Voice of Experience: Arlene Isaacs-Lowe, Senior Vice President, Commercial Group, Moody’s Investors Service

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“I think it’s really important that women are authentic in their professional lives,” said Arlene Isaacs-Lowe, Senior Vice President at Moody’s, and recently appointed to head business development for Moody’s Commercial Group’s bank loan franchise.

She continued, “There are aspects of you that make you the best you – and if you put up a facade to fit into an organization, eventually that facade will crack. You are better suited to put that energy into contributing to the organizations strategic objectives.”

Isaacs-Lowe’s drive to learn – to excel at multiple disciplines – has often taken her to the next professional opportunity. Moving from accounting to investment, to entrepreneurship, and now to the credit industry, Isaacs-Lowe has diligently followed her authentic interests.

She said, “Rather than worrying about what people think of the real you, be thoughtful about working for a company that can embrace the authentic you.”

Developing a Broad Skill Set

“Well, I think it’s an interesting story,” began Isaacs-Lowe, describing her career path. “I was one of the first in my family to go to college. My family is from Jamaica, in the West Indies.”

She continued, “They were adamant that I would go to college – but we did not have a lot of experience, and I didn’t know what my true career interests were, but I knew becoming an attorney would be admirable. So I decided to major in political science in anticipation of going to law school.”

Isaacs-Lowe began studying political science at Howard University in Washington DC, until her career advisor pulled her aside. She explained, “My advisor said that given my math acumen, maybe I should consider something besides political science.” Isaacs-Lowe switched majors and after graduating with a degree in accounting, she went on to become a CPA.

But, she soon realized she wanted a different career path. She said, “After a number of years, I observed that while accounting was interesting to me, I was responding to decisions made by others.
I wanted to be on the other side of the table, so I enrolled in graduate school and got an MBA in finance and a CFA designation.”

Isaacs-Lowe said her company at the time, MetLife, was willing to work with her to accommodate her career shift. “I negotiated with my employer to move from accounting to managing a real estate investment portfolio.” As a portfolio manager, she managed commercial real estate assets for pension fund clients.

After gaining experience in commercial real estate investments, Lowe said, “I decided to try my hand at entrepreneurship and formed a real estate investment advisory firm with some of my colleagues.”

“My entrepreneurial endeavor taught me that technical competence and investment analysis are key in this industry. But as the principal of a company, you have to be multidisciplinary…. to understand marketing, HR, and administrative functions, as well. It’s important in the context of being able to contribute to the broader strategic objectives of the organization.”

She added, “Your technical skills are important, but to be an effective leader you have to be well rounded.”

After a few years, Lowe decided she wanted to learn more about the capital markets, as the real estate industry was transforming into publicly held REITs. She explained, “So I pursued a position at Moody’s – I figured that given Moody’s presence in the global capital markets it was the best place to learn about how an emerging industry accesses the capital markets.”

She continued, “While I didn’t have extensive experience in credit analysis, I did have an accounting background and experience in commercial real estate, and it seemed like a great fit. Moody’s would teach me about credit analysis and I would use my knowledge base in commercial real estate to help expand our footprint in that market.”

“Looking back on my career,” she said, “I’m most proud of my role in building the real estate franchise at Moody’s – we doubled our coverage of publicly traded real estate companies and built a reputation of providing real thought leadership in that area. I see that experience as an example of my ability to bring to bear diverse skill sets.”

Women in the Financial Services Industry

“At the mid-management level, there are a number of efforts to encourage and improve mentorship for women. But women still lack sponsorship,” Lowe said. She explained that as you move up in an organization and in your career, your relationships are increasingly important in getting to the next level.

“How are these relationships nurtured?” she asked. “Organizations need to ask themselves, ‘how do you move from mentoring women to providing them even more tangible support? How do you encourage sponsorship?’”

Isaacs-Lowe serves on the board of directors of the Executive Leadership Foundation and recently chaired a research committee, funded in part by the Moody’s Foundation, to explore the challenges senior level Black women face in advancing their careers. She said, “It involved interviewing relatively senior women, their peers, and approximately 25 CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, and we compared the perspectives of these group regarding the perceptions and career challenges of senior Black women.”

She continued, “One of the most significant findings was that Black women thought they had stronger relationships in the organization than their peers or the CEOs expressed. And that goes back to the importance of sponsors.”

“I urge women to think about their networks – not just the breadth, but the depth of their relationships.”

At Moody’s, Isaacs-Lowe said, “In the last 2 years, we officially launched our affinity groups, including a women’s network, to provide a forum for people to discuss issues that women and other underrepresented groups face in the workplace and provide information on career strategies.” She continued, “We have had a progressive journey at Moody’s as far as our diversity and inclusion strategy – especially in thinking about how to ensure employees understand that diversity and inclusion is an important part of our mission.”

She continued, “Early on, I had a lot of involvement, more recently I am a member of our affinity groups and participate in presentations and panel discussions. Our affinity groups have executive sponsorship and are mainly lead by younger associates to ensure that the issues raised are relevant to our current workforce and that our senior management team is focused on these issues. It’s an important part of our diversity and inclusion strategy.”

Personal Aspirations and Advice

“In 10 years, I aspire to be more involved in projects that blend financial acumen and social impact. I currently serve on the Board of Directors of the Enterprise Community Investment, Inc. as chair of the audit and finance committee. Its goal is to provide safe and affordable housing for low and medium income people in the US, but to do so in a manner that is profitable to institutional investors. It’s a complex business which is accomplished through financial expertise, utilizing low income tax credits, and a focus on the mission of providing a better life for people less fortunate,” Isaacs-Lowe said.

“I’d like to do more work with projects like that in the future,” she explained.

Isaacs-Lowe, also works on a mentorship and leadership development initiative for Jack and Jill of America and with the New York State Society of CPAs, where she volunteers her time to encourage high school students of color to pursue careers in accounting, continued, “This is a great time for women, particularly, in financial services. The opportunities will be vast as the markets recover – and I encourage young women to think about financial services as a possible career.”

Regarding work/life balance, she said, “It means different things to different people. As women, we have to think about what it means to us as individuals and not try to force others perceptions on how best to manage the intersection of our families, careers, and personal lives.”

She continued, “For me, when I was younger and starting my family, pursing my education and advancement in my career meant putting in place a reliable support system, particularly for childcare. But it’s also about focusing on you.”

“Without your physical and mental health, everything will fall apart no matter how hard you try. That includes regular exercise, a healthy diet, and having some ‘me time’ (and for me that means getting a facial or going to a spa several times a year). I also believe that my faith and spiritually has helped to get me through some of those inevitable valleys in life, so I make time for prayer and meditation every day. You need downtime to reenergize,” Isaacs-Lowe explained.

She continued, “As women, we don’t necessarily pay attention to ourselves – we have so many balls in the air. I have a 16-year-old daughter, and I didn’t want her to observe me hard at work, without understanding that you are important too. Women need to take as much care of themselves as they do of their careers and families.”

Regarding the best advice she ever received, Lowe said, “It’s not all that complicated. My grandmother taught me to treat people the way you would like to be treated.”