Voice of Experience: Leslie Hale, CFO, RLJ Lodging Trust
RLJ Lodging Trust’s CFO, Leslie Hale, grew up in an entrepreneurial family and from an early age she says she was in love with the concept of taking one dollar and turning it into two. She was a natural. Whether it was getting chosen out of college for GE’s world renowned, ultra-competitive Financial Management Program or becoming a CFO at the age of 35, time and time again it’s been proven that she was born to thrive in the financial services industry.
To Hale, one of the biggest appeals of the industry was that it went well beyond Wall Street, enabling you to apply your skills and learn new ones in areas as varied as real estate and healthcare.
This love of learning about new sectors was fostered at GE, where Hale was rotated to a different area every six-months. Hale has done just about everything the industry has to offer, from working on Wall Street to working in mergers and acquisitions (and everything in between), eventually deciding she liked real estate the best. She would spend five-years in this space before business school.
“The beauty of financial services is that while every industry is different, the actual finance aspect is the same. You can take your skills and apply them anywhere that interests you and you can be successful in that space,” Hale said.
A Career to Be Proud Of
There are very few women CFOs and even fewer African American women CFOs and as an African American woman serving as CFO of a publicly traded company, Hale is one of just a handful in the entire United States. Clearly, this is one of her proudest achievements.
“I’m fortunate to work for a great company with a visionary CEO who was willing to take a chance on me,” Hale said. “Success, as we know, is about being prepared, but it’s also about opportunity. When you’re prepared and an opportunity arises, it can be career changing.”
Hale says that she spent some time early in her career “getting knocked around”, but she wouldn’t change any of it because the CFO says everything happens for a reason.
“Like many women starting out, I didn’t really understand how to play the game. I learned along the way and there were bumps and bruises, but making mistakes doesn’t matter so much early in your career. That’s when you have to – and it’s beneficial to – learn the hard lessons,” Hale said.
Visibility is Key
RLJ Lodging Trust’s CFO says the challenges that women face in the financial services industry are the same challenges that women in many industries face: a lack of representation at the highest levels. Hale says that ensuring women of color are represented is very important to her, but not just seeing them in certain roles; seeing them in decision-making roles is key.
As a minority-run firm, RLJ Lodging Trust doesn’t have any formalized training programs for high-potential women of color. As Hale says, mentorship and sponsorship opportunities are there by default.
“African American women can come to RLJ and have a good experience and function at a high level,” Hale said. “As an African American CFO, I know I’m leading by example, so my work ethic and quality of work are important to me.”
Advice for Young Women
As mentioned previously, the learning curve early in her career was steep, which is why Hale confidently asserts that young women should take risks early on in their career when they have the least to lose and the most to gain.
“You need to differentiate yourself early on. If you fall, you most certainly can get up,” Hale laughed. “I’m of the opinion that women should be equally aggressive about being on the revenue side of the business. You don’t want to be stuck in the back office. There’s nothing wrong with that if that’s what you want, but if you want to get to the c-suite, you need to make your way to the revenue side of the business early on.”
By Tina Vasquez, Editor
