Voice of Experience: Valerie S. Peters, CTFA®, Senior Vice President and Head of Relationship Services; Abbot Downing

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“When I entered the corporate world over 20 years ago, I believed that it was possible to achieve anything with hard work and discipline, and I still believe those are key ingredients to success,” says Valerie Peters, who serves as operations leader for Abbot Downing, a Wells Fargo business serving ultra-high-net-worth clients.

Her career path has proven the value of focusing on a goal….and working to achieve it.

Each Experience Leads One Step Closer to Career Goals

Peters started her career in retail banking as a customer service phone representative and then transferred to the commercial real estate division, where she was selected for the management trainee program. She immediately felt drawn to the wealth management arena during a rotation in the trust area, and with that eventual role in mind, she began looking for opportunities that would help her build the skills she needed.

She took a role managing a team of client service professionals supporting wealth management clients with their banking, investment and fiduciary servicing needs; from there, she moved on to become a manager within a trust center and eventually transferred to the division that served ultra-high-net worth clients. Her time working in client-facing, trust services and operational roles were each stepping stones that helped prepare her for her current position as operations leader for Abbot Downing.

In her quest for continuing education, Peters counts achieving her designation as a CTFA (Certified Trust and Financial Advisor) several years ago as one of her proudest moments. “I had spent several years working in the fiduciary area, and earning the CTFA was a culmination of the time I spent gaining work experience, as well as obtaining knowledge through the various trust school programs I have been fortunate enough to attend,” she says.

Sponsors and Mentors as a Key Ingredient to Success

Along the way, Peters has found that sponsors and mentors are crucial and has appreciated the support they have given. She has also looked externally to find role models to emulate; one of her personal role models is Ursula Burns, who came from modest beginnings to become the first African-American woman to lead a Fortune 500 company. “I have long been inspired by her hard work and dedication,” Peters says, citing her strong work ethic and commitment to learning the ins and outs of business through a variety of roles.

Over the years, Peters has participated in a number of programs geared towards retaining diverse talent, including women, naming the Diverse Leaders Program as one of the most impactful. “The whole time I participated in the program, I felt that I was valued not only for what I do within the organization, but also for who I am and how the perspectives and insights gained through life experience shape my thoughts, ideas and values,” she says.

When Peters is away from work, she values time spent with her family—a favorite escape is spending time at the beach unwinding and enjoying the ocean. “We try and get away as often as possible when the kids are on break from school,” she says.

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Mover and Shaker: Jeanelle Johnson, Director, Deals – Valuations, PwC US

Jeanelle JohnsonFor PwC’s Jeanelle Johnson, it’s the experiences gained from taking on new challenges and living overseas which have made her career path so rewarding.

Having the right people around her was key to making it happen.

“Finding your people is extremely important in feeling like you belong, and sometimes you have to be strategic to find them,” she explains. For her, finding sponsors has been pivotal in helping her advance, both to understand the professional landscape and the unwritten rules.

Creating a Career on Her Own Terms

Johnson started in a different career path than most of her counterparts in the consulting world; she began at a family-owned business in the financial services industry where she examined trading by company executives and wrote articles for mutual fund companies. She decided to earn her MBA—working full-time, while pursuing classwork part-time on the evenings and weekends.

While participating in on-campus recruiting, she interviewed with an investment firm in Baltimore for an investment banking role and started as an Associate, only to find out a month later the group was being sold. Johnson was getting married at the time so she took a pause to reflect on what she wanted in her future career.

Earlier in her career, Johnson had been exposed to Big 4 firms, which she was surprised to learn did more than just accounting—but also valuations and M&A transactions, which is what she had enjoyed most when she worked in investment banking. She had also been intrigued by their reputation among her peers and in the media, such as in Working Mother magazine, as a place where she could enjoy a challenging work environment, but also be able to carve out the time she needed to start a family.

Johnson joined a Big 4 firm in 2006 and worked there until August 2015, appreciating the flexibility they offered her—first working remotely from California while her husband completed a graduate degree; then working from home most of the week when her first child was born; and finally offering her a transfer to the London office to accompany her husband who had been offered an opportunity there—a stint that was supposed to be a year and ended up being more than five.

When they moved back, she and her husband decided it was best for the family to focus on her career, and he became the primary parent. Johnson was looking for a firm that was supportive of developing people like her into partners, and the recruiter who had hired her at her prior firm was then at PwC so she pursued an offer there. “I was offered a position that started in March, but I told them that I could not start until August, and they were willing to wait,” Johnson says, which confirmed she had found the right place. They moved to New York for two years and then returned to Washington D.C. in July 2017, which she says has been wonderful both personally and professionally.

And, she says, that’s the professional achievement she is most proud of so far…the ability to pivot to whatever opportunities she was offered, rather than just following a straight line.

Finding Role Models—And Acting as One

Johnson says she admires people who demonstrate grit and resilience, and who don’t let anyone see them sweat—even when they are. “Maintaining that calm, level head imbues confidence to everyone, while also being open and approachable—those are qualities I try to emulate,” she says.

As one of the senior women in her practice group, she is proud to take part in diversity and inclusion initiatives that help promote the idea that it is possible to have both a successful career and family, especially as an underrepresented, minority woman. “Much of the corporate world was not designed by us or for us, so being visible allows younger people to see what they can accomplish,” she says.

Recently, Johnson joined the board of directors for a charter school in D.C. as another way to share her professional acumen.

With two children ages six and 10, she appreciates the opportunities that were presented by living overseas. “It provides you with such an interesting frame of reference; we traveled extensively, and my daughter has visited 18 countries…she’s drummed on the streets of Istanbul and been in a backpack in Marrakech markets.”

“Traveling gives you a broader view of the world, and I am passionate about instilling that in my children. If you stick to what you know, you may never see what is possible.”

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Voice Of Experience: Kenya Scott Woodruff, Partner, Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP

Kenya Woodruff“Don’t stress out” over your career, Kenya Scott Woodruff tells women who are entering the workforce.

“It really does all work out. Your career path might not be as you predicted, but if you are willing to work hard; you are open; and you say ‘yes’ to things that others don’t, you are going to end up with great opportunities to advance.”

Finding Her Passion in Healthcare

Kenya began her career at a large law firm in Dallas as a commercial litigator, but she discovered the healthcare practice area as a second-year associate and immediately loved the complexity of the space.

She found a mentor who was a client. He managed litigation for a large health system and helped Kenya develop a steady stream of healthcare litigation work. She later went to a firm where she handled government investigations, before transitioning to an in-house position with the Dallas hospital district, Parkland Health and Hospital System, where she handled investigations, litigation, regulatory and transactional work.

After four years, Kenya returned to private practice, focusing on mergers, acquisitions and joint venture strategic partnerships in the healthcare sector and advising administrators and medical providers on compliance and other business issues. In October, she came to the newly-opened Dallas office of Katten as part of a respected trio – Cheryl Camin Murray, Lisa Genecov and Kenya. They were the first three women partners in the new office and were hired to grow the firm’s healthcare practice in the Texas region.

While Kenya is looking forward to what the team will accomplish, one of her top career highlights is a project she took on when she returned to private practice, working with five physicians and a technology investor to help them build a healthcare company. Together, they formed an independent Accountable Care Organization (ACO), Premier Patient Healthcare, and the company has since expanded to more than 400 physicians and created savings for Medicare and private payor programs each year they have existed.

Kenya found it exciting to watch their growth and especially to realize that there are rural, unaffiliated physicians who now have the technology that delivers recent visit and admission data about patients to the physicians’ desktops and enables them to care for their patients with an understanding of their recent medical encounters. “We’ve been through a lot together since 2012, and it’s amazing to see the wonderful work they have done,” she says. “It is awesome to see the role they are playing in advancing efficient care and to be able to play a part in that advancement.”

In fact, in this era of constantly searching for high-quality, cost-effective care, Kenya is finding that collaborative arrangements are emerging as an important answer. “We are working to help healthcare professionals and organizations figure out how they can take care of patients across the continuum of care in an efficient and effective way,” she said.

Career Advice For Creating a Successful Path

The healthcare industry is largely a welcoming place for women. While there are still advances to be made, Kenya says companies are increasingly amenable to women progressing into executive leadership roles. But in the legal industry, she recognizes there is still a real issue with retention of female attorneys at law firms, even though most firms are very close to 50/50 in gender division when hiring.

Kenya believes one of the best ways to combat attrition in the legal profession is to make sure that women have mentors early in their careers. Often times women may be on par with their male counterparts when it comes to the skills needed to succeed, but they are less likely to have mentors who show them how to navigate the politics of the firm, as well as the business of law, specifically how to develop a practice that is sustainable and financially successful.

In addition, she encourages women to fill their toolbox of knowledge and experience and then seek out a niche they enjoy that preferably is not saturated by other experts. “We have to remember that our business, like others, is subject to the financial realities of supply and demand,” she said.

And mentoring shouldn’t stop as women ascend the career ladder. Kenya stresses the importance of continuing to find camaraderie and support from groups, whether internally at a law firm or externally in industry-based organizations.

At Katten, Kenya is active in the Women’s Leadership Forum, which supports the retention and advancement of women attorneys at the firm through mentoring and professional development programs. She finds the forum’s meetings to be helpful because women often share success tips, as well as challenges. “That’s what it takes to help people move forward—honest, straightforward advice,” she said.

Kenya has also been involved with a number of industry groups, such as the Center for Women in Law at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law, which she calls a “powerhouse organization with great women, companies and firms.” Along with the advice and other benefits of female networking groups, she says it’s vital for women to share career opportunities with each other and support other women as they climb their respective ladders.

A Healthy Balance in All Aspects of Life

As the mother of two “strong-willed” girls, ages 9 and 11, Kenya increasingly enjoys watching as they come into their own and hearing the interesting conversations their newfound maturity sparks. With her husband, David being a magistrate judge, it’s a challenge to juggle family, church and work obligations, but she and her husband share the load – they are true life partners. “Our church family is a big part of our lives,” Kenya said, adding that “We are there for each other in good times and bad. My church family is fun, supportive and they even help with emergency childcare needs!”

Kenya sits on the board of directors for what was formerly AIDS Arms, an organization focused on the prevention and treatment of HIV. She was a part of the board when the nonprofit group legally changed its name to Prism Health North Texas to better reflect the comprehensive services it provides. “The name change has been well-received, and we continue to enjoy great community support,” she said. “I always encourage people to find some organization where they can get involved and help their community in a significant way.”

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Voice of Experience: Sandra Bang, Chief Diversity and Talent Strategy Officer at Shearman & Sterling LLP

Sandra Bang“When it comes to diversity and inclusion, we have to continually find many ways to talk about it openly, even if this involves having difficult conversations,because although it may feel challenging, the end result will be worth it for everyone“ states Sandra Bang, Chief Diversity and Talent Strategy Officer at Shearman & Sterling LLP.

She continues, “Having dialogue, listening to each other’s stories about how we learn, develop, grow,and achieve career successes – hearing a diverse range of perspectives – will help support everyone better, and create a more inclusive environment.

Ms. Bang started her legal career as a litigator in Toronto, Canada. She also spent a year as a provincial prosecutor stating, “This was an incredible learning experience for me because I had to think on my feet every day, not always knowing what cases I was going to handle on a given day, nor which cases would settle or proceed.”

Bang then went into legal recruitment and professional development, and moved to New York City in 2004 where she continued her work in the legal talent management space with firms such as Weil, Gotshal & Manges and Chadbourne & Parke before joining Shearman and Sterling in 2008.

She continues, “Diversity and inclusion has always been an inherent part of the legal talent recruitment, development and management work that I’ve done. I am excited about my current work as it allows me to spend the majority of my time on diversity and inclusion. And this work is about engaging people, and strategically creating an inclusive work environment where everyone can feel like they belong and do their best work and advance their career. The business case is clear: the research and data show that better results are achieved when you have both an inclusive environment and diverse teams.”

She is enthused about diversity and inclusion as an integral part of the firm’s business strategy and sees that clients are also committed to moving the needle on diversity and inclusion. She comments,

“I think the efforts being made in the legal industry on the diversity and inclusion front has moved up a notch as the benefits of collaborating on this topic are evident. It is exciting to work closely with clients and having dialogue around how we can help each other create change from both a business and organizational perspective.”

Feeling Engaged and Feeling included

As an executive who has spent several years in professional development and is a certified coach, Bang feels that talking to people, particularly those from diverse backgrounds, about their career path – listening to what people want to achieve, giving them feedback that will help them get to where they want to go, and providing opportunities to achieve new experiences and success – is both a business imperative and the right thing to do. She shares,

“Having a sense of belonging in our work environment and feeling understood is essential. If you are are in a business environment and you constantly feel like you don’t belong, then you can’t do your best work. Coaching leaders and managers to lead and manage inclusively, and create diverse teams with members who feel included and understood in the workplace will not only help people achieve and serve clients better, but also produce better business results.”

When asked what career advice that she would give her younger self or to others, she says, ‘that it is more than ok to fail’ and recounts that the idea of perfectionism had a stronghold grip on her for a long time. She shares, “It wasn’t until recently that I realized that it’s ok to fail and fail fast. That’s how you learn. When you fail, you pick yourself up, and try something differently. Ultimately, it is about taking more risks.”

She is a strong advocate for encouraging people to ask for what they need and want to advance their careers, particularly women and people from diverse backgrounds. The subject of entering into conversations comes up, with Bang advising people to be smart and strategic around their asks, but to face their own fears by asking ‘the questions that we are afraid to ask’. She says, “You won’t get what you don’t ask for.”

Generational Change

Bang believes that Millennials will continue to have a significant impact on how the needle will be moved on the topic of diversity and inclusion in the workplace. “Millennials know that there is a business and competitive advantage to having a diverse team, where there is diversity in perspectives, thoughts and insights result in a better outcome.”

Shearman & Sterling is taking all of this into consideration as it takes its diversity and inclusion strategy to the next level. With recommendations resulting from an inclusion diagnostic, the firm has created a new global Task Force, headed up by the firm’s Senior Partner, and will take a data driven approach to designing and rolling out initiatives and programs to better help everyone achieve career success at the firm. Shearman continues its close work with clients on co-hosting diversity and inclusion education and awareness programs, as well as advancing know-how and networking opportunities on topics such as Blockchain and the FinTech industry generally.

“It’s exciting to be working collaboratively with both internal and external clients,” says Bang, “to create learning and advancement opportunities for women and people from diverse backgrounds and experiences in particular. Using data and client driven approaches, that align with business strategy, to advance diversity and inclusion initiatives, is what it is all about.”

Renewal and Life outside work

Outside of work, Bang enjoys spending time and traveling with her family. She comments that traveling provides so many opportunities to learn and share — including the diverse communities within and outside the US, and of different perspectives and experiences.

“Traveling with my kids always presents tremendous learning opportunities for me. I love hearing their perspectives on things we do, places we explore and people we meet. They remind me that there is great optimism to be had because people remain curious, and as the world becomes increasingly more connected, there is a greater sharing of culture and stories.”

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Mover & Shaker: Inna Jackson, Vice President & Senior Counsel, Digital & Data Partnerships, American Express

Inna JacksonInna Jackson’s biggest learning moment came immediately after completing a very large and intense project—one that didn’t pan out the way she had envisioned, an unexpected outcome given her successful career to date.

“I was forced to take a large step back to reconsider the work I’d done. I realized that while I had worked very hard for a prolonged period of time, I had focused on a level of details that, from a longer-term vantage point, were insignificant,” she says.

That one experience gave her a larger lesson as a way to consider how you spend your time. “We all like to say how busy we are; being busy makes us feel valued, needed, grounded. But my big focus has become being busy with the right things that will actually create lasting value.”

Finding Her Passion in Legal Work

Her career mirrors that aspiration. Jackson began as a corporate and M&A attorney in private practice, working with a range of clients on cross-border, M&A, private equity and other transactions across a wide variety of industries that included media, telecommunications and real estate.

One of her most exciting projects came when she was selected to serve as assistant outside general counsel and transactional attorney for a multinational multi-billion investment fund in its acquisitions of 17 hotels in Mexico and the Dominican Republic. She cites this role, which spanned four years, as one of the highlights of her law firm experience due to the meaningful work, but also because of how interesting it was culturally as she routinely worked with partners, advisors and investors in Spain, Latin America, the Netherlands and Abu Dhabi.

Halfway through her career, she moved in-house to work at American Express. For her first assignment, she lawyered American Express’ Business Insights (data analytics and reporting business) from the ground up, spearheading a foundational privacy and regulatory legal analysis, creating baseline processes and agreements and negotiating a number of cutting-edge data analytics and data license partnerships. She also supported the Global Merchant Services organization on a range of strategic negotiations, marketing and product build initiatives.

But she discovered her passion for digital work when she was asked to join the core team negotiating and building American Express’ relationship with Apple for Apple Pay, one of the Company’s first strategic mobile wallet partnerships. Jackson then moved on to support the digital team full time, playing a core role in the Google Pay and Samsung Pay negotiations, and leading many other initiatives involving issues of first impression, including partnerships for Amazon Alexa, Amex’s bot on Facebook Messenger and the more recent partnership with PayPal and Venmo, among many others.

“This work has been particularly exciting because it sits at the cross-section of what other lines of business do, but with layers of innovative issues and considerations,” Jackson says. She notes that to do her job well, it is essential to take a practical approach as a partner to the business team, rather than solely as a legal advisor, and to constantly seek the bigger picture by connecting the dots for considerations and priorities across the organization.

Growing Her Expertise—And Her Brand

Throughout her time at American Express, Jackson has earned a reputation as a key thought leader in enterprise data strategy and third-party data sharing frameworks, the professional achievement of which she’s very proud. “When I started my career at American Express, I knew very little about data or privacy, but throughout my eight years here, data considerations have been a consistent focal point,” she says. “I’ve served as a principal architect of numerous arrangements with savvy counterparties, including Amazon, Google and Apple, and I’ve progressively built on these learnings in partner negotiations as well as funneled them into the enterprise principles and approach.”

Along the way, she’s rethought the notion of what it means to be a “women lawyer,” moving away from her first impression that she had to fit a cookie cutter stereotype. “It’s not that I had a particular human in mind, but rather the idea of a corporate individual as a machine—centered around a logical core, extremely efficient, neat and trim, working around the clock, showing limited emotion,” she says, imagining that everything that made her unique must be put aside during the workday, almost like an extracurricular project.

Fortunately, she realized that real life is far more nuanced, and while some elements of the stereotype may have truth, they are not as radical. “As individuals, we have a lot of control around how we shape our own brand and the culture we inhabit and want to inhabit,” she says. In fact, she’s found that the leaders she has most admired are those who are comfortable sharing aspects of their unique personalities and being appropriately vulnerable while retaining the corporate persona.

Over her career, she’s had several sponsors and has been loyal to them—possibly to a fault, she says. She has appreciated that her sponsors have given her opportunities that she didn’t even recognize she was capable of handling; for example being asked to work on multi-pronged digital projects with no precedent. Each time, she rose to the occasion and spent days, including weekends, charting out a game plan, with a possible deal structure, issues and stakeholders. “It is through my sponsors’ belief in me that I’ve learned that no project or issue is unsolvable and that with curiosity, resilience and ultimately, the right team of people, there is always, eventually, a path forward,” Jackson says.

A Focus on Family

While Jackson has had many role models over the years to pick just one, it has to be her mom. She set an amazing example—switching professions mid-career when she immigrated to the United States and learning not only the English language but also the necessary skills to excel among people who started in her field years earlier.

It was through her mom that Jackson learned resiliency, recalling how maddening it was when her mom helped her with homework in middle school, and even after she was ready to give up, her mom would persevere until she understood the problem. Although she worked long hours with teams in India and others around the globe to turn around complex projects on very tight timelines, Jackson recalls that she made it look easy. “By being very present, not cutting corners and having an ultimate belief that even the most tangled issue could get figured out, she seemed like a superhero.”

And now Jackson is passing on those qualities to her three daughters, along with her love of travel and languages.
She is fluent in Russian and Spanish and can also speak French and Italian. And while her travel options were limited when her daughters were younger, they are now at fantastic ages to travel, and they have been planning trips to Europe and South Africa this year.

Throughout her career Jackson has been active in pro bono work—in law school, where she was chair of the pro bono committee, to private practice and now at Amex. Over the years, her work has ranged from helping 501c(3) corporations with bylaws and other corporate matters to helping with immigration and asylum matters for various clients, including through Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) and Catholic Charities Immigration and Refugee Services.

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Voice Of Experience: Amanda Segal, Partner, Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP

Amanda Segal
There’s no set path to success, says Amanda Segal, head of Katten’s Distressed Debt and Claims Trading practice.

“Everyone’s professional journey is different, and for a planner—as many attorneys are—it can feel unsettling when the road starts to twist and turn. But one of the best things you can do is be flexible, patient, and let your trajectory develop organically.”

When Segal started her career, she thought she would progress up the ladder as a bankruptcy litigator, but her career path took a different course as dynamics in the financial market helped steer her towards attractive new opportunities. “You will be better equipped as a professional if you are open-minded and able to adapt to the evolving needs and priorities of your clients and employers.”

Building a Career Unique to Her

For Segal, that approach has led her to a successful career. After law school, she joined Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP as a bankruptcy associate. Three years later, with the financial crisis looming, she saw an opportunity to parlay her experience into a more transactional practice in the area of distressed debt at Richards Kibbe & Orbe LLP. She spent ten years at the firm, where she secured the requisite expertise and experience to make the move a little over a year ago to head Katten’s Distressed Debt and Claims Trading practice.

At Katten, she leads a team of attorneys advising clients through the acquisition and sale of distressed assets, including trade claims against bankruptcy estates, litigation claims, bank loans, and a variety of other investments. Her team—well versed and deeply immersed in financial services—works with related practice areas, including bankruptcy, commercial finance, tax, private equity and more, to provide the firm’s clients with tailored legal advice and transactional support in a wide range of circumstances. Segal believes this will be increasingly important as volatility in the financial market continues to rise.

“Because our practice integrates the talents of so many dedicated attorneys and professionals across the firm, we have the unique ability to look at large bankruptcy cases across multiple sectors. This will enable us to offer ‘big picture’ guidance as our clients navigate the next distressed cycle.”

For attorneys just starting their career, Segal highlights the importance of being empathetic to clients and colleagues. “When you are able to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and view an issue from multiple perspectives, it helps make you a more relatable professional and leader and, ultimately, a more effective advocate.”

She also advises young attorneys to “play the long game.” “Surround yourself with trusted advisors and mentors; use every occasion to network, and work hard to maintain and build upon relationships. Over time, those relationships will provide the backbone for a more productive and fulfilling career.”

Finding Balance in the Workplace

Segal points out that even though law firms have become far more open and accepting of work/life balance, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. “Every woman’s professional and personal needs are different, so there’s no formula. Each woman must determine what works best for her and her family—sometimes simply through trial and error. The end result won’t look the same for everyone.”

Katten hosts a Women’s Leadership Forum that she has found valuable for building relationships across the firm, and also provides skill building, internal and external networking, mentorship and professional development. “Katten has consistently been recognized as a top firm for women, which I have been fortunate to experience first-hand,” she says.

With five-year-old twin daughters, Segal prioritizes a balance between work and family time, running marathons and maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and cheering on the basketball team of her alma mater, Duke University.

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Voice of Experience: Tracie McMillion, Head of Global Asset Allocation; Wells Fargo Investment Institute

Tracie McMillionEarn opportunities by, working hard, taking a deep interest in your work and realizing results, which will give you the confidence to ask for even more, says Tracie McMillion.

“I often find that women underestimate how much they already know,” she says. “We want to feel like we know everything; but it’s ok to learn as we go.”

Advice and Strategy Create the Ideal Career

McMillion began her finance career with a smaller bank in Richmond, Va., as a research assistant to four portfolio managers. At the time, the chief investment officer suggested she pursue her MBA and CFA; she decided to pursue the CFA first and soon found it was a hard-earned designation as she spent the next several years pursuing “head down studying” during the majority of her non-work hours.

During that time McMillion was promoted to portfolio manager, taking on clients and gradually tackling more complex situations with individual families to create customized investment portfolios. After earning her CFA, she decided to pursue her MBA, during which she got “reacquainted” with her economics major and decided a move into investment strategy was a great next step.

McMillion was able to move over to that discipline at the same bank—a Wells Fargo predecessor. After nearly a decade of developing investment strategy, she was hired as the Head of Global Asset Allocation Strategy for the newly-formed Wells Fargo Investment Institute, a role which she continues today.

To McMillion it represents coming full circle, as she now leads a team that develops investment advice for clients of the Wealth and Investment Management division of the firm. “I understand what it’s like to sit across the table and work with clients, so it’s easier to put myself in our advisors’ shoes,” she says. “The focus of our team is sharing our best thinking with those who are working directly with the clients to help them achieve their goals.”

That group effort is the professional achievement of which she is most proud—in her current role she leads a virtual team in several locations around the country, who each have individual strengths and goals and yet work cohesively together. “I have a passion for helping people achieve their goals—whether it’s my team, peers or clients,” she says.

Women as Savvy Investors and Advisors

Another passion of McMillion’s is to inspire women to take charge of their financial lives. Over the years McMillion has found that women investors sometimes lack confidence in their abilty to invest—and yet shouldn’t. Her team has conducted research and reviewed extensive surveys revealing that the best-performing accounts are repeatedly those headed by females—the top spot goes to those with single females and the second best were those with married females. The most interesting part, she says, is that they outperformed, while also assuming less risk.

“Women tend to show a number of positive traits including sticking to their plans more often, trading judiciously and making very planful decisions.” In addition, women are twice as likely to say that they need education from their advisor, which allows the Wells Fargo team to do what they do best. “We encourage women to get involved with their family’s investments; they play an integral role in the conversation, as they typically add bigger picture elements about what they want to achieve as a family.”

And just as some women might be more hesitant about their skills as investors, she finds they also have been reluctant to join the wealth management field.

“I often wonder why other fields that also require education and time commitment, such as law and medicine, have so many more women,” McMillion says. “Wealth management makes the most of skills that women typically naturally have, such as listening astutely and putting together pieces of information to make decisions. While there is competition, there are so many rewarding aspects,” she says.

She urges her peers to support one another. “We get challenged a lot about the decisions we make, which makes it particularly important to connect on a regular basis and to understand how we can help strengthen each other,” she says.

To that end, she appreciates the mentorship program within the Wells Fargo Investment Institute that helps women connect with one another. McMillion herself has served regularly as a mentor and has found it incredibly rewarding to see how her mentees have progressed.

She also notes her involvement in the Early Talent Development program—geared to attracting,recruiting, and retaining exceptional recent college graduates—which introduces them to the field and provides training and education to help them succeed. Her broader strategy team has been fortunate to have two young women join them from the group of summer interns.

Enjoying Family Life

McMillion is quick to praise her husband, who is a stay-at-home dad. “Having him there gives me confidence that our family is well cared for when I put in long hours and travel,” she says. In her spare time, she is typically with the family and enjoying the activities of her kids. Her 13-year-old daughter loves performing arts, and her 11-year-old son plays sports of all types.

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Voice of Experience: Sarah Wolman; Senior Advisor; The LEGO Foundation

Sarah Wolman Passport PhotoWhen you consider your career, it’s vital to get clear on what brings you joy, says Sarah Wolman.

“You don’t have to choose between work that allows you to feel fulfilled and that would put food on the table,” she says, encouraging other new professionals to talk to people about what they do and ask good questions that help them understand how people spend their time. “Find out what will make you feel you’re making a meaningful contribution, and listen for those opportunities that mesh.”

And, she points out—it might take a whole career to find those. “Your career will be long, so the secret is to continue looking for those positions that combine what you’re good at with what you love,” she says, adding that this has been true of her own career. Each piece made sense after the last one.

Building on Opportunities Where She Found Them

Majoring in comparative literature and French and Italian, Wolman wrapped up the majority of her coursework early, which allowed her to take classes in the sociology department, delving into her interest in policies around women, children and families. She left with an interest in policy work and took a position with the Office of the Mayor of the City of New York as a policy analyst, which provided the perfect birds-eye view into a wide variety of programs that existed, and also illuminated needs.

While there, she realized that the professionals above her all had obtained law degrees, so she thought that might be the best route to become a decision-maker. She attended law school, harboring no expectations of practicing law, but rather to further her ability to focus on issues of equity and social justice.

During her first summer of law school, Wolman did a Human Rights fellowship. During her second summer, her work was again funded by her law school Wolman through a public interest law fellowship that allowed her to do socially conscious work with a nonprofit called Legal Outreach. She ran a five-week law school-like internship for eighth graders, not designed to create future lawyers but rather to help motivate the students toward college and careers in general. “I remain so proud of what the kids accomplished over the years; they worked so hard every day after school, every Saturday and every summer, and ultimately they achieved their goals.”

The following year she returned and took a year-long course with the organization’s Executive Director. During the fall, she learned Family Law and a teaching methodology, and then in the spring, she and the other law students taught law in eighth grade social studies classes in Harlem. She describes her first day teaching as nerve-wracking, and yet standing on the subway platform, she called her husband and announced she had missed her calling—she was supposed to be a teacher. From that time, she remained involved with the organization for more than 10 years, including full-time, part-time and volunteer roles.

Yet when law school graduation rolled around, there were other factors at play. Her husband was still in law school, and so she took a stint at a large, corporate law firm for two years. She found a way to make it work for her, mostly by taking on lots of pro bono work. “There are different times for different things, and at the time, I was the primary breadwinner. Fortunately the firm understood where my interests lay and allowed me time to focus on my pro-bono passion.”

From there, Wolman transitioned to the Administration for Children’s Services and led their Policy & Procedure unit, all the while volunteering at Legal Outreach and joking with the Executive Director about opening a Brooklyn Office. While on her first maternity leave, she got the call to do just that, and she spent the subsequent five years running the site. She then transitioned to part-time after her second maternity leave.

By the time she moved to the New Jersey suburbs, Wolman was ready to be back to full-time. She took a position as the President & CEO of a community-based non-profit, where she was close to home and able to juggle a full schedule. The organization offered counseling programs, domestic violence services, an early childhood center, and other social service programs. She decided to build on the successful Legal Outreach model and start a similar program that would align kids with professionals in law, business and science. She reached out to the Merck Company Foundation to provide science mentors and was thrilled they wanted to support all three aspects of the program.

Following her third and final maternity leave, she decided the demands of the CEO position were too high and instead turned to consulting work; one of her first stints was covering another professional’s maternity leave at the Merck Company Foundation as Manager of the Education grants Portfolio.

Merging her passion for education with a new love for philanthropy, she was recruited by the LEGO Foundation; the only potential deal breaker was that the position was in Switzerland. Encouraged by her husband they dove in, and she has been with the LEGO Foundation ever since, returning to New York four years ago.

Currently she is excited to be working on a program designed to bring play to the youngest refugees in Bangladesh, Lebanon and Jordan in connection with Sesame Workshop. “The LEGO Foundation exists thanks to the incredible generosity of its owner family, which dedicates 25% of all profits of the LEGO Group to the Foundation. With living donors, the onus is on us to make a case for why something is timely and relevant. Displacement is in many ways the moral crisis of our day, so it makes so much sense for the Foundation to get deeply involved in this space. This new effort is a huge statement to the world that anyone who is doing humanitarian work needs to think about young children and their need to play and learn. It’s been a total privilege to work on this project.”

Finding Your Path, No Matter How Winding

As she looks back on a varied and full career, Wolman says that she wishes that younger people would realize that there is a diverse and rich range of options in the professional world. “When I was in law school, we were presented with two options—working in a law firm or legal aid,” Wolman says. “But the world is a more interesting place than that. Those are great options for some but there are so many ways to use a law degree – and so many interesting careers that don’t require one. It never occurred to me that the side of me that loves to be creative and playful would be able to merge with my interest in program development and policy.” Wolman speaks and trains around the world on the connection between learning through play, often traveling with a suitcase full of LEGO bricks. “Sometimes I wish I could see the faces of the airport staff scanning my luggage.”

While Wolman feels like she has arrived at a gratifying point in her career, she sees that the workplace generally hasn’t quite caught up with women’s ambitions and needs. “Success in one industry or workplace is perceived as primarily linear; we think about progressing up a ladder, one rung at a time, but this perspective can be limiting for working moms,” Wolman says. First, the needs of your family and your own personal and professional needs become much more complex, which is why her personal philosophy has always been to make plans one year at a time. “Who’s got what kind of commute? What are the kids’ needs? I always try to be on the lookout for high-impact opportunities that allow me to meet whatever needs we have in any given year. But it’s difficult to find that flexibility and quality of life when you’re looking at careers in a linear way.”

She finds that women who press pause to have children and plan to jump back in at the same level may be doing themselves a disservice. “It’s easy to underestimate how you will feel when you come back in, and how you need to privilege certain parts of your life at certain times, but I believe most fields haven’t caught up to the idea that these needs will vary. The workplace is often not imaginative enough to appreciate the value of individual people and how to make things work for them quite yet.”

That’s where your own personal imagination has to kick in, much like Wolman’s has in building her own ideal career, brick by brick.

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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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