Voice of Experience: Laura Yunger, President, Cheevers & Co.

By Jessica Titlebaum (Chicago)

“I always think about how people get jobs in this industry,” said Laura Yunger, President of Cheevers & Company, Inc., a woman-owned brokerage firm founded in 1982. “Schools generally don’t have classes or programs specifically designed to teach you about trading or derivatives.”

Falling In

Like most of her colleagues, Yunger “fell in” to the financial industry. After graduating with a journalism degree from the University of Maryland, she initially had plans to move to Berkeley to study public health policy and nutrition. Her friend’s father had offered her a part time job at Rydex Investments, while she completed pre-requisite courses.

“Rydex had been around for about a year,” she said. “There were seven people at the firm.”

Yunger took on a sales and marketing role. She was also able to sharpen her skills in different areas of the business. Where the company had a need, she stepped in. Before long the owner offered her a full time role and she abandoned the Berkeley path.

In the beginning, she took customer orders although; she said that everybody took customer orders due to the sheer volume of orders coming.

“There was a lot of activity, imagine all the phones ringing on everyone’s desk at the same time,” she said. “It was cerebral, dynamic and constantly changing.”

As the company grew, she moved into a product management role managing a portfolio of mutual fund subaccounts. She also started a company newsletter and in the 1990’s, built the company website.

“Can you imagine a company not having a website?” she asked nostalgically.

Yunger brought all that activity she saw in the office, onto the website. She produced electronic coverage for the firm’s ecommerce and emarketing efforts. When she left the company six years later, the firm had $10 billion under management and 200 employees.

Stepping Stones

After Rydex, Yunger moved to Charlotte, North Carolina to work at Bank of America in its asset management division.

“Most people don’t know that Charlotte is the second largest banking city behind New York,” she said.

Yunger started in a product-marketing role helping develop strategies around new fee-incentive products Bank of America was rolling out. About five years later, the bank moved her department to Boston. Yunger left Bank of America and started as a consultant for Wachovia. As a consultant, Yunger was able to identify her personal values.

“It was the first time I recognized my personal values as they pertained to my role at the company,” she said. “ I was being hired for me and my skill set, rather than being hired for a certain position.”

When Wachovia merged with Wells Fargo she started looking for new opportunities. Through networking, she came across a marketing role at her current firm, Cheevers & Company. After a year of working remotely in DC, she moved to Chicago and was appointed President of company.

Her current challenges include finding growth opportunities, staying diversified, and keeping up to speed on regulatory implications.

“It’s also hard to find women traders because the pool is so small,” she said. “As a woman-owned company we are differentiated in a good way and we try to encourage the hiring of women.”

Lessons Learned

Yunger said that she didn’t have one specific mentor throughout her career but many different people that helped in little ways. She referenced the book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin for its strategic insight.

She also recalled the eye opening experience of closing her first deal.

“I was trying to close two institutional firms and I spent most of my time on the bigger of the two companies,” she said. “But I ended up closing the deal with the smaller firm.”

She said the largest of the firm used more brokers while the smaller firm had more needs. They were able to provide more for the smaller firm, which has now become one of their best clients.

She went on to say that the experience influenced her business model and now she considers how much time the company spends on different clients.

“You always have to be forward-thinking in terms of client potential,” she said. “There are hidden opportunities everywhere.”

Yunger’s drive and attitude make it seem like there are less gender-based challenges in the trading world. Her ability to build an in-depth network of opportunities answers the question she originally asked at the start of the interview. How do people get jobs in this industry?

“People get jobs through networking and whom you know. Since there are more men than women, men just get the job,” she said. “I don’t think women need to break into the industry. We have the smarts; we have everything we need to be successful. We just need more women seeking opportunity in our business.”