Optimistic Outlook at Third Annual WILD Symposium

By Jessica Titlebaum

Women in Listed Derivatives (WILD), a not for profit organization launched in 2009 and dedicated to helping women advance in the listed and OTC derivatives space, held the 3rd annual WILD Symposium at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago in October. While the derivatives industry has experienced change due to Dodd-Frank regulation; the Symposium set out to evaluate the new landscape and help women identify and prepare for emerging opportunities.

Hiring Trends
The Symposium began with an armchair discussion looking at challenges women in the industry face today. As president of WILD, I sat down with human resources expert and founder of Parkway Consulting, Pat Lunkes.

“When I launched Parkway Consulting 29 years ago, the biggest challenge women had was getting the jobs filled by men,” Lunkes said. “Now our biggest challenge is getting the same salary as men.”

According to the Financial Times, women in finance make 66 cents to every dollar a man earns. Further, women in engineering make 89 cents to the dollar and women in law make 71 cents to the dollar.

The women cited an additional study by Conde Naste’s Glamour magazine that revealed only 39% of women negotiated a higher salary when offered a job, compared to 54% of men.

Lunkes stressed the importance of negotiating.

“Women need to learn the art of negotiating,” she said. “Every raise you get, every bonus you receive is influenced by what you negotiate as your starting salary because these amounts are normally determined as a percentage of your base salary.”

Women that know how to negotiate are not only succeeding at getting raises, but they are also bridging the pay gap. According to the most recent available census data, single, childless women between the ages of 22 and 30, in major metropolitan areas now earn 8 percent more than their male counterparts.

Furthermore, according to a gender pay gap article by Citi and LinkedIn 27% of women negotiated for a raise and 84% received the raise in 2014. The statistics and the experience of the panelists all echoed the sentiment to be bold in your negotiations and watch the positive results unfold.

Growth in Compliance
Compliance, a department that has come under much scrutiny due to Dodd Frank regulation, was an area of focus during the second symposium session. Spawned from the 2008 financial crisis, Dodd Frank has forced firms to comply with a new regulatory framework and placed significant importance on compliance programs.

According to the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics (SCCE), compliance departments are becoming female dominated and a recent study showed that 60% of SCCE members are female. In addition to the amount of women in compliance, the article also states that starting compliance salaries are growing more than 3.5% a year with large companies paying compliance officers between $162,000 and $232,000.

Panelists acknowledged that women with law degrees might be the most natural fit to take advantage of the positive trends in compliance, but encouraged women with other skill sets to utilize the opportunity as well. In fact, the biggest factor to managing a successful compliance department, according to the panelists, is dedication to effective communication and training by the compliance team which promotes a strong ethical culture throughout the organization. Project management and the ability to multi-task were also identified as skills that could contribute to a successful career in compliance management.

View from the Top
The third and final panel session of the evening was moderated by the Futures Industry Association’s (FIA) Executive Vice President and COO, Mary Ann Burns. The FIA is a global trade association for the futures, options and cleared swaps markets based in Washington DC.

Burns and fellow C-suite female representatives from Exchanges, an FCM and a Trading Firm, discussed the qualities of successful people and shared advice on rising to the top. When discussing the topic of women helping other women, Lynn Martin, COO of ICE Clear US, reminded the audience of the famous Madeleine Albright quote.

“We need to define what looking out for another woman means. It’s not just always about securing another woman a promotion, it could be just simply giving another woman advice,” said Martin. “Women are the ultimate multi-taskers, balancing careers, family and other interests. So if we aren’t helping other women out, it is likely unintentional. As such we need to be mindful to make time for this important responsibility.”

Kim Taylor, CME Group’s global head of operations, biggest piece of advice was to be unafraid of failure.“Be resilient. Learn, recover, move on,” she said. “Don’t make the same mistake twice but be willing to make different mistakes.”

Closing Remarks
WILD set out to share its optimism about market opportunities and to prepare participants for the changed terrain. From strengthening your negotiation muscle to utilizing opportunities in the compliance discipline to remembering to take the time to mentor and sponsor other women, the symposium offered tangible advice in a changing landscape. As the industry adjusts to the implementation of Dodd Frank and finds its footing in this new environment, Lunkes use of Albert Einstein’s quote summarizes the outlook necessary for success, “Out of clutter find simplicity. From discord make harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”