Movers and Shakers: Kathleen McQuiggan, President, Catalina Leadership

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“I wish I could say I had a grand plan about forming my own company,” said Kathleen McQuiggan, Principal of Catalina Leadership, with a laugh. “But I started as an entry level sales assistant at an investment banking firm. And I had this notion of making a bet on people and always following my gut.”

McQuiggan spent six and a half years at the investment bank Alex. Brown, where she started her career, before she was recruited to Goldman Sachs. She rose to become a top quartile vice president in institutional sales at the firm, before striking out on her own.

“It was about me driving things versus letting other things drive me,” she explained. “I founded Catalina Leadership two years ago. I had had a successful career and I was ready for my next adventure. I wanted to leverage what I had learned in my 20 years in financial services sales with a passion for helping women advance their careers and helping companies realize the value of diversity.”

Catalina Leadership is focused on helping companies invest in women. She continued, “Starting my own business was never an avenue I thought I would go down. I’ve learned a lot and been challenged in ways I haven’t been challenged before.”

Currently McQuiggan is retained by PAX World Fund Management to work with them on their strategy for gender equality as an investment concept and building out their practice management Women & Wealth Initiative, which helps financial advisors work better with women clients.

Importance of Networking

“Confidence is a choice,” McQuiggan said. “I wish I had taken that to heart earlier in my career.”

She continued, “But the other thing I wish I had learned earlier is the importance of strong internal and external networks. I wish I had developed networks much earlier.”

“Your network is one of the most important assets you have. My advice is to spend time each week focusing on your network, analyzing your network, and growing your network.”

She continued, “That goes for if you’re new to the industry or very experienced, but I would encourage young women especially to get away from your desk. We don’t always understand how important it is to spend time with peers, other colleagues and most importantly clients and competitors.”

Diversity in the Financial Services

“In a lot of companies, there are legacy mindsets that can be challenging for women,” McQuiggan said. “For example, there’s the idea that presence is performance.”

She explained, “You see who’s sitting in the desks, and think they must be working hard and must be doing a good job. It’s this idea of wasted face time.”

“The other thing,” she continued, “is that in this industry managers are both producers and managers. And people who wear those two hats tend to think that the only way to do a job successfully is to do it the way they would do it. Like gravitates toward like.”

“I think that leads the industry to be not as open to empowering people to do the job in a totally different way and be equally successful.”

Keys to Success for Women’s Initiatives

Before founding Catalina Leadership, McQuiggan was Co-Chair of the New Talent Subcommittee of Goldman Sachs Firmwide Women’s Network Steering Committee, senior sponsor of Goldman Sachs Boston Women’s Network, and was the recipient of the Goldman Sachs Citizenship and Diversity Award.

She said one of the critical factors when it comes to a successful women’s initiative is senior support for the program. “Senior sponsorship is definitely one of the things that is at the top of the list that is very important.”

“I also think women’s initiatives need to be asking more ‘why not’ versus ‘why.’”

She explained, “That means defining the win, creating transparency around your data, and defining the metrics that the initiative will measure.”

But, she emphasized, a women’s initiative isn’t solely about women. “To really create an effective women’s initiative, an important piece is firm-wide training on building an inclusive environment.”

“An inclusive environment is critical for any women’s initiative to be successful.”

In Her Personal Time

As an entrepreneur, McQuiggan said, she doesn’t spend much time outside the office. And her passion for helping women spills into her other commitments as well. “I really started Catalina Leadership to focus on investing in women. But that’s also what I do through volunteering and philanthropy work.”

McQuiggan is co-president of the Boston chapter of 85 Broads. She also sits on the board of the Boston YWCA and the advisory board of the startup Invest in Girls. “It teaches financial literacy and how to read financial statements to high school girls in 10th, 11th, and 12th grade,” she said.