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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Voice of Experience: Ayesha K. Farooqi, Head of Debt Capital Markets, Commitments & Risk; Macquarie Capital

Ayesha K Farooqi
Women need to focus on building professional relationships within their companies as well as their industries as a whole, which can be a huge benefit considering how narrow most industries tend to be — and how small the world is, says Ayesha K. Farooqi of Macquarie Capital.

“It’s vital to build relationships with your colleagues, both junior and senior, and one way to accomplish that, in addition to social interaction, is by taking on as much responsibility as you can handle, being proactive but also reliable so you can earn stretch assignments that will help you grow,” she says.

Proactively Finding Opportunities to Grow Her Skills and Reputation

Farooqi began her career as a tax attorney specializing in cross-border transactions, but realized there was a lack of such work during the economic downturn caused by the dot.com bubble burst. She proactively visited her managing partner’s office and said that she wasn’t in an area where she was learning and growing as much as she would like and asked to switch to, at the time, the more dynamic bankruptcy practice. He complied, as the bankruptcy group was expanding, and this request fit a need where the firm was looking to hire an additional bankruptcy associate. She began splitting her time between her tax practice and doing litigation and transactional bankruptcy work, which quickly evolved into financing companies that were entering or exiting bankruptcy, that further segued into leveraged finance.

She worked for a number of leading law firms over several years until an opportunity to move into a new role being created at Macquarie Capital presented itself. Farooqi saw the new role that would sit within the debt capital markets business requiring a mix of legal, business and risk management acumen as a challenging yet exciting opportunity that would add further depth and breadth to her diverse background. The self-described adventurous Farooqi said “Sign me up.” It proved to be a smart move, as she just marked her fifth anniversary there and has organized a team within the debt capital markets business that is thriving and has become an integral part of the business.

“The fact that I am open to opportunities and have been able to fluidly transition from one practice area to another, allowing me to build on my expertise and gain valuable experience, has been a boon to my career,” she notes. However, she says that while she has been proactive in acquiring diverse work, she sees now that things that she felt stress over as she went along, particularly those outside her control, tended to work out over time. “I could have worked more strategically,” she says, adding that along the way she has learned that hard work alone is not enough to help you climb the corporate ladder — equal consideration has to be given to building lasting relationships.

Right now she is enjoying her work on a number of exciting transactions as she helps the business operate in a nimble fashion. “I can work at multiple levels of a transaction focusing on both the commercial and legal perspective of a deal,” she says.

“Over time, I’ve learned that the transactions that were the most complex were the ones where I learned the most and still draw upon,” she adds.

A Company That Embraces Diversity

Farooqi is proud to work for a company that maintains a focus on gender equity; in fact, while investment banking as a whole is having a relatively challenging time attracting women, the new class of analysts who just finished their summer internships in the debt capital markets group at Macquarie Capital were all women, but one. In addition, roughly one-third of the managing directors in the debt capital markets group are women, and Macquarie Group recently promoted Shemara Wikramanayake as its next CEO, hardly the typical investment banking CEO mold. Wikramanayake was recently named the fifth-most powerful woman in business outside the U.S. by Fortune International.

The company encourages gender success at multiple levels; for example, the Lean In circles that were established four years ago have evolved into a formal Women at Macquarie group. The firm-wide initiative has a budget aimed at promoting gender quality and attracting and retaining women. “I am proud to have seen the Women at Macquarie group grow so rapidly,” she says.

The company also offers a variety of work/life tools to employees, such as guidance for healthy balance regarding flexibility in the workplace, and even financial and other advisory information, such as a recent session to help employees learn the ins and outs of getting a child into a private school or some of the most competitive public schools in New York City.

She says she’s seen a positive trend of more women entering the legal and investment banking fields, which means there needs to be hyper vigilance on retaining them. “We have to build the pipeline, and mentorship is a key way to do that. Women need to build relationships from both sides: Those in the junior ranks should concentrate on doing good work and building relationships with senior folks so others on the team can vouch for you when needed; senior women should seek out promising junior women on the team and help groom them to become leaders in their chosen field.”

In her free time, Farooqi loves to travel, the more adventurous the better, including hiking the Inca Trail and Patagonia, trekking in Chile and scaling Kilimanjaro in just five days. Always looking for a new challenge, she expands her hobbies regularly, and recently has taken up golf and bird hunting.

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

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

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

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

A Career That Revolves Around Leading through Change

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Finding and Sharing Strength With Colleagues and Family

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Voice of Experience: Vilaiporn Taweelappontong | PwC Thailand

Speak up; share your aspirational goals; and pursue your ambitions, advises PwC Thailand’s Vilaiporn Taweelappontong.

“In our culture, many young women still shy away from sharing their dreams, as they do not want to be seen as aggressive. But my message is that it’s ok to speak up. It’s your career, and you are the one responsible for it,” she says.

She notes that in Asian cultures, employees are taught to look to supervisors for approval before proceeding with any tasks or making big decisions and that if you work hard enough and do a really good job, you will be noticed and considered for promotion. But while in the United States office, she realized she was missing opportunities by not speaking up, and soon decided that being more vocal and visible and sharing career aspirations and then aggressively pursuing them would lead to success. That, combined with a strong network and supportive mentors, have propelled her career.

From Consulting to Leading

Taweelappontong has spent more than 20 years in IT consulting, with the past five as a country leader. She started her career in Thailand with a different global consulting firm, with the intent to just stay for a few years before moving to the corporate environment. But after a few projects, she fell in love with the speed of the consulting business and the opportunity to meet people and learn from the best, along with working with different technologies. She had the opportunity to work in many countries, including three years in the United States, where she learned a great deal about leadership, practice building and people management.

One of the professional achievements she’s most proud of is building the Thailand practice, achieving more than 75 percent growth in the past five years and growing the team substantially.

Earlier in her career, she preferred working with technology, rather than dealing with people. “Technologies are much easier to handle, since you don’t need to address emotional people or tough characters,” says Taweelappontong.

So when offered opportunities to step up and lead, she was hesitant at first, but having good coaches and mentors supported her confidence by allowing her to make mistakes and share her worst fears in order to learn and grow. Although she has conquered that reticence and has proven to be an effective leader, technology remains her area of most interest. She is currently working on several projects where the team is assessing how emerging technologies can help improve clients’ back office operations by automating tasks that are currently done by humans and using analytics to help inform better decisions. The goal is not necessarily to reduce costs but to improve efficiency, reduce human error and redeploy employees to more interesting and strategic roles, such as customer service and analytics.

“As a business technologist, I’m always passionate about learning the new technologies, like how robotics can perform a surgery, how AI can help with screening candidates and how analytics can help predict customers’ and employees’ behavior and needs,” Taweelappontong says.

Helping Create Balance

IT consulting is a demanding job and that can lead many women to resign once they reach the manager level in order to gain more time for their families. Taweelappontong says that as exit interviews continued to show the parallel path of promotions coinciding with family, they worked with HR to introduce flexible work arrangements.

For example, one single mom who needed to come in later in the morning after school drop-off or leave early some days to help with homework, received a 60 percent work arrangement that allowed her to coordinate with colleagues to meet those needs. Another manager whose husband asked her to resign for more family time was given a three-day-a-week schedule. “These flexible work arrangement programs help retain many of our talents in the workplace, and when we expanded the program to all genders, many men also applied.”

Taweelappontong helps maintain her own balance as a serious yoga practitioner, finding that the mind-body practice releases stress and relaxes her mind. She has blocked three hours every Saturday morning to go to the studio and practice yoga, and over the years has developed a network with a group of people who enjoy full-body stretching.

“Typically people who practice yoga also have an overall healthy life style — eating well and living well,” she notes, adding that she has picked up many health tips from the class.

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Voice of Experience: Emma Maconick, Partner, Shearman & Sterling

Emma MaconickWhile you can’t choose your circumstances, you can choose how you react to them, says Shearman & Sterling’s Emma Maconick.

“If I could, I would tell the junior version of myself to focus on relationships because they will all matter in some way,” she says. “Giving without expecting anything in return will do more to enhance your career than anything else. The act of being a helpful, useful person in your network is an incredibly valuable skill.”

Seizing Opportunities Provides A Strong Foundation

“Meandering.” That’s how Maconick describes her career, which began in England in the mid- 90s. Back then, she was doing computer and tech work for corporate entities and capital markets. And the more she heard about private equity investing in the then-new “internet,” the more interested she became in the sector.

Thanks to a contact she made at a casual party, she ended up working for an Australian law firm’s Auckland, New Zealand office, which in retrospect she believes was an excellent career move. She found herself traveling up the career ladder, becoming a big fish in a little pond with tremendous exposure to a host of smaller tech companies.

Later on, thanks to a former colleague in the San Francisco Bay Area who knew she was interested in transactional law, she came back to the United States to work at Davis Polk. She worked there for several years before moving to Shearman in June.

While Maconick has spearheaded a variety of impressive technology projects, product launches and fascinating deals over the years, she is most proud of the teams she’s built throughout her career. “My legacy isn’t as much what I personally will do, but what the people I have managed will do,” she says. “I tend to give them a lot of rope to venture out on their own, but I am also there to catch them before they fall. My job is to make them not need me, but always want me,” she says.

Her current work is focused on data, sitting at the intersection of intellectual property, cybersecurity and governance. While an Economist article had famously stated that “data is the new oil,” Maconick goes a step further. “I think it’s even more elemental; it’s the new carbon,” she says, adding that everything will be data-driven, which is why issues around artificial intelligence and ethics and how we build the upcoming digital world are so crucial.

Standing Out To Get Ahead

Maconick recommends that professional women develop an indispensable set of skills, and put their own spin on it.

She says it’s imperative to find out what’s valued in a particular organization — whether it’s culture, sales, creativity or something else — and focus on that. “Nothing magnifies your voice more than being able to generate work for your team.”

As women move up in the corporate world, Maconick believes women can take advantage of their inherent disposition for being relationship and empathy-focused. As computers take over manual tasks, interconnectedness, an area where women excel, will be a real value driver, allowing them to understand clients and their business challenges.

“These skills can shift the balance of power in your favor,” she says.

Professional women can help uplift others through tiny, incremental changes. For instance, if there is a spot open on a key project, suggest it be staffed with a woman capable of doing the job.

Shearman places a lot of importance on diversity. The firm provides skill-building sessions such as “practice your pitch,” and encourages associates to take the time to participate in conferences. It also holds monthly meetings featuring new opportunities or support with professional growth.

Finding Balance With Varied Interests

Maconick is active with the national group Ellevate, as well as Shearman’s WISER (Women’s Initiative for Success, Excellence and Retention) group. She also sits on the board of Upward Women, which focuses on elevating senior-level women. “The key is to find or form your own stiletto network or book club or whatever works for you, as a way to connect with other professionals.”

Most of her time outside work is devoted to her two sons, ages three and seven. Although her schedule is limited, she also enjoys ceramic arts and pottery, which provide both a mental and creative boost.

A travel junkie, Maconick is proud of her 6 x 8 foot map covered in pins marking all the places she’s been. “My life is oriented toward the next cool trip,” she says, adding that her kids are becoming highly adept travelers as well. She continues, “I traveled a lot as a kid and love other cultures, food and languages; whether we seek them in the next state or on the other side of the world, I find it enormously enriching.”

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Voice of Experience: Laura Takacs, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs

“An engineering career can be full of action and excitement,” says Goldman Sachs’ Laura Takacs.

Throughout her career she has successfully operated through many exciting times, from navigating the financial crisis from a tech perspective to building systems for a new business venture to a myriad of technical issues that can arise day to day – and she has learned through each of them that nothing is insurmountable.

“The strongest collaboration, teamwork and creative solutions have come during these tough periods, and I have emerged with unparalleled experience and an attitude to tackle anything,” she says.

Engineering a Successful Career

After earning a BCE in Computer Engineering from Villanova University and an MS in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania, Takacs started her career hacking into computers, as one of the “good guys,” finding vulnerabilities in military systems.

She joined Goldman Sachs as an analyst engineer in 1999 and has spent the past 20 years working in several different areas of the firm, from developing electronic trading and risk systems to her current role as global head of Human Capital Management (HCM), Compensation Accounting and Services Engineering. Takacs notes that the mobility Goldman Sachs encourages has allowed her to have incredibly broad experiences as an engineer.

Her career trajectory has been gratifying. The adrenaline rush from earlier experiences of hacking has continued as technology has shaken up every aspect of finance. “Earlier in my career, most of the tech disruption was happening in the trading businesses, so I spent my time engineering the exciting world of Fixed Income. But now a lot of the innovation and energy has spread to other areas of the firm, including HCM and our real estate technology groups.”

In her current role, she helps determine the future state technology for the firms’ global building footprint, influences infrastructure for security surveillance and protection of the firm’s assets and people globally, and applies analytics to help drive informed decisions regarding our people.

Building the Pipeline

Takacs mentions something that is top-of-mind for most people today in education and technology: the fact that many girls opt out from a potential career in engineering at an early stage. “We have a lot of work to do to ensure that girls don’t decide engineering is not a viable path before they have even had exposure to technology,” she says. “Unfortunately, even though technology and engineering can be such an adventure, many girls don’t even have it on their radar as a career path.”

She is working hard to combat this issue and is involved in a number of initiatives inside and outside the firm.

Throughout her time at GS, Takacs has been actively involved in the Women in Engineering Network, an organization built around the mission of recruiting, developing, retaining and promoting women in Engineering, and has served as its co-head in the Americas for the past seven years. The organization also focuses on community outreach to girls through programs including teaching computer topics in schools and working with groups like Girls Who Code, all contributing to the purpose of developing the pipeline.

“It’s rewarding to give back, help influence some of these programs and work with women and girls who are equally passionate, supportive and engaged in the importance of these programs at a firm like Goldman Sachs that is highly supportive and takes concrete actions to improve diversity,” she says.

Takacs says that early in her career engineering was less supported and more scrappy. “When I started working, I had to assemble my own circuit boards. Now engineers get the benefit of open source software and cloud infrastructure. But, I still carry a Leatherman in my purse just in case I need to cobble together some electronics.”

As a mom to three kids, ages 9, 7 and 6, she knows it’s vital to have women in senior positions whom other women can look up to as role models. “As senior professionals in Finance, we work hard and sometimes that hard work trickles into personal time,” she says, “For example, this past weekend, my team and I spent hours fixing a challenging issue to ensure it was resolved for the entire firm by start of business Monday morning. This happens periodically but I’ve still managed to go to over 170 of my kids sporting events and activities last year – baseball, basketball, softball, soccer matches, tumbling, cheerleading and dance performances as well as being a classroom mom and active in the school Parent Teacher Organization. It is rewarding when my kids see how hard I work, but also that I am able to participate in their activities. It is not easy, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Having women in leadership positions allows more junior colleagues to see that it is possible to balance work, family and other obligations and interests. “The number of questions I get about my career path when I speak to other female engineers underscores that this is on their mind,” she notes.

She believes in balancing her mental activities at work with physical activities, including running and participating in endurance and obstacle races. She enjoys the fast pace that comes with balancing family time and work responsibilities, so it is no surprise she is excited about an upcoming event – a gift from her husband of a trip to a speedway to race cars . “I enjoy action in whatever form it comes,” she notes.

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Voice of Experience: Jessica Tan, Marketing Director, Head of Global Field Marketing, FIS

Jessica TanBy Cathie Ericson

FIS’ Jessica Tan credits two factors for her ability to segue from an education in psychology and theater to her current position heading a global field marketing team in a fintech company.

Firstly, agreeing to try things outside her comfort zone, and secondly, realizing that her success depended on finding people who were willing to teach her. Tan comments, “The people you network with can help open up avenues that you aren’t able to open on your own,” she says.

A Career Path Winding Through Locations and Industries

Tan’s first job interning at a lifestyle magazine was the “most fun and carefree” job she ever held. She then joined the “real world;” after finishing her education in Singapore, she moved to Sweden for a position as a project manager and editor at a communications firm, working for Swedish multinational clients. Upon a return to Singapore, she dabbled in PR before ending up as a marketing manager for an Australian bank, which ultimately opened her eyes to the world of financial technology.

During the financial crisis in 2008 she began looking for new opportunities and joined SunGard Financial Systems (ultimately acquired by FIS) in 2009 as its Asia-Pacific PR and marketing manager, subsequently taking on additional roles in international marketing, where she worked with emerging markets such as China, the Middle East and Latin America. She has now been there for almost 10 years and currently heads a team of 14 marketers responsible for executing global marketing campaigns.

This international career has sparked several professional achievements she is proud of: One major one was beginning her career in Sweden, where English is not the first language; although her colleagues were effectively bilingual in Swedish and English, she was able to eventually converse and conduct business in Swedish. “I grew up speaking English and Mandarin, and learning another language really helped me broaden my ability to understand how different cultures create different business environments,” she says.

These early experiences provided her with the sensitivity to work with people from all types of cultures, which paved the way for her global role today where nearly 80 percent of her interactions are outside of the United States, including Asia, Middle East, Africa and Europe.

She has worked on the firm’s evolution of its marketing model over the past five years – from one that depended on events and other traditional forms of marketing to capitalizing on the explosion of marketing automation, and using technology to track efforts and improve the effectiveness of outreach.

Learning to Find Balance

In her early years Tan notes that she threw herself into her work, believing that the more she got done, the more she would advance her career. Then while her mom battled cancer for three years, she realized that she needed to learn to carve out time for her family while continuing to maintain the same high quality of work, delivered as efficiently as possible.

“You want to be present when you’re with your family, so the solution to that is to become more efficient at work. Then you can go home and not bring your worries with you.” In fact, today she says her role models are those who have found ways to balance their responsibilities at home and work. “Often I see women who take on many burdens at home but are able to perform well in both settings – not taking their problems home or bringing their domestic issues to work,” she notes. “I admire those who can juggle and don’t let their worries invade either sphere. Both sides sculpt you as a person; you do what you need to do at work and home.”

She feels fortunate to work for a company that understands the numerous roles its employees play and recognizes that it’s important to offer day-to-day flexibility to manage work as well as home life.

“I can be where I need to be for my family and for my work, whichever I need to focus on at the time,” says Tan. As mom to a three-year-old son, she appreciates working for a company that believes people can project manage their own time and one that is proactive in ensuring that there are strong women across the C-suite.

Given her international experience, Tan notes that she still loves to travel, frequently visiting her in-laws in Europe and fitting in weekend holidays whenever she can.

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Voice of Experience: Laure Châtillon, Partner and Diversity Leader, PwC France

oice of Experience: Laure Châtillon, Partner and Diversity Leader, PwC FranceThere is a famous book by the French Minister for European Affairs Nathalie Loiseau called Choisissez Tout (Choose Everything), where she underscores that women don’t have to make sacrifices. There is no standard in life: You don’t have to be ambitious or start a family, but you have to try before giving up. That has been an important theme in Laure Châtillon’s career, as she believes that anything is possible if you do it your own way.
“Early in my career, I had talked with women who said I was a dreamer to imagine that I could have a fulfilling career as well as several kids even if I already knew it was possible,” she says, citing her current reality as a partner at PwC France and a mother to four children. “I would love to talk with them and tell them how my husband and I made it work,” she says.
Building a Fulfilling Career
That quest to have it all began when Châtillon was attending a French management school and joined PwC France as an intern. After her last year of school she decided to start her career there, joining the valuation team where she valued intangible assets and companies. Except a short time in the leveraged finance division of Royal Bank of Scotland, she spent almost her entire career at PwC France. “I had my four kids within PwC, and it has never been an issue for my bosses,” she says.
She was promoted to partner in 2017. “We are transforming business, and we know that business is different every day so I enjoy the constant challenge,” she says. Additionally, she was asked to take on the diversity and inclusion subset within PwC France, a new role that has offered an exciting complement to her position as partner in valuation.
A Focus on Diversity
Diversity is a focus Châtillon has always had. “It’s not just a matter of philanthropy; our societies are more and more diverse and we really have to be more inclusive if we want to stay up-to-date.”
Although companies are increasingly finding that a robust focus on diversity is vital to retain talent, better meet client needs and foster innovation, there is still much to do. Châtillon feels that one way to encourage diversity is to become an active sponsor, as building a group of supportive women will help to retain more in top management levels. Sometimes it can feel like an uphill battle, she says, as she herself has seen many women who attended school with her choose to downshift their careers. “Stereotypes don’t come from men only,” she notes.
Of course, the ability to juggle work and family is never easy. “The most significant challenge is time, but you learn to find space in your agenda for what matters and then couple that with the trust you can build on your teams,” she says.
Furthermore, there is not just one path to success. “Define it for yourself and find your own path to get there,” she says. “Never be afraid to think outside the box and do things differently, more innovatively.”
One of her most recent accomplishments as diversity leader was starting a women’s incubator with soft skills workshops and a mentoring program, along with inspiring events such as hosting speakers like the French Minister of Equality. Châtillon also launched an initiative for gay, lesbians and everyone else, with the hope that it will ease inclusion for everyone working in the company. Lastly, she started different initiatives to attract more people from different backgrounds within the company, with the purpose of being more representative of the society as a whole.
Châtillon’s ability to prioritize and juggle has led to her fulfilling career. “My proudest accomplishment is that I’ve been able to share my enthusiasm for our industry with my clients and team, and still balance a busy family,” she says.

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