Voice of Experience: Paula Moreira, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs

Paula MoreiraWhen Goldman Sachs’ Paula Moreira explains the framework that helps her succeed, she references a pyramid, with honesty and humility as key components of the base.

The body and top of the pyramid are driven by effort and personal mission, respectively. Those traits, combined with her drive, have fueled Moreira’s career.

A Career Spanning Regions

Moreira’s interest in finance is rooted in lessons her parents ingrained in her early on. “They taught me how important it is to work hard and dream big to attain financial independence,” Moreira says.

That’s one reason a career in finance had always appealed to her, as she knew that industry would give her ample opportunity to achieve those goals. She studied industrial engineering to develop her technical expertise, and then began her finance career at a French bank. She soon moved to Credit Suisse, which gave her the opportunity to work in New York. “I had always dreamed about working in that important financial center,” she says of her initial move from Brazil to New York.

While in the US, she pursued an MBA at Harvard Business School to complement her technical background with stronger management and leadership abilities. After completing her MBA in 2002, she began working on Goldman Sachs’ Latin American sales desk. Moreira was so excited to get to work that she cut short a vacation and began taking Spanish classes to sharpen her language skills.

She moved back to Sao Paulo in 2010 and has been there since, leading a team focused on serving Brazilian banks, asset managers, hedge funds, pension funds and insurance companies. Moreira has found the most rewarding aspect of her career to be building a successful team who is connected, committed to helping one another and working toward the same objective. Moreira is also fulfilled by providing her clients with superior support and ensuring they achieve their goals.

Identifying Transformative Trends

Currently, Moreira is particularly excited about growth dynamics in Brazil, as the country emerges from a difficult recession. She notes that as part of the cyclical rebound in the country, rates have been cut by more than a half, causing dynamic changes in the market. Moreira explains that significant investments previously allocated to money market funds are now being funneled to alternative asset classes like hedge funds – one of her biggest client bases – as well as investments in structured products and equity. “There is a significant opportunity to capture these trends in a country that is experiencing a big cyclical rebound,” she notes.

Moreira has also been interested in the impact of technology on the trading business, particularly the rise in electronic execution among credit, rates and commodities clients, a trend that has already been incorporated into foreign exchange trading. “It’s important that I connect my clients to our global platforms,” and notes, “I love my job because I’m constantly learning from my clients as well as other GS colleagues.”

Helping Advance Diversity

Last year, Moreira joined the Brazil Management Committee. This is in addition to her responsibilities as co-chair of the Brazil Diversity Committee, and she also previously served as co-head of the Brazil Women’s Network. During her tenure as co-chair of the Women’s Network, she learned firsthand how the network connects individuals and helps attract, develop and retain women. She also greatly enjoyed her role organizing content-rich events for members that were focused on topical issues in the workplace, such as the “confidence gap” many women face.

She has particularly enjoyed recruiting others to pursue careers in financial services by dispelling the perception that it’s hard to be a woman in finance. “It’s important to be present at schools and show people that they can reconcile work with personal lives and having a family,” she says. She hopes that her efforts will help plant the seeds for a more diverse workforce down the road.

“Because of cultural bias, many women lack confidence, and it’s vital to break these barriers and make sure women realize there are no obstacles in what they can achieve,” Moreira says. “I really hope that parents would ask their daughters to complete the same tasks that they ask of their sons in order to instill confidence and ambition in their daughters.”

Asking for Help – and Helping Others

Moreira knows that no one can do it alone, and she has learned to recognize the importance of asking for help and, in turn, helping others. “We often don’t ask for help, even though people feel rewarded when they have the chance to be the helper.” This realization has helped her to be more upfront about asking for support in both her personal and professional life.

She tries to make room in her personal framework for equal focus on family, work, and health, and often tries to organize weekend activities that bring family, friends and exercise together. She is proud of the wonderful family she has built with her husband, three daughters and two stepsons, and hopes she can inspire others.

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Voice of Experience: Pamela M. Harper, Griesing Law, LLC

Pamela M HarperBy Cathie Ericson

Domain expertise is not sufficient for success, says Pamela Harper.

“Being able to navigate the political landscape is just as important as being technically competent.” And, she adds, it’s distinct from knowing the unwritten rules, but includes the ability to understand the subtle nuances that comes with time and expertise. “What is unsaid is often more important than what is said.”

Two Disciplines Create a High-Powered Career

After earning graduate degrees in both law and business, Harper worked at a law firm where her career took a turn to industries that she never would or could have anticipated, such as aviation, consulting and money management, with each position allowing her to use skills she had developed in grad school.

“People had questioned why I attended both business and law school, but both degrees have proven to be invaluable. I wanted to do whatever I could to gain a competitive edge, and this combination has supplied that for my entire career.”

One of the professional achievements she is most proud of so far was being part of a team that built a comprehensive compliance program for an institutional money management firm. To ensure they were as thorough as possible, they took the extra step of subjecting it to a voluntary third-party audit, a precaution that is rarely taken.

To this day, she says her former team still receives recognition for the robust compliance controls that were put in place. “Many small money management firms don’t realize that compliance can be a competitive differentiator,” she notes; instead they see it as a cost and therefore don’t allocate sufficient funds. “Forward-thinking companies consider it a form of revenue protection and therefore a risk management tool.”

As chair of her firm’s Corporate Transactions and Compliance practice group, Harper is intrigued by two current issues in corporate compliance: First, she notes that the level of misconduct that has been witnessed recently has been staggering, but she believes it will lead boards to pay an increased amount of attention to the impact of corporate culture on business strategy and reputation.

“Ignore it and the result will be decreased brand equity and diminished shareholder value. Boards will start taking these issues seriously and give them the attention they deserve,” she says, adding that while culture is often perceived as a HR issue in reality, it is a risk issue. “There will be a higher level of scrutiny and attention, and the complacency that has allowed boards to willfully ignore misconduct and aberrant behavior will no longer be acceptable.”

Second, she finds that very few boards have separate stand-alone compliance committees and even fewer have members who are knowledgeable about corporate compliance. The prevailing trend has been to draw potential board members from the ranks of current or former CEOs, but she noted that as board refreshment occurs, hopefully companies will begin to consider candidates with backgrounds in corporate compliance and risk management.

As part of her focus on compliance, Harper is undertaking the process of becoming a FINRA arbitrator. She says that given the repercussions of the Madoff affair, she has been surprised by the number of people who are neither savvy about their investments or their rights as investors. “Being part of a panel that can deliver recommendations on how to resolve those types of conflicts is very interesting to me.”

A Firm That Supports Women – Every Day

Currently Harper is thriving at a woman-owned law firm, which she says embodies the highest caliber of legal services, while creating an environment where women don’t have to make an artificial choice between succeeding in their careers and having a thriving personal life. “Those shouldn’t be mutually exclusive, and we have created a unique culture that doesn’t assign origination credit, which contributes to a collaborative team environment and deters intra-office competition.”

She has found over the years that women in the industry face one challenge that men don’t: “Regardless of your credentials and intellectual bandwidth, you still have to prove yourself every day. Period. Women do not have the luxury of mediocrity.”

One key way to bolster your career is to recognize the difference between what a mentor and a sponsor can do for you. “A mentor is nice to have and will give you general advice, but a sponsor — someone who typically occupies a positon of power and is invested in your success — is a must-have,” she says, adding that they don’t have to be mutually exclusive.

And she urges even women who have achieved a high level of success to remain intellectually curious. “It’s easy to become stale when you reach a certain point professionally and personally, but it’s vital to keep growing.” That’s always part of Harper’s plan; in addition to her work with FINRA, she is planning to earn a certificate in the business of art.

Further indulging her passion for art, Harper serves on the board for the Center for Emerging Visual Artists and also is an avid supporter of cancer research.

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Mover and Shaker: Heather Andrews, Vice President of Strategic Accounts, WEX Corporate Payments

Heather Andrews smEveryone finds success in different ways, says WEX’s Heather Andrews, but in her case, it has come in part from the drive to learn, no matter what career path you are on.

That philosophy, along with her willingness to step through open doors – even the scary ones – has fueled her career trajectory.

Capitalizing on New Opportunities Brings Success

Although Andrews studied psychology, she didn’t see a clear path for a career without attending grad school, but was ready to enter the working world. She accepted an offer doing retirement plan education, which opened up an exciting world as she became increasingly interested in the role that employee communications play in benefits and helping employees engage in their future.

It was an especially pivotal time in the industry as 401(k)s were increasingly usurping defined benefit plans, creating new choices for employees and new roles for organizations to manage around this reality. She returned to school to earn her master’s degree in leadership and change management in organizations, which meshed well with her psychology background, and then branched off to do some independent consulting where she could assist organizations confronting major system changes.

Along the way she engaged with a startup tech firm that was building a new benefits platform to consult on their business and communications planning. It ended up being a major opportunity as the company grew rapidly as the first online benefits platform to hit the market. Andrews wore all the customer-facing hats and stayed with the company as it was acquired to become Evolution1and eventually WEX Health.

Helping grow that business from being the fifth person to its success today is the professional achievement she is most proud of so far. “Being part of that groundbreaking team as the business grew from something so small and new to influencing an entire industry and becoming something of such incredible value was so exciting,” she says.

Moving from healthcare to the corporate payments executive leadership team offers a new world for Andrews to explore. “It’s a huge change that really allows me to stretch my brain,” she says. “I realize that a lot of faith has been put into me in this role at a critical time of growth, change and risk, and that’s motivating. It inspires me to make a difference.”

Growing Along the Way Through Personal Lessons and Mentors

When she first entered the corporate world, Andrews held a common perception, that she wasn’t sure how much of an impact one individual can make. That was part of what she loved about consulting: Seeing that people can make a major impact from the start, particularly if they can confidently work with professionals at all levels, unafraid to let their opinions and ideas be heard even if they get shot down.

And she knows that much of her success has come from leveraging personal and professional relationships. “Ethics and hard work have been important factors in my career, but I know that doors were opened for me because people had faith in what I can do, and then I was not afraid to step through them,” she says, adding that success comes when you lean forward and take chances, especially when you’re part of an entrepreneurial organization.

One role model who stands out is a female attorney at WEX Health who shared insights on why female business leaders have to be true to themselves, never compromising what they believe in and exuding confidence that you can accomplish it.

In addition, she cites WEX’s Integrated Leadership Development Program as having been crucial to her success at WEX for the networking and coaching it provided. “I have this fantastic coach who is also a woman who has been through a diverse and rich career,” she says. “This perspective as a successful woman in business helps me navigate what I need to do next as I continue to grow my career.”

But you don’t need a formal program to grow: Andrews finds life lessons all around her, from leaders on any stage, whether professional or political, who are able to balance assertiveness with having the grace to hear and respect people around them. “They are able to use that professional fire to be successful but maintain high ethical standards that they aren’t afraid to share vocally. I admire people who are unafraid to step out and say ‘I don’t care what others think; this is what I believe is right.’”

And sometimes we experience a hard-earned lesson, says Andrews, as she recalls a time early in her career when she was still working on retirement plans. She made a bold promise about how easy a migration would be, without fully thinking through how a failure to deliver might affect her equally young client. When the project ended up being more complex than expected, this client was taking the heat internally. “I didn’t embrace her vulnerability, and I lost her trust. This incident has always stood out to me as a reminder that you have to understand your counterparts and the position you’re putting them in by what you’re promising.”

Of course, inspiration also comes from home, as Andrews finds through her husband and four boys, who range in age from 15 to five. “I see myself through their eyes and want to be an example because every single day will impact their lives.”

Treasured family time includes an annual summer trek to a new national park, and winters spent skiing and snowboarding. This activity has an ulterior motive, she laughs. “Hopefully if they have a winter sport they like, they will stay in Minnesota close to me.”

Day-to-day, whatever they do, they do it together, whether it’s sports, music or academics. “We also take the time to volunteer together, as a family, which I believe is important to provide a positive influence that will affect how they are as adults.”

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Voice of Experience: Ilona Steffen, Global Head of Marketing and Insights, PwC

Ilona Steffen Cope“Throughout my career I would consciously observe the style of other women as a model and notice how they set up their lives.

They all worked differently, and I realized there were a variety of options for having success in both the workplace and family life, from having nannies to a husband who stayed home to stepping out for a period,” says PwC’s Ilona Steffen.

As for style, she noticed some were very warm and tuned-in, with high emotional intelligence, while others exhibited more “male” traits in their style. “The No. 1 most important aspect for me was to find my own style by watching others. I saw some whom I knew would never be me, and others that exhibited a style I was more comfortable with, and that gave me role models and context which allowed me to see myself down the road,” she says. She recommends that women notice the various role models all around, and seek them out to have conversations and be highly aware of what might work for you.

A Career Planned with Balance in Mind

Steffen is what she calls “unusually planful,” and it shows in the great care she took to look ahead at her career aspirations. She thought early on about the professional implications of being a woman and how many years of experience she needed under her belt to be prepared to have a child. That’s why she chose an accelerated course of work that offered a great deal of work experience in her early 20s.

“It’s smart for mothers to have those conversations early with daughters to help them see how many years they’ll want to be working before they feel comfortable taking a break, as it is different for different careers,” she advises.

Steffen started in banking in Germany and then attended business school in New York which broadened her horizons and introduced her to consulting, which appeared to be a career where you could advance quickly. Her bosses would ask why she was in a hurry, but her life plan dictated that she reach a senior point before she had children to make it easier to achieve the flexibility she needed.

She found consulting to be fast-paced with its non-stop travel, but it was a good fit because it allowed her to grow at an incredible speed; then when she and her husband decided to start a family, she knew it was time to find something that would allow her to be at home more, to be the type of parent she wanted to be.

Her role at PwC has been ideal because it allows her to apply what she had learned in her client-facing career to internal strategy, combined with flexibility. Currently, she is leading the Markets & Insights (M&I) team which is part of a new global marketing organization at PwC. Despite it being a highly demanding role, some of it she can do remotely which helps create a bit of balance for family time.

As part of her M&I role, created last summer she was tasked with building a global thought leadership capability for PwC, a charge that has allowed her to build a new team, hiring 12 people in the last four months. “Our firm wants to be sought after in the areas where we excel, which means elevating how we write, what we write and how we position ourselves through content and ideas, to build the business around ideas,” she says.

Building this leading-edge content has exposed her to the interesting perspective of how
people consume information and how PwC can add value as they experiment with new formats and delivery mechanisms to meet audience demands, such as higher expectations for business content and a shorter attention span.

“Some people want visuals; others stories; so we are constantly thinking through how content is evolving and getting the right piece to the right person in the right way to have the impact we want,” she explains. That of course means they have to produce a prolific number of content assets around one topic, committing to an area over a sustained period of time to offer a variety of channels and formats.

Her first piece of thought leadership was developed 15 years ago and now she is responsible for a large team and transforming what thought leadership looks like at PwC, while still in an environment where having a career and being a good parent is possible.

Paving the Way for Others

“Everyone needs to find a purpose in what they do, and mine is to replicate my experience for others. Over the years I have had dozens of accomplished women who were in the same spot and needed an option that would allow them to balance,” she says. “I have made that my personal purpose — to help others find that opportunity.”

Steffen leads a diverse team, with a high proportion of career-oriented, successful women who are also moms. They don’t want to slow down, but need different parameters, where they can hold a smart job and continue to learn and grow while being the parent they want to be.

She said at the time her path was unusual, but she made it clear it was non-negotiable and then worked extra hard to prove she could be just as good or better when working from home and accomplishing as much or more than others. While her bosses initially saw it as a temporary solution, she was proud she had the courage to do it and now is glad she has the chance to motivate others to do the same — to be clear on what you need, but also work extra hard to prove to others that it can be done.

She finds that while travel and face-to-face meetings can be harder for parents, technology is improving to eventually bridge the gap, and the speed in which it is advancing gives her hope that these opportunities will continue to grow.

With both she and her husband as working parents to two children, ages 11 and 13, Steffen notes you have to be smart about how you set up your private life and hobbies. “I shifted them to activities the family can do together, such as breeding cats and bunnies, to make sure that the hours we spend together meet my personal self-fulfillment and happiness, but also allow us to do things together as a family.”

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Voice of Experience: Kimberly Hendry, Director of Global Operations, Corporate Payments at WEX

Kimberly HendryBy Cathie Ericson

“I wish I had learned earlier in my career not to take things personally as it can create obstacles in your day-to-day interactions and detracts from your overall work experience,” says WEX’ Kimberly Hendry.

“I have realized I wasted a lot of energy getting frustrated by things that weren’t being done to offend me. I have come to learn it is just business.”

Over the past few years she has concentrated on honing her skills in initiating difficult conversations, whether it’s letting someone go or helping to address team conflict. “You have to be willing to push through, and it’s important to remember that it’s probably not going to be as hard as you think it is, and ultimately you’ll be glad you had the conversation when it’s over.”

That attitude and acumen for tackling tough situations has propelled her through her upward rise in the fields of risk management and payments.

Setting the Groundwork for the International Stage

After graduating from college, Hendry held a variety of roles, primarily in management and operations, in industries ranging from banking to investments to public utilities. While her work took her from Boston to Phoenix, her home state of Maine called her back in 2007, and she returned there through a job at WEX. She started in risk management roles when the company was small – just the bank with no international subsidiaries – and her career has grown exponentially as WEX has.

Along the way she has managed a variety of components of risk. For the past two years, she has overseen a direct line of business’ global operations, rather than working across lines of businesses, a different role in that her teams are responsible for the day-to-day functions of client relationships. Now, she manages far-flung teams in London, Melbourne and Singapore, among other global locales.

“My career at WEX has been amazing in that I can grow globally and manage teams outside the United States with all the challenge and opportunities that presents,” she says. Coincidentally, it’s a position she had intended to hold even as a teen: As she perused her high school yearbook recently, she noticed that she had listed “international business” as one of her goals. “I can truly say, ‘mission accomplished,’” she says, given WEX’ international reach.

One of the achievements she is most proud of so far is also internationally related: In 2014 she worked in the U.K. for seven months setting up a joint venture between WEX Europe Services and Radius Payment Solutions Ltd. Highlights were taking over the European ExxonMobil card program and setting up a risk management division.

Currently, Hendry is immersed with integrating a family-owned business WEX acquired in the fall. While she’s “built and fixed a lot of things” over the years, she notes how different it is to help move staff into her organization – tapping into a different range of skill sets in order to address divergent operational cultures and the impact it has on the new staff to be brought onboard. “We have to focus on the success of both the financial product and the people piece simultaneously,” she says.

Looking more broadly at industry trends, another constant goal is working to help WEX address how to increasingly move to a closed loop network, improving margins by reducing the number of middle men.

Taking a Moment to Appreciate Success as Part of an Integrated Life

While the highly technical field of risk and payments can sometimes be intimidating to women, she has found it to be an excellent place to build a career, provided you are comfortable knowing you will largely operate in a male-dominated environment. For example, she says it’s not uncommon to be the only woman at a group of 30 people at a business dinner. “You will often be outnumbered, but that’s ok; you just have to be confident in who you are and what you bring to the table.”

On that note, she urges women in her position to never neglect to appreciate their accomplishments. She reminds herself often, in fact, to stop and enjoy where she is, the fruits of her labor and the road it took to get there.

“Women are frequently so focused on what’s next – how to advance and where you need to develop – that we don’t take the time to enjoy what we have accomplished,” Hendry points out. “While the next steps may be important, we shouldn’t become fixated on them at the expense of what we’ve already accomplished. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves.”

As a wife and mom to two boys, ages 15 and 12, she relishes family time and being outside – whether it’s hiking with her dog in the woods, skiing or running marathons and half marathons. They cherish their travel time together and she integrates history whenever possible, for example, sneaking in an event called “Tea with Eleanor” last summer when the family visited Campobello Island, where Franklin Delano Roosevelt used to spend time with his family. As Hendry says, “my boys may not appreciate the history lessons now but hopefully some day they will.”

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Voice of Experience: Elizabeth Martin, Partner, Goldman Sachs

By Cathie Ericson

“You have to be the author of your own path, and realize that you are going to do your best work when you are passionate about your goal,” says Goldman Sachs’ Elizabeth Martin.

Throughout her career, she tended to take career risks by shifting towards emerging problems or business trends versus following the more traditional banking path that had been successful for her predecessors. “It’s about ensuring you can make yourself relevant as the markets change, so you can maintain your career trajectory.”

Building a Career on Variety and Risk Taking

Martin joined Goldman Sachs in 2000 as a lateral hire from a different bank. “It felt like a big risk to change jobs, but I wasn’t being stretched in my first analyst role. I wasn’t learning from my manager and colleagues,” she says, adding that she realized early on that if your manager is not invested in advancing your career, you’re wasting time. “Since that point, I’ve recognized the importance of working for people who see your success as a measure of their personal and commercial success as well.”

Martin got her job in what you might call “the old-fashioned way,” passing out her resume on the trading floor at Goldman Sachs’ New York headquarters. Proving that even previous managers can be sponsors throughout your career, she was offered a role after receiving a review from her boss at a past internship with a competitor of Goldman Sachs.

For eight years, Martin worked in derivatives trading, a role she loved because derivatives give you the ability to constantly innovate solutions to new challenges facing clients. “Some women shy away from trading roles because they don’t see role models in the seats,” she says. But she notes, “Trading is about becoming an expert in how to value an asset and predict how the price may change over time. It’s a job that facilitates a huge amount of freedom to learn about different markets, asset classes, and emerging global trends, and also trains you in how to take calculated risks in life and in your career.”

During the financial crisis, her experience with derivatives and emerging financial regulations led her to shift to working alongside senior leaders to identify and implement a forward-looking strategy to address changes in the operating environment. She enjoyed being in strategy, where she had a seat at the table in adapting the business model to maintain a market leading position for their Equities business. The role also allowed her to engage with people across all divisions of the firm. “Investing in a broad network is critically important to your career. You make better and faster decisions if you have a broad set of perspectives upon which to draw.”

Two years ago, Martin joined Goldman Sachs’ electronic trading business, where the firm uses technology and quantitative analysis to decide when and where to trade a stock. When an opportunity arose to move to London last year, she jumped at the chance to work and live internationally.

Her career at Goldman Sachs has been varied – from New York to London, with roles in trading, derivatives, management and execution. “If you embrace change, Goldman is a great place to have a career,” she says.

Managing through Change in your Career and Life

The changes continue today: Like every other industry, the use of technology and data has altered the role of Goldman Sachs in the markets. Increasingly, trading occurs through a global network that connects clients to the firm and to marketplaces all over the world. She explains that technology has also allowed Goldman’s clients to reach places where they do not have a physical location – a game changer in accessing new markets around the world.

Martin notes that following the introduction of MiFID II, Europe has gone through “some of the most transformative market regulations in history,” and the result has been large investments in equities and electronic trading to ensure they earn the trust of clients to provide the best possible experience when executing trades at Goldman Sachs. “Markets change all the time. We never have a lack of interesting, global, technical problems to solve.”

Just like the markets have changed, so did what Martin wanted from Goldman Sachs throughout her career. “At the beginning of my career, I was more focused on short-term milestones, like the performance of my business that month,” Martin says, “but over time, I learned that what I really cared about was the cumulative impact in my life – my career is an important aspect of my life but not my only priority.”

Making partner was one of her greatest achievements “because it recognized my contributions to the firm over my career, but also because it happened just after I had three amazing daughters in five years. I’m very passionate about my career and my family.”

Martin also knows the value of a family who supports her career. “Having a partner who is empathetic to the challenges of working women and fully supports my ambitions… even if that means he needs to take a share of school drop offs…has certainly been a key ingredient in striking some balance in my life.”

A result of her childhood outside of Boston, her favorite way to spend family time is skiing, particularly now that the Martin family can venture across Europe. “Most of my favorite childhood memories are skiing with my family. Exploring the mountains with my kids is exhilarating.”

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Thought Leader: Grissel Mercado, Partner, Shearman & Sterling LLP

grissel mercadoBy Cathie Ericson

Elected to partnership just this past January, Grissel Mercado, shares her insight on her business, the industry and women in the law.

For more about Mercado’s background, read her Voice of Experience profile here.

A Busy Year With Many Successes

With a strong history and expertise in capital markets in Latin America, Mercado’s work there continues. Latin America capital markets have had a very interesting year; although a lot of market players thought there might be a slowdown given international developments such as Brexit and the Trump presidency, it has been a very busy year for the region, she says.

“Investors have continued to be attracted to a lot of issuers there, which has been very positive for our practice. But as I look into the future there will be more question marks with several countries going through elections in 2018. You are still prone to what’s happening socially and in politics when you work in Latin America, so it will be interesting to see what happens in 2018.” Mexico and Colombia are two countries where she has been the busiest, despite an expected slowdown.

Her toughest but most rewarding deal of the year took almost a year and half, but closed this summer. “You become so close to your clients when you spend that much time with them,” she says, adding how excited they were to complete the deal.

She is currently working on bond offerings for companies in Chile and Mexico, who are expecting to be some of the first issuers to launch transactions in early 2018. The practice has also been working on a variety of liability management exercises, including cash tender offers. And this is the time that many foreign private issuers registered with the SEC begin thinking about annual reports, which is where her corporate governance hat comes in, as she helps with prep work for those.

In the industry at large, she anticipates continued growth, even with the political and economic changes that the region is facing.

While there haven’t been too many regulatory changes per se, she anticipates her SEC registered clients will need help transitioning to XBRL, a business reporting language that uses tags for items in financial statements to allow financial information to be used interactively. While SEC registered domestic companies have been using this method for several years, 2018 will be the first year that foreign private issuers have to report in this way. The industry is also grappling to understand how the new MIFID II rules (i.e., product governance obligations applicable to manufacturers and distributors of financial instruments) will apply in the context of capital markets transactions led by non-EEA banks.

Social Issues Will Loom Large

For women, she finds that retention and promotion continue to be an issue. “Women enter law school and often even law firms as a majority, and then the ratio is completely flipped by the time we become senior associates and is even worse at partner ranks,” she notes.

She believes that law firms will retain women as they become more open to technological advances that other industries have already been using, such as work-from-home opportunities, which helps women who many times are the ones with more conflicting responsibilities, such as caring for children and elderly parents.

“If you can deliver top-quality work on time, it shouldn’t matter when and where you do it,” she points out. She sees that the millennial generation wants that for men and women. Firms will also benefit as women keep working rather than opting out. It’s vital to retain a female perspective, she says. “We view problems differently, and our clients are pushing to have these viewpoints at top levels.”

She appreciates that now as a newly-named partner, she has more of a voice in retention and recruiting and looks forward to a big year of transition. “Clients are used to seeing me lead transactions, but there will be an adjustment as I become the sole lead, and we’ll all work to make the transition as seamless as possible,” she says.

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Voice of Experience: Rachel Frye, Aviation Finance Advisory Leader at PwC Ireland

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Rachel FryeBy Cathie Ericson

“When I was just starting out, I didn’t realize where my journey would take me, but I have realized that it’s ok when the destination you start out with changes,” says PwC’s Rachel Frye.

“Start with a viewpoint, but know you might end up somewhere else, and that’s where you’re supposed to be.

An Unexpected Flight Pattern

Those statements might be considered world-class understatements when considering Frye’s path.

The best advisors are those who have learned the industry from the ground up, or in the case of Frye, from the air down. That’s because she started in the aviation finance industry in an unconventional way – as a pilot. While a flight student at the University of Oregon, she ended up working as an engineer at the airport, her first foray into adopting the attitude of “Sure, I’ll give it a go!” She found it to be a wonderful complement to her flight training to become immersed in aviation and learn the day-to-day operations, while building contacts with operations people and other engineers.

As she learned more about the private flying industry, she parlayed what she calls the “novelty factor” of being a woman into landing some private jet work.

But her ambition had always been to be a commercial pilot, following in the family footsteps of her dad who was a pilot, so she moved back to the U.K. to earn some additional licenses while working for an airline on the engineering side.

She was due to join KLM just prior to 9/11, when the job vanished as airlines stopped recruiting junior pilots. In the meantime, she received a phone call from an engineering contact of hers who had a client in the financial industry who needed some technical advice. Not knowing what to expect, she attended the meeting and was surprised to discover it was with members of the French, German and British governments, as well as representatives from huge international banks.

It turns out that it was the first time that the airlines had gone into bankruptcy on such a large scale, and the banks were in a quandary as to how to locate and bring back the myriad aircraft. It was uncharted territory, but Frye stepped in and developed a team, and for the next three years acted as a technical director repossessing the aircraft. “I could have felt like a fraud but since this had never done before, I didn’t know any less than anyone else – there was no right or wrong way to go about solving the problem.”

Once they had located and retrieved the aircraft, there was a new dilemma – how to sell or lease them. In an industry that is primarily relationship-driven, Frye stepped into this new role marketing aircraft and working with the law firms. When they had difficulty finding buyers, they turned to leasing and converted others from passenger to freight use. With some creativity, eventually every single bank got their money back.

While the work was a huge achievement in retrospect, she also knows that it was a terrible time in the industry and for her clients, and she found it fulfilling to help these companies who were in desperate need.

As word spread, she became known as the expert and found herself managing other airlines’ distressed assets. Then a leasing company asked her to run their marketing in the Middle East, which seemed like a good fit. While managing their portfolio, she spent time with the CFO and learned about financial modeling and structuring. A bank in Germany asked if she would be the assistant head of the aviation finance practice and with that, she had gone full circle to experience literally every sector of the aviation industry: from flying to engineering to marketing to finance.

“Most people have one of these skillsets, but it’s unusual for anyone’s experience to be so broad-based,” Frye says, emphasizing how useful it is to have the ability to walk into a meeting with an astute understating of the technical engineering side, even if they’re discussing marketing, for example.

When most firms shuttered their aviation practices during the economic crisis in 2009 and 2010, Frye decided to become an independent consultant until the dust settled, a role she ended up holding for seven years, leasing aircraft to companies, advising airlines and various governments, high net worth individuals who were investing, and even the military for the inflight refuelling fleet. This consultancy work culminated in being named “Interim Head of Aerospace Risk” at UK Export Finance, part of HM Treasury in London, immediately prior to joining PwC.

“While it was incredibly varied, it was also a little isolating,” she says. She wanted to step back into something more solid, but knew she could wait for the right role, which came when PwC asked her to head up their aviation sector in December. She finds it to be the perfect fit, because it’s as if she has her own business as she builds out her team, but with the brand equity of PwC.

And she knows without a doubt that she never could have landed where she is if not for the accumulation of her experience to date — connecting the dots, so to speak.

Frye looks forward to building out the team: While she appreciates that PwC is so forward thinking and takes a long-term view, her group’s challenge is to communicate to the industry that they can offer the broad range of skills and support that they do.

“I am excited to have such strong resources that will allow us to really build a center of excellence in aircraft finance,” she says. “We don’t just want to just advise the industry, but help evolve it and pull it forward.”

While it has been a niche area for some time, it is now growing rapidly due to the emergence of markets like Asia and India that are seeing passenger numbers increasing exponentially, bringing with them record aircraft orders. “There is unprecedented growth, and our role is to help our clients navigate the huge amount of change and capitalize on the opportunity,” she says, while also helping them harness new technologies to make the industry more efficient.

An Industry Where Women Can Take Flight

Frye has always seen her gender as a benefit, since she stands out and can quickly prove her expertise. But, she notes that the biggest barrier the industry faces is getting women to join at all. For example, when one of her fellow female classmates said she wanted to join cabin crew, Frye quickly asked why not flight deck, and was gratified when the friend subsequently became a pilot. The incident opened Frye’s eyes that it wasn’t an automatic choice or consideration for many women.

However, she doesn’t feel that the industry needs equality just for equality’s sake. “You need the best people in the role, and it should be irrelevant what gender they are,” she says.

She urges other women who might want to join the industry to remember that they don’t have to behave in a masculine way to get ahead. Women have an advantage with their high “EQ” and inquisitiveness, she finds.

Frye admits she is the first to say she doesn’t understand something, but finds men might also wonder but wouldn’t say it out loud. “That honesty comes across and works in your favor,” she notes. “It’s ok not to know everything and to ask questions. Being highly curious has informed my journey.”

Using Aviation As a Way to Open Minds

It goes without saying that Frye has a love of travel, which she has tried to instill in her children, ages 11 and 19, primarily to show them that the rest of the world isn’t like Western Europe. Her kids have a list and once a year she lets them choose a trip.

But she never forgets that these experiences are due to the magic of aviation. One highlight was a visit to Jerusalem which they found to be a melting pot of cultures. “We spent three hours learning history and cultures and having a delicious Arabic lunch with our host, and that evening we were back in London,” she says.

“I feel very strongly that if the planet is going to get better for any of us, we have to understand each other, and aviation is critical to that. The more we travel, the more understanding we have and the better our world will become.”

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Voice of Experience: Bola Oyesanya, Managing Director at Citi Private Bank

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Bola Oyesanya

By Cathie Ericson

Don’t let your inner critic get the best of you, advises Citi’s Bola Oyesanya.

“Confidence is so important, so embrace who you are because it’s what makes you unique,” she says. She herself learned this firsthand, when earlier in her career she regarded her Nigerian accent as a potential issue, which even led her to talk herself out of some client-facing jobs. Her colleagues had assured her that her accent was an advantage as it made her memorable, but a defining moment came when a client mentioned that she liked her voice. “Don’t ever tell yourself that the things that make you different are a problem,” she says.

Finding Her Niche

Although she was trained as an attorney, Bola pivoted and began her career in Nigeria in banking, including doing a stint with the oil and gas industry group within a bank. She came to the United States in 1999 and started with Citi, where she has spent the past 20 years in a variety of roles from customer service representative to junior banker. She became a private banker in 2008 in Citi Private Bank’s Law Firm Group, where she remains today, working with law firms and individual attorneys, as well as institutions that work with the legal industry.

“Nothing gets me more excited than being my clients’ advocate; of course, it’s my job, but I love it,” she says. “As long as I have my clients’ best interest at heart, everything will fall into place,” she says, noting that you need to carry your team along to get the best for your clients. “There’s nothing better than when we are all aligned.”

Bola was promoted to managing director this year, a milestone achievement of which she’s very proud, noting that it was both exciting and humbling – exciting to see hard work recognized, but humbling because she knows that her recognition opens the door for others and serves as motivation for younger bankers.

Channeling Her Passion for Diversity into Action

In her other role, Bola is part of the Citi Private Bank diversity leadership team, whose mission is to recruit, train and retain employees, making Citi the employer of choice for new and seasoned talent. She finds the diversity philosophy at Citi organic, rather than top down, with a good mix of levels from managing directors to junior analysts who all have a voice.

She says the group prides itself on starting the year with a blank slate to come up with new goals and the paths to get there. The leadership then helps build teams around these ideas to start implementing them.

One recent initiative was Citi Coffee Chats, which allowed colleagues to get to know senior leaders beyond their work success and professional bio, with questions focused on a more personal angle, such as their family and philanthropy interests.

The group works on skills to help manage careers upwards, but also down and sideways, taking into account peers and direct reports.

Having always been personally passionate about diversity and inclusion, she finds it exciting that the topic is now a priority. “We used to have to convince people to consider diversity, and it’s refreshing that now even clients are asking what we’re doing on that front,” Bola says, adding that it’s no longer just a “nice to do.”

“It’s who we are, and it isn’t just about gender or culture, but also includes diversity of thought. The more diverse we are, the better we can meet our clients’ needs,” she says, adding that the firm’s many locations and cultures means they can leverage the power of their global reach.

Proud of Citi’s success in retaining women talent, she has realized that while it’s easy to assume that all firms are as committed, the numbers show that Citi is quite far ahead in the industry: Forty percent of the leadership of Citi Private Bank in North America are women, including the CEO, and the overall diversity numbers climb to 60% when you include LGBT, cultural and ethnic minorities.

Giving and Receiving Mentorship Has Contributed to Career Success

While diversity initiatives are important, Bola also believes in the power of combining them with mentoring programs, which will double the networking and connection potential. She advises other women to look for people who are genuinely interested in them and will offer candid feedback. “If they care about your career, they will offer advice on both sides of the coin,” she notes.

Bola herself felt particularly supported during a diversity leadership program in 2010, which was focused on developing midlevel diverse employees. “What was so powerful was that each participant was the agenda, with one-on-one coaching tailored to exactly what you needed to build a career,” she says. Among the most valuable aspects were sessions devoted to developing your brand and your executive presence — lifelong skills that helped the employee but also ultimately Citi as a whole.

Recently someone asked her what she would do if money was no barrier, and the answer came to her immediately. “I would be a motivational speaker,” she says. “I love to inspire others and do a lot of one-on-one mentoring. So many senior women and men have invested in me, and the best way to say thank you is to pay it forward.”

In fact, she frequently recommends that her peers remember what it feels like to be sidetracked and commit to helping and encouraging each other. For her part, she enjoys working with younger professionals and often reminds them to be patient and know they will eventually get to the destination. “There might be detours, but you have to see them as learning points. Then don’t waste your energy and emotion focusing there, but rather on how to get back on track.”

While her work and diversity efforts are important, there is one aspect of her life that takes precedence – her family. Bola says her most precious time is spent talking and spending time with her eight-year-old daughter and husband, particularly when they are traveling and meeting people and learning new cultures together.

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Voice of Experience: SoVonna Day-Goins, Managing Director at Credit Suisse

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SoVanna Day-Goins

By Cathie Ericson

Find your voice, and know when and how to use it, says SoVonna Day-Goins.

“Sometimes we tend to put our heads down and do the work, but it’s important to look around and notice who’s being successful and why. You have to make your specific aspirations known early and follow through, not only to survive the system, but also to thrive in what can be a very competitive environment.”

Earlier in her career, Day-Goins says she took to heart the idea that working hard and being prepared would lead to success, but over the years she has seen that is not enough. “Thoughtfulness, humility and authenticity are the ever-lasting qualities that transcend your professional and personal life,” she points out.

When talking to newer professionals, she offers simple advice: “Be the person that you want someone to be to you.” In fact, she credits her children with some truths she has realized over the years. “Be someone who teaches with patience. Give feedback with a constructive tone. Treat others with respect. Consistently set the bar pretty high, and instill the belief in people they can achieve anything with the right tools,” she says. “It’s very rewarding when you empower others and help them be their own best advocates.”

Finding Success in the Hard-Charging Industry

While many investment banking careers follow a similar, linear path, Day-Goins’ was bolstered by a relatively non-traditional start in sales and marketing, which she credits for her ability to be creative with her approach to clients’ needs. “Every day is a learning experience, which to me is what differentiates a career from a mere job.”

Currently leading the firm’s efforts on the investment grade bridge financing front, she considers this professional achievement the one she’s most proud of so far, given it started as a “moonlighting job.” She was able to turn this venture into a new business opportunity over the past several years and has found it rewarding to shepherd the effort to become an important complement to the firm’s M&A practice.

Viewing M&A financing from this perspective, she has observed a recent trend toward sizable and scalable acquisitions. “The deals we are seeing are stretching everyone’s imagination about the art of the possible, and the terms at which investors will still have an appetite,” she says. “This requires a lot of discipline around structuring and pricing to make sure they clear the market, but for the right transaction, the market is wide open, which is very exciting.”

Spending Time Helping to Build The Careers of Others

While she appreciates the important role she plays in contributing to the business, she relishes even more her efforts on the talent management front. People of color are underrepresented across banking, but especially at the senior level, she notes, which is why she is particularly excited to be one of the champions of several new initiatives to help identify and promote black professionals into leadership positions. These initiatives will include advocacy, sponsorship and succession planning.

Her passion for helping others succeed started early: In 2001 when she was relatively new at Credit Suisse, she founded one of the firm’s first black professional networks. She appreciates the opportunity that all affinity networks offer to support a sense of empowerment and provide an overall inclusive and safe environment to deal with diversity issues.

Day-Goins was also a part of a joint venture between Human Resources and Global Markets Business where they collected best practices used by both teams, and provided recommendations on many issues including diversity. The benefits were reciprocal, as the group was able to provide rare insight via a glimpse into how employees are thinking about the business, as they offered feedback to the senior management team.

While women in all industries face issues that can often be described as a “cap” on opportunities or a glass ceiling, she says that emerging research points to a separate issue faced by women of color — a “concrete ceiling,” which can seem even more impenetrable than shattering the glass.

She has found that the racial gap and increased unconscious bias can be more profound among black professionals, given the lack of fellow black role models, as well as the “sheer societal intolerance for making mistakes that allow us to learn.”

The only way to combat these issues is to acknowledge they exist and that the hurdles are different for different populations. “We have to be open to having the dialogue that can help us change and ultimately lead to better opportunities for all women,” she says. Indeed, she sees this as a time when women leaders from differing backgrounds need to support one another and provide a platform to discuss the issues and work together to succeed despite the barriers.

On that note, she often reminds her peers not to forget to reach back by figuring out how you can pull people along with you as you rise in your career. “Observe what is going on with others behind and alongside you, and be an advocate and champion when they are facing unique challenges – while they might be different from yours, empathize and be supportive in helping them come along.”

She herself felt that support though participation in programs targeted to high-potential women, giving her and her cohort visibility and access to the executive board.

Outside Interests Both a Challenge and a Necessity

In an industry not known for “9 to 5” hours, Day-Goins knows she must make time for other pursuits.

Recently she has immersed herself in non-profit board service involving children’s issues, which she has found to be a new passion. “Volunteer work provides the opportunity to change my pace and offers a different perspective and a renewed sense of purpose,” she says.

But the most important thing to her is her family — two daughters, ages 21 and 15, and her husband. “Home is everything,” she says.

Over the years, she has learned to take full advantage of down time to spend as much as she can with family and friends. “Whether at home, at the beach or on other travels, we relax and eat well and recharge,” she says, adding that she highly recommends that anyone who picks a demanding career take time to relax for their mental and physical well-being.

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