Mover and Shaker: Jessica Roy, Vice President of Corporate Marketing and Communications, WEX

By Cathie Ericson

Any successful professional will tell you that sometimes you need to rely on intuition to manage the multiple types of interpersonal situations that can arise. For WEX’s Jessica Roy, it boils down to trusting your gut the moment you identify that something is a bit off—whether it’s a feeling about how a project is being received or the sense during a conversation with a colleague that you’re just not getting your point across.

“It’s almost always intangible, because if you knew what was wrong you’d fix it,” she says. But at those times, she believes it’s more important than ever to take an extra moment to revisit the situation, candidly inviting the other party to speak up so the two of you can fix the situation rather than letting it fester.

“When you experience that nagging piece, you have to take the time to dig in to understand what may not be working well and solve it”, she says, or even agree to disagree after having the conversation. But she’s found that it’s always worth it to clarify a position rather than taking the easier way out and letting it go.

Reveling in a Career That Could Never Be Called Boring

Committing to following that intuition when needed has helped Roy progress throughout her career. Her first corporate job as the regional marketing director for outlet malls in the Northeast prepared her for anything, she says.

Among the tasks she deftly handled over the years were rescuing a nun from a locked bathroom on the Fourth of July weekend in Cape Cod; answering a call about a man who had fallen into a retaining pond in the North Conway location during the holiday season; and single-handedly emptying a luxury-brand shoe store after the bankrupt tenant fled under cover of darkness.

What did the mayhem teach her? That even though all the above incidents seemed to have nothing to do with her title of “marketing director,” they actually had everything to do with it, because each mishap offers an opportunity to create a positive customer touch point.

Her next position was what she calls “a delightful stint” in tourism marketing for her beloved home state of Maine, promoting the New England region to overseas tourists.

And now, although she’s been with WEX for 15 years, the company has experienced such rapid growth that it feels like a different job every five years, she says, adding that as WEX continues to acquire new companies and move into new verticals, her corporate position will continue to evolve and grow.

Roy is particularly excited about the rebranding she helped to oversee, with the charge to modernize the corporate brand (Wright Express), rationalize the product brands, integrate acquisition brands and complete a brand launch. During the process, she and her colleagues also renamed the company to WEX and redesigned the logo—both of which were key components in changing its positioning from a domestic fuel card business to a global payments company. “Our brand is a living, breathing, evolving entity,” Roy says.

A highlight was standing on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange when WEX went public. “There I was, in the middle of managed chaos, watching the then-CEO ringing the bell, and then our ticker symbol went live,” she recalls. “This was an amazing American moment, and I felt that I was not only witnessing but participating in the American dream. What I realized in that moment was that a small group of talented, driven people can accomplish amazing things.”

That’s the vision she continues to drive forward—currently finding incredible pleasure and challenge in integrating the products and services of two recently acquired companies into the broader WEX offerings. “It’s like a challenging jigsaw puzzle, and it is exciting to put the pieces into the right places,” she says.

Finding Meaning Outside the 9-to-5

Roy is part of WEX’s recently introduced “Women at WEX” mentorship program, which has garnered enormous interest in the company. “Obviously the need is there,” she says, based on the positive response it has received. In addition, she has benefitted from numerous other leadership programs over the years.

As a native of the tiny mill town of Madawaska, Maine—as far north as you can go without hitting Canada—Roy has taken every opportunity she can to travel the world. Among the amazing sights she’s had the pleasure of seeing are giant tortoises in the Galapagos Islands, Buddhist temples in Japan and 800-year-old hill villages in southwest France. The best part? “I’m just getting started,” she says.

/by

Voice of Experience: Gillian Emmett Moldowan; Counsel in the Compensation, Governance & ERISA Group; Shearman & Sterling

,

By Cathie Ericson

emmettIf you don’t ask for what you want, you’re not likely to get it, says Shearman & Sterling’s Gillian Emmett Moldowan. “There’s less informal mentoring for women in law firms, and it can be harder for women to just ask for what they want, but if you fail to do so, it’s unlikely people are going to seek you out to offer what you need,” she notes.

In fact, one aspect of Shearman & Sterling she has appreciated is the strong, visible female leadership, where female partners hold key firm committee positions and regularly participate on panels as subject matter experts in all types of topics, not just those related to women. That visibility has helped her identify mentors in the firm, an important part of any career path. She finds that taking control of your own career is critical, a theme that has resonated on her own journey.

Forging Her Own Path

After graduating from law school in 2007, Moldowan took a job at the firm where she had summered, Davis Polk and Wardwell, spending eight years there, and eventually being promoted to counsel. While there she worked on a number of transformative deals, but one that stands out to her was representing Comcast in the acquisition of NBC from GE. “It really made an impact on me to have an integral leadership role in that transaction, even though I was more junior at the time.”

Moldowan eventually left Davis Polk for a role at another firm. However, while working there, she realized it wasn’t the right long-term fit and started talking with Shearman & Sterling, a firm that was the clear “right fit “ ever since she started in April. “It feels familiar, but new,” she says, with the type of work she loves to do combined with new challenges and a culture that fits her style.

“I was willing to go outside my comfort zone and take risks, leaving a very stable environment, but ultimately finding something that was the right fit,” she says, admitting that goes against her
personality as a lawyer, a group not normally know as risk takers. She enjoys the variety inherent in her position, where she might work on more than a dozen matters a day, from securities offerings to M&A transactions to executive entrances and exits on both sides. “The constant challenges keep me excited and on my toes, which is why I picked this specialty in the first place,” she says.

And, she sees that the industry is on the cusp of even more innovation, given the trend toward more activism by shareholders, who are increasingly interested in governance, compensation, workplace diversity and gender pay gap considerations.

Most notably, she sees that new tax reform could be transformative in terms of executive compensation and provide the opportunity to learn something new and be innovative. She likens it to the new regulations in executive compensation of a decade ago, when, as relative newcomer to the profession, she was given the opportunity to learn novel concepts alongside more seasoned professionals who were also coming up to speed.

Achieving Work-Life Integration

While the buzz of the moment is all about work-life balance, Moldowan chooses to embrace the spirit of integration by instead looking at life from a more holistic view. “If you love your job like I do, it’s part of your life, which makes it hard to box it separately and focus exclusively on your most immediate goals—instead you look at the long-term big picture,” she says. Of course, she notes that can be hard as a junior associate coming directly from an academic structure where everything is segmented into semesters, necessitating a focus specifically on what’s directly ahead of you.

“If you’re in a job with that mentality for too long, it becomes defeating,” she says, especially at law firms where there used to be a known trajectory in terms of timing, and it was possible to put parts of your life on hold until it happened. Now, she says, there’s so much more variability that associates need to integrate work into their overall life.

That’s why she encourages others in the profession to find something they love to do, which means that even when your schedule is crazy, you won’t feel like you’re suffering. At the same time, she encourages women not to feel disappointed in themselves if they don’t want to strive for more. “No one should ever feel stuck or perceive that they haven’t done as much as they ‘should’,” she says.

With two kids—a second grader and a kindergartener—Moldowan focuses on spending all the time she can with them. They love to explore the city; having grown up in an urban environment, they are used to walking everywhere, so she finds bringing them to the city for the day is an excellent adventure in museums and Broadway shows. They love to listen to music at home and both kids are involved in theater. Since she herself did a lot of costuming in college, their Halloween costumes are epic. Always one to lend a helping hand, Moldowan is also on the board of trustees at their school, acting as chair of the audit committee.

/by

Voice of Experience: Kristi Mitchem, Chief Executive Officer and Head of Wells Fargo Asset Management

Kristi's Mitchem Wells FargoWells Fargo’s Kristi Mitchem believes that women need to visibly support one another. Where a man might readily high five another man for something unremarkable, research shows that women can be more reserved in their praise. Women are naturally aligned with other women and as such, Mitchem stresses the importance of consciously and vocally “friending” one another in corporate settings. “I tell women not to come out of a meeting without commending another woman. You want her to know that it’s important that she shared her opinion,” Mitchem says. “You also want the men in the room to recognize that she has value to add. “

Erasing gender inequality is an issue that Mitchem is passionate about—particularly in Corporate America, where she’s spent her career. “If you’re a young woman coming into finance today, you don’t see a lot of successful women in elevated positions. We need to have women visible in high-level positions so young women can see what’s possible.”

As it relates to advice she gives others, Mitchem cites strong communication skills as an imperative for success. “I consistently see women who could improve their skills in the area of presence and would benefit from seeking guidance on how to talk persuasively and powerfully,” she says. “One of the most wonderful things I have realized is that it is a learned behavior that you can enhance over time.”

Weaving Her Way Around a Successful Career

Mitchem was a Fulbright Fellow in Costa Rica, and her study there ignited her interest in Latin America and her desire to flex her language muscles. One of her first positions was with CS First Boston in the firm’s Latin America Finance Group, where she split her time between New York and Mexico City, working primarily on finance assignments. After completing the analyst program, she went on to earn an M.B.A. from Stanford University and completed a summer program with Goldman Sachs, where she accepted a full-time position in the emerging markets fixed income group as a sales trader in New York City.

As her career took off, love intervened. Mitchem became engaged to someone she’d met at Stanford who was starting his own company, and given the geographic realities, she took a position on the west coast, moving from sales trading in emerging markets to equity derivatives.

It was an auspicious time given the rise of tech hedge funds coinciding with the greater predominance of index fund management, and being part of that rapidly growing business allowed Mitchem to make a name for herself. At Goldman, she was selected for a program within the firm that identified high-profile candidates and gave them specific support needed to move forward in their careers. Mitchem credits this program with helping her achieve the designation of managing director.

As Mitchem was ready to take her next career leap, family again interceded. Pregnant with her third child, she decided she needed to move away from working market hours and perennially waking up at 3:30 a.m., which can take a toll. So while she wasn’t looking to leave Goldman, per se, she knew she needed a schedule that was more sustainable.

She joined one of her chief clients, Barclays Global Investors (BGI), helping them turn around their transition management business.

“I brought in great talent, and we were cooking with gas within a year,” Mitchem says. “One of the things that defines me is that I have a lot of energy and like to move on when something is complete, and the talent is there to support it. My next thought is always ‘What’s next?’”

Her CEO asked her to take on something completely different, leading an initiative around the defined contribution (DC) market in the United States where she says she had the amazing opportunity to build a team from scratch and capitalize on this growing segment of the marketplace.

When BlackRock bought BGI, she decided it was time to move on so she joined State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) to help them grow their DC business. She was subsequently asked to take on various new roles and ended up managing all of the Americas institutional business.

While at SSGA, Mitchem achieved one of the professional accomplishments that she is most proud of, which is an intersection between a personal passion and professional opportunity. That came in the form of an ETF launched in 2016 that invested in companies in the Russell 1000 committed to making progress in terms of gender representation at the most senior levels of management. “We were putting capital behind the companies that were making a difference on gender equality, which is a true win-win — investing in something that will have a positive expected return and also aids in the achievement of gender parity,” Mitchem noted.

In June 2016, she began her new position as CEO of Wells Fargo Asset Management which she calls a “fascinating assignment and an incredible opportunity to deliver value to clients through a large organization with so much reach.”

One of the most interesting and challenging trends she is addressing is the money moving out of active management, as well as the changing regulatory environment. “Now more than any time in my career I feel I’m at the point where I can play a key role in helping an organization pivot, as we build expertise in multi-asset strategies and quantitative investment management to add to our already strong platform in fundamental active management.”

To that end, she has spent much of the last year building out quantitative capabilities at Wells Fargo Asset Management, including the acquisition of Analytic Investors, a leader in factor-based investments based in Los Angeles. Although active management is in the firm’s DNA, she contends that it can co-exist symbiotically with multi-asset and other quantitative strategies under the same roof.

As Mitchem looks back on her career, she says that one thing she wishes she’d known more about is the science on women in the workforce. “I remember getting a review as an associate at Goldman and after a positive performance recap, my boss said that I needed to be more ‘likeable.’ At the time I obsessed about it, but I know now that there are numerous scientific studies showing that as women become more successful, they are typically rated as less ‘likeable,’” she notes. Mitchem feels that if she had had that information, she would have pushed back or perhaps put the feedback more in context. The trick, she says, is to separate the feedback that is unique to you that you can use to improve your performance, compared to what’s related to more broad-based gender issues.

The Right Support Network Makes All the Difference

When Mitchem considers her success, she is quick to give credit to her husband and her caregiver. “It may sound strange, but you have to find the right partner for your life who will support your aspirations. If it’s to be a stay-at-home mom, great; if it’s to work, great. But if you are leaning toward one way or another, the person you choose may be different,” she points out. “My husband has always been tremendously supportive of my career, and I believe it’s important to model a working spouse for our children.”

Secondly she credits her children’s caregiver, whom she calls a “pillar.” “We have had the same caregiver for our children since our first daughter was born and she is truly a co-parent with us, enabling us to have successful careers and a well-adjusted family.”

Mitchem also finds time for camaraderie with other women; having reignited her love of tennis over the past couple of years after playing as a kid. “It allows me to dual task – getting exercise in a way I love while socializing with fantastic women.”

With three girls, ages 16, 13 and 11, she is acutely aware of her position as a role model, and has always integrated her children in her work, even bringing them on business trips when they were younger. “We love to travel as a family, and one of the interesting things about my career is that I’ve had the opportunity to live and work in different countries, which has given me a true appreciation of other cultures. I believe that, as a parent, it’s important to impart a curiosity about the world to your children.”

/by

Voice of Experience: Efrat Ravid, CMO, ContentSquare

,

By Louise Magrathefrat

I’m a great believer that women have what it takes to be great engineers, says ContentSquare’s Efrat Ravid. “It’s imperative that more woman study engineering and technology to ensure that more women enter the field and become technology leaders. Women should be represented at least at a 50% ratio in engineering schools, in engineering companies, and in every aspect of the technology world.”

Encouraging Women to Enter the World of Technology

As an engineering student, Ravid was in a small class with 22 other students and only four of them were women. Many years later when she went for her MBA, she was in a class with 56 students, and still only six of them were women. Fifteen years later, and nothing had changed. Ravid was determined to play her part in changing this. “I wanted to make a difference, to encourage and support women in the world of technology to try and address this imbalance,” she says

She sees the demand in the market for engineers, and she knows that if women get their degree in engineering, they will be able to find great jobs and add value to their companies from day one.

Ravid began her career as an engineer, where she was sent to inland China to work directly with manufacturers and factories. Although a very young engineer at the time, she wanted to take the next step with her product and interact directly with customers to make better product versions. It was in doing this that she found her passion for the customer experience. She spent her time traveling around China and Korea and developed products that customers appreciated and got value from. “I was determined from the start to be successful, and through hard work, commitment and enthusiasm, I saw the business grow,” she comments.

Sponsorship and Mentoring of Women in Technology

Today, Ravid is the Chief Marketing Officer of an exciting SaaS company, and uses her position to mentor and sponsor other women. “I believe it is up to us as women to empower other women to become leaders in the technology industry,” she says

Ravid is passionate about hiring ambitious women who promise to do a fantastic job for ContentSquare. She believes that if women are capable and engaged that they will be successful no matter what their circumstances are (she employed the first female sales person for the US when she was six months pregnant) and comments, “When you are engaged, you are engaged. A woman can be amazing at many things at a time, and someone who is dedicated in one area can easily be dedicated in another.”

A week after this sales person was hired, she traveled with ContentSquare to a trade show in Las Vegas and she was amazing. She was the first one to show up, the last one to leave. This was a very successful woman who cared about her career, cared about her kids, and cared about her family. “I look for the value and talent in each person I hire, and take this mindset and apply it to everything that ContentSquare and I do,” she says.

Motivation for a Career in Technology Starts at Home

Ravid encourages her own children to enter in to a career in technology. Although she tells them that they can be whatever they want to be, she encourages them to study math and science.

Ravid’s daughter has accompanied her to work and was fascinated by all the successful women in the company (the head of product is a woman, many of the customer success managers are women and there are female operations managers as well). “She was so caught up with all the female role models she saw that she simply said at the end of the day ‘I’m in’,” she comments.

When Janine Tesori won her Tony Award in 2015 for Best Original Score, she told the crowd that as a young woman she didn’t realize she could have a career in music until she saw a woman act on Broadway. Holding up her Tony, she said, “For girls, you have to see it to be it. We stand on the shoulders of other women who have come before us.”

So to all the tech-women out there, Ravid thinks it’s time to bare our shoulders to the world, and give women a positive vision for success in technology.

/by

Voice of Experience: Kerone Vatel, Managing Director, Risk Division, Goldman Sachs

,

KeroneBy Cathie Ericson

“When you have a seat at the table, use it,” advises Goldman Sachs’ Kerone Vatel. “In my 20s I often had an opportunity to interact with executives as part of strategic conversations, but I was reluctant to share my point of view. I know now that in each of those moments I missed an opportunity to influence the organization. I was more focused on my neuroses rather than on the value I could add, but recognizing this has helped to sharpen my focus and my approach in the workplace.”

Adventures in Careers: From Engineering to Business Success

Kerone studied chemical engineering at MIT, a field she pursued and was interested in as her father had been an engineer. While she was drawn to the way engineers are trained to review, evaluate and solve problems, she ultimately realized that rather than publishing research in academic journals – a career many of her classmates were pursuing – she was motivated to use her skills to disrupt existing processes.

She parlayed that interest into a career in business, initially seeking a private equity role. However, just three days before she was supposed to begin her new position, came “Career Stumbling Block Number One,” as the firm let go her entire analyst group.

Undaunted, Kerone sought the counsel of MIT’s career department, which directed her towards Capital One. The company was pioneering a novel approach to leveraging analytics and data, which interested her. Kerone joined as an analyst in the business development group, where she leveraged her math and coding skills to help grow the portfolio of low-risk credit card assets. She also attributes her six and a half years at Capital One with providing her the platform to understand strategy and analyze consumer needs.

Kerone soon relocated to New York, where her husband worked on Wall Street. They were starting a family, which made her commute to Virginia difficult. While on maternity leave, her husband was supportive and encouraged her to consider every option. She soon realized that she couldn’t leave her baby and commute up and down the East Coast, and subsequently made the difficult decision to leave Capital One.

Soon the time was right to investigate new options, and she applied for a role in Derivatives Operations Risk at Goldman Sachs, which she assumed would be a 9- to-5 type job. While her new position proved to be far more immersive, she enjoyed the challenge of a new role, and then decided to pivot her career even further, leveraging her experience in writing code. She found analytics projects to “tinker with,” as she describes it. Under the leadership of a female managing director, she helped to improve efficiencies and highlight high-risk issues in the Operations Division.

From there she moved into a new role, where her team partnered with the Strategist group, many of whom had quantum math and science backgrounds. She eventually transferred to the Operational Risk group in a firmwide role, where she was brought in to support strategy and help develop a more centralized construct when thinking about the full range of operational risk exposure, from technology issues to natural disasters. It’s a position she finds particularly fascinating as she has helped grow the team significantly and developed strong partnerships and collaborations as the firm reframed its approach to Operational Risk management.

Looking ahead, Kerone is excited about Goldman Sachs’ launch into the consumer market, and the opportunity to increase purchasing power and bring the firm’s best-in-class fiduciary services to Main Street.

Words of Wisdom Gleaned Along the Way – And Passed Along

Kerone has learned a number of valuable lessons during her journey; chief among them is to bring your whole self to work. “I felt relatively unsure of myself until I hit my mid-30s and always tried to morph myself into the styles of the people around me,” she says. “Today, I just focus on being my best self and no longer feel pressure to adapt a style that is foreign to me.”

For example, she recently had a colleague comment that she looked particularly serious one morning. “I’d had a tough morning with the kids, which I shared with my colleague. It’s ok to bring yourself to work and to show vulnerability, but it’s very important to provide team members with the context for what’s happening and why.”

In a similar vein, Kerone recommends that women never worry alone. She believes that it is important to leverage the collective ideas and history of the organization to ensure success. When she’s asked to take on a difficult new project, she will always say “yes,” but now realizes the importance of soliciting advice upfront to tease out pitfalls and key enablers and to collect diverse points of view to shape the solution. “Earlier in my career, I kept my head down and worked extremely long hours – in retrospect, I wish that I had harnessed the power of the broader group or advocated for more resources.”

And finally, her work at Goldman Sachs has cemented the important lesson of, “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, bring others with you.” Being named managing director was a defining moment as she reflected on the people who had mentored and sponsored her, in addition to junior colleagues from whom she’d learned along the way. “In that moment when I learned I was being named a managing director, it was so clear that everything is due to the effort of a group, all of us pushing things through together by working toward common goals.”

Kerone currently serves as the Risk Division sponsor for Goldman Sachs’ Women’s Career Strategies Initiative (WCSI), a group whose emphasis is on advocating for women who are on the cusp of being promoted to vice president. The purpose is to help women form connections throughout the firm and in their divisions, as well as learn the rules of the road from senior professionals.

“It’s important to me to help younger people get a head start as they begin their careers,” she says.

Taking Time For Herself and Her Family

Last year, Kerone committed to taking at least one short vacation each month to recharge, which she has enjoyed. She also recently took up snowboarding, a big step after a skiing accident early in her 20s.

But most importantly, Kerone savors the time she spends with her husband and her children, ages 11 and 7, gardening with others on their block in Bedford Stuyvesant. They have replanted trees that had been ravaged by storms and brightened the neighborhood with flowers, efforts that paid off after recently being named “The Greenest Block in Brooklyn.”

/by

Voice of Experience: Helen Cook, Counsel, Shearman & Sterling

,

 By Cathie EricsonHelen Cook

Helen Cook describes her career as a jagged line veering all over the place. A native Australian, she first started at a law firm there, but took a job in Dubai sight unseen after being bit by the travel bug. Working on energy and infrastructure projects in the Middle East region, she developed a specialty in nuclear energy, which she took to Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman and then to Shearman & Sterling, where she is a counsel in the Washington, DC office. Today she focuses on international nuclear law, a field she never dreamed of entering, particularly given that Australia has no nuclear power plants.

Harnessing the Opportunities in Nuclear

“Had I known I would eventually enter this field, I might have combined my law degree with an engineering or science degree; because as a nuclear lawyer you have to understand the basic technicalities of nuclear energy, but I’ve done my best to learn on the job and from people in the industry,” she says.

In fact, along the way she even wrote a legal textbook, The Law of Nuclear Energy, not long after she had ventured into the nuclear sector. After complaining that there were few useful resources available for lawyers starting out in the area, a former mentor encouraged her to write the book she would have found useful. The resulting piece was published in 2013, and a second edition is currently in the works.

Since there are relatively few new nuclear new build projects in the world today, she considers herself extremely privileged to be working on the largest – a deal that is close to being finalized after a two-year investment of time in the Middle East. In addition, she is working on two in the UK and one in Turkey.

Nuclear is a complicated industry, but despite its challenges she believes that the focus on climate change in global energy policy should see enhanced recognition of the benefits of nuclear energy. “The nuclear industry also needs to more clearly and credibly articulate the potential of nuclear energy to help achieve global warming goals,” she says, adding that its emissions are comparable to those of wind power and hydroelectric power.

Challenges and Opportunities in Conquering the Industry as a Younger Woman

The generational imbalance in nuclear industry started around in the 1990s when people left the industry after Chernobyl, so she says there’s a lot of gray hair at most major nuclear conferences – and it’s mostly on men. “It’s probably hard to find a more male-dominated sector out there,” she says. And, a lot of her work is in the Middle East, where being a professional female can be more challenging.

Her hope is that more young women will be interested in a career in the sector, but she acknowledges they have to be willing to be bold and challenge themselves to do things that might seem out of step – citing the book she authored as an example. “If my boss hadn’t suggested I write it, it wouldn’t have occurred to me, but it helped establish my personal brand and reputation in the market,” she notes.

At Shearman & Sterling, she considers herself fortunate that there are many strong women leaders in the project development and finance practice and throughout the firm, as well as male mentors, who are willing to push you forward. “It’s crucial that men will put you in a room full of other men and not hesitate to give you the lead negotiating role. There have been a number of male partners who have been instrumental in pushing me into leadership roles, which have had tremendous impact on my success as a woman,” she says.

Since her work most often entails a weekly grueling international flight or two, she realizes more than most the value of coming home, where it feels like a vacation as soon as she walks in the door. Her ideal vacation at home? Going for a run around the Georgetown waterfront and cooking a meal with her partner in the evening.

/by

Mover and Shaker: Michelle Pokrzywinski, Vice President of IT, WEX

,

 By Cathie EricsonMichelle

Mentors and sponsors are the glue that holds a career together, says WEX’s Michelle Pokrzywinski. “Throughout my career, my needs have been different and I find role models and mentors all over – within my team, in the company and outside in the general professional world,” she says. “Whatever qualities or skills you are looking for at any given time can be found if you look around.”

Expanding From Technical Skills to Managerial Activities

At the time Pokrzywinski started her career in technology, she understood very little about what career paths could look like with a computer science major. Her education had been focused on technical topics, rather than how to use that knowledge to drive business, but after starting in software development, she immediately knew her interest extended to the management arena. At that point, she proactively broadened her experience with assignments in project management, IT service management and quality management. For close to 15 years she’s been a part of companies that were precursors to WEX, where she currently serves as vice president of IT.

“I now know a career has to be managed, and you have to know how your efforts create value in the business,” she says. “There are many fulfilling paths to success so you have to continuously define what that means to you.” And her role, where she can try new technology and tools and help the company be more efficient with its resources, is a perfect fit.

Teamwork Makes the Difference

Along the way she has benefitted from sponsors who advocated for her, some behind the scenes so she wasn’t even aware. One who had a meaningful impact was a manager who recommended her for the masters of science program in the Management of Technology (MOT) early in her career. The company only sponsored one applicant every two years, and when she expressed interest, he went to bat for her and assisted throughout the application process. “I was so grateful he invested in me as I benefitted so much,” she says, adding that while that was a visible example, she knows there are many others who have helped create the opportunities she has had.

While Pokrzywinski is proud of her many technical achievements, one of her most noteworthy moments was when she was able to take a disparate group of individuals and quickly create a team atmosphere that allowed them to function cohesively and consistently for a large software development project she was operating.

“When you have the right team, it has a ripple effect as they all come together,” she says, noting that managers should focus their efforts on determining what each member needs, so that all those smaller components will coalesce. “You’ll gain collaboration, efficiency and unlimited success when you do the right thing by your team members by putting them in roles where they can succeed.”

And that is a key ingredient in what she considers her recipe for success: Surrounding yourself with good people, who feel they can be honest because you are attuned to listening to them and helping them deliver results.

Pokrzywinski believes in the importance of mentoring, and early in her career was part of the Menttium 100 program, which is focused on helping women gain the strategies needed for success.  About five years ago she also participated in an IT mentoring program through Think IT, a service of York Solutions.

An active community volunteer, Pokrzywinski enjoys her time working in a local non-profit resale shop that serves both the general public with high-quality, low-cost merchandise, and local families in need with free clothing, household goods and furniture. She especially loves her role working directly with families and matching their specific needs with the appropriate donated items.

“Everyone should give back when they can,” she says. “It broadens your perspective and is an enriching way to get out of your day-to-day routine by helping others.”

/by

Voice of Experience: Sheridan Ash, Technology and Investments Director, PwC UK; Women in Technology Leader for PwC UK

, ,

By Cathie Ericson

It can be intimidating to be faced with a male-dominated culture, notes PwC’s Sheridan Ash. While she has learned to be resilient, she stresses she didn’t always feel that way, struggling with worry that was disproportionate. While she has since become proactive about managing her career, she believes she could have reached her potential sooner if she’d done that earlier. “I help myself by helping others,” she says, adding that her drive comes from helping other people avoid some of the road blocks she encountered.

From Model to Tech Leader

Ash is proud of the winding road her career has taken, from school dropout to a catwalk model to her current post as technology and investments director.

Schoolwork was a challenge, as she suffered from undiagnosed dyslexia, so she left at age 15 and launched a modeling career in London, with a specialty of catwalk modeling that allowed her to travel from Milan to Paris. After having a son at a young age, she realised she needed a more stable career path and went back to school while her son was a baby to earn her degree, landing a position in the pharmaceutical business.

Although she knew she wanted to pursue additional studying, she approached it with trepidation, since schoolwork wasn’t easy given her dyslexia: Nevertheless Ash found a way to compensate and overcame the challenge to earn her MBA at Imperial College. That’s where she began looking at technology from a health perspective, working with the National Health Service and private health care providers. Winning an award for having the best dissertation gave her an excellent boost of confidence, further augmented by her work as a research assistant for some professors writing a book on technology and innovation.

“I was hooked,” she says, joining consulting firm Accenture in the health tech team and then moving to PwC first with the health team, but then ascending as she saw an opportunity to grow the business, ultimately working for the head of technology and investments across the entire firm.

Nurturing the Next Generation

Ash is particularly proud of the Women in Tech group she helped launch when she realized there was clearly a diversity issue in the technology team. Celebrating its fourth anniversary in November, it has been successful in attracting and retaining women as they address what she calls a societal problem with not enough young women choosing to pursue tech careers.

Her work with the group has also raised her own profile within the firm, in part leading to her current role where she is helping implement what she calls “massive change” within PwC. “We want to be the leading tech-enabled professional services firm, and while we already do a lot of great work in technology, I am proud to be leading the strategy work on developing our capabilities in technology innovation and how emerging technologies are converging to create new businesses utilising such advances as blockchain and drones.”

She sees the two goals intersecting, as they develop new businesses and ways of working while at the same time focusing on how to attract women into those types of jobs. One opportunity she sees is in demonstrating to women how tech has a positive impact on the world. “Women need to feel that what they do has a large impact,” she notes.

While there is considerable bias given the primarily male-dominated workplace, she says that 90 percent of the time it’s not intentional but inevitable that behaviors and cultures develop around specific types of people and what they like.

“Tackling that unconscious bias is one of the key challenges we need to overcome,” she says, and more role models is an important place to start.

On that note, she encourages women to be observant when they apply for a job about whether the company has a well-publicized and open program around diversity and gender. “Think about whether they put a female in front of you for an interview or had diversity represented at recruiting events,” she says, as that will tell you what their culture is truly like.

And women at her stage need to be actively involved in helping to develop the next generation, as more than mentors but as champions and proactive ambassadors for at least one person to help them develop and get promoted.

To that end, she has formed a group with some external partners and together they have developed a manifesto to work together as a group of companies to tackle the issue of women in technology.

Her passion for helping women has extended to small investments she has recently made to help women in developing countries become capable of running their own businesses, as part of a focus to help women in other countries become independent.

Even with her busy career and passion for supporting women, Ash takes time to travel. “Because I had my son young and didn’t get together with my partner until later in life, we have been making up for lost time over the past seven years,” she says.

/by

Voice of Experience: Elizabeth Byrnes, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs Engineering

Liz By Cathie Ericson

Elizabeth Byrnes knows that you have to find your voice to be successful in your career. “You can have a great idea but unless you share it by confidently speaking up in the workplace, you won’t be able to effectively influence people and shape outcomes. Engineering is an interactive process — every day teams come up with new ideas and brainstorm together to refine them. When you exhibit passion and enthusiasm for your work, others are excited to work alongside you.”

She says that it took her awhile to find a leadership style that worked well and was consistent with her personality and values. “When I was young, I thought I needed to mimic how others led, but over time I figured out that while I could incorporate qualities I admired in others, I needed to stay true to who I am and incorporate them into my own personal leadership style, which I continue to refine and improve to this day.”

Building a strong, diverse network of colleagues and friends has also been an essential ingredient in Byrnes’ success. “I am more effective when I have people to bounce ideas off and people who have perspectives and skills different than my own. Relationships across our firm and throughout the industry and community at large are super valuable. These are people I can call on to provide advice and help think through and solve hard problems.”

Artificial Intelligence Paves the Way to Wall Street

Byrnes knows first-hand that you’re not always going to be aware of all existing job possibilities initially upon entering the workforce. For example, when she was pursuing her PhD in psychology, she developed an expertise in artificial intelligence and expert systems after analyzing ways to have computers interpret and summarize psychological tests. At the time, most of her colleagues saw computers as number-crunching machines not well suited to the human sciences. But, Byrnes saw an opportunity for computers to help with patient care and speed diagnosis. Not everyone in the psychology industry agreed, she says, and resistance to change was high. “I learned that it’s not enough just to have a great idea, you have to understand how to drive adoption and influence change—a very important lesson!”

After completing her PhD, she joined her professor’s software start-up in the healthcare field before eventually joining Wall Street.

“Wall Street and the financial services industry are very open-minded to technological innovation, which is refreshing and exciting,” she says. “I realized this was an industry I could grow and thrive in, and I have. There is never a shortage of complicated problems to solve and super smart and motivated people to help solve them, which means I am never bored and love my work.”

Upon joining the financial services industry, she initially worked at Manufacturers Hanover and Bankers Trust before joining Merrill Lynch, where she spent 11 years in various technology and leadership roles. She moved to Goldman Sachs in 2007 and today leads the Global Investment Research Technology group.

“When I think about what’s important now in the industry, most roads lead to data. You can’t make decisions without good data, and there has been an increase in appreciation for data modelling, analytics, entitlements and governance,” Byrnes said. “A common thread is ensuring individuals have timely access to the information they need to make informed decisions, while at the same time protecting and safeguarding this data.”

Building a Pipeline by Reaching Girls Before They Opt Out

As co-head of the Americas Women in Technology Network (WIT), Byrnes is committed to growing diverse talent and reaching and inspiring the next generation of women computer engineers. She knows firsthand the importance of building a pipeline – women only comprise 17 percent of computer science graduates in the United States. “We have to build a foundation, and the numbers aren’t where we need them to be. We have to reach back into the junior high schools and high schools to encourage girls to learn to code and to pursue studies in computer science at university,” she says. Meeting this need spurred her to champion Goldman Sachs’ partnership with Girls who Code (GWC).

Goldman Sachs was the first financial services firm to partner with GWC in 2013. Since that initial partnership, Goldman Sachs hosts 40 high school girls each summer at the firm’s New York headquarters. Over 100 WIT volunteers serve as mentors, curriculum advisors, event coordinators and speakers over the summer. “It is a true team effort,” says Byrnes. But this engagement doesn’t stop once the summer program ends. “We can’t just teach them when they’re 16 and then step back, because there are too many opportunities for them to get discouraged along the way,” Byrnes points out.

With her WIT colleagues, she helped create an alumni program to host quarterly meet-ups so the girls have an opportunity to stay connected via a supportive community of friends and role models and continuously learn about technical topics and careers. Over the summer, 80 girls attended an alumni event that focused on cybersecurity.

“Having these students see other women in technical roles is a very powerful way to give young women confidence and introduce them to the community, which is good for the industry overall. We need to reach these girls before they opt out.” Once girls enter the engineering workforce, she encourages them to stay technical. Often, women join the workforce with communications and people skills, and then are routed into project management or business analyst roles too early, which can short circuit their technical learning.

She encourages her colleagues to mentor young women, which she believes is critically important to success and retention. “We have to link arms as a community and help the next generation,” she says. “I felt like I had to make a go of it on my own and it doesn’t have to be that way. We can change the industry by encouraging more young women to enter computer science and then offering the coaching and support system to retain them.”

Byrnes is also active with organizations such as Columbia Girls in STEM and Lesbians Who Tech. She recently attended the annual Grace Hopper conference, which convenes female engineers and students to discuss updates in the industry.

Outside of work, Byrnes enjoys horseback riding with her daughters, playing with her golden retrievers and cooking and entertaining with her husband. “Being with family and friends is the best,” she says.

/by

Intrepid Woman: Nikki Barua, CEO, BeyondCurious

, ,

Fear is imaginary, says entrepreneur Nikki Barua. “The more you focus on it, the more it grows, and the only way to overcome fear is to replace it with faith. I have always had faith in myself, my team and my purpose and that’s what fuels my confidence.”Nicki B

She finds that most people go through their lives worrying about losing love, money or job security. “That fear can keep you from taking risks. Imagine the life you could create if you weren’t gripped by fear. Imagine doing what you love and not worrying about how people view you or not being defined by other people’s expectations of you.”

A Career Built on Helping Companies Thrive in Disruption

Barua knows all too well the importance of moving past those fears. An immigrant from India, she came to America in 1997 for business school. After graduation, she built her career first in management consulting, and then in digital marketing, honing her skills as a digital innovator and a business leader in the corporate world.

As she helped global brands transform their business with digital solutions, she noticed that many clients struggled with the pace of change in technology, competition and customer expectations. Big brands needed to be more agile and adapt quickly to change and needed to think and act with the agility of a startup, she found. “They needed an entrepreneurial culture designed for change. That challenge fascinated me, and I was obsessed with a singular question, ‘How do you make elephants run?’”

That question led to her entrepreneurial journey: She left her corporate career and the prestige and security that accompanies that territory and started her business with no clients, no case studies and barely any capital.

“All I had was a clear purpose — to unlock the limitless potential of people and organizations. That clarity gave me the courage to take the steps forward despite my fears, learning to navigate through unknown territory,” she says.

Although she had managed P&Ls and led people, she nevertheless felt unprepared for the challenges of building a business from scratch. As she describes it, each day was filled with untold challenges and gut- wrenching setbacks, followed by big successes and unexpected victories. As she kept learning and adapting, BeyondCurious soon became a successful business, and Barua reveled in her successful transition from corporate leader to entrepreneur.

Along the way, she discovered an important truth that has been the foundation of her success: Whether you work in a big corporation or run your own business, the fundamentals are the same — delight your customer, inspire your team and keep innovating.

Bold Dreams Will Define Your Success

Barua remembers daydreaming about her future as a young girl in India, and how big the dreams seemed at the time. But eventually those dreams came true so she dreamed bigger and bigger. “The lesson I learned is that you only achieve what you dream of, so if your dreams aren’t big, your achievements won’t be either,” Barua notes. “When you dream big, your creativity is unleashed; your confidence grows; your potential is unlocked; and you break barriers of what you thought was possible for yourself and for the world.”

As her company has succeeded, she has found that her biggest challenge is growing herself along with the organization. She advises other entrepreneurs to stay hungry, keep learning and get comfortable being uncomfortable. “When you embrace the discomfort of not knowing, you are able to learn at an exponential rate,” she says.

Along with dreams comes action, and Barua believes firmly you have to stand for what you believe in. “Be authentic in your culture and leadership, and build a tribe of believers that have a shared sense of purpose and core values,” she says. “A movement is more powerful than any organization.”

Proving Herself as a Change Agent

Today’s world is experiencing disruption across the board — in society, government, technology and culture. “When the things we believed in and the rules we lived by no longer hold true, it presents an opportunity to create something better and more meaningful,” Barua says, adding that leaders have the privilege and the responsibility of shaping the world the way they wish it to be.

That’s why it’s so important not to just be business leaders or entrepreneurs, but to be inspiring role models and purpose-driven change agents.

She believes the ultimate purpose of leadership is to unlock the potential in others by giving people a platform to be their best and creating an environment where people thrive because they are constantly learning, growing and breaking barriers. She has found that when people are aligned around shared values and connections, they are more fulfilled.

She herself has a mission to unlock the potential of a billion people – talk about dreaming big!

“I believe we are all limitless, but we are held back when we lack the clarity, courage or conviction to go beyond our barriers,” she says.

“I am deeply passionate about being a catalyst that helps people unlock that limitless potential. It’s what I love to do above all else and what has fueled all my career success,” she says.

“As an entrepreneur, educator, public speaker, author and social activist, everything I do is aligned to that singular mission. Every day is about taking courageous action, learning, adapting and never giving up.”

/by