Voice of Experience: Margo Cook, CFA, Executive Vice President, Nuveen Investments

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

In talking to Margo Cook, CFA, Executive Vice President of Nuveen Investments, its clear that what she’s valued the most throughout her career is her ability to be a part of and to build effective teams.

While her career has taken her from The Bank of New York to Bear Stearns Asset Management, and now to Nuveen Investments, she continues to prize her role as a manager and team builder, investigating and working to improve the dynamic and effectiveness of the groups she’s led.

Cook said, “The most rewarding thing is to have a strong team that works together well. They know how to respond to challenges, and move ahead. It may be more time consuming – but a strong team can accomplish more than a group of people acting as individuals.”

Building a Career in Investment Management and Fixed Income

Cook began, “I started my career The Bank of New York in 1986, working in an area called Corporate Trust. At that time, I knew that I wanted to be an investment manager, but I did not know how to get into the world of asset management. In 1988, I got my ‘lucky break’ when a senior person at the bank introduced me to the head of our fixed income team. I learned a very quick lesson from this stroke of luck and good timing, that you need to really get to know others around you. I would have likely never had the opportunity to even speak to that head of the group if I hadn’t connected with the other senior executive about how to break into asset management. As a result of that opportunity to serve as a portfolio manager, I became head of fixed income in 1996.”

In 2005, Cook, who holds an MBA from Columbia University and the CFA designation, saw her role expand to lead her firm’s institutional investment business, including equity and fixed income. “Transitioning from the role of head of fixed income to managing the business across multiple asset classes was a challenge. As the manager of fixed income, I knew that a strong team was critical, but I became much more focused on the importance of having strong managers and team leaders to support me and the broader team in this new role. I quickly realized that I had to rely on each manager’s judgment, which meant making sure I had the right people in the right roles.”

Her ability to create strong teams paid off when she took a new role at Bear Stearns Asset Management in June of 2007. “I went to Bear Stearns Asset Management, with my eyes wide open, knowing that there were problems in its asset management business, and that there were a number of immediate, crisis issues that needed to be addressed.” Cook and her team began to quickly assess where the problems were, including instituting stronger compliance, risk oversight and operational infrastructure.

Cook believes there are some key lessons from her relatively short experience at Bear Stearns that will stay with her for many years. “Often it’s the most difficult situations where you learn the most. For example, in a crisis environment, it’s critical to communicate much more frequently with employees, clients and vendors, as a lack of information can cause even bigger problems. In retrospect, it was the most important part of crisis management – communication with your team and making sure that they are doing the same.”

Eventually the problems in the broader asset management business bled into the broker/dealer at Bear Stearns, causing the failure of the firm. Cook relayed that she saw most people respond helpfully. “In particular, when the firm was taken over by JPMorgan in March 2008, there was a high amount of uncertainty. “What would happen to the teams? Would they lose their track records? Here again, I saw the value of a strong management team – with JP Morgan’s help and each of the team heads, to help negotiate on behalf of a number of those asset management teams to take their track record to other firms which allowed for some investment teams to continue managing money.” While the breakup of the firm was a disappointing outcome, Cook feels that the communication and management lessons learned were rewarding.

In 2008, Cook joined Nuveen Investments in Chicago, where she heads the firm’s Investment Services team. Her role at Nuveen includes helping to understand investment strategies and oversight, risk management and valuation across the firm, which is comprised of multiple asset management companies and sub-advisors across various investment strategies. She explained, “I’m in an interesting spot in the firm as I get to look across investment teams and strategies, to try to help figure out how they work through challenging markets, deal with risk oversight, decision making and the dynamics on their teams. It’s intellectually interesting, challenging and exciting.”

She continued, “With the recent addition of Michelle McCarthy as head of Risk Management, one of the areas that we’re working on is to further enhance our risk management structure at the firm – to strengthen the partnership with our investment affiliates around the challenges that were faced in the financial crisis in 2008/2009, and see where we can build even stronger risk oversight and processes.”

When asked what the next 5 or 10 years held in store for her, Cook responded, “I feel very lucky to be in the asset management industry and try to figure out how to bring successful investment products to market in order to meet client’s investment goals. I also really enjoy understanding how investment teams function and understanding the dynamic that drives the process. I see myself continuing down the road of helping Nuveen build our investment business.”

Advice for Women in Investment Management

Cook stressed the importance of “understanding what people around you are doing. For my first several years as a portfolio manager, I focused on the markets, clients, and the portfolios. I didn’t spend enough time learning what’s going on in the industry or my company.”

She continued, “Taking the time to understand what other people’s objectives are can help you do your job better. Understand other people’s objectives, and what drives success in your job and industry.”

She said, “I think the primary challenge faced by women in the industry is that there’s not a lot of us. But our numbers are growing, in marketing, private banking, asset management especially. Any kind of diversity is good. We need to challenge each other. Diversification of viewpoint is important.”

“What I tell a lot of young women is that being a woman in this industry makes you unique. At BNY, we had quarterly manager’s meetings, and I’d look around me and observe that the room was a sea of men – in white shirts and blue ties. As a woman you can stand out. Take the opportunity that people will remember who you are.” Of course, she said, “You have to work harder.”

“If you make yourself stand out for positive reasons, bring success to projects, be a strong team contributor, you have a better chance of acceleration in your career,” she explained.

She also discussed the importance of education in the industry. “I have the same advice for men and women. The asset management industry values education. You can get a CFA or a CAIA degree in order to attain specific asset management knowledge while having an MBA can also be very helpful in understanding what makes certain companies work better than others, as well as learning about different leadership and management styles.” She continued, “Young women in particular can differentiate themselves by being responsive, taking action on tasks given, working with an eye on quality and differentiating yourself based on work output.”

She said, “Sometimes women tend to make themselves less known. If you’ve done a good job, then you ought to take credit where it’s appropriate.”

Particularly for women in the mid- to upper- levels of their careers, she said, “You’ve really got to get out there. It’s a little cliché, but you need to build a network. When BNY and Mellon merged and Bear Stearns fell apart, I realized quickly I had to rely on the network of people I’d built over the years. Beyond the 5-7 year stage of your career, building a network within your company and externally is important.”

Regarding work/life balance, Cook exclaimed, “I don’t really understand what that phrase “work/life balance” means.” She continued, “Any job you have, you want to have a quality of life. The higher you move up, the more responsibility you take on, the more work becomes part of your life. I think both men and women need to assess how much they want to move up in their firm – inevitably the higher you go, the more time consuming work becomes. Each person needs to decide that for themselves.”

“As women, we should stop trying to talk about the so-called ‘work/life balance’ – everyone needs quality of life and interests outside of work. It makes you a more interesting person if you have dimension. Everyone – male or female – strives to achieve a balance: work versus other parts of your life.”

“A number of years ago, I helped to found the Women’s Initiative Network at The Bank of New York. It was about connecting people to each other. Women of all experience levels got to know each other. If you needed an answer, you weren’t looking someone up in your directory, you knew them and had formed a relationship. It’s more effective and fun to know your colleagues socially.

In fact, she said she found inspiration in a former colleague she had worked with as part of BNY’s Womens Initiative Network – Karen Peetz, currently Senior Executive Vice President at BNY Mellon. She said, “She was one of the people that led to the founding of this group at BNY, who reinforced many of my management views on team-building. Karen articulated a lot of the things I’m trying to do – putting together good teams that can execute on your goals.”

As for advice, she cautioned, “I would say make sure that you’re listening, that you don’t walk into situations with preconceived notions. Get enough information to make a good conclusion.”

Outside the Office

In her spare time, Cook said, “I’m gotten more involved in philanthropy over the last few years. It’s a different perspective and you can use the skills you learn in business.”

Cook is on the executive board of the University of Rhode Island’s Foundation as well as the Chicago Advisory Board of the All Stars Project. “Both organizations are about education and opportunity. In particular, I’ve seen the great work that the All Stars Project has accomplished, which is focused on engaging inner city youth, building confidence in kids that need opportunity. It’s been extremely rewarding to use business skills in the non-profit environment and at the same time, I’ve learned quite a bit from both of these organizations that help me as a manager.”

She continued, “I think it’s important for people to give back to their communities, but you also get so much in return. I’ve found it rewarding to know you can help by offering what you’ve learned but also bring experience from outside of the office into your work environment.”