Mover & Shaker: Clare Murphy, Commercial Director – Europe, WEX

Clare MurphyHaving served in customer-facing roles for more than 20 years, WEX’s Clare Murphy has learned an important truth.

“Most people believe the customer has to come first, but I’ve found that the key is to get the team dynamic right first instead. If you have that, they will naturally put the customers at the center, and you have a win/win.”

And, she adds, a key component of building that team rapport is collaborating to find out how you can be a better manager. “Ask them for feedback on an ongoing basis so you can fine-tune your own performance,” she recommends.

Collaboration is the key to success

Murphy ran her own consultancy for seven years buying corporate travel, and became curious why there was a general lack of innovation in the payments sphere, despite existing options such as payment cards. So when she was approached by Travelport where she had previously worked, she jumped at the chance to help with its newly formed payment division. As only the second hire, she helped build its capabilities from the ground up, helping set up the office and spearheading major bids.

About two years into her tenure there, WEX approached her with an appealing role as commercial director, where she’s now been a year. For Murphy, it’s the perfect intersection of the travel and tech/payment industries that she knows will continue to provide exciting developments. “We have such a fantastic opportunity to make the payment experience more simple and efficient for our customers, and it’s exciting to be on the front line,” she says.

Over the past year she has helped lead the transformation of WEX’s commercial team in Europe, and she has been delighted to see the evidence of their efforts in living the WEX values, specifically related to integrity, she says, adding that their recent appointment to the “Great Place to Work” list reinforces they are on the right track.

Rising With the Support of Others

Over the course of her career, Murphy knows she has been fortunate to have worked with senior leaders who were invested in her career, and assisted with the opportunities and networking that would allow her to move to the next level. And she was fortunate to have a mentor in former supervisor Elaine Halt, whose gravitas and ability to help teams coalesce around a goal was particularly inspirational. “When she left, we were all devastated, but I still keep in touch with her. Even though I haven’t worked with her in 15 years, I still see her regularly and appreciate her counsel and feedback that has helped me throughout my career,” Murphy says.

In her position at the cross section of travel and payments, she has become a part of a number of industry groups that have strengthen and motivated her professional development, including; Women in Payments, the Emerging Payments Association, Women in Fintech and Women Travel Executives. Not only does Murphy see personally benefit, but she makes sure that her female and male colleagues do too. She regularly invites junior team members to sessions, giving them experience and exposure to the great work these groups offer.

Balance Leads to a Full Life

Over the years, Murphy has realized the importance of not letting yourself get caught up in the day-to-day struggle of determining what is and isn’t urgent. She has learned to take a long-term view to find time to focus on things that are important, but not necessarily urgent, such as professional development and networking. That helps her find a good balance where she calendars those in, and treats them as equally important to other items on her to-do list.

And of course, her top priority remains her family – her husband and two children. As an “extreme sports” family, they take time to build bonds by skiing and scuba diving, having just returned from a trip to Cancun.

They also work together to fundraise for the Bone Cancer Research Trust, and have raised more than £2,000 while continuing to do charity events in support. Her daughter even donated her hair to charity. While she is proud of the money they have raised, there has been another important byproduct that comes from having her children see her ask for money and instilling a sense of philanthropic interest.

In addition, Murphy has been on the Board of Governors for her children’s school for eight years, overseeing strategy and curriculum. “It’s been a pleasure to see the school flourish, and I look forward to returning to even more volunteering when my career is less busy,” she says.

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Mover and Shaker: Carolyn Fitzpatrick, Director, IFCS Application Development and Portfolio Management, WEX

Carolyn Fitzpatrick HeadshotWEX’ Carolyn Fitzpatrick encourages professionals to accept offers of assistance with networking or career guidance because it’s offered as a gift….both to the giver and recipient.

“People grow and learn when receiving guidance and when mentoring and supporting others.”

Once you’ve built relationships with coworkers, it’s important to maintain them—even if it’s just a quick touch base or unexpected lunch. “You can continue to learn from the people you’ve worked with in the past as you already have a basis of trust. They’re likely experiencing some of the same challenges and having different experiences that you can all share.”

Finding Satisfaction in Program and Team Management

For Fitzpatrick, all those disparate career moments and teams have added up to a fulfilling path. She began her career at LL Bean in IT as a developer—not because that’s what she was interested in, but because that’s where the money was. Her position evolved into different roles ending as a Manager of IT Application Development, which provided the challenge she was looking for.

“It gave me the opportunity to work with different areas of the business and people at all levels of the organization and make a material contribution. That was exciting and fun and didn’t feel like work at all,” she says. “I love the excitement of pulling a team together and accomplishing things that most think are not achievable, and then looking in the rear view mirror and seeing a successful milestone along the journey.”

A stint at IDEXX Laboratories followed, and then she transitioned to WEX about eight years ago, starting out in the North America Fleet division and advancing to the Emerging Technologies business where she started working more globally. She found it fascinating to partner with executives from around the globe and oversee programs of work that had significant impact to the bottom line. While the days grew long partnering across regions, the challenges are exciting and provide a sense of accomplishment.

In October 2014, she was asked to help with a strategic project; with the technology being delivered in New Zealand, the project needed recovery to hit a critical December delivery. Fitzpatrick was sent to ensure the milestone was met successfully, and she’s been leading aspects of this portfolio ever since. She is proud of what her and her team have accomplished; over the past three years her division has delivered multiple programs in APAC and Europe, has made major improvements in IT delivery and is turning the corner to become a more profitable line of business.

While building teams is one of the professional achievements that brings her the most satisfaction, she also is always focused on improving the bottom line. For example, at IDEXX her team was implementing a new Application Development Environment, and the CTO recommended creating a throwaway system to learn how to use the tool.

Fitzpatrick realized that it would be better to invest the time in creating a system that would live on, so she suggested an alternative—build a replacement for the green screen customer service system. She put a small team in a room for nine months, and after many long and challenging days using an iterative agile process, they succeeded in creating a system that set the foundation for what is still in use today.

Even now, it remains one of her most memorable work experiences. “It’s one of those projects that whenever you run into someone else who was involved, you can’t help but smile at how we were able to achieve so much.”

Soft Skills Nurture Success

Like many who enter the corporate world, Fitzpatrick initially assumed that top-notch skills and technical abilities were what made a professional successful, but she soon found that those are things you can “learn.” What is more difficult to develop are the soft skills that professionals need, such as collaboration and communication, and understanding how building relationships can impact results.

“While I have high expectations of myself and others and always drive to deliver the best for our customers and company, it is also important to balance that drive with caring and support of the people who make it all possible. I look at the people with whom I work as a family and treat them in an encouraging and supportive way, but I also know that it’s ok to have disagreements and challenge each other to gain the optimum results,” she says. “The key to success is to stay positive, focused on what a successful outcome looks like and then do everything possible to make it happen. Where you focus your energy is what will grow,” she says.

Fitzpatrick has benefitted from informal mentoring over the years and so she works to provide that to her team. She says one of her best qualities is being able to see in other people what they are capable of, often before they even see it in themselves. “I especially try to encourage younger women to be more confident in themselves and what they bring to the table; when you give them opportunities to shine, it is rewarding to watch them grow and thrive as they see themselves be successful,” she says, adding that she is often thanked for taking time to share what people need to hear instead of what they want to hear. “It’s important to hone your skill of supplying feedback in a supportive manner that will help team members accept the feedback needed to help them develop.”

Embracing Professional Development At Every Stage

Some of her best career advice came from a leadership development coach who helped her see that when people come to work you likely only see the tip of the iceberg of their whole self. “Leaders need to take into account that we are all humans who come from different perspectives and have different goals. When you connect with the heart and mind, success will always follow.”

One of her most fulfilling career development experiences was the opportunity to go to the International Leadership Development Programme (ILDP) with a group of global peers. After the session she was assigned an executive coach for the year, and hers was instrumental in helping her navigate the challenges of a global team. She also helped Fitzpatrick see that as a leader attending a meeting, she needs to be clear with the team whether she is communicating a direction or requirement, or if in fact she is just approaching the meeting as a participating team member looking for ideas in the spirit of collaboration.

Overall, one of the facets of WEX that she loves the most is the chance to work with a number of strong female role models who are genuinely supportive and encouraging. “It’s wonderful to know you’re in a company where you can call a colleague when you have an issue, and they’ll give you time to discuss and explore options,” she says.

Equally important is the emphasis WEX puts on appreciating the supporting role a family plays in our success. “The reason I can give WEX the time and focus I do is because I have an incredibly supportive family, and I know it’s important to appreciate those who help get us where we are,” she says, noting a former CTO who had a ritual at the end of meetings that emphasized this point. “He would recommend that we go home and thank our family for their support and commitment to us, which is what allows us to do what we do.”

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Mover and Shaker: Jodi-ann Johnson; Director, Executive Communications and Strategic Initiatives; WEX

Jodi-ann JohnsonNever underestimate the power of a great conversation, says WEX’ Jodi-ann Johnson.

“I value my relationships and act with intention to make strong connections with people,” she says. “You have to be bold and brave, but also true to who you are: When you act authentically, you can build trust.”

That instinct to be bold was the catalyst for an important moment in her career, that didn’t necessarily seem so at the time. She was attending an internal leadership event, but arrived late due to travel delays. She ended up being seated at the same table as the new CEO; she figured that this was her opportunity to ask him if he would be the featured speaker at an upcoming customer meeting. The ask and event went well, cementing her reputation as someone who gets things done. “You can’t wait for things to happen; you have to ask for what you need,” Johnson advises.

A Career That Revolves Around Leading through Change

With 25 years of career success under her belt, Johnson has worn a wide variety of hats, which gives her a strong background to draw from. Over the years, she’s tackled organizational and business change and been involved with strategic planning, program management and communications – broad experience she can tap into it for whatever work adventure comes next.

Although she has lived in the corporate world for the bulk of her career, she actually started in an entrepreneurial environment, the kind of start-up company where employees knew their “number.” As the company grew, she grew with it, experiencing everything from internal marketing communication to customer-facing outreach and consulting.

The customers she visited around the country were Fortune 100-level companies who were launching work/family benefit programs, a sector that was groundbreaking at the time. The company was a pioneer in the work management and training world, and since her boss was a woman, Johnson never experienced the male-dominated hierarchy that seemed prevalent in other companies.

“The founder started the company based on an idea that became a mission and passion so that intent has always been core to my beliefs,” she says.

Even in the corporate environment, she still found herself working among strong women, and Johnson noticed that one of the women she worked for had become the president of the division without ever going to college. To her that signaled that there were no boundaries, and she found that to be true as the company grew and evolved, and she was always able to jump into new things.

After working in Minneapolis and Boston and traveling globally, she decided it was time to pivot to being “home,” which for Johnson is Portland, Maine, so she sought an opportunity at WEX—a company with a strong growth story—and has been there almost nine years in different roles in both corporate communications and program management, most notably assisting with the CEO transition. What she immediately recognized and appreciates about WEX is that there’s a spirit of entrepreneurism; it’s a place where what matters most is if you deliver, rather than your title and level. What really matters, she says, is what happens when you walk in the door.

“The best parts of my job are helping others manage through change and ambiguity, whether that’s bringing structure and clarity to multifaceted initiatives, facilitating an efficient meeting or helping our senior executives craft the right message,” Johnson says.

Her desire to play the helper role has always been prominent in her career and came to its largest light right after 9/11 when she was working with the company that provided counseling programs to those directly impacted by the tragedy. She helped develop educational materials to support employees and organizations, overseeing a constant evolution of needs in what she feels was one of the most meaningful times in her career.

Currently, she is proud of the forward-thinking planning WEX is doing as they look ahead to 2019 and maximizing the opportunities for a newly acquired company that will spur growth as they consider expanding into additional markets. “It’s exciting to be part of the process and help bring together new ideas and concepts that will help us become a richer, deeper place as we hone our focus and find alignment among a wide variety of critical initiatives for 2019.”

Finding and Sharing Strength With Colleagues and Family

Although Johnson says she has been fortunate to have been mentored by phenomenal women over the years, none stands brighter than her own mom, who supported two kids while leading a busy working life. Johnson views her mom as a pioneer in her day who paved the way as a strong role model in both career and family life.

And she knows the importance of relying on strong relationships as the cornerstone of a career, whether it’s the leaders she supports, her peers or her own team.

Johnson appreciates being part of Women at WEX, particularly when she is able to help people navigate the company and their career. “There’s this great spirit here, and we have a lot of Type A personalities, but finding a way to volunteer and give back has been really exciting,” she says.

In addition she has forged strong connections with many women outside of WEX who have been pioneers in their own career, such as one who became one of the first women partners at a financial services company. “I have learned lot about being honest, open and brave from this network of women,” she says.

Married to her high school sweetheart, they have two girls and a boy — two in high school and one in college. While it’s not easy to get together, she says they are fortunate to have a family camp two hours north on Green Lake. Aptly called “Second Wind,” it’s where they can recharge and reconnect even if they can only grab 48 hours as they did recently.

In addition, they love to travel; they have hiked throughout Utah, Maine and New England and are excited about an upcoming trip to Italy.

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Mover and Shaker: Cassandra Cuellar, Associate at Shearman & Sterling

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Cassandra Cuellar

By Cathie Ericson

Being inquisitive and asking a lot of questions is one of the best ways to move ahead, whether you’re working with a partner or client, believes Shearman’s Cassandra Cuellar.

In addition, she recommends that professionals always maintain a positive attitude, showing up and treating every day like a new day. “It’s a stressful job, and you have to recognize that your role is to find a way around issues, to find a solution that will meet the client’s ultimate goal whether it’s an internal or external client.”

Honing a Specialty That Always Has Emerging Challenges

After growing up in a small town in Texas, Cuellar came to Austin in 2003 to attend University of Texas – the first lawyer in her family — and has been there ever since. While attending law school, she clerked with the firm Andrews Kurth, where she received an offer to work with the Emerging Companies group. She worked there for seven-and-a-half years until this March when the group of 14 attorneys and associated support staff moved over to Shearman and Sterling LLP.

Currently she is working with companies that are exploring very cutting-edge fields. For example, she is enjoying the challenge of developing two areas in the practice — cryptocurrency and digital assets – and helping move them more into the mainstream. “We have to take them out of the hands of the fringe groups and make them more accessible so people will become comfortable with crypto and blockchain,” she notes.

Another exciting area of growth is in AI. She has a client who focuses on looking at manuscripts and movie scripts for patterns that resonate, which she says is the type of task that AI will revolutionize by applying a more systematic approach.

Learning By Doing

Cuellar describes her first two years as an “unending learning moment.” At the time, she was working with several junior attorneys who left for various reasons so she seized the opportunity to fill the gaps. While it entailed many late nights, in hindsight she sees that taking on these various extra projects was the best possible thing she could have done to propel her career. “I was able to learn from mistakes and now have a vast background which helps me recognize things that I wouldn’t have noticed before.”

While embracing those kinds of opportunities can grow your career, she also finds incredible benefits in taking advantage of mentoring, whether formal or informal.

In fact, at an earlier position that didn’t offer a formal program, she sought out other attorneys to help give her advice. “People are more than willing to have conversations with you when you show you appreciate their time,” she says.

At Shearman, she recognized the culture of mentorship and support the minute she came over. “Female partners whom I don’t even work with have reached out, which was so impressive that these busy women would welcome me and offer their support,” she says. One in particular who stands out is partner Sarah McClean, whom she notes has been very conscious about developing a team of great women and inviting her to immediately get involved.

Another option Cuellar took advantage of was getting involved with industry organizations, which she finds particularly important for minority lawyers. She has enjoyed the four years she’s been involved with the Hispanic National Bar Association, which offers avenues for professional development and advancement; for example, she has had the chance to make pitches to corporations and gleaned immeasurable professional development opportunities from sitting in and learning from other attorneys

Because she places great importance on developing the pipeline of younger lawyers, she’s also been involved with a UT group called Minority Women Pursuing Law, which works with first-generation law students to offer counsel on job hunting. Each year Cuellar presents on what they should know as college students about what law schools and law firms are looking for to help give them a leg up.

Married with two dogs, Cuellar loves to cook and barbeque at home, and she and her husband enjoy frequent visits to their families in south Texas.

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Mover and Shaker: Liliana Bauer, Marketing Director, WEX Latam

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By Cathie Ericson

“I once heard that we should listen before acting and think before reacting.

The adage is one that has stuck with me and that drives my leadership style in a significant way,” says WEX’ Liliana Bauer. “Thinking for ourselves, rather than just repeating the ideas we hear, makes a big difference in how we conduct our lives and make appropriate choices.”

And she adds, “If we seize opportunities, take our goals seriously and maintain our enthusiasm—always respecting everyone else in an ethical way—we will arrive at the destination we choose.”

A Career Built On Accepting Challenges

That ethos has helped Bauer build a multi-layered career. She attended school in Brazil, earning both a bachelor’s degree in marketing and communications from Mackenzie University and an MBA from Fundação Getúlio Vargas University.

After graduating, she began her career with Coca-Cola, holding roles in divisions including promotions, product management and customer loyalty. She then spent nearly a decade at Citibank, responding to the centralized structuring and implementation of the B2B and institutional marketing in Brazil, where she handled marketing strategy, as well as overseeing PR and corporate communications for all business units. Her last role at Citibank was as a regional marketing manager for the Latin American region’s 24 markets, reporting to Miami and New York.

In 2011, she joined HSBC Latin America as a senior marketing manager, responsible for global banking and markets, private banking and asset management. She also oversaw planning and marketing effectiveness for HSBC’s corporate segments, where together with the countries and the global team, she developed the department’s strategic and business information for the executive committees of the region, as well as results analysis and financial control. In addition, she was responsible for the Latin American marketing for the Global Banking and Markets segment, reporting directly to London.

Prior to joining WEX, she served as a marketing executive at credit card issuer Banco Bradesco Cartões, where she oversaw strategic marketing management and payments solutions studies.

She then joined WEX Brazil as a marketing director, responsible for implementing strategies to strengthen the company’s market presence through business plan and strategy execution.

A self-described “builder,” focused on getting things done in a straightforward manner, Bauer says that one of her major achievements at WEX so far has been creating a strategic marketing mindset, from building a successful team to shaping, driving and maximizing marketing activities, including focusing on analyzing results and repositioning products.

One of the projects she is most excited about right now is her role with one such repositioning of their major product—focusing on the value proposition definition and planning larger market penetration that is driven by market research and customer surveys.

That quest for data inspires her whole career, as she finds that much of her success comes from constantly questioning assumptions, both in information she hears and where the market is trending, what the target audiences are exposing and how her team is reacting. “When making decisions about the direction of my career, I try to take a high-level, long-term perspective, based not only on what things look like, but on what they really are, what is behind each scenario, and what the legacy of my decision will be,” she says.

Surrounding Yourself With the Right People and Company Culture

Over the years Bauer has been fortunate to work with many inspirational professionals, and she’s appreciated their role in patiently showing her how to meet their expectations while advancing her own career. “I’ve always paid a lot of attention to their behaviors and decisions, learning how to drive efforts in a more constructive way, while achieving the best and fastest results,” she says.

One role model who stands out is Francine Suescun, whom Bauer describes as “a great teacher and a wise leader,” adding, “She has a broad range of experience and the ability to integrate actions in an end-to-end process, guaranteeing successful delivery of every project. Besides that, she always tries to make wherever she is a better place—thinking of others rather than just taking actions that benefit herself,” an example that Bauer is quick to thank her for, telling Suescun that she is the one responsible for the professional profile Bauer has today.

In addition to surrounding herself with smart role models, she has wisely chosen the company she works for, saying that at WEX all people are seen and equally accepted—and recognized for their achievements—regardless of gender, age, department, education level or other defining elements. She finds that during business meetings, leadership summits or social celebrations, people from different locations and ages, men and women alike, interact on equal footing, listening to one another and keeping an open mind.

The same dynamic occurs on her team, where position and gender don’t matter. “If an employee is committed to doing good work, bringing relevant information or just taking advantage of an opportunity to improve their understanding about something, we respect them the same way,” she says.

Another important part of the WEX culture is the focus on work-life balance. Bauer has been able to devote time the past two-and-a-half years holding various roles for a social entity teaching English to low-income students, from ages 10 to 83. “It is such a valuable opportunity to learn from those students as they develop, and those people have played a crucial role in changing my life,” she says. “Interacting with others who have the same objectives, intensity and wishes is what makes us feel part of a society in such a special way.”

An avid traveler, Bauer has visited more than 50 cities in Brazil and 15 countries around the world. “When we interact with people from a different culture, with different points of views and experiences, we are able to rethink the prejudices we have and our previously established opinions and see how the vast resources of ideas can move the world forward,” she says.

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Mover and Shaker: Kim Ford, Senior Legal Director, Asia Pacific and Global Issuing, WEX

KIm Ford - BW headshot-Retouched

By Cathie Ericson

WEX’s Kim Ford has always worked hard to create and drive a positive and satisfying career.

“I believe in giving my very best to any role I am in and making the most of it. To do that, I try to make sure that I actively pursue and create the right opportunities. Equally I also like to make sure that I regularly pause to reflect and evaluate to ensure that I am on track from both a professional and personal perspective. If something is amiss, it’s important to me to quickly identify steps to correct and ‘right the ship’ –I have learned that life is too short to not take control of your happiness, career path and job satisfaction,” she says. “I feel that following this philosophy has led to me to where I am today. I am in a role where I can genuinely say I am doing some of the most challenging and exciting work of my career to date, and working with wonderful people at a really great company.”

Blending Two Career Disciplines To Forge a Successful Path

Ford’s first foray into the world of law was as a private practice insurance litigator, acting for professionals filing claims under their professional indemnity insurance policies. While she enjoyed the work, she realized after a few years that private practice and the expected path towards partnership was not for her. She began to look into ways she could use her skills as more of a strategic business partner, which would allow her to deliver end-to-end solutions and ultimately have the satisfaction of seeing the fruits of her labor pay off.

Ford subsequently joined ANZ Bank as an in-house legal counsel in the retail banking division where after a few years she jumped at the opportunity to join the corporate ranks of ANZ’s retail business. Over the next four years, she gained experience in project management and senior product management running a business line P&L, eventually leading ANZ’s retail loyalty team.

After this stint gaining corporate experience and learning more about the challenges of operating a business, Ford was offered the chance to return to her roots as a lawyer and join WEX as Associate General Counsel for its Asia Pacific business, a generalist position that allowed her to touch all legal-related issues. She held that role for three years and now is accountable for the Asia Pacific legal team, as well as for Global Issuing, which supports WEX’s new market entry efforts and growth strategies.

The value of her two distinct career paths became clear in 2017, when she successfully led the project responsible for setting up, licensing and operationalizing WEX’s emoney Institution in the United Kingdom. The emoney Institution license enables WEX to offer credit and all its products across the 31 nations in the European Economic Area, and securing the license was part of broader efforts to both expand in Europe and enable the provision of WEX’s payment solutions in the region .
“For me, it bore out the benefits of the combination of my legal training and corporate experience and underscored the importance of having previously taken the time out of legal to gain solid experience in the corporate environment,” she says, adding that there are very few employers globally where she would have the opportunity to work on the type of projects she is currently undertaking.

Valuing the Whole Person

Ford sees sponsorship as critical to any career, but underscores that it is a two-way street: First you need to earn your sponsor’s commitment and provide your sponsor with a return on their investment, and then you need to commit to nurturing the relationship. Along the way she has been fortunate to have a number of role models, but one of the most profound experiences she has had was with a partner for whom she first worked when commencing in private practice. She took the time to teach Ford how to properly structure advice and legal arguments, while ensuring that she always kept the client’s best interest at the forefront of her thinking. “She was very firm at times, which as a junior lawyer was sometimes a little scary, but at the same time she was very nurturing as well as generous with her time and knowledge. She also taught me the importance of pragmatism,” Ford says, adding that she helped influence many of the career traits that Ford depends on today.

In addition to excellent role models, Ford believes that companies need to have policies and approaches that bring equality to the workplace, for everyone. “WEX is an incredibly family-friendly and flexible place to work, which enables me and — and consequently my family — to have a healthy balance,” she notes. “WEX encourages the delivery of results at work while at the same time ensuring that we all have the time to take care of the other important aspects of our life, such as family and health.”

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Mover & Shaker: Emily Viner, Vice President of Agency Growth & Development, The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America®

By Cathie Ericson

A recent study on the gender gap in sales showed that it was a career that wasn’t even on the radar for many women, which Guardian’s Emily Viner finds to be a shame.

“If women can match a passion they personally have to a sales role, their opportunities are limitless,” she says. “Really caring about the product, program or process is where you can get that mojo and when that happens, the sky’s the limit.”

Finding a Calling in Her Work

That passion has inspired Viner’s work and led to her long, successful career with Guardian.

A first-generation college student, Viner graduated with a marketing and economics degree but was drawn to sales. “I soon realized that a commission dollar is a commission dollar not 63 cents on the dollar like my friends were going to earn and knew that would be my future,” she says. She started in a banking-related industry and then moved into financial services, which turned out to be her calling. “I found such a passion of purpose for families, particularly women, to help them plan for their family’s future,” she says. It’s a cause near to her heart, as she realized what this type of planning could have meant for her family, especially her mom who became a widow at 42.

Viner started at another firm as an advisor, but soon transitioned into leadership and helping the firm grow. Her professional standing grew when she wrote an article for the GAMA News Journal and subsequently spoke at GAMA’s industry conference. Based on that attention, she was soon recruited by two different companies for corporate roles, but at the time her kids were little and neither of the firms offered the flexibility she needed.

She accepted a consulting arrangement with one company while Guardian stayed in touch, eventually reaching out to offer her the chance to architect how and when she would work.

That was the start of a 21-year relationship where she has grown both personally and professionally, with her daughters growing up as part of the Guardian family.

Looking back over the course of her career, she believes that opportunity to write an article and speak at the convention truly changed the course of her career, and it came full circle recently when she was honored with the inaugural Visionary of the Industry Award for her work. “It’s humbling but also reminds me there’s still so much work to do,” she says. But while the quest continues, she appreciates that the award offered a moment to pause and reflect on how much progress had been made.

Helping Other Women Achieve Success

Viner is ebulliently optimistic about the opportunities available to the next generation of women and implores others to remember the infamous words of Madeleine Albright: “There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.”

That said, she has also benefitted from the sponsorship and mentorship of many men within the organization, many of whom are now retired, who helped her grow as a professional.
She encourages younger people on her team to find mentors throughout the company who can share wisdom, whether it’s industry-related or focused on professional skills, such as executive presence or making sure your voice is heard in meetings.

Right now she focuses much of her efforts on helping the firm innovate with its workplace culture as a way to retain talent. For example, they have introduced flexible leadership training programs designed to be more accommodating for those interested and uses assessment so that each person gets what they need, when they need it.

And Guardian is expanding their use of apprenticeships to find different pathways and bridges to becoming an advisor so that individuals can find the onramp that works best for them. It’s important, she says, to focus on diversity so our firms reflect the communities we serve.

One of Viner’s most influential learning moments came while she was attending a dinner hosted by Catalyst, a global nonprofit focused on building workplaces that work for women. At the dinner, a key note speaker shared “that men say yes to opportunities, even when they don’t know how to do something. Many women don’t do that and spend more time being ‘competent rather than confident.’ Women need to realize that if they raise their hands, they will figure out how to succeed in the role.”

Viner participates and hosts a number of professional development programs, but one of her favorites is Guardian’s annual Women’s Leadership Summit (WLS). She is not alone: She has heard that many women leaders say that WLS has kept them energized over the years. The network created an important level of support both personally and professionally for women, many of whom might be the only female advisor in an office of 40 men. One regular attendee of WLS who formed a study group from being at WLS recently won a special sales leadership award, and she had this to say about her involvement in the organization: “There’s a study group I have from the WLS that has sustained me, and next year I’ll make sure they’re all up there receiving awards with me,” she says.

Raising Two Strong Daughters

Married for 32 years, Viner has two daughters, one a Veterinarian working at the teaching hospital at University of Wisconsin, and the other working at and starting a Master’s program at Columbia University. Viner and her daughters decided they needed an impromptu getaway before they went their separate ways and recently enjoyed a relaxing and rejuvenating long weekend in Turks and Caicos, where they have all always wanted to go. “When I’m with my girls, everything’s ok,” she says.

And she feels confident that they are on the road to success, as she has passed on the importance of financial planning to them. “They have products in place to protect their income, have their investment accounts, and I can see their confidence with their finances. I love knowing that they know saving is such a foundation. Passing this on to the next generation is so rewarding.”

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Mover & Shaker: Emilie Poteat; Senior Management Associate at Bridgewater Associates

By Cathie Ericson

As a sociologist by training, Emilie Poteat has learned that it’s simply a fact that things will work out when you stop trying so hard and get out of your own way.

“You have to continue to make pathways to a goal regardless of how many iterations there are and realize that you have to embrace the ability to admit failure, evaluate what could go better and try again,” she says.

An Ongoing Path to Self-Reflection

Poteat started her career in a non-traditional way, earning a PhD with a focus on economic sociology – researching how markets form and how companies function and evolve in markets. While she had initially thought she might pursue a future in academia, her wife suggested she work at one of the companies she was researching instead. She spoke to Goldman and ended up working in their transformation department where they were focusing on organizational design — looking at their operations and determining what could be improved and how they could learn from others in the marketplace.

When she was contacted by a venture capital firm in Philadelphia, she was intrigued at the prospect of occupying the operator seat as she had been looking into small companies that Goldman could invest in and had been seeing interesting businesses bubble up. She took the role, where she led a turnaround on an insurance company, splitting it into two and bringing it to profitability.
While it was challenging given all the dimensions, she found it fascinating and names it as one of the professional achievements she is most proud of. “Bringing that company to profitability was both exhilarating and terrifying,” she says, noting that the culture was poor which led employees to have low expectations. She worked on an all-encompassing change from business processes to product changes and interpersonal relationships, relishing the chance to drop down and look at a problem and then zoom up to the bigger picture.

And therefore she found herself at a crossroads when she finished that engagement, trying to decide if she wanted to continue operating companies, which combined her love for research with her proclivity to flipping companies around, or did she want to take some time to work on herself? Ultimately she decided to come to Bridgewater where she is focused on the systemization of management, while learning more about how she operates as a leader. “I am investing in myself by taking a role with a smaller scope, yet one that I know will help me be more impactful when I eventually step back into the operator position,” she says.
For now she believes that her time at Bridgewater will help show her strengths as well as flaws, as she works with a team who is poised to provide honest feedback.

Building Relationships as a Key to Success

After spending six years getting her PhD and teaching university classes, Poteat expected the corporate world to be cutthroat, but she has found it to be extremely humane. “It has been incredible to meet smart, hard-working, dedicated people who have gone out on a limb for me,” she says. As one example, she cites Johann Shudlick, then the head of the LGBT network at Goldman and now driving diversity at Bridgewater as the one who went to bat for her, finding out her goals and then taking the time to open doors by introducing her around the Street.

While she acknowledges the business world can be competitive, she finds there is still a camaraderie around it. “I’ve been happiest when I’ve helped others around me grow, and I’ve been able to make great friends and form strong relationships over the years,” she says, noting that academia involved more quiet work without that interplay.

As she reflects on those she admires, she says she finds herself noticing those who can objectively view themselves in the moment. “Yes, you have to consider your numbers and impact and how you effect change, but what I admire is people who are able to genuinely lead by understanding how their leadership style impacts the group.”

Always looking for those learning moments, Poteat cites one that has stuck with her. She relays how she had signed off on what ended up being a big bill, before she realized she had gone through the motions and pushed it forward without checking it carefully enough. “It ended up being impactful, and I should have verified that it wasn’t exactly what I thought it was,” she says, saying it helped her self-reflect on how her bent toward action orientation helped propel the blunder forward. “While this focus on action is generally a strength, it can be more of a hindrance when I pair it with bravado,” she says, noting that it’s important to always slow down and take that extra step. “I learned the importance of balancing confidence with humility, which I try to work on every day,” she says.

While Poteat knows that it can be hard for some people, she says that it would be impossible to her to not be out at work. And she’s found it to be a benefit to her career as it opened up relationships in affinity groups, as well as allowing her to help others on the personal front. In fact, in larger organizations she finds that the managers she had were quite proud she was on the team and that her different reality allows her to see the play on the field from a different vantage.

She and her wife share their life with two Golden Retrievers and love to travel. On the philanthropic fronts, they invest in LGBT-founded companies through angel investing with a group called Gaingels. Companies they support must have LGBT representation within the C-suite, and one of Poteat’s favorite parts is getting to meet the founders while providing economic empowerment.

In addition, she and her wife, along with her wife’s family, have established the Global Education Scholarship fund in memory of her wife’s brother who passed away when he was 31 from cancer. It supports students at Elon, particularly those who may have a chronic illness that might diminish their health quality. She says she always wants to emphasize that despite any life challenge, the timeline of your life remains separate from the value you bring to each moment.

“We underscore that it’s not the length of your life timeline, but the volume of the value you fit into your time,” she says, an ethos they themselves live by maximizing the value of every day.

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Mover & Shaker: Svetla Marinova, Vice President of Innovation, APG

Svetla MarinovaBy Cathie Ericson

“I always assumed that one needed to have studied a particular major in college in order to work in that industry, especially finance, but I have come to find that some of my most successful colleagues and classmates found their way into their respective industries by ‘falling into it’ in different ways,” says APG’s Svetla Marinova.

“I believe they are so good at what they do because their minds approach problems differently from the minds of their peers who have all been trained in the same traditional way, and they are valued for that very reason.”

Marinova’s creative career path certainly bears that out.

Seizing Opportunities Throughout Her Career

Marinova always thought she’d pursue academia and focused on preparing herself for a PhD in Economics, with a focus on Environmental Economics — even spending an extra year in college focusing on math, and then earning a Master’s degree in Climate & Society at Columbia straight after college. But when she eventually started her PhD, she realized a research career did not fit her energetic and outgoing personality.

“I wanted to be in a dynamic environment where my actions could effect change right away,” she says, deciding to join a consulting firm as a way to figure out what industry she might be drawn to. She joined what was at the time a startup called AlphaSights, now a 400+ employee firm, as the first female employee in their NYC team of 10.

After a year she fell into fintech, becoming the first employee of S&P Global’s Innovation Lab, where she developed an affinity for the field and the Lean Startup methodology as it applies to software development, particularly driven by an interest in deriving insights from data through data visualization.

While at S&P Global, she created a summer internship competition called Mission Possible, where interns form teams and act like startups, developing a product over two months. The competition culminates with a pitch before senior management who act like VCs; for four summers she oversaw the program with 50+ interns each summer. She also created more than a dozen proofs-of-concept with her S&P team, and initiated numerous initiatives meant to stir the organization into more creative thinking.

While there, Marinova also designed and product-managed a smart search tool at a time when natural language processing was in its infancy as applied to financial services. Within six months, her team had a cutting-edge product that they had built iteratively with zero prior experience in natural language processing and with limited resources.
“It was incredibly rewarding, and I learned that I’m capable of picking up any project and making it successful if I do the proper research and am given freedom and support to execute,” she notes. “I also taught myself to pick up the phone and ask for advice when I don’t know how to do something, which saves a lot of time and worries. Of course, being surrounded by top-notch engineers with the same can-do attitude was essential to our success.”

And, she learned that while her ideas were sometimes outside-the-box, and that not everyone was going to get them or love them immediately, there are opportunities and challenges in the fintech space that merit exactly that type of bold and unconventional thinking.

In an effort to learn more about data architecture, she spent two years working on strategic data sourcing initiatives at Deutsche Bank, where she co-led an employee resource group called Career360, a knowledge-exchange program between junior and senior employees. The program has grown significantly and exists in many countries around the world now.

During that time she began the Executive MBA program at the Wharton School of Business, a two-year program with the same curriculum as a full-time MBA, but with the caveat that all students also work full-time during the program. She graduated in May 2018, proud of her success at completing the intense program.

In addition to learning about finance, marketing, general management and entrepreneurship, she says she gained confidence and traveled the world with classmates on global knowledge trips to Japan, Argentina and Spain, to name a few, along the way meeting incredible people from a variety of industries and geographies.

She joined APG, the largest Dutch pension fund, in September 2017 as vice president and manager of innovation, where for now at least, she is again a one-woman show building out an innovation program for the New York office using the lessons learned from her Innovation colleagues in The Netherlands . This entails scouting out the fintech ecosystem for startups who could be potential strategic partners; coaching experiments or internal R&D projects aimed at delivering products and services for the pensioner of the future or aimed at improving the investment process; and creating and sustaining a culture of innovation via various internal initiatives from a speaker series to ideation sessions.

“I’m excited to be building cutting-edge tools for a company that believes in and supports innovation,” Marinova says. “I feel encouraged to explore ideas in the areas of fintech that truly interest me, such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, and sustainable investing.”

At the moment, she finds she’s most enthusiastic about their experiment with alternative data, which she researched thoroughly prior to designing by talking to industry peers, alternative data vendors, platform providers, internal investment experts and compliance professionals. “It’s a truly collaborative effort between our New York and Amsterdam offices, and I cannot wait to find out what we will learn from this experiment about how to tackle the growing volumes and types of data that are becoming available.”

A Full Life Inside and Outside of Work

Marinova participates in the APG U.S. Women’s Forum, which is an initiative that seeks to enhance careers by providing opportunities both within and outside APG to share information, strengthen skills and develop rewarding professional relationships. In addition, they seek to serve the broader community, especially in ways that have a positive impact on women and girls. For example in February, they raised money for the Young Women’s Leadership School, whose students visited the office for job shadowing, mock interviews and case coaching.

Starting with her first role model, her father, Marinova mentions that all of her mentors and managers thus far have been male, and she looks forward to the day when she will end up reporting to a woman she can look up to. “Unfortunately women are massively underrepresented in the fintech space, especially in senior roles,” she says, adding that she catches herself counting the number of females on panels or even in the audience at major fintech conferences. “I think it is slowly growing, but still remains within double or even single digits. I hope to change that.”

Outside of work, Marinova engages in a wide variety of hobbies, including travel, music, dabbling in arts, and reading – from books that help her retain her professional edge to fiction. She has served as a volunteer coach with FIRST Robotics and NFTE, where she taught entrepreneurship to high school students, and looks forward to re-engaging in her mentoring and volunteer activities after completing her MBA.

And all of her efforts are guided by an underlying principle: “Don’t cut corners when it comes to your personal effort — make things happen using the highest standards that you can think of,” she says. For her that manifests itself as thinking of every project as an opportunity to showcase existing skills and learn new ones. She’ll seek advice from online journals or others in her network, but isn’t afraid to make up her own way of doing something if she finds that nobody is doing it quite right. “When nobody has figured out the solution yet, that’s a great opportunity — this is how new products and processes are born out of a blank canvas,” she says.

Equally important to her is always maintaining integrity, and always being kind to everyone you meet along the way, eager to help others and to hear them out. “As Ray Dalio says, it’s essential to surround yourself with smart people who are not afraid to disagree with you — this brings us all closer to the truth.” “Being open to entertaining opposing views is how you create trust with people, and they will always remember if you’re someone who is willing to fight for the right thing,” she says. Not to mention, of course, that besides being a recipe for career success, it is also one for living a happy life and sleeping well at night.

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Mover and Shaker: Virgen Tracey, Senior Team Leader, WEX

Virgen TraceyBy Cathie Ericson

Knowing and understanding that it’s ok to take risks because that’s how you will grow and learn has helped forge a successful career path for WEX’ Virgen Tracey.

She is quick to point out that there’s never a dumb or perfect idea, and just because you’ve been somewhere longer, it doesn’t mean you have all the answers. In fact, the best ideas often come from fresh thinking.

“I always tell my team that you can’t learn if you don’t make mistakes, and it’s true for me, too. Realizing that the next time I’ll better know what to do has allowed me to grow in my career and as a person,” she says.

For Tracey that 20 years of growth has brought a thriving career at WEX as a leader, taking on diverse roles within the contact center that have allowed her to conquer a new challenge every day.

“Being able to take risks in my role has been a huge learning point for me. We think outside the box every day, not only from a professional standpoint, but as a rapid-growth company, we must be able to embrace change,” she says. Tracey credits her ability to lead by example, to “walk the walk,” as a key force for building credibility and trust and having a followership that has made her a successful team leader.

Leading the Contact Center To Success

Joining WEX fresh out of college, Tracey knew she would have to work hard, but also learn to be open to change to make the most of the startup environment. And, at the forefront of her mind was the realization that the company had earned a great deal of respect and customer trust that they would deliver excellent service, and her role was to stand by those ideals. She appreciates that she has been there throughout the growth of the company, fulfilling her belief that her hard work would pay off.
Right now, she’s excited to be working on supporting with implementation of the Salesforce service cloud application into the contact center. They are currently piloting it with 50+ employees across the organization, and she says it has been a game changer for how it’s going to increase efficiencies and gives insight into how to better support the customer to provide a better agent and customer experience. “Using this tool allows us to increase the information we have at our fingertips, directing us to what we need to change and enhance for better employee customer satisfaction and efficiency.”

After the full roll-out to more than 130 employees in the South Portland contact center, she will then support with spearheading the roll-out in the contact center in Ogden, focusing on ensuring the impact is minimal.

Mentors Lead the Way

To Tracey, a role model is someone she can look up to, but is also a mentor who can provide support and feedback to help her grow based on what they’ve seen in their interactions.

Over the years she says she has been honored to work with many successful individuals who have helped show her the ropes, in both IT and leadership roles. “If I wanted to know how others got to where they are today, I had to seek out the opportunities to network and find mentors,” she says. She credits a willingness to being open to listening to their stories about the best practices that worked for them and how they got on the path that led them to their end result of success.

And now she is focused on being a role model to others, taking what she’s learned by seeking out opportunities to learn from others and sharing that knowledge. “I can’t wait for the moment that I report to many of my team members whom I have helped nurture to a place of leadership,” she says.

Currently she is part of the pilot of WEX’ mentoring program where she is paired with a mentee, which has helped give her confidence and also will expose her entire team tåo the many benefits of formal mentorship to encourage new styles and ways of thinking.

Melding a Busy Professional and Personal Life

With three kids, ages 6, 15 and 19, there is never a dull moment, particularly when travel softball is part of the picture. “I love watching my 15 year old daughter play, and notice her development and how she gives 100 percent on and off the field. It’s such an inspiration as a work ethic,” Tracey says, noting that watching her hard work and openness to coaching is a lesson she herself can bring back to work.

Aside from giving “200 percent” to work, which has paid off in being tapped for her fifth upcoming President’s Club, Tracey always takes time to be present in her family life…but admits with a laugh that she also will never turn down a trip for shoe shopping. Most importantly she loves spending time with her husband and kids and enjoying any free time they have together.

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