Miriam Wheeler, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs

Miriam WheelerTo progress in your career, you have to get out of your comfort zone, says Goldman Sachs’ Miriam Wheeler, who was recently named a partner at the firm – a role that will come into effect in the New Year.

“If you’re never uncomfortable, you’re not growing professionally. And even if you fail, you will learn valuable lessons that are relevant for the next undertaking,” she says. When those successes inevitably come, she thinks it’s important to celebrate as a team. “We have a tendency to jump right into the next deal, but giving the team recognition and celebrating wins together helps morale and overall job satisfaction,” she notes.

Exploring Different Areas of Finance

Wheeler joined Goldman as a summer intern in securities in 2004, working in mortgage sales for two years before moving to the finance group. She had always wanted to work in real estate, with a specific interest in land use policy and city infrastructure. She found her perfect fit in the Real Estate Financing Group, a role she finds continuously challenging and interesting. “As a deal junkie, I love the thrill of when a big project comes together for a client,” she says.

In fact, the professional achievement she is most proud of so far was seeing Goldman Sachs vault to the top of the 2017 CMBS (Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities) league table. “It was truly a team effort where we delivered on a lot of transactions. Not only did it represent a huge leap in position, but it signified how relevant we had become to our clients,” she says.

The GS real estate lending platform has expanded considerably in recent years. While the team previously focused only on securitized lending, they now have a much wider array of products to offer clients, including real estate loans that sit in the Goldman Sachs’ Bank USA, which clients have found to be a useful and relevant product offering.

Helping Women Advance in the Industry

As Wheeler surveys college resumes, she is surprised that there are still so many more men applying to roles in the finance sector right out of college than women. “We need to continue to recruit women and educate them on the benefits of a long-term career in finance, as many are self-selecting out of the industry before they even have a chance to begin a career,” she says. In fact, when she looks back over her own career, she notes that initially a lot of the senior positions were predominantly held by men, which can be a barrier to women when they only see men across the table. She is encouraged that the mix is changing, particularly among her client counterparts. “It’s vital to show women who are considering a career here that it is a viable place for them to have a successful long-term career.”

She encourages women who enter the field to build relationships with peers at their level, as those peers will also become more senior over time. “Build as many relationships as possible both internally and externally.—get to know your peers and clients of both genders. You can build great relationships by delivering excellent execution and client service, even if you don’t have a lot in common with someone on the surface.”

As a woman at Goldman Sachs, she has found the firm to be very supportive of women’s family needs, including a robust maternity leave program that she took advantage of when both her daughters, now ages 1 and 3, were born, as Goldman offers 16 weeks of paid leave and the option to extend maternity leave as well. Goldman also offers a month of paternity leave and has recently begun to offer a milk shipping program, allowing women traveling on business to ship breast milk home to their baby. In addition, she has taken advantage of the firm’s onsite back-up childcare, when her regular childcare is not an option. “All the support is incredibly beneficial when you are trying to balance your family and your career,” she says.

Looking ahead to her daughters’ future, Wheeler is excited to think about opportunities that will be open to them. “We all have the responsibility to create an environment where future generations of women can thrive,” she says.

That ethos expands to her philanthropy work as well; as a board member for WIN Partners, she is proud of her involvement with a group that is dedicated to helping homeless women and children transition from shelters to their own homes. Over the past year, WIN has supported 10,000 homeless individuals, including 6,000 children.

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Voice of Experience: Wendy Cohen, Partner; Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP

Wendy CohenAdvocate for yourself and know your value; don’t sell yourself short, Wendy Cohen advises associates.

Cohen states, “You have to ask for what you want and recognize what your contribution is; then refuse to feel diminished, intimidated or not as worthy as your male counterparts just because you may have different demands on your time and elements of your life to balance.”

Cohen never conceded her talents and thus was able to parlay a temporary downshift with a part-time schedule into becoming a partner.

A Mutually Beneficial Arrangement Leads to Career and Firm Success

Directly from law school Cohen started at her current firm’s predecessor, Rosenman & Colin LLP, which merged with Katten in 2002. She joined the firm’s then-corporate department, and during her second year began working with Fred Santo, a partner who specialized in financial services. In addition to public commodity deals, she earned a lot of experience with private funds, now commonly known as hedge funds.

But even though she was a well-regarded associate on an upward trajectory, she removed herself from the partner track to focus on building a family, paring back to four days a week.

After having her twins in 1995, Cohen came back to work three days a week when they were six months old. While she enjoyed her client work, the lack of technology at the time made it too challenging to effectively juggle home and work, and when she became pregnant with her third child, she left the firm again at the end of 1996.

In 2001, Cohen reached back out to her former partner to see if she could work on a project basis; he welcomed her back and she worked as a consultant, billing time directly to the client. After ramping up to working in the office three days a week, it wasn’t long before the firm realized that they wanted to formalize the arrangement, and they offered her a partnership.

As her kids grew and her available time expanded, Cohen gradually extended her days in the office. In 2011 she was named a partner, and two years later she became a capital partner. “I was so proud to become a partner while balancing time in the office and at home,” she says, adding that the arrangement has been mutually beneficial. “Fred is retiring at the end of this year, but I will be able to take over those clients with whom I have worked for 25 years. The firm maintained their investment in me, and now they have the benefit of retaining clients with a seamless transition.”

And as she says, she now is able to devote all her time to the firm. “I provide a tremendous value-add that they would have missed out on had they not allowed me to come back part-time; and at the same time I appreciate the value they saw in me. We all would have lost if they hadn’t been committed to this non-traditional arrangement.”

As current co-chair of the financial services department, Cohen continues to work with clients, including advising her first private investment fund that’s investing in cryptocurrency, and also is focused on business development and lateral hiring.

Perspective That Comes With Experience

Looking back on her career, Cohen appreciates how things change when you don’t even notice. “At some point you realize life is finite, and not to sweat the small stuff—and as they say, most of it is. I am glad I spent time with my kids when they were growing up…I certainly didn’t rush life away during that chapter, but I also didn’t necessarily appreciate that it would change the way it has.”

That wise perspective is one she is able to share with younger professionals as they decide how to forge their paths. While she feels fortunate that firm management allowed her the bandwidth and flexibility she enjoyed, she realizes that although it’s better than it used to be and more common for attorneys to experience balance, it’s not yet where it should be.

“My path should not be anomalous; it should be available to all women who choose to downshift, without being viewed as less successful, committed or capable,” Cohen says.

While other women partners she works with might have taken different paths, she thinks it’s important for all associates to see that there’s not one standard for reaching the goal of partner. “Katten management has been making great strides, but as an industry, we still have work to do for women to realize there is value to their contribution not only for themselves individually, but also for the whole firm.”

And she advises women who are her peers to realize that although they might have had to make sacrifices to achieve their success, they shouldn’t hold that against the new generation. “We can nurture our younger women attorneys in different ways and allow them to decide for themselves the best way to provide value, even if it’s different from what you did.”

But she realizes that there are other ways that being a women can be tenuous. For example one of her clients is a seed investor in Glam Squad so at a recent meeting of 100 Women in Finance, where she co-chairs the Legal Peer Advisory committee, two of the founders talked to the group, then stylists came and “glammed” them.

Although Cohen grappled briefly with whether that would undercut the group, she realized second guessing the event was unreasonable. After all, they have a business model that is fascinating and substantive, and there’s nothing wrong with looking your best and feeling more confident. “We can do things our own way. It doesn’t diminish us; it’s just a different way of networking and bonding.”

She also is working on hosting a panel in January sponsored by 100 Women in Finance with the former managing director of a large private equity firm speaking about women on boards and how to advocate for board seats.

Cohen is active in Katten’s “Women Leadership Forum,” recently attending a women’s networking event at the Knicks game. “The firm is very committed to diversity, and expends a great deal of energy and time nurturing women,” she says adding that the firm is “Mansfield Certified” for excellence in diversity.

In her spare time, Cohen also volunteers closer to home, as the past president of the Jewish Federation in Westport. And she loves to spend time with her husband and now- adult kids—travelling and eating and ideally combining the two, she laughs.

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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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Rising Star: Sunaina Kohli, People Experience; PwC Middle East

“My proudest achievement is that I have grown my entire career from grass roots level, with fearless determination.” says PwC’s Sunaina Kohli.

Intuitive Decisions – Dynamic Opportunities

Kenyan born, Kohli was raised and educated in the UK. She left university halfway through her law degree for personal reasons and was immediately offered an opportunity by the CEO of a small group of private investors. She worked her way up from an executive assistant to project manager and ultimately chief of staff to the CEO. At that point she felt she had tapped out her growth opportunities, so she took a six-month sabbatical to travel the world, a long-time ambition of hers.

Kohli started in Kenya with the mantra “The plan is there is no plan,” and within eight weeks she found herself in New Delhi, India, where she was offered a contract with an aviation and aerospace consultancy firm to work on government-related projects. Fast forward 10 months and a PwC recruiter discovered her through LinkedIn and hired her to join the Middle East firm.

A year in, she was presented with an opportunity to join PwC’s Global Human Capital team in New York, followed by a stint in Washington DC, working on the Global Human Capital transformation agenda, impacting the PwC Network of approximately 250,000 people.

This role evolved to an invitation to work at their Global Human Capital Leadership office and allowed her to extend her scope across the firm’s priority projects which included Diversity & Inclusion, Wellbeing, Talent Development, Workforce of the Future and change management to support the implementation of new technologies aligned with PwC’s digital transformation agenda.

Her work demanded a great amount of travel, visiting over 35 cities around the world in just three years. More recently, she was invited to rejoin the Middle East firm to drive the People Experience agenda regionally, focusing on priorities such as Wellbeing and Diversity and Inclusion.

“Very early in life, I learned that failure and hardship are incredible drivers to success, to the point that my tenacity defines my professional brand” said Kohli, who finds it’s a quality that her leaders have always appreciated and has led to many inspiring opportunities. Following your intuition can lead to new and unpredictable paths that ultimately challenge and define you.

“My decision to move my life across continents was a result of my intuition, driven by hunger for the next big challenge,” she says.

Navigating the Working World—Making a Difference

Through the Diversity and Inclusion agenda, she is proud to have the opportunity to be a strong advocate and influence, to directly and positively impact the advancement of professional women.

Kohli’s passion for supporting this agenda comes from her experiences; in the UK she worked as a volunteer to support women who struggled through domestic abuse. Kohli developed curriculums to support them on what can be a challenging journey to leave extreme situations, through to coping methods and life skills that would help them navigate their newfound independence and responsibilities.

She also taught underprivileged and disabled children to rise above their emotions through obstacles and challenges, using her classes as a way to help disabled children share commonalities with their more abled siblings. “Parents found this experience extremely rewarding as it finally gave them a leveled field for all their children to come together and share a collective interest and activity,” she added.

While in India, she worked with orphaned girls, teaching them the same types of skills, but also about empowerment. A self-taught henna artist, she was able to share that skill so that they would always have a safe means to make a living, as well as an emotional outlet through creative self-expression.

Her time spent across continents—from the gender-dominant environments of India and the Middle East to the more gender-balanced United States—has been eye opening. She feels fortunate to have worked with so many inspiring female leaders, who showed her that you can have it all if you want it, and she is eager to share this perspective now that she has returned to the Middle East; “We need to be more mindful about spotlighting our strong and successful female talent in the Middle East – you cannot be what you cannot see, so greater visibility of the incredible women that work among us is essential.”

Kohli also recognizes career sponsorship and mentoring as drivers to develop the female talent pipeline. She views sponsorship as a career game changer and has had a number of colleagues, both male and female, advocating on her behalf, vastly impacting her career progression. In addition, she has found that mentors have played a huge role in her development.

Describing the difference, she explains that mentors help you see what you may not see in yourself, pushing you closer to your aspirations; while sponsors advocate for you and believe in you. “It’s indescribably life-changing when inspiring and successful leaders see something in you and take the time to know and understand your capabilities better than you know yourself,” she notes.

Kohli’s commitment to empowering others culminated recently in joining her colleagues to successfully deliver the first women’s empowerment workshop to over 180 women from PwC offices across Saudi Arabia. This was a historic moment that defines the firm’s commitment to gender equality, especially as a UN HeForShe Impact 10 Champion.

 Creating Human Impact

All these initiatives and projects coincide and directly correlate with the work Kohli is doing for the PwC Wellbeing agenda. Specifically, she aspires to make a difference in employees’ personal and professional wellbeing and domino positive effects on communities the firm operates in. “In today’s incredibly dynamic environment, where change is the only certainty, people are having to work harder and faster than ever. Through managing wellbeing, our people will become more resilient and develop the capacity to thrive in demanding situations, helping them recover from setbacks and ultimately be able to bring their best selves to all they do,” she explained.

Kohli added, “Now, more than ever, it is extremely important to me to make a positive, human impact on people’s lives in what is a very disruptive and technology-driven world.”This ethos shines through in her philanthropic endeavors. Having lived on five continents and traveled extensively around the world, Kohli has always tried to bring a meaningful and positive impact to local communities, usually in environments when there is no one to guide, nurture and help an individual grow, she explained.

From her career to her volunteer work, all of Kohli’s pursuits have shared a common thread that allowed her to focus on her strengths. She concluded, “I am a very agile learner, a key skill to future-proof yourself in today’s increasingly fast evolving world where successful professionals will need to constantly adapt to remain relevant.” With this, today she has the opportunity to directly and positively impact those around her.

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Voice of Experience: Marci Eisenstein, Managing Partner; Schiff Hardin

Marci EisensteinHave optimism and be proactive, Marci Eisenstein advises young women.

“Work on developing your professional excellence and seize the opportunities that are presented,” she says, adding that she wishes she herself had known earlier the value of never being afraid to speak in your own voice. “People will appreciate your authenticity, and you’ll be more effective the quicker you learn that you should be who you are.”

But that includes balancing confidence with humility, since, as she points out, no one wants to work with lawyers who are know-it-alls. “Often women err the other way and project insecurity, so it’s also important not to be self-deprecating or downplay your work, but ask for the opportunities to grow,” advice she has put into practice throughout her career.

Setting Records With Nearly 40 Years at the Firm

With a father who was a doctor, Eisenstein always knew she wanted to be a professional, and law appeared to be an excellent fit, given her love of writing and speaking – and distaste for blood. She went directly from college to law school, joining Schiff Hardin immediately after graduation, and has spent an illustrious near-four decades there.

Although she knew she wanted to be a litigator, she has decided that the placement of her office helped dictate her future career path, sandwiched as it was right between the head of litigation and the first lieutenant. They stopped in her office and asked her if she would participate in some class action work for a long-standing client, to which she enthusiastically responded yes, knowing now that those first days helped guide her career.

Eisenstein became a class action litigator, handling numerous cases in the insurance space. Along the way she became the longest tenured female lawyer at the firm, a rank she will hold until she leaves, as the women who were more senior when she arrived have moved on. Three years ago she became the firm’s first female managing partner in its 150-year history.

“It’s gratifying to have had a seat on the firm’s executive committee to have influence in helping maintain our independence and unique culture,” she says. For Schiff Hardin that includes maintaining values focused on collegiality — mentoring and supporting a diverse group – as well as a commitment to pro bono work and loyalty to one another. “This is a place where we enjoy working together and develop deep, strong client relationships,” she says. “As a group we have an unwavering commitment to professional excellence, and having a role in maintaining that special culture has been a source of great personal and professional pride.”

In addition, Eisenstein is proud of the body of work she has built up, most notably helping secure a reversal of a case that had resulted in a billion dollar judgment. “Going through the process and achieving that reversal taught me an enormous amount about how to lead a team through tough times with tenacity,” she says.

Developing Opportunities for Women

Currently Eisenstein is proud of the firm’s leadership in the #MeToo movement in the Chicago area; having recently participated in a regional effort organized by the Chicago Foundation for Women that encouraged all participating businesses to host facilitated discussions for employees around a set of questions about how the issue manifests itself in their professional and personal lives.

All six offices of the firm took a lunch break and brought in the entire workforce, from staff to the most senior people, to talk about these issues. She participated in a session that included nearly 80 people — men and women, from new staff members to practice group leaders. “The dialogue was so open and authentic, and I was proud to be in a place that fosters this type of discussion,” she says, adding that she believes they were the only law firm that participated.

“We addressed a lot of issues and while we don’t have all the answers, the idea that there can be such frank and open discussion was very gratifying and goes back to the values of our firm we are able to maintain,” she says.

She herself sees that one of the main barriers for women relates to the gender imbalance in equity partnership throughout the industry, since it’s easier for young women to see a path to success when there are ample role models. While there are strides to be made, she is proud that Schiff Hardin is ahead of its peer firms in terms of equity partnership with 25% being women, compared to the industry average of 19%. “I like to believe this is a place that attracts women based on our model,” she says, adding that the perspectives offered by diverse teams has helped their own decision making. “We look for every opportunity to make sure we put forward the best team from experience and expertise, and that includes the diversity perspective,” Eisenstein says.

For initiatives to be successful, they have to emanate from the top down, she notes, and as the founder and original chair of the Diversity Committee, she has seen high levels of support to help it grow into a powerhouse committee where partners participate actively and associates participate in the firm’s multiple affinity groups.

Another barrier many women may face is the continued focus on hours over performance. “Too frequently workplaces value the time clock more than the effectiveness and efficiency of the work, and that approach can negatively affect women and how we manage all our responsibilities,” she says.

When she first started at the firm, there weren’t the same type of women-oriented mentoring or advocacy programs that there are today, so she did what she could, initially finding another colleague who was pregnant at the same time and working together to develop a proposal for how their maternity leave should be handled. Now of course, the firm offers numerous programs for gender-neutral parental leave, mindful return and other online courses that help parents navigate this tricky time.

A Passion for A Cause

Eisenstein’s oldest daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at the age of three, when Eisenstein had just became a new partner. That insight into raising a child with a chronic condition has confirmed her family’s dedication to raising funds for finding a cure. She has served as chair for the Chicago gala, raising more than $5 million for JDRF research, and remains active in the Illinois chapter of JDRF. “When you are moving an organization through change and also taking care of a child with a condition they face day in and day out, you have to have resilience and optimism in life and work,” she says.

Eisenstein also enjoys spending time with her husband of 42 years, and her four granddaughters who all live locally.

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Katie Koch, Partner, Goldman Sachs

Katie KochGiven the sizable success that Goldman Sachs’ Katie Koch has had in her career, it may seem surprising that failure is one of the factors that drives her.

“Taking risks and refusing to be paralyzed by a fear of failure has served me well,” she says, explaining that she has developed a sound personal philosophy and approach to taking risk. “I approach every challenge with a philosophy that my mom introduced to me and my siblings when she would say, ‘What choice would you make if you knew you would not fail?’”

Taking that approach has allowed Koch to make decisions based on optimism rather than fear and has biased her towards taking calculated risks. “When you’re taking risk repeatedly, you’re naturally going to occasionally fail, so it’s important to view failure as fuel,” she says. A quote that has resonated with her came from an inspiring commencement address by soccer superstar Abby Wambach, who said, “Failure is not something to be ashamed of, it’s something to be POWERED by. Failure is the highest octane fuel your life can run on. You got to learn to make failure your fuel.”

If something doesn’t work out the way you wanted it to, figure out why, and move forward with those lessons, Koch advises.

Taking Risks Leads to Diverse and Rewarding Career Path

Although Koch has spent 16 years with Goldman Sachs, it’s as though she’s had several careers, given the diverse portfolio of experiences she’s had – across different divisions, offices (Chicago, London and New York) and four different business lines. One of her favorite roles is working with incoming talent, and she always makes sure to express how this wealth of opportunities allows professionals at Goldman Sachs to experience a fulfilling career – at one firm.

Koch acknowledges it can be challenging to start over with a new business, team and mandate, but the advantages of working in a new business are immense.

First, she has been able to build a deep network, and secondly, working in different roles allows you to have additional context as you inevitably come across problems you’ve tackled before.

And while she was grateful to be named a partner at the age of 36, the aspect that was most meaningful was having so many people, including her own team, champion her throughout the process. “I believe that the more senior you become, the more dependent your success is on having the best team around you and the right sponsorship above you.”

Living Out a Commitment to Diversity

Koch’s belief in the importance of diversity permeates every aspect of her role at Goldman Sachs. She sees a strong business case for spending time and effort to build diverse teams, and her role helping to lead the equity business – which oversees $65 billion in assets – has proven that diversity of thought is critical to positive investment outcomes. “Successful investing requires the healthy tension of variant perspectives, so it’s a competitive advantage that we have a highly diverse investing team; more than half of our assets are handled by talented portfolio managers who happen to be women, an industry-leading statistic,” she notes.

At the firmwide level, Koch is a champion of Launch With GS, a new initiative that will invest $500 million of the firm’s and its clients’ capital in private, late-stage, women-founded, women-owned or women-led companies, through direct funding, as well as seeding women investment managers who are starting their own funds. “Our ambition is to become a partner of choice for women seeking to scale their businesses and build capital,” she says of the effort.

Sharing Advice That Has Propelled Her Career

Mentoring women is important to Koch, and one lesson that she is quick to impart is that you have to treat a career differently than school. Women in particular excel in the academic environment, where they are rewarded for subject mastery; however, when women transition to a career, they often remain on that path and focus on the content of their role and “keeping their head down.” While it’s vital to be a subject matter expert at your core, she finds women tend to overinvest in this, but chronically underinvest in developing their network.

“I encourage young women to be exceptional at what they do, but also be deliberate in carving out time to meet people in their direct line of business and across their firm, industry and client base, all of which will help you build seniority over the long arc of your career,” she says. “You need to balance what you know with who you know.”

As the beneficiary of a supportive community of other partners, she advises her peers to continue to signal ambition – appropriately of course – and create a plan to articulate career goals to the right people, at the right moment and in the right way.

“It’s so important to think boldly and have a clearly defined top-level goal. Knowing exactly where you want to go allows you to organize your time and efforts toward those aspirational roles,” she says, recommending that while women should focus on outstanding execution in their current role, they should also be asking themselves, “Am I working toward my next job?”

Koch comments, “One of the best ways to prove you are deserving of a job is to act as though you already have the title – even before it is officially yours. That communicates to others that you are hungry, proactive and will bring solutions as a leader.”

One of the programs that was particularly beneficial to Koch was the personal coaching that Goldman Sachs offers, where the coach solicits direct feedback from everyone you work with and provides insight to help you grow as a professional.

Koch noted, “As you achieve early success in your career you can lose sight of how much room there is to improve. This is compounded by the fact that as you get more senior, less people are willing to give you tough feedback directly.”

The coaching process can help you address your blind spots, and Koch found real value in getting this feedback to continue to grow and evolve in her career. She shares, “Once I really opened myself up to the feedback, I learned some profound truths about myself as a professional and a manager. I distinctly remember my coach trying to make the point that people felt shut-down when I interrupted them. I interjected to explain that I don’t interrupt people – I just help them reach a conclusion more quickly. She had to gently point out that I had just interrupted her to explain that I don’t interrupt people!” Taking feedback can be humbling, but Koch believes that self-actualization is only possible when you seek out areas to improve at every stage of your career.

Despite the many hats she wears at work, Koch’s main priority is her family—her husband, two daughters and a son born a few weeks ago. With three children aged four and under, she feels extremely fortunate to have bosses such as Tim O’Neill and Eric Lane, who don’t see successful careers and meaningful family lives as mutually exclusive. “I have had an exceptionally positive experience at Goldman Sachs simultaneously growing my career and my family. I think it underscores the importance for women to choose their employer and their boss wisely.”

“My family is my biggest priority, but I always think of what we say in investing—we won’t get the stock picks right every time, but we try to get it right over time. To me that is the ideal metaphor for integrating life and family. My family can’t come first every time, but they must come first over time, and my goal is to organize my life that way.”

Prior to kids, she and her husband indulged a love of adventure travel; she has been to all seven continents—including Antarctica for her honeymoon—and has climbed extensively from Kilimanjaro to the Alps. For now, most of her adventures take place through books. As an avid reader, she averages about a book a week and frequently trades recommendations with her mom and her team.

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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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Voice of Experience: Managing Director, Citi US Retail Bank

Harp RanaWhen Harp Rana’s daughter was younger, and they watched Scooby Doo together, she would say, “Be a Velma, not a Daphne, but don’t let Fred take all the credit.”

When she later had a son, she changed the messages slightly and added “Don’t be a Fred.”

The message, she says, is that you have to be confident in your abilities but refrain from stepping back because it will make someone else more comfortable. “Yes, we are all team players, but make sure your voice is heard when you have a role in a given decision or success,” she says. “You’re better than you think you are most of the time, but sometimes you’re not as good as you think.” The secret is in knowing that it will all shake out if you focus on building your career.

Consumer Behavior Drives Her Passion For Retail Banking

The majority of Rana’s career has been at Citi; she entered as a corporate financial management associate in finance, then moved to the retail bank in 2003 and eventually switched to the business side in 2014 when the right manager and opportunity came along.

One of her proudest moments came a couple of years ago, when she was placed in her current role with an immediate task of turning around efforts to complete the replacement of underlying systems at the US Retail Bank – without disrupting clients or Citibank’s reputation. She succeeded, while at the same time injecting a sense of goodwill and humor to rebuild morale. “There is great power in pulling together a functioning and productive team that can have fun even in difficult moments.”

“I have moved some big rocks. But the work that always has my heart is the work that we are doing to enhance our customers’ experience, products, or financial lives. For example, I am really excited about the work we are doing on Digital Banking. It has exemplified the power of our integrated cross functional teams – working on delivering the best to our customers and meeting their expectations around how they want to bank.”

Always eager to embrace the next challenge, she currently finds this to be a particularly interesting time to be in banking, in terms of client expectations and the economic environment. “I love retail banking because every advancement you read about on the macro side ends up being pertinent to your daily life in terms of client behavior and experience and how that impacts your numbers,” Rana says.

She adds that she is always excited to know what’s next, whether it’s digitization or another disruptor in the marketplace, in an industry that is constantly evolving. “Trends I read about that are not even specific to my seat eventually end up filtering down in a meaningful way through customer behavior,” she says; for example, something as simple as how to pay a friend evolves into advances in mobile. “I read anything I can that has to do with customer behavior and banking and then overlay the changing expectations clients have today around any company they engage with.”

Evolving from the Viewpoint of Gender as a Challenge

Rana has been fortunate to have had a host of sponsors over the year— mostly men, which means she’s never seen her gender as an obstacle. She acknowledges that there are personal challenges that most grapple with, specifically motherhood, but these days she has seen that the concept of “motherhood” has morphed to “parenthood,” as she sees men on the team wrestle with similar challenges.

She also sees that women’s attitudes toward one another have evolved. While there used to be the notion that there was just one seat at the table that women were fighting for, she sees that as a byproduct of yesteryear. “You have to know how good you are, but then also be supportive of the other women. There is more than one seat at the table, and none of us want that seat because we’re a women, but because we’ve earned it.”

While Rana has participated in multiple professional development programs, one that has been noteworthy is the Citi Women’s Leadership program, which she found extremely beneficial not only for the panelists and learning opportunities, but for the camaraderie she developed with fellow members. “We had many similar concerns or issues we were navigating, and it was helpful to have a group to discuss them with,” Rana says.

With two children, ages 16 and 19, Rana spends the majority of her “free time” outside of work with them. In fact, recently when asked to name something she was proud of in a meeting, she immediately said “My kids,” and heard several women mention they wished they had thought of it, too. “We’re so ingrained not to talk about being a mom, but if we truly want to be authentic at work, we can acknowledge that it’s a huge part of our identity.”

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Shital Bhatt, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs

Shital Bhatt

A career is built by playing the long game, chess, not checkers, says Goldman Sachs’ Shital Bhatt.

“What I thought was most important when I was more junior, the technical and functional skills, need to be supplemented with attributes such as being resilient and having grit,” she says. “I wish I had learned earlier, especially as a woman in the financial services sector and with a minority background, how important it is to recover quickly, persevere and not let challenges get you down,” she shares.

Growing Her Career to Earn Those Two Important Letters

Bhatt joined Goldman Sachs as an analyst in 2004 in the Operations Division, and although she’s spent her tenure within this division, she’s had many different experiences, both in function, moving from derivatives to securities. Also moving geographically, beginning in the New York office, moving to New Jersey, and taking a global opportunity in Hong Kong before finally transferring back to New York in 2016.

While it was unexpected, as she was still at a relatively junior level, traveling and living abroad for work had always been enticing to her; although she had assumed the farthest she would transfer would be London. However, when her former manager asked her to join a team he was building in Hong Kong, she booked a one-way ticket in 2010 having never even visited before, and remained there for five-and-a-half years. “It was an amazing opportunity to learn many different functions, and living in Hong Kong was an equally enriching personal and cultural experience,” Bhatt says.

She considers building a life abroad one of the professional achievements she is most proud of thus far. Having always lived close to home, she found it to be a high-risk/high-reward opportunity, but she figured that if her parents could immigrate to the United States in the ‘70s with minimal support, she could take on this challenge.

Bhatt’s second notable career moment was being named a managing director. Reaching this level was always her aspiration, given the many MD role models she admired, but she also finds the accomplishment significant as a first-generation Indian American. “I was one of two daughters, and my parents wanted to give us a great education to fulfill the ‘American dream,’” she says.

“Telling my parents I was named managing director was one of the happiest days of their life, and it was a meaningful way for me to thank them for what they did to help me persevere and get to this level.” She laughs, since everyone in her family is in the sciences – and her dad always wanted her to be a doctor – that she was proud she could finally tell him she was an “MD.”

Bhatt finds that one of the best parts of the industry is seeing how technological advances will change things for the better. For example, she has been fascinated by the intersection between disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence as they converge with the highly regulated financial sector.

“We are seeing how we can incorporate the best technology available into our controlled environment at an appetite that regulators will be comfortable with. I love seeing how other industries outside of financial services are making it work,” she says.

Helping Build the Talent Pipeline

When considering the challenges of being a woman in the industry, Bhatt believes that key issues are numbers, retention and representation. “There aren’t enough women, so we need to not only attract women as junior candidates, but retain them over a long career.” She says one solution is to help women who are currently in school or graduating discount a misconception that the industry is overly conservative and rigid. “Other people have paved the way as the industry has evolved to be more welcoming, and that will only continue if we bring in even more people who are eager to ensure the industry is more diverse.”

She goes on to stress: “getting women in the door isn’t enough – it’s important for leadership to nurture and grow talent through the ranks by giving their team members interesting and challenging responsibilities.”

In addition, Bhatt believes that as firms work toward equal gender representation, typical stereotypes tied to gender – such as men being “assertive leaders,” and women being viewed as “good teammates” – will evolve.

She says it’s vital that women in top positions take care to spot talent and spend time mentoring the junior population. “Remember that you used to be that analyst admiring the MD and looking for advice and encouragement,” she says. “A good leader can listen to a wide variety of ideas and champion the great ones. It helps the team feel empowered when you listen and assess ideas, then help get the best ideas across the finish line.” She adds it’s equally important to make sure that men are also advocating for women.

Bhatt has benefitted from a number of programs offered by Goldman Sachs, notably when she participated in a program in Asia that brought women in the region together to develop their leadership skills, and provided them with the opportunity to forge connections with senior leaders and one another.

In addition, Bhatt is passionate about the firm’s affinity networks; she was a member, then a steering committee leader and now managing director sponsor for the Operations Asian Professionals Network in the Americas. “I love giving back to this community, and I am honored to be that role model, so if a junior person is hoping to go down the MD road, it will become more accessible when they see someone who looks like them,” she says.

Bhatt is a proponent of maintaining a work/life balance; including understanding when it’s time to engage in new activities to support that goal. While in Asia, she picked up a passion for wellness once she realized that the environment offered plenty of opportunities for socializing – but Hong Kong’s “concrete jungle” didn’t provide many chances for outdoor activities. Bhatt joined a boot camp and practiced yoga, eventually earning her certification – not to actively teach but as a personal achievement. She also traveled extensively in the region, visiting 20 countries across Asia.

One of the driving factors in her desire to return to the United States was family; she has two teenage nephews with whom she is extremely close. “I appreciate that I can give them a picture of a family member in corporate America, and I can help them navigate competitive waters to help shape their paths and give them guidance, such as putting them in touch with the right people and helping them engage in different hobbies and extracurricular activities. In that way, I get to serve as a life coach,” Bhatt says.

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Thought Leader: Lorraine Hariton, CEO, Catalyst

Lorraine HaritonBy Nicki Gilmour, CEO and Founder of theglasshammer.com

We caught up with Lorraine Hariton, recently appointed leader of Catalyst to hear her thoughts on change, gender progress at work and what excites her about her in this new role.

Nicki Gilmour (NG): What is your vision as leader of Catalyst?

Lorraine Hariton (LH): I am honored and thrilled to join Catalyst as President and CEO. My career has benefited so much from Catalyst’s work, and I am excited to have the opportunity to help write the next chapter and pay it forward to future generations. I have been involved in women’s advancement leadership initiatives throughout my career. This is a dream opportunity to give back and pay it forward in an area that has been a lifelong passion and indeed my life experience.

There’s so much I want to do with this opportunity. We are at an inflection point in our history—the #MeToo outcry combined with rapid and enormous shifts in how we work offer the opportunity to build a new kind of workplace: one in which women advance to leadership much more rapidly and intentionally than ever before. I see Catalyst leading that charge and I’m excited to be a part of this moment in history.

NG: What has changed for women in the workplace in the past 10/20/30 years?

LH: The workplace of 2018 looks very different from that of 1962, when Catalyst was founded, and will look much different 20 years from now and beyond. Rapidly changing technology and the surge of millennials and Gen Z into the workforce guarantees that advances in technology will continue to significantly change the Future of Work, including shifting demographics, automation, AI, machine learning, the gig economy, more geographically dispersed, culturally diverse teams, changing dynamics in the interaction between humans and machines, etc. The future of work will need soft skills that include empathy, critical thinking, creativity, collaboration. This will require companies to turbocharge their efforts to build diverse and inclusive teams to be competitive. The rapidly changing nature of how we work presents a real opportunity in the “here and now” for women and other marginalized groups in the workplace. It’s essential that women are not left behind in this shifting workforce and that companies are prepared to utilize all of their diverse talent.

However, despite these advancements, women continue to face barriers that are complex and ingrained, especially women of color. Harmful and misleading gender-based stereotypes and biases are alive and well. We need to make sure that the people who are coding and building the machines of the future aren’t also baking in sexist or stereotypic assumptions. Getting women into all aspects of tech, STEM, and also data analytics will allow us to create a future that works for all of us. Gender diversity in the workplace is the right and the smart thing to do. Gender based innovation means ensuring products are built by diverse people so they work for everyone. Tech companies need to be at the table partnering and taking the steps needed to bring about positive change.

NG: How do we take the onus off the individual and instead ask the firm’s to ‘lean in’?

LH: It is vital men do not take a step back in the aftermath of this global wake-up call on sexual harassment or become afraid to advocate for women. The vast majority of men at work have the best intentions but stop short of identifying as champions. Inclusive leaders encourage their male employees to challenge the status quo while also modeling sponsorship behavior. They lead courageous conversations about what concerns men have and how they can step up to become allies for women in the workplace.

NG: Tell is about your personal pathway to this work?

LH: I have been involved in women’s advancement leadership initiatives throughout my career. I’ve held senior-level positions in Silicon Valley, including serving as CEO of two Silicon Valley start-ups and holding C-level roles in sales, marketing, and engineering in public companies. Most recently, I was Senior Vice President of Global Partnerships for the New York Academy of Sciences, where I was instrumental in creating the Global STEM Alliance and its 1000 Girls, 1000 Futures program, a global mentoring initiative to help girls pursue careers in STEM.

As Special Representative for Commercial and Business Affairs at the US Department of State, I established The Global Entrepreneurship Program, the WeCreate Center for women entrepreneurs, and the Secretary’s Council on Women’s Leadership.

I’ve served on several boards of organizations committed to the advancement of women in the workplace, including the UN Women Global Innovation Coalition for Change, the Stanford Clayman Institute for Gender Research and Watermark.

My eclectic and diverse background helps me to look at the challenges, opportunities and solutions from many different angles.

My career has benefited so much from Catalyst’s work and I’m thrilled to be a part of the next chapter lending my experience to help build workplaces that work for women, and for everybody.

NG: What excites you most about the future on this topic of equality and equity?

LH: This is a critical time in our history. There is a huge spotlight on issues facing women in the workplace. Unfortunately, progress has been stalled for far too long but there’s an opportunity in this #MeToo moment to make a quantum leap ahead for gender equality in workplaces. We at Catalyst will continue to support leaders and organizations in creating inclusive cultures and opportunities that support and advance women. The best defense against sexual harassment is building an inclusive workplace culture with zero tolerance for discrimination and bad behavior.

NG: What is your advice to your younger self?

LH: I would tell my younger self to learn how to be flexible and adaptable, adept in digital literacy and interpersonal skills. I would ensure I took the time to invest in internships and job experiences. There is no longer a traditional linear “major to career” path. I would also remind myself to gravitate to organizations and cultures that support and elevate women. I started my career with IBM and returned back there after Harvard Business School because of their women-centric and women-supportive environment. I would encourage young women starting their careers to similarly seek out cultures and organizations that emphasize women’s inclusion.

NG: A big thanks to Lorraine for taking time out to speak with us and we look forward to more excellent work from Catalyst!
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