Movers and Shakers: Nicole Douillet, Vice President, Credit Suisse
According to Nicole Douillet, Vice President, Credit Suisse, when you are young and high achieving coming out of college, entering the workforce can be a difficult transition, especially in an environment like Wall St. “It can seem disappointing if your career trajectory is not progressing as quickly as you imagined, but it is important to remember that a career path is very rarely a straight line,” advised Douillet.
“Take a breath, have patience, and look at the bigger picture,” she added.
Douillet was the first woman hired on the block trading desk at UBS in 2000. “My career in trading has been pretty tumultuous since I started in 2000,” said Douillet. “In fact, my very first day on the UBS desk was the last day the NASDAQ 100 closed above 4,000,” she continued. Douillet left UBS to pursue a job in quantitative trading at Credit Suisse where she eventually moved to the systematic market making group. She said, “I have been able to see a lot of different cycles in the markets from the beginning of 2000 through today.”
In 2007, Douillet was promoted to VP a year ahead of everyone in her class and was selected to be a part of the inaugural class of Credit Suisse Emerging Leaders program. Through this program, Credit Suisse identifies high potential associates and vice presidents and tasks them with creating solutions for problems the executive board is struggling with.
“My group was given the question, ‘how does an investment bank push innovation?’” said Douillet, “which is difficult considering the regulatory environment in which investments banks operate.” The challenge was to figure out how to inspire innovation among employees while staying within the regulatory framework. Douillet explained, “We devised a system of encouraging and rewarding innovation and presented our idea to the senior leaders running the program. The idea was rolled out as a pilot program in the IT division and later became a bank wide initiative due to the success of the pilot.”
Credit Suisse LGBT Equality Index and LGBT Equality Portfolio
On October 21, 2013 Credit Suisse launched the LGBT Equality Index and the LGBT Equality Portfolio powered by HOLT. Douillet has been a critical component of both projects since their inception and she is ecstatic for the project to finally be reaching fruition after many months of hard work.
“The project began with discussions that were taking place within the Credit Suisse LGBT Open Network around how interesting it would be to compare the performance of companies with progressive LGBT policies with the S&P 500, for example,” explained Douillet.
Credit Suisse partnered with the Human Rights Campaign, and according to Douillet, they used the HRC’s corporate equality index as a barometer to measure a company’s support for the LGBT community. “The Index has 201 US companies, and since the HRC first released their corporate equality index ten years ago, the Credit Suisse LGBT Equality Index has performed in line with the S&P 500,” said Douillet. She added, “The really interesting part is the correlation of the daily returns between our LGBT Index and the S&P 500 is over 99 percent.”
“It is pretty exciting to be working on the front lines of a socially responsible equity index focused on the LGBT community,” said Douillet. If the LGBT Equality Index receives a patent, Douillet acknowledged she will be extremely proud to be listed as the inventor on the application.“Credit Suisse is also focused on a larger LGBT social impact initiative and the LGBT Equality Portfolio is a part of that. This is something that clients of Credit Suisse Private Banking USA will be able to invest in,” added Douillet.
According to Douillet, this project would have never found its wings without the support of the LGBT network at Credit Suisse. “Members of the LGBT network were able to reach out to personal networks at the bank in order to gather the expertise we needed to create a product and an index like this,” she said. “Over fifty people at the bank have helped in some way to complete this project. It’s really astounding.” Douillet added.
Women on Wall Street
“There is a perception that Wall St. is still an ole boys club,” Douillet stated, “and this is perpetuated by the lack of women in the C Suite currently on Wall St. It is easy to see why women feel like there are barriers to success in this industry.”
In order to overcome these perceptions, Douillet said it is important for women to pull each other up on the way to the top. “When women achieve success on Wall St., I think they need to look for the next set of female leaders coming up behind them and make sure they have the tools they need to continue to succeed,” said Douillet.
However, Douillet also believes that junior women need to take the initiative by always identifying the next opportunity to advance their careers and taking advantage of it. “Instead of being complacent with the status quo, you should try to seek out the challenges that may seem risky and go after them. Taking calculated risk is a way to stretch your stretch yourself and highlight your abilities; and often that is where you will find the greatest reward, ” she added.
Douillet explained that LGBT diversity on Wall St. is still very much a work in progress. “There are currently not a lot of out LGBT leaders on Wall St.,” she noted. “However, it is important to recognize the amount of change that has occurred just in the last ten years on Wall St. I was the first woman hired on the block trading desk at UBS, and now we are launching the LGBT Equality Index with major support from our senior leaders.”
Diversity Initiatives at Credit Suisse
“Credit Suisse’s diversity and inclusiveness efforts are phenomenal across the globe,” Douillet said. She explained that joining the Open Network at Credit Suisse was a great way to meet people from all across the bank.
Mentoring is also something that Credit Suisse supports through the Mentoring Advisory Group, which is currently in its second year. The goal of MAG is to identify, develop and promote high-profile women, help them reach their full potential and achieve positions of greater responsibility in the future. Now in its second year, MAG has expanded to include a broader range of programs at the regional level and to included women of varying levels of seniority.
Outside the Office
In her spare time, Douillet enjoys participating in volunteer work with the LGBT community. “Through Credit Suisse, we support several LGBT organizations in New York City,” said Douillet. In addition to this, Douillet is extremely passionate about helping the effort to end world hunger. “I am on the advisory council of Action Against Hunger, which is an international, action oriented NGO that is helping over 6 million people each year in over 40 countries,” she said.
Outside of her volunteer work, Douillet and her wife enjoy the excitement of seeing the world. “We try to visit one new place each year that neither one of us has been to,” said Douillet, “and my wife is Puerto Rican, so we travel there a couple of times a year to visit family.”
By Michelle Hendelman
