Voice of Experience: Julianne Thomas; CoS-Compliance Americas; Barclays

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Julianne Thomas

By Cathie Ericson

A network is the key to a successful career, says Barclays’ Julianne Thomas.

Despite her rapid rise in the company, she says she wishes she’d done a better job of building her network more thoughtfully from the beginning — both internally and externally, as well as leveraging the two together.

Three Decades of Interesting Roles, One Firm

Nevertheless, Thomas was able to build her stellar career through continuously impressing those with whom she worked over the years. She is, as she puts it, “True Blue Barclays through and through,” having been with the firm 36 years. She began her rise in Chicago, where she remembers fondly her first encounter with a computer system in the business world, which she says thrilled her beyond measure. “I stuck to people like glue until I learned the system and its reporting,” she says.

Shortly after she moved to New York where she has held a variety of roles in different businesses throughout the organization, as everything from a foreign exchange clerk to a business manager and now chief of staff. Her favorite thing about change is passing the spirit of good stewardship and working to leave things better than when she came.

She credits this adaptability as the professional achievement she is most proud of so far. “Whenever I have been offered a new, exciting opportunity, I have jumped in with both feet and let the chips fall where they may,” she says. “Although I’ve been successful, like anyone I’ve had my ups and downs, but I’ve learned as I went along and moved those lessons into the next role, while helping those behind me so they can avoid the pitfalls if possible.”

Thomas, now a director at the firm, advises young professionals to keep an open mind and avoid placing limitations on themselves or allowing others to. “Believe that you can do whatever you set your mind to; then find your niche and go for it,” she says, adding that often you don’t know what’s possible in a given industry – all the facets and niches you can find – until you start networking and talking to people and learning more about the field. “As we move through our career, we find out what’s possible and then we have to be willing to accept the challenge.”

Diversity Taking Center Stage

Recently she has noticed that the efforts around the diversity issue are receiving even more notice than ever before, as people increasingly understand that talent can come from anywhere. “Any firm or individual who wants to be successful needs to broaden their horizons in their search for talent,” she believes.

She finds it’s important for successful women to keep moving forward, and realizing that they have an impact and are making changes — whether those advances are immediately visible or not — and then remember the importance of reaching back to bring the younger women along on the journey.

Among the many initiatives that she supports internally is the UN Women’s HeForShe Campaign, of which Barclays is one of 10 Corporate Impact Champions and the only financial services firm represented. The campaign is particularly unique because it aims to drive gender equality by involving men in the conversation.

Thomas’ personal life reflects the values she brings to the workplace. Quick to note that she is very spiritually grounded, Thomas considers family her top priority, including her 27-year-old son and her parents who are in their 80s, whom she visits three or four times a year. In addition to her love of travel, she is a jazz music aficionado.

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Voice of Experience: Susan Reid, Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion Morgan Stanley

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Susan Reid

By Cathie Ericson

At this point in her career, Morgan Stanley’s Susan Reid says that she understands now more than ever how important it is to build relationships – and that she wishes she had had a more concrete understanding as a new professional.

“Like many younger people I focused quite a bit on building technical skills and getting the work done, but if I had an opportunity to start over, I would focus on cultivating relationships earlier and sustaining those relationships over time,” she says.

It’s just one of the lessons she eagerly shares with younger women she mentors, as she lends encouragement to their climb in the important financial services industry, emphasizing its role as a significant contributor to global economies.

Various Roles in HR Led to Her Passion of D&I

Reid’s early career was in education; in fact she was thrilled to join her alma mater, NYU, as a full-time employee immediately after graduating to help build an office designed to help students of color successfully complete their college education. Looking back, she can pinpoint that experience as the start of her interest in diversity and inclusion. Stints as an HR professional in recruiting and D&I in various industries followed, and she joined Morgan Stanley in 2008 as an HR Coverage Officer for the Investment Management Business.

Reid joined Morgan Stanley during the financial crisis and says that her ability to help the firm through those challenging times is the professional achievement she’s most proud of today. “As an HR professional, you are called upon most during challenging times, and I am proud that I was able to contribute to helping our leaders and our employees successfully navigate that time period.”

Today, Reid remains excited about her role leading diversity and inclusion efforts. “It is not a cliché to say that our talent is our most valuable asset because they are,” she says. “The work that we do in D&I to help the firm hire, retain and advance a diverse group of individuals who can help the firm succeed while enjoying successful careers is extremely meaningful.”

Right now, Reid finds the shifts in demographics that workplaces are experiencing to be of particular interest, based on the implications they have for clients and colleagues of the future. Employees of the future will have different expectations about work and workplaces, and to grow the firm they constantly have to think ahead about who their clients will be and how to best engage with them. “We are in very dynamic times, and we all have the challenge of keeping pace and getting ahead,” Reid says.

Helping Women Carve Out Success

Reid is a believer in financial services as an important industry for women. “We offer challenging roles and contribute to economic growth, while also providing individuals with the wherewithal to give back to various communities,” she says.

But, she notes, it is also an industry that requires an intense commitment of time, energy and attention, and the many additional demands that women often deal with can create particular challenges.  However, she hopes that as society continues to shift towards greater equity in family dynamics, women will find it easier to have a sustained career in the industry, while continuing to meet their outside obligations.

On that note, Reid mentions her pride in Morgan Stanley’s Return to Work Program, which was launched several years ago to support talented professionals who take career breaks but want to return to work.  The program offers women and men the opportunity to spend 12 weeks in the equivalent of an internship and to convert to full-time hires if it makes sense for both parties at the end of that experience. “We have had great success hiring participants into various parts of the firm,” she notes.

Reid underscores that it is incredibly important for young women to join the industry and advance to leadership roles. “We simply cannot be on the sidelines of this important field,” she urges.

And she reminds her peers that those currently within the industry have a responsibility to help support and advance younger women – to reach out to women of color, LGTBQ women and other women in the “minority” and to intentionally drive their success. 

Reid has a number of passions outside of work, including her family, reading and running – a pursuit she admits she has been doing far less of recently but wants to return to.  She serves on the board of a private tuition-free school in her adopted hometown, Harlem, N.Y. (she is originally from Jamaica), where she and fellow Morgan Stanley colleagues spend time mentoring the seventh and eighth grade girls.

“This experience has reminded me of the challenges that girls, and in particular, girls of color and girls from poor communities, face navigating the world and how important it is to get involved and to stay involved with our local communities and with young people,” Reid says. “We have a responsibility to help shape the future, and this experience shows that we can all start right in our own backyards.”

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Voice of Experience: Carly Scales, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs, Technology Division

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Carly ScalesBy Cathie Ericson

“Throughout your career, finding your true north and being comfortable in your own skin is really important,” says Goldman Sachs’ Carly Scales.

“Having authenticity and being able to bring your full self to the office is an important component to ensure you can do your best work and contribute to your team at the highest level,” she recommends.

One common stumbling block for women? Trying to be all things to all people, all the time. “You have to focus on what’s important to you at any given moment. For me, that’s a constant challenge given my demanding job and multiple pressures on my time and energy, but just being self-aware can make a big difference,” she says.

Her Career As A Testament to Mobility

Scales joined the firm in the Operations Division and spent nearly 13 years in different departments, moving organically to take on new challenges as she progressed in her career. She briefly left Goldman Sachs to work at another firm, but returned after a few years. “I really missed Goldman Sachs’ culture and the focus on our people, whether that be through mentorship and sponsorship, training programs or providing growth opportunities,” Scales says.

Since returning to Goldman Sachs in 2015, she has had the opportunity to work on several key initiatives, including GS Bank USA, which has allowed her to increase her knowledge of different pockets of the firm. In the last three years, she has held roles in the Operations Division, Consumer & Commercial Banking Division, Finance Division, and recently moved into the Technology Division.

“I think my mobility speaks to the opportunities you receive at Goldman Sachs if you raise your hand and accept new challenges. Just say ‘Yes’ and see where it leads,” she recommends, adding that often agreeing to this type of change can be a leap of faith. “People would tap me on the shoulder because I had a ‘can-do’ reputation, and I advise professionals to be willing to take similar risks. There are many avenues for individuals to receive the support they need to be successful when taking on a new role.”

A Focus on Mentoring

While being named managing director was an extremely proud and important moment in Scales’ professional career – a validation that the culmination of her contributions to date had been recognized – she nevertheless feels that mentoring and coaching others has brought her the most satisfaction.

“I think that’s how you build a lasting legacy: I’m very proud when people who work for me or those whom I mentor and coach continue to excel and thrive,” Scales says, acknowledging that while this requires a significant spend of time and energy, it’s completely worth it. “At the end of the day, people may forget the specifics of what you’ve done from year to year (there’s always more work!), but the person who felt supported and guided will always remember your role.”

In fact, she is adamant that her peers will benefit from paying it forward and lifting other women up as often as possible. But, she notes that you don’t always have to look “down” to lift others up.

“Look to the left and right and help out those who are junior to you, but then consider your peers as well. There are powerful partnerships and support structures that can be forged there, and it can happen at any level – whether you are an analyst or a managing director.”

In addition to working alongside her own team, Scales is co-head of the firmwide Women’s Network, where she’s had the opportunity to interact with women across Goldman Sachs to provide engaging programming and networking opportunities to colleagues across the firm.

Advocating for Yourself Reaps Rewards

At Goldman Sachs, Scales has seen that flawless execution and teamwork is fundamental to success. However, she cautions that at a certain point in your career, it becomes important to reflect and analyze your path and determine your long-term goals. Scales recommends that it is critical – at times – to take control of your career path.

Scales learned this from firsthand experience, and notes that when she left the firm in 2010, she hadn’t had a candid conversation with anyone about her goals, nor had she leveraged her internal network, which made her “feel a bit lost.” Reflecting upon this period, Scales wishes she had realized the importance of having such conversations. Now, when she mentors other women, she takes care to impress upon them that it is imperative they learn to advocate for themselves.

“Women in particular sometimes struggle with this, but if we look at our lives outside of work, we are advocating for others all the time – whether it’s our children, spouses, friends, parents, etc. – and we need to realize those skills should translate to the workplace, too.”

In addition, she says that women must never accept that certain characteristics can be perceived in a negative way when displayed by a woman.

While she doesn’t believe it’s done intentionally, she has found, for example, that the concept of “being assertive” tends to have a negative connotation and women are often labeled as being “aggressive.”

“Both men and women need to continue to break that myth and call it out when they hear others use similar terms,” she says.

Living a Life on Many Levels

Scales prioritizes being a mom and a wife, and finds that having her son five years ago made her better at her job, as it provided perspective during those “bad” days, but also helped her become more efficient and focused at work.

These days, you’ll find Scales spending her time outside of work doing activities that five-year old boys love, from basketball to soccer to tae kwon do. However, when she does get a free minute to herself, she enjoys cooking and entertaining – finding that dinner with family and friends is always good for her soul – as well as doing Pilates or enjoying a good book.

Her secret to fitting it all in? Realizing that you have to let go of the idea that you can do everything all at once, and you can do it perfectly. “An impossible standard will leave you drained and likely feeling like a bit of a failure,” she says.

Instead, she knows that there are tradeoffs and you have to make choices consciously. “Today I missed a workout and had cereal for dinner, but work was very productive, and my kid is happy so I’ll call it a good day,” she says. “No one is perfect 100 percent of the time, so try to remember to be kind to yourself while you’re conquering the world.”

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Voice of Experience: Noel Abdur-Rahim, Assurance Senior Manager, PwC US

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Noel Abdur-RahimBy Cathie Ericson

PwC’s Noel Abdur-Rahim knows it’s vital to bring up other professionals alongside you.

“You can’t look around at the other professionals at your level and then above you and say ‘Only one or a few of us can make it,’ thereby setting up a spirit of competition. We are stronger when we leverage all our best qualities and work together, realizing that we can all walk through the door rather than competing with our colleagues.”

That attitude has helped Rahim form important relationships that has led to her ongoing success at PwC.

Rahim began her career in the Assurance practice in PwC’s Detroit office in 2005, after interning there the year before. In 2012, as a manager, she made the personal decision to move to Atlanta, a transfer based on her impressive track record and the strong relationships she had built over the years.

Today, with the many changes being introduced regarding regulations in tax reform, she sees a lot of opportunity for the profession, particularly for those who are strong performers and leaders, who thrive during times of disruptive change.

While Rahim has achieved a high level of success throughout her tenure with PwC, she counts the fact that she was able to graduate college as well as obtain a master’s degree as a first-generation college student as her greatest achievement to date. “These accomplishments made me very proud on behalf of my family and those coming behind me,” she says.

Take Chances and Don’t Count Yourself Out

Along the way Rahim has realized that no one ever expressly tells you that a successful career requires strategy and being thoughtful about where you want to go, while remaining agile.

She wishes she had known earlier that you don’t have to be 100% qualified for the next role in order to raise your hand and express your interest. She notes that women have a tendency to worry they can’t do something because they are missing one of 20 qualities, but that small deficit can often easily be overcome.

“You shouldn’t count yourself out because you are afraid you won’t make it,” she says. “Believe in yourself and ask for those opportunities when you’re 90% of the way because you will learn the remaining 10% when you’re there.”

As a senior associate, she joined PwC’s Senior Select program designed for diverse professionals, where she says the sessions gave her insight into strategies for success. One session that particularly resonated explored how work is a game – not in a negative way, she points out, but if you’re not participating and strategizing about where you want to be, how to get there and talking to others about the right path, you may already have lost.

“We tend to think that if we put our head down and do our job, we’ll be rewarded, but sometimes you will and sometimes you won’t,” she says. “You have to play a part in owning your career and where you will go.” Once she started incorporating that philosophy into her work life, she began noticing subtle positive changes in her opportunities.

Channeling Her Passion Into Leading Diversity Efforts

Rahim currently leads the Assurance diversity efforts in PwC’s Atlanta office – although it’s not a formal role, she was instrumental in spearheading several initiatives that have proven to be successful. First, she went to the leaders in the market to explain her passion for diversity and explained her ideas and suggestions to drive change in the market. Her efforts were welcomed by the partners, and they granted her the ability to lead and drive her ideas forward.

“They have been very flexible with this, which has created a unique culture here in Atlanta that has made an impact on retention and recruitment,” she says.

One particularly successful program piloted out of Atlanta was an initiative to expand diversity efforts in the Birmingham, Ala., office, which is part of the greater Atlanta region. As part of this diversity effort, Rahim proposed developing a mentoring program where diverse managers in Atlanta are paired with counterparts in Birmingham.

She felt it would be more successful if the initial meetings were in person, so the mentors and mentees could meet for a day to build their relationships. “Firm leaders were very supportive and on board, and I think this first in-person interaction made the difference in allowing the program to flourish,” she notes.

Rahim believes that it can be easy to have a misguided perception of what success looks like, especially as a woman or as a black professional, because the public accounting industry has a history of being white male-dominated. It’s important to add role models so that others can see themselves succeeding, even if they don’t look like the vast majority of the leaders.

On that note, she sees how crucial it is to have proactive support from leaders, mentors and sponsors who pull you up and offer encouragement, even if you don’t automatically see yourself in an expanded role.

Embracing Life/Work Balance

With two children, ages 4 and 5, Rahim prioritizes spending as much time with them as she can, while still being able to provide for them. For that reason, she knows it’s important to leave every day between 4:30 and 5, even if many would see that as an impossibility. “I make it work so I can be home with them daily when they get home from school.”

Rahim recently returned from a four-week sabbatical that included a trip to Europe, her first visit overseas alone. “It was the chance to conquer a big fear of mine, as I traveled from Paris to Brussels to Amsterdam, sightseeing and enjoying the cuisine. Most importantly, I came back proud of myself for doing something that previously would have been out of my comfort zone.”

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Mover & Shaker: Lisa Goldkamp, Vice President of Partner Development & Sales Solutions at WEX Health

Lisa Goldkamp

By Cathie Ericson

Hard work indeed pays off – and you can’t shirk that part – but hard work alone doesn’t mean doors will automatically open for you, says Lisa Goldkamp.

The key, she says, is to work smarter and draw on your own emotional intelligence.

“You can’t quietly sit there and expect everyone to recognize your role,” says Goldkamp. “You have to build relationships and be aware of your own personal brand, making sure that people know who you are, and that others are not getting credit for your hard work.”

Advancing Her Career Through Seizing Opportunities and Embracing Change

Goldkamp’s career path has been built on a successful tenure at two organizations. She began as an intern at a company that provided IT training to corporate employees, where she says she quickly learned that effective use of technology can impact your productivity and success.

It wasn’t long until the owner of the franchise saw her potential, and she advanced to managing a team of 15 in operations.

After honing her management skills, he subsequently asked her to step into an account executive role — although she had never considered sales, she took the chance and soon realized how much she loved consulting with clients.

Soon she decided she wanted to relocate to her hometown of St. Louis and leveraged relationships she had built to attain a job with a predecessor of her current company, WEX, which she ultimately joined through a series of mergers and acquisitions.

In fact, she credits her ability to thrive in the face of constant change as a key to her success. “I find that lots of people choose the path of fear during change, but I consider it an opportunity to grow my impact,” Goldkamp notes. “ I look at every change as a challenge to figure out what I can do to embrace new people and situations instead of being paralyzed. Disruption has brought my best breaks.”

Her first role at WEX was in consultative sales using technology to help prospective clients find solutions to complex problems, and over time she grew into a pre-Sales leadership role.

A recent promotion has opened the door to new opportunities, including extending her consultative sales leadership to an expanded team that is focused on bringing sales excellence to prospective and current partners. As a result, she has welcomed new talent to her team whom she can help develop and mentor. “I’m excited to have the chance to build an expanded managerial infrastructure and promote additional leaders.”

Goldkamp knows that she has been fortunate to have people who believed in her, who were willing to go to bat and champion her, and she looks forward to doing the same.

Emulating the Best Qualities Around Her

While she has worked with many individuals she considers to be role models, Goldkamp says she can’t help but look up to WEX CEO Melissa Smith for being both successful and down to earth. The first time they met, when WEX was acquiring her former company, Smith was pregnant with her first child and Goldkamp was pregnant with her second.

Over the years, Goldkamp has had more opportunities to interact with her at company events, and is always struck by how accessible she is. “As we all know, tech firms tend to be male dominated, and I really respect both her career path and who she is as a person.”

Among the qualities that Goldkamp herself aims to portray to others are a positive attitude, a strong work ethic and strong professional and personal relationships, all of which she believes have been crucial to her success. And she notes that you have to trust your coworkers and leaders in order to achieve a strong work/life balance.

Having had three kids in less than four years, that balance currently entails spending time with them whenever she can. She credits her husband, who has been home with the kids for the past five years, as greatly simplifying their life, given their busy schedule and her own travel needs.

Having a support system at work and at home is the key to achieving balance, she finds. “Over the years I have recognized that you can’t control everything or do it all yourself. Becoming a mother highlighted the need to prioritize and empower others since you can’t do it all alone.”

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Mover and Shaker: Amelie Jeangeorges, Senior Manager, Chief of Staff to the Global Human Capital Leader, PwC

Amelie JeangeorgesBy Cathie Ericson

“Be authentic, passionate and energized. Never give up as you work hard to get what you want to achieve.”

That’s the advice that Amelie Jeangeorges has for other women who want to succeed.

When Amelie first began her corporate career, she feared she might lose her personal brand and just become a ‘number’. But, at PwC, she’s found she’s only ever been encouraged to build her own personal career path and differentiate herself to create the experience she really wants.

Embracing the Challenge of an International Career

In 2009, having graduated from the French business school ICN with a Master’s degree in Finance and Business, and having completed two internships in London and Luxembourg, Amelie started a career in audit, taking on a role in the Banking Capital Markets (BCM) in Assurance at PwC France in the Paris office. After five years in France, she applied for a tour of duty in PwC’s New York office in BCM audit, where she had the opportunity to serve one of the firm’s largest global clients.

At the end of her audit tour, Amelie realized she wasn’t quite ready to return to France, and chose to pursue an additional international learning experience: supporting the Global Human Capital Partner as Chief of Staff, and helping to deliver the global human capital strategy to empower PwC people in their own careers.

Amelie’s current role is one of her proudest professional achievements to date — having the opportunity to grow personally and professionally despite living in a different cultural and working environment. “I’ve now lived in four different countries, and need to keep challenging myself to forge my path outside of my comfort zone,” she says.

“It’s not always been easy, but I’m proud of what I’ve achieved and where I am today within PwC,” she says, acknowledging that taking on this position after almost 10 years in audit has been one of the most important learning experiences and one her best decisions.

Amelie describes her current role as that of a ‘conductor,’ supporting the team to deliver the strategy and coordinate and even lead the projects.

“This experience adds another arrow to my professional quiver because I am gaining additional soft skills,” she says, noting that these are more important than ever given the rate at which technology is disrupting how we work. She believes that the future workplace will not be ‘machines versus humans’ but rather ‘humans enhanced by machines.’ Human skills such as creativity, agility, relationships and leadership will matter more than ever.

Promoting Wellbeing Throughout the Organization

Amelie sees this as an exciting time to be in human capital, as her team focuses on delivering transformational projects in a complex organizational structure.

Recently, Amelie helped launch ‘Be well, work well,’ PwC’s global initiative underscoring the business necessity of addressing wellbeing at work.

“Poor physical and mental health and a lack of personal and organizational purpose, are among the world’s most important societal problems, threatening individual resilience and business sustainability,” she says.

She believes that part of the success of ‘“Be well, work well’” is that it promotes flexibility, which increases the overall diversity, advancement and retention for all employees. The initiative looks at wellbeing not only as a physical component, but across three other dimensions — spiritual, emotional and mental.

“The right energy balance has to be a priority for women, men, parents, non-parents, different generations – everyone. I see that successful people prioritize wellbeing, making it relevant for all profiles and all geographies. It is very important that we all role model wellbeing in our respective private and professional spheres to make our life better and healthier and to appreciate each day,” Amelie says.

In pursuing her own wellbeing, Amelie has seen the importance of balance and spending time with friends and family as it allows her to disconnect from her often-intense working life.

Emulating Women Who Have It All – Success + Balance

Throughout her career, Amelie has been accompanied by key mentors who’ve helped guide her in making the right decisions and analyzing obstacles from all different angles.

“It has been critical for me to leverage their experiences and get their coaching and advice as I am building my own career,” she says, adding that being open-minded to other opportunities and keeping her relationships with her network has helped her earn sponsors who have helped her navigate her way.

There have been a number of career models who have inspired her — most notably women in senior positions, such as her current boss, Agnes Hussherr.

“The women who impress me have earned key positions with numerous responsibilities and yet continue to strive for bigger and better objectives while maintaining work-life balance.”

Initially apprehensive about gender equality and the risk of women not having the same opportunities as men, Amelie sees there have been advances, but still feels there is a lot of work to be done, and it will take time to change the culture and old principles.

“I am very passionate about this diversity topic, and I think we — women and men — should all be feminists to change our world and allow women access to the same level of responsibility with the support they need as a female, a spouse or a mother.”

She embraces diversity on the cultural level as well, given her experience of traveling around the world, which has helped her to develop her global acumen and promoted the importance of being open-minded to different cultures and diverse perspectives.

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Mover & Shaker: Irina Hossu, Vice President Finance, Corporate Payments, WEX

Irina HossuBy Cathie Ericson

Trust yourself and your gut, says WEX’ Irina Hossu.

“It’s ok to make mistakes, but you have to realize that a failure is only a failure if you don’t learn from it,” she says, adding that she realizes she has been overly hard on herself at different phases in her career.

“You tend to work to a level where you are trying to be a perfectionist, but you’ll learn more when you own your decisions and mistakes — correct them, learn from them and move on. If you’re not making any mistakes, you’re probably not working hard enough.”

She takes to heart the words of Richard Branson, who once said, “If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity but you are not sure you can do it, say yes – then learn how to do it later.” She says that’s the one piece of advice she would give: To take chances on yourself because if someone offers you this perfect experience, it’s because they see something in you, even if you don’t yet see it yourself.

A Realization of the Many Facets Her Career Path Offered

Hossu says that in her 20s, her answer to what career path she wanted to pursue would have been anything but finance and accounting, but that’s only because at the time she didn’t understand the many facets of that industry.

She started in the technology and services department of Xerox straight out of university, which she says set the trajectory for her career. She spent nine years there in six different roles that gave her ample opportunity to see all sides of the business. Although they were all under the finance umbrella, the diverse functions included promotions, product launches, sales finance, customer-facing tasks, negotiations and legal write-ups, culminating in owning her own P&L.

She followed that with a stint at a multinational beer company and then went to consumer packaged goods, where she spent five years in the professional hair and cosmetics industry. While she was responsible for finance, she also oversaw human resources, legal and supply chain. “I learned so much on the HR side, including understanding the ambiguities you will experience when managing people, which has helped me be able to look at issues and problems through a different lens and made me a better leader.”

While she was there, the company was acquired by Revlon, and she says that her greatest professional achievement was integrating the teams. “There was a genuine respect and camaraderie among the team, coupled with strong skill sets,” Hossu says. “Teams are only as strong as the weakest link, and each member went out of their way to support the others.”

It also helped her learn the valuable lesson to always hire people with different skill sets than hers, and let them run, with the outcome of a smart, cohesive team. “Along the way it has quickly become clear how important it is to have a loose general knowledge of all facets of the business, but realize that you don’t have to be the expert at everything – that the best ideas come from collaboration.”

Fifteen months ago, she joined WEX and the corporate payments industry, where she is currently focused on the travel segment and recent consolidation of key customers. She sees one important emerging trend as the need to differentiate their technology against key competitors, including looking at blockchain and how WEX can be first to market to utilize that new technology and better support customers.

While there is currently indication of competitive pressure across product offerings, pricing and technology, she feels confident that WEX will continue to hold onto its historical success as the first to offer emerging payment technologies, even as other organizations see their successes and emulate their learnings. “We have to remain nimble and listen to customers to make sure we’re offering what they want,” she says.

Believing in Yourself

In many ways, Hossu believes that women tend to be their own worst critics, both at work and home as they try to manage work/life balance.

“We need to do a better job of asking for help when we need it and giving ourselves a break,” she says. That realization came to her starkly when one leader with whom she was working made an off-the-cuff remark that he typically likes to employ women because he had recognized that they traditionally feel they have more to prove and will work harder.

She believes that increased pressure on women to be able to manage it all can sometimes be a detriment to their careers. However, Hossu believes that the current social/political climate, including the MeToo movement, will help shift focus and appreciation for the value women bring.

To help create bonds among other women at WEX, she participates in an informal quarterly Women of WEX group that meets for dinner and networking to bounce ideas off each other. In prior organizations, she has benefited from various courses directed at women in leadership.

“Female leadership tends to be different than male, as women are traditionally more emotional leaders,” which she defines as the benefit of understanding the ability to see situations as “gray,” rather than just black and white. “Women must learn how to use that skill set to their advantage,” she says.

In her own life, Hossu is currently focused on her family, as she and her husband welcomed their first child in October. “I spent the majority of my adult life focusing on my career, but to become a mom has completed me and given me a new perspective on what’s important, which will make me a better professional as well,” she says.

Even with a baby, Hossu believes that travel is still vital. Part of it is her heritage:
Her husband is Australian and she is Romanian/Canadian, and they met on a small island in Thailand. “We hope to instill in our son the importance of embracing other societies and learning to communicate with people who don’t look like you. Having a simple conversation in a culture you’re not familiar with can offer a very powerful lesson you can bring back.”

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Voice of Experience: Rebecca Marques, Shearman & Sterling LLP

Rebecca MarquesBy Cathie Ericson

When you’re first launching your career, you often feel like an imposter and can’t envision yourself in the senior position where you will eventually end up, points out Rebecca Marques, newly-elected partner in the Capital Markets practice at Shearman & Sterling.

Even though it’s fun to look back and think, “If I knew then what I know now,” that 20/20 vision wouldn’t really change anything, she says. “So much of what you learn is rooted in the process of growing up,” she says. “You show up at a law firm as your first proper job and you’re just ‘young,’ but there’s no way to skip over that confidence-building part, which only comes with experience.”

For Marques, part of that questioning was rooted in the common archetype you see of a “cookie cutter” mold of a successful executive that many young professionals, especially women, often seek to emulate.

“There’s the chance you might be more successful right off the bat if you conform to that, but it’s not necessarily best for everyone,” she says. In fact, being authentic to herself and her own style is what has contributed to Marques’ success through the specialty she settled on and the career trajectory it set her on.

Finding the Niche That Suited Her Personality

An English and Brazilian national, Marques attended college and law school in the United States and joined Shearman and Sterling’s New York office immediately after law school. She chose capital markets for her summer rotation and decided it was the place for her, entirely based on the personalities of the people working there. “There were some characters in capital markets, and I figured that meant I would be welcome there,” and indeed it ended up being the perfect fit.

Marques appreciates the client-facing and entrepreneurial aspects of her specialty, because it allows her to really get to know a business. She notes that she probably wouldn’t have lasted if she spent her days in front of a screen, churning out papers. “Although the job is legally based, there’s a large element of getting to understand the business, which is unique to capital markets,” she says.

After three years in the New York office, she transferred to London to work in a location where she had ties and wanted to grow roots. When she arrived in London, she was the only female in her group, but she has been able to see that change entirely since she’s been there.

While she’s delighted to have been elected to partnership starting just this January, for her it’s not just about the title, but more the recognition it offers that you’re succeeding in your chosen career. “Even if you know your achievements are being recognized, it’s exciting to have everyone standing behind you officially,” she says.

Transferring Her Skills to Making a Difference

And what brings her even more joy than being named partner is the variety of pro bono work she’s recently undertaken that has been applicable to her particular skills and expertise. This year the social enterprise assignment she headed, which entailed deploying micro grids to deliver power in remote areas of Africa, earned her the title of Lawyer of the Year for her pro bono work at the prestigious 2017 Thomson Reuters TrustLaw Awards.

“I felt like I was at the Oscars,” she says, as it was the last award given of the night, and everyone involved in the nomination process had been pre-interviewed for a video prepared in advance. “I had no idea I had won and then realized they had interviewed the client who had nominated me.”

While Marques sees her job as one of the most rewarding and fulfilling parts of her life, she says it’s important to find other diversions to fill the gaps, as it’s impossible to expect a job to meet all your needs. “In addition to the pro bono work, which I love, I believe that hobbies and other interests are important to help round out your work and life balance.”

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Rising Star: Sue Reager | CEO, Translate Your World

Sue Reager“People are right when they say, ‘If you fall, get back up again,’” says Sue Reager.

Her strategy after failing? To mope for a few days, then stand up and say to herself, “Okay, was the direction I was traveling worth pursuing, or should I go somewhere else? And if the destination is the same, is there another path to get there?

“It really is true that when you fall down, you just say ‘Drat!,’ and get back up again,” she says, a philosophy that has paved her successful and innovative career path.

A Varied Career, Focused on Finding the Perfect Fit

Reager’s career path has always been one of blazing her own trails, starting with becoming a professional choreographer at age 14. She started college, but midway through began teaching college instead, which she says was her first discovery that it is possible to follow a different path when you use your initiative.

After teaching her second year, she realized that the 10th year would essentially be the same as the first and she needed a new challenge, so she set her sights on a career switch and spent the next 20 years working for major media in 34 cities and 17 countries.

“I was told that it was not acceptable for women to work around the world — — however I went anyway. I would definitely never call those the ‘good old days,’,” she says, noting that was the moment that she learned she could make her own decisions, take care of herself and face the world without fear.

Along the way she discovered that because people do business in their own language, she had to study languages every night — grammar, verb conjugations, pronouns, adjectives – all the idiosyncrasies of various languages. But that can be daunting since it takes three to five years to learn to speak a language well enough to efficiently conduct business.

When she was invited to go to Korea on year 20 of her global jaunt, she realized that she didn’t want to start all over again learning a new language and instead returned to the United States determined to solve the language problem.

Opening Up a World of Possibilities

Her first step was to learn how to code, which allowed her to offer her services in code correction for major tech companies that were localizing applications into other languages, but were finding their code was altering the target language. She learned over time that the developer engineers were all making the same mistakes and that what they coded would never work in Japanese, Korean or other Asian languages. Upon further research, she determined that all of these developers were following what they had learned at the university, and the books were wrong.

That discovery led to her first invention, which was a way to localize extremely complex audio products like telephone systems without touching the code.

Then she began to help the speech industry by providing voices and special recordings that create the phonetic information required to generate text-to-speech technology. Her efforts led to her latest invention that is the successful integration of the great language companies of the world under one “roof,” resulting in truly excellent business applications that create cross-language communication.

It was around age 40 that Reager discovered she had something to offer the world that she had not yet recognized. “I am an inventor with a brilliant mind,” she says, adding that this realization was like a seismic shock. And, as she says, life has been really fun ever since, with a reason to leap out of bed every morning.

Right now her company is pioneering four inventions and three software programs designed to bridge the communication gap and thus enable one person to provide global education, customer service, tech support, medical professional language support and more effective 911 emergency services worldwide in dozens of languages.

“To me it is almost beyond exciting that using our software will allow one teacher to teach in 78 languages through live real-time subtitles,” she says. The company has also created a way for small business to attract and serve customers who speak other languages; in the past only huge companies could effectively expand globally due to the expense of translation and the need for special personnel to be hired to service those customers. Her company’s software takes over that job, enabling a small company to communicate, sell and serve around the world.

Reager’s company adds an additional focus: that of empowering wounded veterans to perform fulfilling jobs, as well as enable those who are deaf or blind to work in business on equal footing. “Our invention is revolutionary in this respect,” she says.

Moreover, they have invented a device called the “Eye-Belt” that is a belt that acts as eyes for blind people, telling them how to maneuver around obstacles. As more features are added, it will also tell the blind more about the person in front of them. “Our goal is to provide a new freedom to people who have been limited in the past,” she says.

A Company Culture Devoted to Equality

One of the reasons Reager believes her company has been so successful is because it is run on the basis of consensus, which is more of a Japanese style of doing business, and means that everyone involved needs to agree on a given direction. Anyone who feels strongly that the direction is wrong is encouraged to fight for their viewpoint, because there is probably a good reason for it.

“The concept of equality permeates our company culture,” she says. “Each voice has equal weight and equal merit, and if one person accidentally tries to overpower another, we simply pull the rug out from under them. We are very honest with each other, and we do not criticize.” Without levels of hierarchy, the lines blur between the “worker bees” and executives, eliminating commands and “royal decrees.”

This equality in the office is a perfect metaphor for the equality they are trying to create by removing language barriers around the world.

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Voice of Experience: Allison Nathan | Managing Director, Goldman Sachs

Allison NathanBy Cathie Ericson

Over the years, Goldman Sachs’ Allison Nathan has learned that although you have to be dedicated and proficient in most areas, you don’t have to excel in everything. “You have to focus on your strengths and interests and think creatively about finding opportunities to leverage them,” she says.

Reflecting upon her experience joining the research division, Nathan notes that she was one of the only people on her team that did not have a PhD in economics. However, she soon realized she had other strengths that would differentiate her and allow her to contribute to the group. Connecting the dots across research views proved to be one of them.

“It’s no coincidence that people tend to enjoy doing what they do well,” Nathan says. That knowledge led her to create an entirely new research product that has become a standalone brand.

Parlaying Her Knowledge into a New Product

Nathan joined Goldman Sachs as a first-year analyst in 1998, after earning an MA from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a BA from Duke University.

Goldman Sachs had long been an aspirational firm for her, so she jumped at an opportunity to join. Since she had always had an interest in geopolitics as well as economics, she joined the commodities research team, which she found to be a great fit for those interests.

After working her way up in commodities research over 14 years, including being named a managing director, she launched a research product called “Top of Mind,” a publication that leverages both internal content from Goldman Sachs research analysts and external content from influential experts. In each issue, she and her team develop content that focuses on a specific market-moving theme, ranging from Fed balance sheet policy to trade wars to bitcoin.

“It was very rewarding to start out on a traditional path and then have the ability to create a unique opportunity that really leveraged my strengths,” she says. “I felt strongly this type of product was something we were missing, and while it was initially difficult convincing some audiences that there would be traction, the series has been consistently well-received for over five years now.”

Indeed, its success has allowed Nathan to expand Top of Mind into a thought leadership “brand,” and she is currently working on a fifth conference that is part of the publication’s evolution. Top of Mind forums are held periodically to bring the publication’s ethos of discussion and debate to life within a conference setting that features roundtable discussions with individuals from Goldman Sachs’ research division. The team also now produces a podcast series. “Offering content in different mediums has been an exciting aspect of the brand’s development,” she says.

Helping Others Build Successful Careers

Nathan has been a beneficiary of the women’s networks she has leveraged throughout her time at the firm. Recently, she has been active in Goldman Sachs’ Women’s Career Strategies Initiative (WCSI), which targets high-performing women associates to provide educational and networking opportunities. Through this program, Nathan has had the privilege of mentoring three women who have all recently been promoted.

She notes that mentoring is a powerful tool, and you should leverage your experience to mentor people who work directly for you as much as those with whom you have an arms-length relationship.

Sometimes it can be easier to work with those who aren’t direct reports, as you can be honest and know it won’t affect a day-to-day relationship, but it’s also important to invest in the women on your team, says Nathan. She also finds that while senior women tend to mentor other women, she encourages them to remember it’s also important to mentor men. “You have as much experience and knowledge and as much to offer junior people as the man sitting next to you,” she says.

While she finds that most women tend to anticipate a struggle with work/life balance, her main message is that you can have it all. “I have two kids and a husband who also works full-time. The key is that if you are good at what you do, you’ll find there are opportunities for people to give you the autonomy you need to achieve that balance.”

Much of her time outside the office is spent with her children, ages 7 and 9, but as they become older and more self-sufficient, she now has additional time to focus on other interests. To that end, she has joined the board of DreamYard, a Bronx-based non-profit that works with children to build pathways to opportunity through the arts. She says of this new experience: “I am excited to increase my involvement in DreamYard and help provide more opportunities for these talented students and their families in the Bronx community.”

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