loving the Regulatory Practice

When cycling through the different practice areas at the firm, she discovered that what she did like was the regulatory practice areas. “I enjoyed tax law and securities law because to me it was most like working through a series of puzzles in order to get to the result. There are various ways of coming to a conclusion, some more beneficial to you, some less so. You really need to know how to maneuver your way through a very complex series of rules which are not all in a book. It takes a lot of examining, reading various regulations, and comparing one regulation to another in order to get to the ultimate result.”

Cusack stayed with the firm for two years before joining the regional office of the SEC in Chicago. She started out doing enforcement, in the form of investigation and litigation. Three years later, she became the head of a group responsible for reviewing and commenting on all the public offerings in the region. “It was a fascinating job. Firms would call up and say ‘we have this particular issue and we are trying to figure out how best to disclose it’ and I would interpret the regulations and provide advice to them.”

Meeting Challenges Head On

A few years later, she received a call out of the blue from someone with whom she had previously worked, asking her to become the chief legal counsel at the Illinois Gaming Board, the governmental body that regulates casinos in the state. She jumped at the chance and the challenge. “I saw it as an opportunity to be at the SEC in 1933, an opportunity to go in and create a regulatory structure in an industry that desperately needed it. Since it was at the nascent stage, it was a chance to bring color to legislation that had been passed. And it involved creating a regulatory structure through which the organization could make determinations as to whether particular casinos were suitable for licensing or not, whether they had violated regulations or not. So, [although the underlying regulations are completely different from those for the securities practice,] I seized the opportunity.”

Cusack views her job at the Gaming Board as one of the most demanding positions she’s ever held, due in no small part to the press scrutiny and attention from a variety of interest groups. “It was extremely difficult and challenging. But it was the one job from which I probably learned the most because I was out there. I reported to a Board and to the governor. And we were dealing with some extremely hairy political situations. But the challenge of that job, more than any other, is what made me into the professional that I’ve become.”

When asked how she prepared herself to meet the challenges, she said, “I find that everything boils down to never letting go of your good judgment. So when you walk into any situation, you have to learn as much as you possibly can and hold onto your sense of logic. Every time you are about to do something, you have to think to yourself, ‘Can I do it better? Is there a more efficient way to get there? Why am I doing this? Does this make sense?’ Constantly look for how the task you are doing fits into the big picture of the organization. When things don’t make sense, there is a reason. Finally, figure out what your objectives are and create. Be bold.”

Taking Time to Be a Stay-At-Home Mom

After six years with the Gaming Board, she decided to take time off to be with her family and “get reacquainted with them.” She explained, “The job was all- consuming and I found that my kids had been growing up without my 100% attention. “

But, although she left the business world, she continued to find ways to challenge herself. “While I did not work, I did a marathon and a triathlon. I also cleaned the closets and learned to cook.”

A year later, when she saw her kids—then aged 8 and 10— looking in the newspaper for jobs for her, she knew it was time to go back to work. “My kids had always known me as a working mom and to some extent took pride in that. For them and for me, the good balance is for me to work and to continue to have a challenging job in addition to being a mother. I’m just a fuller, happier person.”

Her first job back in the workforce was as a recruiter specializing in attorneys. “There was a New York recruiting firm that asked me to help them open their Chicago office. So I came in, found a space, hired people, and we started doing recruiting for law firms. I initially enjoyed the challenge of starting a new business but, once we were doing the recruiting, I found that I was slating people for jobs that really fascinated me. And I realized that my forté is perhaps not in sales but being in being a counselor.”

Just about the time, she received a call from someone with whom she had worked while at the SEC who was now at the Chicago Stock Exchange. Her former colleague told her that the Exchange was in turmoil because the SEC had just found it to be non-compliant on a number of regulatory issues, and that they needed her help to fix it. So Cusack joined as a staff attorney to help them rebuild the system and the procedures. Within a month of her arrival, she was promoted to the Chief Compliance Officer of the Exchange and, four years later, she became the Associate General Counsel.

And then came a call from yet another former colleague who advised Cusack of the chance to work with Ariel Investments, a firm Cusack had long admired. “I had known about Ariel since 1985. I’d heard about them in the industry and I’d heard about the founder, John W. Rogers, Jr. In fact, at one point I was so fascinated with him and by how a minority could succeed in this industry that I [networked my way into an informational interview with him]. I remember walking out of that meeting with such a strong impression that, if I ever had an opportunity to follow him, I would.”

Cusack was hired as the Assistant General Counsel of Ariel Investments in October 2007. One year later, she was promoted to General Counsel. Of her role, she said, “The people at Ariel work very hard. And, as General Counsel, I answer to a number of different groups, all of which need some answers immediately. So it is a balancing of a variety of different interests, trying to meet needs as quickly and efficiently as possible. But I enjoy a challenge.”

Barriers to Women of Color in the Financial Industry

Cusack said there “no question” that there continue to be barriers for women, and specifically women of color, because the financial industry—in general—is dominated by men. “It is only natural that you would want to work with people who share your background. It’s a constant challenge.”

“I was always used to combating the barriers in the industry, knowing that when I walked into the room that there would likely be an assumption that I was not as competent as others. But, when I came to Ariel,” said Cusack, “I felt for the first time that I was free from that. From the first moment, I felt as if I’d come home, joined my family—a group of people—led by John W. Rogers, Jr. and Mellody Hobson—who have high expectations but who cherish diversity. And ultimately who really focus on the most important things: doing their job, doing it well, and helping the team.”

The Story of a Wonderful Life

She said, “I was a long distance runner ever since high school and I remember my coach saying to me that every race is won or lost on the uphill. And I really believe that. Always when things get really rough, you need to dig deep inside yourself and find strength to move forward. And that’s when you gain yards.”

Cusack also advises to “treat every assignment as an opportunity to show your competence and to develop a relationship. For every project that you work on with internal people, you should imagine that the person you are working for is your client and that you want the opportunity to continue to work for them.”

She believes that young women first entering the industry should focus on obtaining the building blocks they need for the future. “When I first started practicing law,” she said, “I had some high expectations and a certain amount of arrogance…I thought that people would simply come to me. What I found pretty early on was that people didn’t. Unless I was willing to do the grunt work, regardless of whether I thought it was at my level, I simply wouldn’t get good work. I learned that very quickly that if you wait around for the perfect situation or perfect assignment, it is never going to come. You have to go and work as hard as you can and do whatever is needed to get the job done and to treat every assignment as an opportunity to show your competence and show the extent to which you can be additive to the process.”

Cusack still takes advantage of all opportunities to learn, adding, “If you were to look at my bookshelf, you wouldn’t find a lot of business books. What you would find is a lot of the great books—Shakespeare, Plato, Dostoyevsky, Dickens—because I find that those books teach you more [than business books do] about human beings and situations and how others behave. Even though they are fiction, they are deep analytical studies of the human condition.” At the time of this interview, she had just read “Meno,” one of Plato’s dialogues about an arrogant boy who went to Socrates wanting Socrates to tell him what virtue is. The boy eventually learns that Socrates doesn’t know—no one knows—but that it is in the process of searching that you discover the truth.

“That’s the story of a career and a wonderful life,” said Cusack. “We have to get into the process, keep challenging and improving ourselves as much as possible to ultimately reach our goal, whatever that may be.”