Voice of Experience: Ilka Vázquez, Advisory Partner, PwC US

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ilka-vazquez“Bragging or self-promotion ” has a bad rap, but according to PwC US’s Ilka Vázquez, it shouldn’t when done right. “I think it’s ok to brag a little about your impact and what you’re bringing to the table,” she says. “We assume someone is noticing our great work and will reward us, but the reality is that you can speed up the process if you talk about your success to people who are influential. Your elevator speech gets better the more you give it and can help you establish a personal brand.”

She finds that women in particular struggle with asking for what they want and articulating a perspective on where they want to go. “Men are negotiating all the time, and women need to get in the habit of speaking up when there is a particular opportunity that interests them,” she says. “How do you get to the next level? Ask for it.”

From Engineering to Consulting

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Vázquez attended the University of Michigan and earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree, pursuing Industrial Engineering with a focus on manufacturing. After several manufacturing-related internships, she began exploring career options her senior year and was introduced to the world of consulting.

She joined Chicago-based Diamond Management & Technology Consultants, Inc., which was acquired by PwC US in 2010, and has been a career consultant ever since. Her first project was in financial services at an investment bank, which she notes was a critical point that established her future career, primarily spent in capital markets. “Coming from engineering, it was a completely different perspective; I had no finance background but here I am working with an investment bank.”

Given her lifelong career as a consultant she credits becoming a partner at PwC US in 2014 as a professional achievement she’s most proud of, based on what it represents. “It was the culmination of what I’ve accomplished and yet also the beginning of a new professional journey,” she says, adding that from her first interaction with partners at Diamond, she knew she wanted that role one day.

Her work now largely entails helping financial services clients manage regulatory expectations while promoting the sustainability of the programs put in place to comply with those regulations. She helps them make those processes become part of their DNA to facilitate their long-term effectiveness.

Given her engineering background, she also enjoys learning more about the ever-changing role of technology and the impact of innovations such as block chain and digital labor, which can revolutionize the industry. “I am constantly considering how these disruptive technologies will impact clients and what they need to do to take advantage of them.”

Being Agile Will Contribute to Success

Moving from an engineering background to consulting with financial services firms was a pivot, and yet, it underscores a skill that Vázquez encourages professionals to cultivate: the ability to be agile. She developed competencies core to any consultant that are applicable in a wide range of experiences. “Regulations or technology could drastically change what you’re working on today, and you need to adapt and be prepared to move your focus to something else,” she says.

One way to exercise this philosophy is to constantly be willing to step out of your comfort zone by asking for stretch assignments, even if you don’t readily fill all the requirements. It calls for having the confidence that you can learn and looking for ways to expand your experience.

She also believes that learning takes place throughout your career, and more seasoned professionals can glean wisdom from their junior counterparts.

Participating in Latina and Women’s Groups for Collaboration and Skills Development

An active member of PwC US’s Latino Inclusion Network, Vázquez is part of the leadership committee, advising the group on how to create a strong community where members can learn from one another. The firm recently celebrated its Global Diversity Week, which focused on the power of inclusion and overcoming unconscious biases. “We have to make sure we promote the idea of diversity based on ethnicity as well as gender, and how it contributes to a greater array of thoughts and ideas.”

She notes that the Latino community is very open to different perspectives, with a culture that inspires inclusiveness. “When we get together, it’s not just four people but 20,” she says. “This perspective of the ‘more the merrier’ means we are open to different viewpoints and that helps me motivate a diverse team.”

She also holds a role of partner sponsor for PwC’s New York Metro Women’s Advisory Network and the Working Moms Group, two groups focused on supporting women within Advisory.

Over the years she has participated in firm-sponsored programs that support the advancement of women, such as the Breakthrough Leadership and Diamond programs which not only offered exposure to senior leadership, but also provided the coaching and advocacy opportunities that helped her cultivate relationships with partners.

Married with two children – a seven-year-old daughter and a 21-month-old son — Vázquez enjoys spending time with them, often conversing in Spanish as she encourages them to be bilingual.

An avid Michigan sports fan, she participates in regular recruiting activities at the school, both for PwC and to help attract minority students to campus. As a graduate of the Harvard Business School, she is also connected to the HBS Latino Alumni Association.

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Voice of Experience: Cristina Estrada, Head of Derivatives for the Latin America Financing Group, Investment Banking Division, Goldman Sachs

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cristina estradacristina estrada“Pursuing what you are passionate about and chasing your dreams are key to having a successful career,” says Cristina Estrada of Goldman Sachs. “Being patient is important though: there are ups and downs in everybody’s journey. Persistence and seeing beyond occasional difficulties pay off.”

From Colombia to Goldman…and back

Estrada was born and raised in Colombia, in a time of great uncertainty for her country. She aspired to pursue a successful professional career, while at the same time help her country with its economic development needs. With this goal in mind, she applied for college in the United States, which excited but also scared her. “I had dreamed of pursuing a foreign degree, but going abroad and not being with your lifelong friends and relatives seemed like a big risk at the time. That being said, I knew that studying here would allow me to expand my professional horizons.”

She was accepted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she pursued an economics degree and played varsity basketball. It was at MIT that she became aware of Goldman Sachs for the first time, as one of her closest friends praised her internship at the firm and encouraged Estrada to apply.

She became an intern at Goldman Sachs the following summer. “I worked on the trading floor and was part of the sales team, working with Latin America. Goldman provided me with an experience that was nothing like I had ever had before: a fast-paced, no-frills environment, with extremely interesting and smart people, working with highly sophisticated clients.”

Estrada graduated from MIT in 2001, where she received the Malcolm G. Kispert Award for female senior scholar-athlete of the year. She started at Goldman as a full-time analyst that July as part of the Latin America FX Sales team, primarily covering Latin American corporations to serve their currency needs. “We structured derivatives for Latin American clients, allowing them to protect against currency risk. It was gratifying to stay close to my roots.” Over time, that team became part of the Emerging Markets group, where Estrada still focused on Latin America but now covered a larger array of products, and early in 2016, Estrada and her team moved to the Investment Banking Division.

After working for years with clients in Mexico, Central America and other markets in Latin America, Estrada is now excited to be working on a new series of infrastructure projects in her home country. The Colombian government launched an ambitious infrastructure program, the key pillar of which is the Fourth Generation Highway Plan, or 4G. This plan aims to modernize and expand the national highway system through the concession of 11,000 km across 40 toll roads, with investments valued at an approximate $25 billion. Goldman Sachs has taken a lead role on structuring and funding three of the first nine toll roads that were awarded, with Estrada in charge of structuring risk management solutions for the projects as well as helping line up financing from international investors among her clients in Latin America.

“We have pooled resources from many different teams across divisions and geographies at Goldman to help Colombia; this is Goldman at its best. These roads will make the flow of goods cheaper and smoother throughout the country. Goldman is doing business while at the same time making Colombia a better country — proof that you can do business by doing good.”

Diversity as a Constant

Beginning her career on a trading floor, Estrada highlighted that she occasionally felt like a minority, both due to her gender and ethnicity. She says that in these situations, “You have to remember that you are hired for who you truly are, for your capacity and the experience that you bring,” noting that Goldman Sachs champions the importance of a diverse workforce.

Estrada is proud that she has become one of the few senior women who cover Latin American companies across the financial industry. “As a senior female executive, you have to develop your own style in a male-centric culture,” she says. By becoming a technical expert in her field while also building and maintaining strong client relationships, she has earned the respect of her colleagues and clients.

She reminds women at all levels to take time to build relationships with others in order to create a network of peers and sponsors. “The only constant in our industry is change, and having a strong network will allow you to be more adaptable and prepared for what’s to come,” she says. “A year ago I didn’t think I’d be moving to a different division, but things evolve, and your network can guide you through those types of changes.”

With a trajectory that took her from interning in 2000 to becoming a managing director in 2015, Estrada has been able to reflect on her career over the years. “There have been ups and downs just as for everybody. I tended to overthink and overstress about situations when I was first starting my career, but I can now view things with perspective. What matters most is working with people with whom you are comfortable and doing a job that you enjoy. That, combined with a focus on assisting clients with their needs while challenging my skills, is what makes working at Goldman satisfying.”

She participated in one of the first classes of the Women’s Career Strategies Initiative (WCSI) over a decade ago and has come full circle, serving last year as a Senior Divisional Champion of the program for the Securities Division. This program is designed to provide strong-performing associate women with developmental opportunities and to teach them to proactively manage their professional advancement.

Also active in the firmwide Hispanic and Latino network, Estrada has seen it evolve over the last few years into a catalyst for Hispanics across divisions to meet each other and identify business opportunities, as well as provide access to senior leadership. The group has also steadily been sponsoring interesting events, most recently celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month.

An Active Down Time

A former basketball player as a student athlete at MIT, Estrada is now also a fan of spinning. Married to a Brazilian, she and her husband have been exploring Asia for a few years now. “Since I travel a lot for work, sometimes it’s hard to head back to an airport on my free time, but we are enjoying discovering new cultures together.”

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Voice of Experience: Rocio Lopez, IT Executive at Accenture

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Rocio LopezBy Louise Magrath

Passionate about advancing diversity in tech, and currently leading several initiatives aimed at growing Hispanic American technology talent, Accenture’s Rocio Lopez says: ‘The one piece of advice I would give to anyone is to be authentic.’

As a Mexican woman-in-tech for over two decades, Lopez learnt through Accenture’s Hispanic American Employee Resource Group (ERG) that she needed to be authentic about what she brought to the table as a talented Hispanic technologist.

‘For the longest time, I was trying to run in a different size shoe – actually a male size 8. It wasn’t until I met my ERG family that I realized I like my 7.5 size red high heels,’ she comments.

Longevity in her career

Lopez has a long career at Accenture having worked for the professional services company for 22 years since leaving University. Currently leading a team that helps the company and its clients adapt the latest IT solutions and flexibilities, she connects with Accenture’s business leads to understand their day to day, on the job behaviors. This helps her innovate new solutions to get them performing at their highest, delivering the best they can to clients.

‘I love it when I see them adopting the latest technology and get their feedback that it’s made their life easier and helped them to be more efficient. I’m excited that my job allows me to be creative and present and deliver ideas that transform the way our teams work. Being able to experiment and challenge my team to learn new technologies is the part I love the most,’ comments Lopez.

Increasing Hispanic Leadership in IT

‘Inclusion and diversity is an inherent part of Accenture, and as a company, we are committed to advancing diverse talent in technology,’ states Lopez.

One initiative led by Lopez, of which she is particularly proud, is the Accenture sponsored, Hispanic IT Executive Council’s (HITEC) Women’s Program, aimed at growing Hispanic American technology talent.

‘HITEC is an organization whose focus is to develop the next generation of Hispanic IT Leaders, an ethos in common with Accenture, as we share a commitment to advancing diverse talent in tech and increasing Hispanic leadership in IT around the Globe,’ she comments.

She describes the program as a breakfast series and learning session, focused on developing, retaining and attracting women in tech careers by bringing them together in one place to network and establish connections. Lopez believes the key to the Accenture and HITEC mission is the structure they have in place to carry out the strategic goal to ‘push up and pull up’ its’ workforce and members. The Accenture partnership with HITEC, including the Accenture sponsored Women’s Program, demonstrates a partnership whose focus continues to be the growth of Hispanics in technology careers.

Lopez is proud and excited to lead the Women’s focus with HITEC and says, ‘I already see the impact the program has on inspiring women along their journey and I’m looking forward to this coming year and the technology learnings that our women will gain during the sessions.’

Support and Mentorship build success

For Lopez mentorship has played a critical role in her career, ‘I could not have a career without this. You need a mentor or sponsor to keep you honest about what success means and to help you along in your career journey,’ she comments.

An example where the importance of mentorship came in to play for Lopez was when she was given the opportunity to participate in the HITEC Emerging Executive Program and was assigned a C-Suite mentor, Ramon Baez. She notes,
‘The relationship I built with Ramon was key to a turnaround in my career journey, as I was facing some critical career decision points at Accenture. The conversations we had, helped me gain tremendous self-confidence and inspired me to believe that I could be CIO of a company.’

As a leader at Accenture, Lopez also is a mentor to people for whom she is directly responsible for engaging, supporting and growing. She is passionate about encouraging her mentees to be authentic as she believes it generates great thinking and increases their level of engagement overall. She comments, ‘My professional role model is our global inclusion and diversity lead, Nellie Borrero, an amazing, authentic woman that has managed to stay true to her values throughout her great successes.’ Lopez believes that every employee at Accenture is extremely talented and that it is her obligation as a company leader to ensure that they are listened to and tended to,
‘We are changing the game within the Accenture family by staying close to every single individual and focusing on their unique needs and wants. We create a place where everyone is a member of the family that is always cared for and nurtured,’ she says.

Commitment to Diverse Talent Pools

Lopez’s passion for advancing diversity in tech has led to her involvement in Accenture’s sponsorship of teams of Cristo Rey High School students to code at Accenture. She describes Cristo Rey as the largest network of high schools in the United States whose enrolment is limited to low income youth. Its distinctive approach to education equips students with the knowledge, character and skills to transform their lives. From freshman year, Cristo Rey schools blend rigorous academics and four years of professional work experience to and through college.

‘I became involved with Cristo Rey because I wanted to promote STEM jobs for these students in the Chicago area. To that end I proposed and created a program within our CIO organization that sponsors diverse students in to programming roles. This has evolved our internal IT talent strategy and has led to us identifying new talent,’ states Lopez.
Her passion for inspiring Hispanic American students to continue their education and to seek a career in tech along with her overall commitment to technology careers and diversity has led to Lopez being named on the Board of Cristo Rey High School.

Family

Even outside of work, Lopez continues inspiring young people to take up careers in tech. In the fall she will travel to Leon, Mexico, where her family is from. She will use her time there to inspire her teenage nieces and nephews to consider a tech as a career choice.

She comments, ‘They ask me questions about my Facebook posts during my network events, as they are excited to see me travel the world and meet so many new people. My answer is always to go in to technology! It’s very cool and allows you to truly impact the world we live in!”

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Voice of Experience: Sarah Churchman, Talent, Inclusion and Wellbeing Leader, PwC UK

Sarah ChurchmanUnderstand what drives you and find your passion early on, advises Sarah Churchman, who has lived her own advice after embarking on an unexpected career in human resources.“I like to say I got a rookie start in human resources,” says Churchman, who had always thought she wanted to be a lawyer. After studying law and realizing it wasn’t for her, she took some time to travel and then embarked on a human resources career that she has maintained for almost 30 years. “It wasn’t the career I thought I’d have but I’ve been delighted to take this path,” she says, citing the huge variety of work she has done from rewards programs to recruiting.

Helping PwC Lead as a Diversity Champion

Introducing PwC to the idea of diversity and inclusion back in the early 2000s represents a highlight as one of the professional achievements of which she is most proud
“While we had always been an equal opportunity employer, we had never measured our level of success,” she says. Since the beginning, and through the various mergers the firm has undergone, Churchman has helped spearhead the initiative. Today its diversity strategy is a business priority and PwC UK is recognized as a leader for its work.

She helped the firm look at work/life balance in a practical way, realizing that the environment and culture, combined with policy, can make a difference. And she made sure that a diversity agenda was integral to the broader talent management agenda.
“It’s exciting to look at the values we want to promote and the culture we want to create and realize that inclusion is at the root,” she says.

Under her management, PwC became one of the first firms to experiment with unconscious bias in 2005. While commonplace today, at the time not many organizations were exploring its impact.

She also helped introduce the concept of sponsorship combined with mentorship as a way to drive diversity, and published a groundbreaking gender pay gap survey. “Our maturity in this area means we’ve been a step ahead of the curve, always aiming for the next big thing,” she says.

Establishing an Inclusive Talent Culture at PwC

Most people believe they are open-minded, and it’s only when they see data that shows the opposite that they become interested in changing their inclusion mindset, Churchman has found. That’s why a key part of the diversity and inclusion initiative has been to track solid data around talent management decisions. Showing who’s being promoted and hired by gender and ethnic background is critical and serves as a way to prove that very little of a company’s exclusion is intentional, but rather an unintended consequence. “Bringing diversity to the forefront is fundamental to moving an organization forward,” she says.
And that includes making it a societal issue as well. “Organizations are a microcosm of society and there shouldn’t be expectations on women that are different from men in terms of who should be a caregiver. We’re trying to evolve the workplace, but we have to evolve society as well,” she says.

Resilience as a Key to Female Career Success

Churchman has long championed resilience as a key component of PwC’s well-being strategy, emphasizing it as a core skill as part of PwC’s leadership development strategy.
She finds that most women tend to be resilient, because in many cases they are juggling two jobs – at work and at home. “Women and men need to maintain a razor-sharp focus on where they want to go, and realize the importance of bouncing back from setbacks,” she says.

Cultural issues, however, have historically gotten in the way; for example, stereotypes that assume some people don’t want to be leaders. “I see that women can hold themselves back by ruling themselves out and not believing they can do the job at the next level.”
She encourages women to share their ambitions with others who can help them on their journey, rather than just assuming they will know. And outside of work, she advises professionals to choose their long-term partner carefully. “Don’t be the one who tries to do everything,” she says.

Family Life Matters

Churchman has seen the benefits of an equal partnership play out in her own life, saying that her family is a real leveler for her. She has been able to combine her career with raising two children, who are now adults, ages 22 and 20. “I find it incredible; how did that happen?” she says, adding that they will always be her “little prince and princess,” fitting since they are called George and Charlotte.

They have always been part of her career as well; in fact, she says that they have always been her biggest critics. “They would give me honest – and occasionally brutal — feedback when they would hear me on the radio,” she laughs. Always up for a family trip, she is looking forward to a family holiday to the Amalfi coast in Italy.
She now shares her home with a labradoodle called Poppy, which means her relaxing and thinking time includes long walks. In addition, she makes time for charity work; she was a trustee for a breast cancer charity and is now looking forward to joining the board of another group, the Employers Network for Equality & Inclusion, which is working to support employers committed to driving the diversity agenda forward, an endeavor she anticipates will complement her work at PwC.

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Sheila Patel, CEO of International Goldman Sachs Asset Management

The common thread among the successful women Sheila Patel has mentored over the years is their willingness to engage their networks, mentors, sponsors and managers in their ambitions and their journey.

“Two-way communications holds both women and their stakeholders accountable for their progress, and accountability is the key to advancement in the years ahead,” she says.

Moving Around, Moving Up

Sheila PatelPatel has employed that strategy throughout her career. She feels fortunate that her career has taken her to three different regions, allowing her to work in multiple areas of finance throughout the last 24 years. “The constants of deep client relationships and rewarding partnerships with colleagues have paved the way for many transitions, as new opportunities emerged and Goldman Sachs has provided me with the room to grow,” she says.

She began her career as an analyst in investment banking at a different firm in New York, and then took a hiatus from the industry to explore retail, where she worked for one of the few women CEOs at the time. She soon realized she missed the fast pace of finance and earned her MBA at Columbia, while simultaneously working in derivatives sales and trading.

In 2003, she joined Goldman Sachs, where she has worked in both Asia and London. Over the years, Patel held a variety of roles in the Securities Division, culminating in becoming co-head of Asia Equities Distribution, before moving to London to join the Investment Management Division in 2009.

For Patel, this internal mobility represents the professional achievement she is most proud of – the transition from the “sell-side” to the “buy-side.” During this time, she moved from Singapore to London and undertook a major change in role and responsibilities following the financial crisis.

“It was a great opportunity to identify the skills I had that transcended divisions, such as strong relationships with clients, strategic management capacity and broad market experience,” Patel says. “The firm empowered me to expand my business and focus on investment performance despite the difficult market conditions. That allowed me to help grow the team while retaining our culture, our client base and assets over the following years,” she says.

Today, as CEO of International Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Patel works with clients across EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) and Asia Pacific Ex-Japan to identify a broad range of investment opportunities around the world. Regular travel throughout Asia, the Middle East and Europe offers her an unparalleled vantage point to understand global capital flows and investor views.

New Developments Transform The Industry

Patel is particularly intrigued by recent efforts in two spaces – ESG (environmental, social, and governance) and Smart or Active Beta. “As with any new concept, part of the excitement is seeing the diverse ways our clients take and use these ideas and tools,” she notes. For example, there is widespread debate on whether the purpose of ESG is to drive better returns or better societies, but success over the past few years indicates it can be both.

Active Beta, which explores factor-based investing and indexing away from traditional market cap weighted benchmarks is a concept that offers a new dimension to passive index investing and could be transformative in the years ahead.

Patel notes that the ongoing technological transformation of the industry is a fascinating trend. She highlights the advent of technologies such as artificial intelligence, algorithmic or “robo”-based advice, and blockchain transactions as new concepts that will likely dramatically change the industry.

The Skills That Define a Successful Career

As many professionals can attest, it’s easy to assume early in a career that intellectual ability and business-relevant education are the main keys to success. But Patel has found that as you gain experience and insight, “you realize there are many smart people in our industry and the world, but not all of them can communicate complex ideas or develop long-term relationships.”

Since her first year as an analyst, she has saved all of her reviews, which have provided enlightening reading as she progressed through her career. One of her first analyst reviews suggested she should focus on client relationships and communication abilities, as they would be the key to her success.

“I discounted that feedback in my youth, when compared with the quantitative and analytical successes I felt myself achieving, but as I matured at work I realized the truth of the advice I received. Businesses of all kinds are about people – your colleagues and your clients – and fostering those relationships and networks are the foundation of any successful career.”

Success Is Built Through Curiosity and Relationships

Her advice to women is to continually focus on expanding horizons and goals and remain curious to the elements of the industry that are constantly changing, from market conditions to technology and client needs. New developments that drive the industry can also create personal opportunities, from new financial applications to technologies to evolving client bases, where women can make their mark.

“What makes finance evolve is the intersection of people, capital and ideas, and women at all stages of their careers need to drive that evolution,” she says.

Patel has found her role as a partner sponsor of the Asia Women MD’s Network particularly rewarding. The group focuses on providing support and advice for women aspiring to grow and advance within the firm. Many of the women MDs who are now part of the network have that group to thank for their mentoring and support to reach the MD level, she says.

In addition, she finds that the group has also had a tremendous impact on clients, who appreciate the unique panels and discussions the network organizes, especially if their own organizations don’t offer a robust women’s network. She finds that the geographical spread and diverse market environments of Asia make it especially important to develop a broad network, and she is proud that this group can offer a unique blend of commercial and personal empowerment for the women of the region.

A Traveler’s Eye

An avid traveler, Patel appreciates that living in Europe and Asia has given her family unique opportunities to visit a wide variety of far-flung places.

“Chances are you will find our family somewhere off-the-grid, where mobile phones don’t work very well,” she says, adding that it is both stressful but ultimately relaxing for her type-A personality.

Patel’s entire family loves safaris and remote fly fishing adventures, and she uses these adventures as an avenue to indulge her amateur photography hobby. “The great thing about my work is that my camera can always come along too, and if I get a spare minute, there is always something beautiful to capture, whether I’m in Muscat, Mumbai or Milan.”

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Voice Of Experience: Beth Campbell, Senior Vice President, Citadel Securities

Voice Of Experience- Beth Campbell, Senior Vice President, Citadel SecuritiesBeth Campbell has spent her career listening, learning and leading. She has built a strong track record of results in a traditionally male-dominated industry, and has done so through hard work and a disciplined focus on building expertise in her field. In addition, one of the keys to her success has been developing as many relationships and connections as possible, and then focusing on both learning from them and keeping them close as part of her personal network. “Whatever role you’re in, you can find people at all levels — managers, peers, direct reports and clients, who will be integral to your journey.” As she has seen firsthand, these connections will help open doors throughout your career and can ultimately lead you to the perfect role.

Building a Career of Entrepreneurial Ventures within Established Firms

After graduating from NYU Stern, Campbell began her career at Bank of America, handling prime brokerage multi-strategy accounts, a new business for the bank at the time. One of her accounts was Citadel, and her efforts and dedication contributed to the firm inviting her to help launch the sales effort for a new hedge fund administration platform in 2007.

“It was a unique and exciting opportunity to build a new business for such a reputable, respected firm,” Campbell says, and the beginning of an interesting career working for “start-up” divisions within the larger firm.
She worked in that business for four years before it ultimately was sold to Northern Trust.
She then worked briefly in business development at another hedge fund, but a year later returned to Citadel as Head of Sales for a technology business within Citadel.
“I had loved working at Citadel and helping to build a business for the firm before, and because I kept the relationships strong and doors open, Citadel invited me back to lead the sales effort for its technology business at the time,” she says, ultimately handling it for over three years.

In 2015 Campbell was internally recruited to work on the FICC Sales and Relationship Management team at Citadel Securities, the firm’s market-making business, which was another new venture for the firm. Launched in late 2014, it rapidly ascended to top market share, becoming a top 3 dealer of USD interest rate swaps on the Bloomberg SEF (the largest trading platform for those products) in under a year. Campbell needed to learn the business in short order to make immediate inroads with clients and prospects.

Skyrocketing Growth

Citadel Securities’ fixed income business has seen tremendous growth in the past 18 months. In response to client demand, in less than two years the division has expanded from a single product – vanilla U.S. dollar interest rate swaps (IRS) – to a fuller fixed income offering, including an array of USD IRS products, EUR IRS, U.S. Treasuries and CDX. The team continues to aggressively roll out new products, including a comprehensive product pipeline for the year ahead. “Our greatest successes come from listening to our clients, which helps us develop products that meet their liquidity needs,” Campbell said.

The FICC market making business brought on hundreds of clients in what she calls an “intense, challenging, but successful first two years.” Its efforts were recognized when Citadel Securities was named “Interest Rate Derivatives House of the Year” by both IFR and Risk Magazine, the first time that these prestigious honors have been awarded to one firm in the same year. “It’s exhilarating to be part of the team that has earned such notable recognition in such a short period of time,” she says, adding that she feels proud to work with a team comprised of several women in senior roles and benefits extensively from their experience.

The industry as a whole is evolving, as fixed income markets continue to transition to electronic trading. This trend plays to Citadel Securities’ “sweet spot,” she says, giving the firm an edge over traditional market participants.

Confidence That Comes with Experience

Looking back on her career, Campbell says she wishes she had always been as confident as she is now, though she realizes that comes with time, as you hone your expertise.

In a traditionally male-dominated industry, women have to learn to find their voices and expect to be treated as equals from the outset. According to Campbell, one of the keys to professional growth is conducting yourself with honesty, integrity and passion.
“The key is to find something you really care about so you can be authentically passionate,” she says. “Think long and hard about the roles you take and leverage mentors who can help you make the career choices that are the best fit for you.”

A Satisfying Life Involves Interests Outside of Work

Campbell says it is important to find a firm that supports you both inside and outside of the office. Whether training for a marathon or planning a wedding, she appreciates the flexibility that Citadel has always provided. “Ahead of my wedding last year, I was juggling hundreds of new clients and looming projects, but the firm still gave me the time I needed,” she said.

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Voice of Experience: Barbara Reinhard, Head of Asset Allocation and Senior Portfolio Manager for Voya Investment Multi Asset Strategy and Solutions

Experience- Barbara Reinhard, Head of Asset Allocation and Senior Portfolio Manager for Voya Investment Multi Asset Strategy and Solutions“Self-learning is a key path to growth,” says Voya’s Barbara Reinhard, “whether you’re learning something big that will change your career or something small that will make your day-to-day life easier.”

For example, Reinhard taught herself time-saving Excel tricks such as using shortcuts to manage big data sets. “You can participate in an Excel class, but until you’re playing around with it yourself, you won’t know what you need to. It’s the difference between reading about a vacation and actually taking one,” she says. “If you can teach yourself, you can learn anything.”

That skill came in handy when she first started out as a fixed income analyst. When Reinhard saw challenging bond markets on the horizon, she looked beyond fixed income and learned what she could about equities to expand her skill set and opportunities. “It’s easy to become very specialized, but your intellectual curiosity trumps all.”

A Career In Asset Allocation

During her 20 years at Morgan Stanley, Reinhard worked in the Fixed Income, Institutional Investment Management areas and eventually became deputy Chief Investment Strategist. Advancing from an analyst to a managing director was an unusual path, she acknowledges, but one that beckoned because of the ongoing opportunities she sought.

In 2011 she joined Credit Suisse as Chief Investment Officer for private banking in the Americas, running discretionary asset allocation portfolios. Five years later, in April 2016, Reinhard joined Voya.

Of her professional achievements, she’s most proud of becoming a managing director, earning her Chartered Financial Analyst® designation and being hired by Voya: she set her sights on the position as soon as she met the Multi- Asset team.

Not only does Reinhard appreciate the challenging work at Voya, she finds it particularly rewarding because of the firm’s mission to be “America’s Retirement Company.”

“Every individual in America at all wealth levels — from a Rockefeller to a Reinhard — will face retirement,” she says. “At Voya, we can touch every American’s life, and it’s a powerful investment mission when you realize that the decisions we make will help someone realize their lifelong goals.”

To help make smart decisions, Voya completes an annual exercise in October where they develop 10-year asset class forecasts and anticipate the peaks and troughs that markets might see over the next decade. This becomes the foundation for their future asset class strategic investment recommendations.

Reinhard worries that the finance and analytical elements of a career similar to hers might be off-putting to women, especially those who specialized in liberal arts and think that they need to be more mathematically and quantitatively inclined. But the truth, Reinhard says, is that statistics and quantitative theories are actually relatively easy to learn, as they are very finite. “Once you’ve done it once, you can do it 100 times. Don’t be put off by the quantitative aspects of the industry,” she says.

Urging a Savings Mentality From a Young Age

Reinhard sees one of the industry’s biggest struggles as trying to help Americans think about retirement. “It’s difficult when you’re 25 to save for that long-term goal; you can’t even intellectuality conceptualize it,” she notes. But she has seen the importance of starting early. The youngest of five children and raised by parents who were products of the Great Depression, she started saving for retirement with her first paycheck.

“The most important contributor to my retirement account hasn’t been an investment decision I made, but rather letting my asset base compound year in and year out. Compounding interest is one of the best mathematical advantages you can give yourself,” she says, stressing that the one thing young adults should do is put money toward their retirement as early as possible.

The Career-Changing Influence of Mentors and Sponsors

Reinhard credits some of her success with two sponsors who paved the road for her based on her goals, helping her acquire the skills she needed to earn subsequent promotions.

She advises that whether your mentors and sponsors are formal or informal, neither of these people should be your boss. A sponsor is typically far more senior in the organization, someone who sees your value add and will champion you. By cultivating these relationships, and making sure that the leadership team in the organization knows you, opportunities and connections will happen that can change your career path.

The best way to gain that visibility is to be ready for unexpected opportunities that might present themselves, the quintessential “elevator experience.” Reinhard is always ready with a two-minute anecdote in her back pocket about a recent significant business win or something material to the investment strategy she is working on. For example, when the S&P finally broke new highs, she ran into Voya’s CEO and was able to give him a quick analysis and recommend he use the information when he met with important shareholders over the next couple weeks as a proof point for why active management still works.

The key, she says, is to adapt your ideas over the years as your career expands so you always have something ready for your two-minute speech.

And for women who are more senior, she urges them to sponsor a younger professional. For her part, she’s always found someone to watch out for, maybe someone who volunteered to help with an unpopular or time-consuming project, which she says is a smart strategy to gain a champion. “I’ve gotten the most bang for my buck by fixing things that were broken when others said it couldn’t be done.”

Family, Running and Volunteer Work Balance Her Work Life

A former marathon runner, Reinhard says that physical fitness tops her priority list as a calming influence that can help control how she reacts to markets. While she devotes most of her non-work hours to her husband and young son — “they are the most important people in my life” — she makes time for non-profit work as well, serving on the finance committee for the Jerome Green Foundation, a group involved in activities related to education advancement, social justice, arts, health and human services.

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Mover and Shaker: Nupur Sharma, Manager, Accenture Consulting

Nupur Sharma“If you want something changed, you have to speak up and let people know. If you want to get involved in something new, or you’re looking to be more challenged, ask!” advises Accenture’s Nupur Sharma.“Great supervisors, mentors and counselors should ask if you are satisfied, challenged and maintaining balance in your career – however your leadership might not know what your career goals are unless you speak up, share them and ask to be involved.”

Sharma first learned about Accenture through a friend, who had joined the now more than 375,000 person company in the Midwest. She sold her on joining. “What hooked me with Accenture is its breadth of clients across industries and their work in the non-profit space. I was also attracted to the idea that there is no “typical” work day. You’re never bored at Accenture.

For Sharma, the diversity of work that Accenture affords its people differentiates a career there from “any other job I know.” According to Sharma, part of Accenture’s DNA is to “support its people in exploring their interests and opportunities and where they can excel within the company.”

Diversity of Career and Colleagues

Sharma began her career at Accenture nine years ago and she has been able to drastically change her job, the industry she focused on and the clients she served all whilst remaining at the same company. “Personally, I was drawn to Accenture because there is no typical work day here – it’s hard to be bored. The diversity of work you can do here differentiates itself from other careers. Accenture is very supportive in its people exploring different roles and pursuing personal interests and passions within the company,” she states.

She has worked with an incredibly diverse array of people at Accenture, such as Olympic athletes, authors, people who have run for office and those that have served our country and comments, “I’m constantly impressed with the caliber and diversity of people that our company attracts.” Plus, she notes, her sense of the company’s commitment to gender diversity has become stronger. The fact that Accenture was the first big consulting firm to publish its diversity demographics speaks volumes to its commitment to inclusion and diversity.”

Most recently Sharma worked with a major tech company to help them transform the way they do business by helping them improve their time to configure, price and quote.

“It’s really exciting. We are enabling companies to interact faster and more seamlessly with their customers and partners than ever before. More and more very established companies are willing to take leaps with us and innovate from their status quo.”

At Work, a Personal Passion

Sharma is passionate about the work she does at Accenture and is fortunate as the company always encourages her to pursue projects that excite her, in addition to the innovative projects she works on for clients. A great example of this is Sharma’s recent project to create the company’s new Augmented Reality App.

“Essentially, I was able to form a ‘mini-start up’ within Accenture by working to develop the company’s new Augmented Reality App. You point your phone at a specific item (a billboard, a t-shirt, a monument, etc.) that has been set up as a trigger and the photo/image comes alive with videos, interactive elements, links to websites, etc. I was able to get funding from my leadership team, find awesome developers, and build the app. I was really proud when the app was published in the Apple App Store and on Google play.”

She describes Augmented and Virtual Reality as among the top trends in consumer technology and that besides gaming and entertainment (such as Pokémon Go) she suggests that we will be seeing more AR in training, professional development, troubleshooting, geographical exploration, marketing and more. Sharma is proud of the work she has done at Accenture and comments, “I love that Accenture is not only experimenting with AR itself, but is on the leading edge by the work we’re doing for our clients to help them stay ahead. My goal is to one day be the company’s AR lead.”

Sharma is proud of her many professional achievements at Accenture but also of her involvement in Accenture’s non-profit work.
“One of the main reasons I joined Accenture nearly a decade ago was to eventually participate in Accenture Development Partnerships (ADP), which delivers the power of Accenture’s global capabilities and experience to positively impact the lives of people in the developing world. Essentially, ADP applies the same expertise and capability that we employ at our clients, to non-profits and NGOs. It was amazing to work for the Catholic Relief Services NGO and implement an online financial system to replace their manual work. I’m thankful that Accenture supports non-profit work.”

Women in Technology

Sharma has always had an interest in technology and describes WIRED Magazine and TechCrunch as her bedtime reads. She is drawn to consumer technology as it has the biggest and most tangible impact on the lives of the average Jane/Joes and describes being able to influence that impact as being, “incredible.”

She believes it’s important to have more women in tech for the diversity of ideas that come from women being part of the conversation. “We bring different, fresh perspectives to the table and maybe even different ways of getting the job done. But I think it’s important to have diversity period, beyond gender. I see this at Accenture, working alongside people of many different backgrounds, beliefs and experiences, and how that diversity in people helps us deliver innovation.” says Sharma.

The Importance of Mentorship

Sponsorship and mentoring have played a very important role in Sharma’s career. She has benefitted from a ‘Career Counselor’, that all Accenture’s employees have access to, “I’ve had some great Career Counselors throughout my time at Accenture that have been my guiding light to help me advance and make the career choices that are best for me,” she states.

Sharma has also benefitted from organic mentors she has met along her journey and describes her mom as her biggest professional role model, “She emigrated from another country and maintained a work-life balance while raising three kids with my dad.”

Outside of Work

Outside of work Sharma loves being active, “I’ll do everything from yoga and dance to snowboarding and biking. I’m a certified yoga instructor and love teaching yoga to both coworkers and my students,” she says.

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Voice of Experience: Xing Zhou, Diversity & Inclusion Leader, PwC China

You can fulfill your dreams in your work life and also enjoy your family life.

Voice of Experience- Xing Zhou, Diversity & Inclusion Leader, PwCThat’s the message that PwC China’s Xing Zhou works hard to impart to her female staff members. “I view it as an achievement that as the mom of two children, I am able to find the balance and can serve as a role model for others in my firm and industry,” she says.

Zhou began her career with the Central Bank of China where she spent three years before deciding on a career change that took her to PwC in Shanghai. She soon was offered the opportunity to work in the New York office where she was promoted to manager before returning to her hometown of Beijing.

For the past 14 years she has worked with PwC in Beijing. Zhou is currently the insurance industry leader for PwC China where she oversees all the services they provide to the insurance industry, including audit, consulting and tax.

Since insurance is a relatively new industry in China, Zhou says it has been gratifying to watch the discipline mature over the past 14 years and see the contributions that PwC’s team has made to its growth, as they work with regulators and key market players to introduce best practices from the firm’s expertise overseas.

Going for the Gold

Recently, Zhou participated in one of her most exciting professional obligations to date: She was chosen to be part of the eight-person delegation that represented Beijing’s winning bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics. She participated as the financial expert on the committee, collaborating with many top dignitaries, including the Vice Prime Minister of China and Mayor of Beijing.

“To have all these accomplished people respect my professional expertise in finance provided an incredible amount of satisfaction, to have my many years of hard work acknowledged,” she says.

Participating in the committee was also rewarding because it reinforced that she was able to take on any challenge, even something outside of her comfort zone. “Each success like this builds your confidence,” she notes.

Promoting Diversity from Different Angles

Zhou says that the concept of diversity is newer in China and Hong Kong than in the western world, and was largely introduced by global companies such as PwC. While gender diversity is important to ensure that female employees have equal opportunities for promotions and upward mobility, she says that China’s culture, which encourages women to work outside the home, makes it easier to balance men’s and women’s roles.

However, there are two new areas where they are shining the diversity spotlight. The first is on cultural diversity, where teams of people from mainland China, Hong Kong and expatriates are learning to work together and value the viewpoints and contributions of disparate groups.

In addition, they are increasingly encountering generational diversity from younger colleagues, as well as younger clients due to the many new start-up firms that seek their services.

As Diversity Leader for PwC China/HK, Zhou’s core focus is to create an inclusive working environment. She acknowledges that’s easier to talk about than to create, so she says that it’s important to make sure that diversity is part of the strategy of the firm.

One way they encourage diversity is through recruiting, by intentionally making sure that they seek a diverse pool of candidates, which includes bringing folks together from mainland China and Hong Kong as well as expatriates. As a consequence, the advisory team stands to benefit from a plurality of talent.

Then they have a three-pronged strategy to ensure the concept infiltrates throughout the firm.

First, PwC makes sure everyone understands the issue by providing mandatory training to leaders on unconscious bias; then they share those lessons with the rest of the workforce; and finally they intentionally monitor it via KPIs.

Work/Life Balance Challenges

The biggest challenge that Zhou finds Chinese women face is pressure from their families – from husbands through in-laws – to work less. She feels part of that stems from the traditional one-child policy, which put the sole family focus on caring for one baby.

She hears from her employees that sometimes their families assume their focus will shift from their work to their child when they become mothers.

“When my staff members come to me and say that they feel pressured, I ask them, ‘What do you want?’ I remind them that being a mother brings life changes, but that they remain the same person they always have been,” she says, adding that everyone has their own specific goals; some may choose to dedicate most of their time at home, while others may elect to continue working.

“Each person has to look inside themselves and make their own choice without feeling pressure from family members, and then ask them to support that choice,” she asserts.

She also finds that global mobility for women is a growing area of focus. While PwC has a mature global mobility strategy, it’s become a hot topic for many Chinese companies that have started to globalize their businesses, but don’t yet have policies in place. PwC has been instrumental in sharing best practices, having recently published a thought leadership paper on moving women with purpose.

Part of the reason that women don’t go overseas from China as frequently is that few companies have formal policies in place, and often there is no mechanism to survey them to assess their interest. Interestingly, she says that when PwC surveys its employees, 70 percent of them express interest in an overseas assignment. From there, the key concern is the career path after they return.

Maintaining Work/Life Balance in Her Own Life

Zhou values her work/life balance and appreciates the support she receives from her parents and in-laws, but most of all her husband. As a doctor, he understands the professional challenges she faces and the two of them are able to support one another’s struggles and schedules.

Weekends are family time – even when there is work to be done. Her children love to join her at the office, where they can draw on the whiteboards and find other ways to amuse themselves. She encourage her staff to bring their children in as needed, also.

Finally, her family plans plenty of outside activities from skiing to weekly art lessons they take together. And, she adds, she loves to cook, a hobby that her family can enjoy also.

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Voice of Experience Ay Wen Lie, Partner M&A Advisory PwC Singapore

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Voice of Experience Ay Wen Lie, Partner M&A Advisory PwC Singapore (F)Ay Wen Lie began her career with KLM Airlines as a business manager working on restructuring and growing the business via joint ventures and mergers.

KLM had a joint venture with Northwest and was considering the option to merge with the airline Alitalia.

However, the merger with Alitalia did not go ahead and instead of growing the business, the focus shifted to cost savings and selling off non-core businesses. After a few years of continuous downsizing, she wanted to turn her attention to the act of building something, focusing on business growth and exploring her entrepreneurial capabilities. She started her own company together with her sister, focusing on interior lighting with products made from natural materials and the use of traditional handcraft in modern designs.

For several years, they built the business, refining the concept and expanding the business, primarily through selling B2B at trade shows. Although it was challenging, she appreciated the sense of control and excitement of building something from scratch. However, in a small company, at some point the business cycle remains the same — constant travelling in search of new producers, developing new products, quality control, tradeshows, shipping and designing new products. She decided it was time to turn to something new, where she could develop new skills and explore other opportunities with more variety. That’s when she joined PwC in the Netherlands.

“Even though the company was doing well I wanted to see what else was out there” Lie says.

“I didn’t see new opportunities for my personal development that I could get excited about. My sister, who loves creating new designs understood, and she has continued the business together with her husband”.

Although she grew up in the Netherlands, her family is Chinese-Indonesian and it had always been her ambition to live abroad with her husband and children. After a few years at PwC Netherlands, they offered her an international assignment opportunity abroad: The United States, China or Singapore.

Location, Location, Location

The couple chose Singapore because of its location as the central hub in South East Asia that was close to family, the opportunities that came with a booming Asian economy, and the fact that Singapore is one of the world’s leading financial centers.

The relocation to PwC Singapore also offered Lie the unique opportunity to build a Mergers & Acquisitions Operations practice for PwC Singapore’s Financial Services Industry Practice. “This was a great opportunity and I really enjoyed the challenge,” she says.

After three years, Lie decided to make her move to PwC Singapore permanent. “There was still such great opportunity to grow the practice further, and I was so proud of what we had built – it would have been hard to let go.”

PwC Singapore acts as a center of excellence in many areas for the region, as many international companies base their regional headquarters in Singapore, and the firm had invested early in developing a strong deals practice. The result is one of the most advanced deals practices in the region, supporting clients along all aspects of the deal continuum. “Singapore remains a very exciting location to me as we continue to develop our deals practice,” comments Lie.

Succeeding by Making Clear Choices

She says one of her biggest learnings has been to not be afraid of making choices and being clear about what you want, what you believe in and what you stand for. “There were lots of things I was interested in, and I wasn’t sure what to focus on; I was always hedging my bets. Only when I started to make choices, and others could see what I was about, did it all came together,” Lie states.

She had what she calls her “breakthrough moment” on the wisdom of this philosophy when the company she was running made a clear choice that they should focus only on their own products. “It was a scary moment taking out half of the product line up, but all of a sudden we were being courted by top magazines. It was clear what we stood for and believed in.”

She encountered the same when she moved to PwC Singapore. In the beginning she took on a lot of different things, trying to be useful to everyone. She found, however, that by doing that you don’t stand out, as it is not clear to others what you are really good at and passionate about, and therefore where you can add most value. She had to figure out what she wanted to do and build her own personal brand. “Don’t be afraid to make choices, play to your strengths and focus your energy on where you can best add value,” she says.

An Exciting Industry

At work these days, Lie finds her position constantly evolving as she supports clients with their regional integrations and/or divestments. She appreciates that these programs give her a view into a company’s whole ecosystem, addressing strategic, tactical and operational issues. It is a challenge creating a new business under tight timelines, with lots of uncertainty, bringing people and businesses together and motivating them to buy into a new future. It is often difficult for people to let go of what they have been part of for many years.

“I enjoy thinking through the complexities with a diverse range of people, finding the best solutions given the circumstances and keeping an eye out for what this means in the long run.”

She says it’s an exciting time to be in the financial services industry as a whole. “It’s crucial to have a stable financial system, and yet so much is happening. There is uncertainty in the markets, and regulators are constantly implementing new regulations which make it difficult for banks to be agile and focus on client needs. There is a lot of competition and cost pressure. On top of all that, blockchain or more general fintech will rapidly change the traditional operating models.”

She has been a member of the board of the Association of Dutch Business People in Singapore and also participates in the ‘Women in Finance’ Network which brings together women (and men) from all the industry layers and fosters networking.

A Family Affair

With two children, ages 9 and 11, Lie loves to spend time watching their sports, but also being active together — hiking, skiing or riding horses. “Outdoor sports allow you to be connected with yourselves, each other and nature.”

She believes for women to successfully combine family and career a lot depends on a woman’s partner. “In my experience it’s important to discuss and agree with your partner what both your ambitions in life are. What do you want to achieve; what kind of family life do you want; and how do you want to raise your children?”

While circumstances can change and priorities will shift, couples should reach an understanding of what is important to each and discuss how they can achieve that together, by supporting one other’s ambitions and accepting and acknowledging what the impact will be in terms of lifestyle or timing of career choices.

“Sometimes that means taking a step back in one area to move forward in another,” Lie says, “and this goes both ways between partners.”

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