35 Under 35: Alexandra Basirov, Head of Sovereigns, Supranationals, and Agencies for Debt Capital Markets, BNP Paribas

By Elizabeth Harrin (London)AlexandraBasirov[1]

“One of the first pieces of advice I was given was never tell your age to anyone as they could perceive you differently,” says Alexandra Basirov, Head of Sovereigns, Supranationals and Agencies for Debt Capital Markets at BNP Paribas. I won’t tell you her age, but suffice to say that Alexandra has leapt up through the hierarchies of banking to her position before most women have managed to make much of a mark on the corporate world.

“Economics had always fascinated me from a very young age,” she explains. “I had the first opportunity to study it at A-level while being educated in England after moving from Australia. I went on to study at the London School of Economics.” During the holidays, she sought out internships, and it became clear that a career in the banking industry was what she wanted to do. “There was something about the working environment coupled with being able to follow markets and applying my studies that excited me,” she says.

Basirov continues: “I have always been a firm believer that you have to love what you do to succeed. Like any job, and in particular on the trading floor, work can get very stressful. Banking is an industry that requires you to give it all, and unless you are devoted and have a passion for what you do, it’s unlikely you will last for the duration or climb the ladder.”

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Voice of Experience: Kathleen Weslock, Head of Human Resources, SunGard

Kathleen Weslockby Pamela Weinsaft (New York)

“A career isn’t just climbing straight up a ladder – it is more like a garden lattice. There are many steps along the way and at each juncture, a chance to learn a lot about yourself and your profession,” said Kathleen Weslock, the head of Human Resources at leading software and IT services company, SunGard Data Systems.

The Crooked Career Path

A Spanish and psychology double major at Hood College in Maryland, Weslock started her career as a switchboard operator at the Pan American Health Organization. Because she was fluent in Spanish, less than six months later, she was “promoted” to secretary in the human resources department. The head of employee relations needed someone who could keep information confidential and who could translate for her. “While this job may seem menial to many, I learned a lot from this position and from Mariko; she taught me the importance of having a solid work ethic at an early stage in my career. I learned so much, from basic level employee relations to discretion to the proper code of conduct. She was a marvelous woman,” explained Weslock.

She then went to work as a secretary in the HR and training department of the US Chamber of Commerce and worked her way up to the assistant director, where she ran training programs that taught business executives how to lobby in Washington, DC. “But I was still typing,” laughed Weslock.

She then went to work as a secretary in the training department of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and worked her way up to teaching business executives how to lobby in Washington, D.C. She was also rubbing elbows with business leaders, top columnists, and powerful business executives. “But I was still typing,” laughed Weslock.

At one of the labor relation sessions she organized, some of the influential executives encouraged her to go to grad school or law school and pursue labor relations as a career. “At that point I wasn’t really sure what I was going to do with my career. I didn’t think I wanted to be a lawyer, but I did find the thought of a career in labor relations interesting. So it was really a chance meeting with individuals who really cared about helping young people with their careers that gave me the impetus to decide to go back to graduate school.”

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Voice of Experience: Christi Pedra, CEO, Siemens Hearing Instruments

Christi_Pedra[1]The concept of the “corporate ladder” is such a common analogy that many in the business world only see their careers in terms of the rungs they haven’t been able to reach. According to Christi Pedra, CEO of Siemens Hearing Instruments, that kind of thinking may be a mistake. Pedra prefers to think of the ladder as a rock climb where there are more directions in a career path than strictly moving up.

“My [25 years] at Siemens hasn’t always been a vertical rise to the top,” she said. “I’ve taken many lateral moves and they’ve provided me with some excellent, much-needed experience. You’ve got your feet firmly planted, but sometimes you need to move to the left or right before you can make it to the top.”

Pedra has a knack for seeing opportunities others might miss if they only look upward. After graduating from a state college, she started her climb with non-profits such as the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and the March of Dimes and spent a great deal of time managing community outreach.

In 1980, Pedra entered the business world via the telecommunications industry, first with Nortel, then with ROLM. While working on an MBA from Rutgers University, she continued her career climb, this time at Siemens. There, she volunteered for projects offering significant growth potential, but these also required her to venture into unfamiliar territory.

“You can’t be afraid to go out on a limb,” Pedra said. “That’s where the fruit is.”
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Voice of Experience: Alison Sanger, Chief Operating Officer, Ironwood Capital Management

alison_sanger1by Pamela Weinsaft (New York City)

The last nine months have been the toughest of Alison Sanger’s career. As COO of Ironwood Capital Management, she has worked incredibly hard to help the firm navigate the choppy waters of the financial crisis. But Sanger had an additional challenge as she had her third child right in the middle of the chaos. “It was a kind of a crazy intersection of all things. I’m a ‘put one foot in front of the other’ kind of girl, so I think that, right now, I’m most proud of having survived and come out the other side.”

Sanger hails from a small town in Michigan, and majored in accounting at Miami University (Ohio). But when she first entered university, accounting seemed the least likely path she would take. “I tested out of all the English classes but into remedial math going into college. So how does someone like that end up in accounting? I’m really competitive and considered it a challenge. So I got to work and took a lot of math classes. And, as I took the classes, I realized I was good at them and enjoyed them. That, combined with the idea that I would be employable in a very slow job market, is what got me into accounting.”

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35 Under 35: Gayle Tait, General Manager of UK and Ireland business, L’Oréal

For our ongoing series, London-based writer Elizabeth Harrin spoke with Gayle Tait, a 32-year-old executive woman from cosmetics giant L’Oreal, about her career path, her international placement in Paris, and her ascension to general manager of Ireland and the UK.

gayle1General Manager of L’Oréal at the age of 32, Gayle Tait has come a long way—in a very short time—from the dreaming spires of Oxford. “Age doesn’t come into it,” she says. “As long as I do my job the best I can, I think people respond positively.”

“Initially I was interested in joining [the company] because it is a sector that appealed me personally,” Tait explained. “I did an internship in the summer between my second and third year at university and it was following that experience that I wanted to join L’Oréal permanently. The people, their energy and their passion, and the fact that I had so much responsibility so early on in my career, were very appealing to me.”

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Voice of Experience: Marlys Appleton, Vice President and Chair of Sustainability Steering Committee, AIG Investments

smile_bangs_5617_cropped1by Pamela Weinsaft (New York City)

Marlys Appleton, chair of AIG Investments’ Sustainability Steering Committee, is a champion for and architect of the integration of sustainability into the investment process. But it is a role no one – not even she – could have foreseen when she began her career more than 20 years ago.

Upon completing a fellowship and an MS from MIT’s Sloan School of Management, Appleton started her multi-disciplinary career as a financial analyst at Morgan Stanley. But she switched paths and companies a few years later when she heard the siren call of sales. “It looked as if people were having more fun and making more money [on the sales track].” When Appleton reached out to management to try to make the switch, she was told that, while adding her to the sales force would likely upgrade the skill level of the force, the head of the sales desk only hired his ski buddies. It was an important lesson for Appleton, who then realized that not all promotions are based on one’s abilities; some are based purely on who you are.

She then joined Bank of America as an institutional fixed income sales person, ultimately becoming the top producing salesperson on the East Coast in the bond trading operation for the bank. She attributes that success to her thoroughness and her ability to build trusting relationships with clients. “I’m an information hound,” says Appleton, “I want to know and understand everything myself before presenting it to clients. I think that what made me the most comfortable was what made the clients most comfortable with me. I was successful because, over time, the foreign and domestic banks and domestic money managers I had as clients learned that I wouldn’t lead them down the wrong path and they could trust me to deliver for them.”

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Voice of Experience: Ann Margaret Pointer, Partner, Fisher & Phillips LLP

ann_margaret_pointer1When Ann Margaret Pointer was in grade school, a woman became a Justice of the Supreme Court for the State of North Carolina, and that had a profound impact on Pointer’s life. ”My parents knew and respected [Justice Susie Sharp] and pointed out her accomplishments to me,” explained Pointer, who is a partner at Fisher & Phillips LLP. “That, together with my parents’ attitudes, helped me know I could do anything I wanted to do if I had the gifts to put hard work to use.” And, as it turned out for the young woman who loved to debate, what she wanted to do was to become a lawyer.

Pointer, who has been practicing labor and employment law for 30 years, was guided to the specific area of practice while at the University of Virginia School of Law. “I said I wanted to do litigation in Atlanta, and a law school professor told me to try to get a job with I. Walter Fisher, who he said was the best management labor lawyer in the country.” She did indeed get that job and has been with the firm ever since.

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Voice of Experience: Carolyn N. Dolan, Founding Principal, Samson Capital Advisors

cnd1by Elizabeth Harrin (London)

“I wish I could say that I woke up one morning and decided to leave my social work profession to work in the investment management business,” says Carolyn N. Dolan, founding principal at New York-based Samson Capital Advisors.  “But, in reality, the change was gradual and the piece that did not fit into my background and my academic strengths was the social work experience.”

Carolyn graduated from college in 1968 with a political science major and a math minor.  She says that women then only had a handful options – teacher, administrative assistant, Peace Corps volunteer, airline stewardess, to name a few.  “In my search for employment, I took a civil service test and wound up working for the State of New Jersey as a caseworker watching over the lives of children under the age of 18.”

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Voice of Experience: Jeannie Diefenderfer, Senior Vice President-Global Engineering and Planning, Verizon

j_-diefenderfer1By Tina Vasquez (Los Angeles)

Verizon’s Jeannie Diefenderfer, Senior Vice President-Global Engineering and Planning for wireline business, has only been in her current role for eight months, but she already has a strong opinion concerning her favorite—and least favorite—aspects of her job. “The best part of my job thus far is accomplishing seemingly impossible and tough challenges through a group of people across organizations,” said the mother of two. “My least favorite is going to meetings with no real objectives or deliverables.” Being productive is a major concern for the Tufts University graduate, as she’s come a long way both in the world and professionally.

Diefenderfer is originally from Seoul, South Korea. At thirteen, she immigrated to the U.S. with her father and siblings, with no idea of what the future, let alone her career, would hold. “I don’t ever recall actually thinking about what I wanted to be when I grew up,” Diefenderfer said. “I had to learn a whole new language and culture as a teenager, so I think I was mostly focused on mastering the language and excelling in school, despite my obvious language barriers.”

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Voices of Experience: Ann Oka, Senior Vice President, Supply Management, Sodexo Inc.

head_shot-ann_oka3001by Pamela Weinsaft (New York City)  

Shortly after graduating from high school, Ann Oka stuffed her clothes in some garbage bags, packed her record albums in a box and loaded up her $200 Vega for a three-week road trip across country with a high school friend.  Destination: sunny California, where she had lived before her parents had moved her to the East Coast.  The plan was to work for a year, establish residency, and start down the path to becoming a doctor.   

 

Oka, now the senior vice president of supply management at Sodexo Inc., explained, “I’ve always been stubborn, so while my parents were perfectly willing to pay for my college education, in my mind it was something I was going to do on my own.” Read more

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