Voice of Experience: Mika Mayer, Partner, Morrison & Foerster

mikamayerBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

This week, in honor of Ada Lovelace Day, The Glass Hammer is highlighting women who have achieved high levels of success working in technology. Making role models visible is one important way we can encourage girls and young women to pursue a career in tech – and stay there!

“I don’t want to over generalize what the main challenges for women are, but for me personally, the greatest challenge has been balancing my role as a partner with my role as a mother,” said Mika Mayer, Partner at Morrison & Foerster, who deals with patent law in the medical device, drug delivery, and pharmaceutical fields. “For each role, there is no limit to the amount of time you can invest, and I take both roles very seriously.”

She continued, “Balance is one of those words that has very little meaning, because true balance is very hard to obtain. You need to define boundaries and set limits for yourself. You can’t rely on your employer to set those limits for you.”

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Voice of Experience: Augusta Sanfilippo, Managing Director, Cash Securities Operations IT, Citi

augustasanfilippoBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

This week, in honor of Ada Lovelace Day, The Glass Hammer is highlighting women who have achieved high levels of success working in technology. Making role models visible is one important way we can encourage girls and young women to pursue a career in tech – and stay there!

Speaking with Augusta Sanfilippo, Managing Director of Cash Securities Operations IT at Citi, you get the feeling that she is one of those people who really loves her work. In fact, Sanfilippo says she has loved IT and investment banking since she was in college. Having grown up in Queens, she was studying business at St. John’s University. Then, she said, “I fell in love with the computer room in about 1983.”

Sanfilippo went on to major in computer science and minor in business. Since then, she’s spent her career in managing data, designing systems and processes, and implementing new ideas on Wall Street. “I just had this passion for computers,” she explained with a laugh.

Sanfilippo is also passionate about solving problems. Now leading Citi’s efforts to streamline its various cash securities operations systems after several years of mergers, she has also become enthusiastic about improving the IT space for women.

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Movers and Shakers: Tiffany Dufu, President, The White House Project

tiffanydufuBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“Right now the United States is ranked 72nd in terms of women in political leadership,” said Tiffany Dufu, the newly inaugurated President of The White House Project. Recently Marie Wilson, founder of the WHP, handed over the reins of leadership to Dufu, who says she has big plans for the organization.

“My goal is to take us to number one,” she said.

Making an Impact

Originally from the Pacific Northwest, Dufu got her bachelors and masters degrees from the University of Washington. “I was actually on my way to a career in academia, but then my mentor asked me a question about the kind of impact I wanted to make in the world,” she explained.

Dufu realized she wanted a different path. She began volunteering for a program that provided mentorship opportunities for girls. Then she took a fundraising role at Seattle Girls School – a math, science, and technology middle school with an ambitious commitment to diversity. In fact, Dufu said her proudest professional achievement so far has been helping to raise $1 million for the school in order to secure a matching grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – in only a year – “because they’ve been able to maintain that commitment to diversity to this day.”

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Voice of Experience: Joan Steinberg, Managing Director and Global Head of Philanthropy, Morgan Stanley

Joan SteinbergBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Joan Steinberg, Morgan Stanley’s Global Head of Philanthropy, was recently named a Managing Director at the firm. Steinberg says that it’s important to project professionalism and leadership when seeking advancement.

“You have to be at the next level,” advised the woman who led Morgan Stanley’s charitable efforts following 9/11. She explained that at a recent event for new Managing Directors within the firm, she saw many people she already assumed were MDs.

“Be the role you want to be, so that it’s easy for others to see you that way,” she said.

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Voice of Experience: Linda Rappaport, Partner, Shearman & Sterling

Linda RappaportBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“Don’t be afraid to speak up for yourself,” advises Linda Rappaport, a senior partner at international law firm Shearman & Sterling LLP and Practice Group Leader Emeritus of the firm’s Executive Compensation & Employee Benefits/Private Client Group. “And be really prepared – there’s no substitute for being good at what you do.”

Rappaport knows all about being good. She has earned a reputation as one of the top executive compensation lawyers in the US and Europe, working with major financial services firms, entertainment companies and other organizations.

Her rise to prominence was no accident. Rather, Rappaport says, it was the product of traditional business values: hard work, a commitment to client service and a genuine interest in the area in which she practices. “Make sure you enjoy what you do,” she said. “You’re not going to enjoy every moment of every day, but if you’re excited by the ideas, people will sense that and will respond with enthusiasm as well.”

“You want work to be challenging. Never in one day of my life at Shearman & Sterling have I been bored – and I consider that a gift. I’ve been engaged, excited, challenged and occasionally even scared or nervous, which is perfectly appropriate sometimes. That’s a wonderful thing,” she added.

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Voice of Experience: Vanessa Lau, Group CFO, Global Rolled Products, Alcoa

vanessa_lauBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Vanessa Lau, Group CFO for Global Rolled Products at Alcoa has never shied away from a challenge. Named on Crain’s New York’s 40 Under 40 list last year, Lau has had the drive to fuel an exciting and esteemed career from the very beginning.

Her advice? Don’t be shy about your goals.

She said, “I find that my male colleagues are more willing to show their ambitions and my female colleagues are less willing to show their ambitions. They feel like they are being pushy.”

“But management really values transparent discussion. Be ambitious.”

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Voice of Experience: Yolanda Seals-Coffield, Principal, Office of the General Counsel, PwC

Yolanda SealsHaving begun her career as an employment litigator and then moving in-house to work for Diageo, and now PwC, Yolanda Seals-Coffield, Principal in the Office of the General Counsel, has used her considerable skills in nurturing authentic relationships to build the career she’s envisioned for herself.

“Women should understand that your potential is limitless,” she said. “How far ones goes should be defined by what one wants to do, not by what people tell them they can do.”

“There are many things I have learned over the course of my career – but I wish I had known from the beginning that I had more input and accountability in driving my career If I knew then what I know now, I would have had the confidence in the early years to be more proactive and seek out the opportunities that interested me rather than waiting to be tapped on the shoulder” she explained.

“It would have been advantageous to know that I had a lot more flexibility around who I wanted to be, where I wanted to go, and the impact I wanted to make,” she said. Seals-Coffield, who now supports the human capital function at PwC, is doing her best to open doors and clear a pathway for the women climbing the ladder behind her – and blazing her own trail as well.

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Voice of Experience: Denise Diallo, Partner, Banking and Capital Markets Practice, White & Case

DeniseDialloBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“I definitely think work/life balance exists,” said Denise Diallo, Partner in White & Case‘s Banking and Capital Markets Practice at its Paris office. “It can be difficult at times, and you have to be willing to adapt –“ At this point in our conversation, Diallo started laughing.

“I’m laughing because my daughter is actually here in my office today,” she said. “My nanny wasn’t able to pick her up from school, so I did. It just illustrates that not everything goes the way you plan. But it doesn’t mean you don’t have work/life balance.”

“You just have to be adaptable,” she explained.

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Thought Leaders: Accenture’s Katherine LaVelle on M&A Culture Transition

thought-leadership

Marked by an infectious enthusiasm, Katherine LaVelle, is a managing director at Accenture Management Consulting who leads that practice for the firms’ North America capital markets clients. She is an expert in leading corporate workforces through mergers and acquisitions, particularly in the financial services arena. “I’m passionate about anything and everything that makes people more effective in their jobs,” she said.

Eighteen years ago, after obtaining her B.S. from Arizona State University and then an MBA from Georgetown, LaVelle learned about Accenture’s nascent change management practice – and knew she wanted to work there.

It’s been the right fit, said LaVelle, referring to both Accenture and particularly to her work in the financial services industry. She explained, “It’s an industry structured around two things: people and technology. To build the most effective workforces, companies have to invest in those two things – and that really appealed to me.”

Last year’s unprecedented surge of M&A activity is not expected to slow down, she said. And according to LaVelle, who has worked on some of the world’s largest (and longest) global mergers, M&A is as much a people-issue as it is a financial one. She explained, “Companies that have not produced a clear picture of what their culture will look like rarely meet their financial targets in the first year after a merger.”

She continued, “A deliberate and defined plan for how you will build effectiveness into your new team is really important, and cannot be bypassed.”

LaVelle shared her wisdom and tactics on maximizing effectiveness while blending cultures – for senior leaders, managers, and employees going through an M&A transition. Here’s her advice.

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Asahi Pompey, Managing Director, Compliance, Investment Banking, Goldman Sachs

Asahi PompeyThe aphorism “know thyself” has been attributed to the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates (and many others), but according to Asahi Pompey, Managing Director, Compliance, Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs, the advice is still critical today, over twenty-five hundred years later.

“Know yourself – know your strengths and weaknesses,” she advised. “Do a realistic appraisal of yourself – almost a gap analysis. Where could you develop greater expertise? What is your comfort zone?”

Beginning a career in law, and them moving into corporate counsel roles, and then compliance, Pompey is enthusiastic about striving for excellence in all she does. She advocated passionately about the importance of understanding the business objectives and the objectives of those around you. She said, “Understanding who you are in an unadulterated way is really going to help in your career.”

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