Voice of Experience: Wendy Yun, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs

Wendy YunEvery experience offers learning opportunities and skills that can be applicable in the future, believes Goldman Sachs’ Wendy Yun. “Maximize every opportunity,” she says. “If you’re involved in meetings or invited to work on special projects, it’s always important to be prepared, think ahead about potential issues or action steps, have confidence to express your ideas or concerns and in general, find ways to add value.”

Building a Successful Career from Past Experiences

Yun began her career as a private practice attorney focusing on securitizations and structured products. She joined Goldman Sachs in 2006 and now oversees a team of lawyers and negotiators who cover derivatives and other products globally on behalf of the firm’s Investment Management Division.

While one of her proudest professional achievements is her promotion to managing director in 2012, she says she is equally proud of her role in helping members of her team develop their own voice and identity as professionals.

Reflecting on her career, Yun has realized the importance of being open to new challenges and of maximizing new opportunities. As a junior lawyer, she hoped to specialize in collateralized loan obligations and other securitized products, but was often assigned other types of deals and transactions as well. “Initially, I thought these projects were a distraction from my primary focus,” she says. “But over time I realized that having the opportunity to work on a variety of assignments helped me become a better lawyer by diversifying my skill set and expanding my outlook.”

And, she adds, learning opportunities that shape your perspective may come from jobs or experiences that might not be related to your current career path. “I tell junior lawyers that having a range of experiences, including waitressing in high school or working as a legal assistant before law school, helped me develop interpersonal and other skills that I rely on today in my current role,” Yun noted. “I learned early on that you must be adept at multi-tasking and prioritizing competing requests while simultaneously being sensitive to your clients’ specific needs and preferences and managing different personalities.”

That mindset will serve professionals well throughout their careers, which often take twists and turns they don’t envision, Yun says. In her current role, Yun spends an increasing amount of time analyzing and implementing new regulations that apply to derivatives and other products utilized by her businesses. While the work deviates from the transactions and trading agreements that her team negotiates, she finds it fascinating to observe the process of how new regulations are developed through her involvement with industry trade associations and meetings with regulators.

She also finds it important to maintain a global perspective on understanding how rules from multiple jurisdictions might differ. “As we support global businesses, we constantly have to be aware of how various regulations could affect our transactions with other multi-national organizations and our clients worldwide.”

Opportunities for Women

Yun has seen increased opportunities for women in the financial sector and is active in helping others build their skills. She believes that fostering women’s ambition can start at an early age and currently mentors a high school junior who is preparing for college through the Student Sponsor Partners program. She also serves on the Women’s Leadership Council of her alma mater Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., to help prepare female graduates to enter the workforce.

In addition, Yun mentors junior people at the firm and encourages them to develop their professional identity as thought leaders. “At Goldman Sachs we have a culture that encourages teamwork, but women also need to find their own voice and develop leadership skills.”

Yun finds that some women, even at senior levels, may be more risk adverse than male counterparts in taking positions, sharing views or asking questions. Over time and based on the responsibilities that Yun has been given in the course of her career, she has developed a greater willingness to express her perspectives among leaders in the business, with colleagues in her department and others in the industry. She also recognizes the importance that mentors have had in helping her to develop this greater confidence. “I would encourage women to seek advice and feedback from peers or mentors and not hesitate to ask questions and share thoughts,” she urges. “Take advantage of the support network you have through mentors, sponsors and colleagues.”

Use Travel to Develop a Global Understanding

An avid traveler, Yun encourages everyone to get out of their comfort zone and travel to develop a global perspective of the world. She cites her studies in Moscow as an experience that instilled in her a new outlook at a relatively young age. “Entering a culture where people did not have access to basic goods fundamentally changed my outlook and priorities,” she says. “Travel positively alters your view of not only global issues, but also your perspective of your own life.”

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Voice of Experience: Jennifer Tsahalis, Managing Director, Head of Planning, Execution & Operations, TIAA Digital

jennifer tsahalis featuredAs a woman in a male-dominated industry, I’ve made sure that my male counterparts know what I bring to the table to ensure I have a seat with them,” says TIAA’s Jenn Tsahalis. Although tech and finance are both male-dominated fields, Tsahalis shares that she hasn’t felt gender discrimination, always assuming positive intent.

Over the years if she was excluded from a meeting or important conversation, for example, she didn’t automatically assume it was because she’s a woman, but because the team wasn’t yet aware of her strengths, talents or ability to add value.

While Tsahalis has worked in financial services technology for many years, she initially attended the University of Vermont where she majored in Electrical Engineering, a path chosen because the school didn’t offer courses in architecture, her intended career of choice at that point.

During the course of interviewing for her first job after college, Tsahalis was particularly intrigued with Andersen Consulting, now Accenture, where she says “it was less about the bits and bytes and more about how you think and how you get work done.” She moved to Boston to work for them, which she says set her career path on its current trajectory. “Accenture taught me many essential skills. Their focus on the thought process and their encouragement to never stop learning has stuck with me.”

Building a Legacy of Success

During the tech bubble days in 2000, Tsahalis had a short stint at Razorfish, before deciding to pursue her next role as a tech lead at Fidelity Investments in the Health & Welfare Benefits Outsourcing division. It was there, while working Fidelity’s NetBenefits product that she says she found her niche and moved into technical project management. In her eventual role as Technology Delivery Manager Tsahalis ran some of the largest and most complex systems in the history of the firm, developing a reputation for bringing highly complex systems and highly matrixed teams together to deliver results.

Following her success at Fidelity, Tsahalis was offered an opportunity to join Merrill Lynch, helping to build the company’s digital presence. In her role as Director of Program Delivery for Online Channels, she led the design, development and delivery of the 3- year program to launch MyMerrill.com and Merrill Edge.com before moving the eventual ongoing day-to-day program delivery of the firm’s client facing (online, mobile, IVR and call center desktop) channels.

It was during this post-launch period that Jenn helped create a process that transitioned this launch of a brand new platform into a steady state development machine and is a period about which she is particularly proud. For Tsahalis, the satisfaction came from overcoming people and process resistance and developing a delivery methodology that made projects run both smoothly and transparently. “I’m one of those people who loves process,” she says. “It was gratifying to develop a process that would make someone’s job easier, in order to give them more time in the day to focus on being creative and innovative.”

In July 2015, Tsahalis joined TIAA as the Chief Operating Officer for the TIAA Digital organization – a group that spans both business and technology and is at the heart of TIAA’s quest to become a true digital company. Different from her technical program delivery past experience, she says working in a business operations role provides unending learning opportunities and challenges, all of which are immensely fulfilling and provide the same opportunity to establish right-sized processes and to grow professionally.

“It is fascinating to work on the business side of the TIAA Digital organization, developing strategic operational plans and delivering essential metrics,” she says. “Automating and improving both the customer experience and our back office operations is imperative to success, because in reality, every company must now become a technology company,” she says. “And this is absolutely true of a firm like TIAA.”

Investing in Each Other

Whether working on technical projects or driving business operations, Tsahalis has found one constant theme. “It’s important for women to support each other, regardless of their career stage,” says Tsahalis. “The workplace can be competitive and this sometimes can cause women to face off against each other. After experiencing some of this in the past, I’ve made it a focus to bond with my female peers and to invest in their teams and their goals, which helps to keep the competitive vibe at bay and better serves us in the long run.”

At TIAA, she has made it a point to join relevant groups including the company’s Women’s Employee Resource Group and the IT Women’s Council, where she recently participated in a panel discussion for International Women’s Day. “The panelists were fantastic – very transparent and candid. We really helped some of these younger women think about how they can manage their career and still have a good life balance,” she says. “I learned so much from the panelists myself – women really can do amazing things and I was inspired by my peers.”

Inspiring the Next Generation of Women

While Tsahalis says she didn’t understand the need to join women’s networking groups earlier in her career, she believes they can be of huge benefit to women because these groups offer an easy way to meet people, build your brand, contribute to a community and potentially even to find a mentor. She also encourages women to look to men as mentors to take advantage of the different perspective they can offer.

Tsahalis advises young women to have a vision for where they want to go and to reach out and build the relationships to get there. That’s an important topic for her as the mom of two daughters: Lily, age 11, and 18-month-old Violet. With a husband who’s also in IT, they focus on helping their daughters understand that they can aspire to any career.

“We spend a lot of time really encouraging them because we see the logical way their minds work to process information. Lily has become a very rational person as she applies logic and the principles of science to every decision – helping her to cut through the drama that can be associated with 6th grade girls.”

Tsahalis says that when she was growing up, she wasn’t aware of all the career options that were available and only landed in Electrical Engineering by accident. She is happy that girls now have so much opportunity presented to them through a wide variety of programs in their schools and communities.

In addition to taking advantage of women’s groups or other networking programs that may be available at school or work, Tsahalis also encourages all women to speak up for themselves and not to overthink their decisions. It is her experience that many women limit themselves just by not speaking up or trying something new. She believes that working hard, being confident in one’s skills, networking and supporting one’s peers are all keys to a successful career.

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Voice of Experience, Hila Goldenberg, Head of Ultra – High Net Worth Clients in Israel, UBS Wealth Management

Hila GoldenbergBy Cathie Ericson

“Ask for more,” advises UBS’ Hila Goldenberg. “Women often expect to be promoted or be included on a high-profile project, but are too shy to speak up and ask for what they want. It won’t just happen; they need to ask for professional development and define their career goals, then express these plans to their superiors as they strive for more.”

Throughout her career, Goldenberg has seen the benefits of being open about a desire for increased responsibility. She began her career at a law firm in Israel and then went to work as an assistant to the General Director for the Israel Antitrust Authority, a unique experience that allowed her to meet a wide variety of business, parliamentary and government leaders.

Realizing she had an interest and aptitude in business, she went back to school and earned her MBA at INSEAD in Fontainebleau and Singapore, ranked as the best global MBA program in the world. After graduating, she joined Citi Private Bank in London as part of the team that covered Israel, later moving back to Israel when they opened an office there. She stayed there until 2014 when she was invited to UBS to form and lead its ultra-high net worth team in Israel.

Helping Her Clients Make a Difference

This decision to join UBS to start a new venture and create a new coverage team is a professional achievement of which she is particularly proud. In her role, she is able to help wealthy individuals with a full array of services far beyond asset management, everything from philanthropic endeavors and impact investments to next generation wealth transfer and art selection. “We are partners in their endeavors and work with them to help develop the legacy they want to leave, such as creating a tangible impact on society or helping disadvantaged socioeconomic groups,” she says. “Many have concerns that the next generation must not rely solely on the great wealth they are inheriting. We advise them on best practices for setting personal and professional milestones and provide assistance on structuring their wealth for the generations to come.”

The other part of her role that is meaningful to her is overseeing the Social Impact Bond UBS has launched in Israel to help fight diabetes. The funds will be used to identify and work with high-risk populations on lifestyle changes they can implement to help prevent diabetes, work that she says will make dramatic differences. “Impact investing provides a vehicle that has a social effect and also offers solid financial benefits for investors,” she says. “We have seen much interest from clients in this theme.”

Diversity Creates Success

Goldenberg has been involved in an annual Women in Wealth networking forum at UBS that allows participants to learn about other cultures and best practices. She appreciates that UBS has a focused emphasis on diversity and inclusion and views it as an asset in the organization’s recruiting endeavors. “Whether it’s diversity of gender, culture or even just a different educational expertise, such as arts and sciences, we look to hire people from various backgrounds,” she says, adding that the goal is always to look at the individual to find the best talent.

“We benefit from these different viewpoints because they lead to more quality decision making as we consider perspectives of people who can share a broader variety of input,” she says.

Travel as an Integral Part of Work and Family

With a partner and two boys, ages three and four-and-a half, Goldenberg strives to balance the challenge of a successful, fulfilling career with the needs of her family. Her position requires extensive travel, so while she finds it hard to leave, she is proud to articulate to her family that she loves what she does, even though she misses them.

And they are able to share in adventures with frequent travel as a family, both around Israel and abroad. They take a trip to Asia every year and are currently preparing for a trip to Thailand. “We love discovering different cultures and history and immersing ourselves in the entire experience,” she says.

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Thought Leader: Elizabeth Diep, Partner, Asset and Wealth Management Practice, PricewaterhouseCoopers

Elizabeth DiepBy Cathie Ericson

Don’t be afraid to pursue the big assignment or job even if you think you don’t meet 100 percent of the qualifications,” says PwC’s Elizabeth Diep. She urges women not to limit themselves because although you won’t always hit it out of the park, you learn from every experience, and often even more from the ones that don’t succeed. “Big jobs are scary but the only way you learn is by practicing.”

And, she cautions, if you say no too many times, people will start assuming you’re not interested and you’ll no longer be on the list for consideration. “Along the way you have to take calculated risks.”
As an assurance partner in the audit practice, Diep focuses on alternative investment clients, which include endowments, hedge funds and private equity clients, ranging from highly complex, multi-national companies to smaller, locally based equity funds. As Diep puts it, that is her “day job,” as she is also involved in other firm business, including assisting with people initiatives as a Human Capital (human resources) partner, where she focuses on helping a group of about 150 more junior colleagues navigate the firm, providing guidance on their development, education and experience.

A Changing Industry Full of Challenges

Because the asset management world within the financial services industry is still fairly male dominated, Diep sees it as one ripe with opportunity. “If someone wants to thrive and be challenged every day, this is the field for them,” she says, noting that in an ever-changing industry, there are constantly new financial instruments being created. “As the world gets more complex, the industry gets more complex,” she says.

The industry also is appealing to anyone with an international mindset. “The opportunities that lie abroad push you to be more open to the world because we’re interacting in a global society every day.”

The industry also calls for flexibility since your day can change with every phone call or email articulating a new client need. “I might have a client interested in investing in transportation out of Greece and Panama so I need to see what resources PwC has to support those needs,” she says. And that’s why success lies in delivering relationships before you need them.

“You’re not just working with people in your office, but other partners and members of the global network. You have to be resourceful and know who can help you find the answer you need. Those connectors become critical to your success.”

She says that today’s workforce is different from generations past when people were expected to have all the answers. Today, it’s more important to know which expert can help you get the answer rather than being expected to know everything personally.

Flexibility Remains a Challenge

Diep cites a recent PwC survey of millennials that explores the importance of flexibility, and unfortunately, she finds that while many firms promote work/life balance, employees still worry that taking advantage of these programs could have a negative impact. And that translates into a pervasive feeling among many women, especially working moms at the mid-career level, that the industry is too demanding if they want to perform well and also have a family.

One program designed to help is the “He for She” program, of which PwC is a sponsor with a goal of having 80 percent of the men join. “At the end of the day it’s primarily men sitting around the table so we have to get them involved in this conversation and advance women’s causes,” Diep says. “When we move away from just women talking about the challenges but have men supporting them, it will be a game changer.”

She says that she has been bolstered in her own career by mentors and sponsors who served as role models with a balance that she has learned to emulate. “It’s not always equal,” she says, noting that sometimes they were working late hours but then they still always made time to disconnect on vacation or take off for their kids’ birthdays. “They gave me an example of how you can use the day how it works best for you, to balance all your key life relationships, while always completing high-quality work.”

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Thought Leader: Deborah Lorenzen, Managing Director & Chief Operating Officer, Global Product & Marketing; State Street Global Advisors

Deborah Lorenzen 2To Deborah Lorenzen, talent is everything for a business’ success.

Since 2008, acquiring talent in the financial services sector has largely been a buyer’s market, where it’s been easier for firms to pick and choose the talent they want to bring in. Consequently, they haven’t had to spend as much time or effort making sure people are enthusiastic about joining the firm. But, says Lorenzen, savvy firms know they need to be prepared for the next cycle, which she calls the “War for Talent.”

“We can dramatically improve the front end of our hiring process, but we don’t spend enough time on it,” she says.To that end, she is currently focused on improving three different phases of the talent acquisition cycle.

Making Job Descriptions More Inclusive

First, she says that job descriptions need an overhaul, recommending that they be stripped of corporate speak and made more gender neutral. “Beyond articulating the job requirements, job descriptions are a marketing document, since they are read by hundreds of people who never even apply,” she says. “The majority of those who read them are people in my industry, and I want to leave them with a positive impression of my company.”

One remedy is tools that use an analytical perspective to identify which words attract which people by mapping the factors of a job description that ultimately led to a certain type of hire.

Entering existing job descriptions into the tool yields instant feedback, such as which words are likely to attract female or male candidates, which can then be used to incorporate more balanced verbiage. One lesser-known fact is that if your job description is filled with acronyms, research shows that men are more likely to apply even if they don’t understand the corporate jargon.

“We’re excluding large swaths of the population by how we word things,” Lorenzen says.

Maintaining Consistency Throughout the Interview Process

While competency-based interviews have become the norm, there is still a need to improve consistency. To that end, Lorenzen has helped create tools that lead to better interviews. Managers can quickly select the key competencies for the job they are filling, which brings up a set of pre-worded questions that will give them insight into candidates by prompting specific, measurable examples specific to that skill, such as “Give me an example of a time that you displayed teamwork.” For a trait such as global acumen, managers can choose different questions based on the depth of expertise required by the position level.

After key questions are chosen and position specific questions are added, the manager then can print out the job interview form and use it consistently with all of their candidates. “It allows them to compare apples to apples rather than having different experiences with different people,” she says. “The tools should be intuitive so we set our managers up for success.”

Pre-boarding for Success

In the United States, there is typically a two-week lag from when someone accepts the job until they actually start. In other parts of the world, people might have up to 90 days, a lengthy transition period when companies must engage with their future employees throughout the gap.

Among the support her division supplies are links to company information, “acronym decoders” and details on what to expect the first day. “This is about emotional engagement, so our new hires believe they have made the best decision of their career.”

For example, new employees will learn what to expect on the first day, and what activities to expect in the first 10 days. Setting expectations improves time-to-productivity, which is a key metric for the business.

Another key component of pre-boarding is discussing the wide variety of Employee Resource Groups available. “We want them to know that our company is proud of our diversity and whatever their gender, orientation, culture or background, there’s someone like them here already.”

Data Analytics Drive Decisions

In addition to a focus on better hiring, Lorenzen is immersed in technology infrastructure and data analytics. “Data is the key to understanding both our current environment and our next move,” she says. We can use data to identify products which are high performers and which aren’t meeting expectations, and track those products in real time.

Since decision science is a relatively new field, Lorenzen and her team are constantly tasked with finding the best talent. “They have to come in with diversity of thought, which comes from diversity of experience,” she says. “We must have a variety of perspectives in the room since there’s constant demand to improve the technology architecture.”

A Word for Women

Finally, Lorenzen believes that women have a special role in the industry to help others. And while she sees this as a responsibility, the rewards are mutual. “It gives me great joy to watch young people come up in the organization,” she says.

And she adds, there are few industries that are more competitive. “People are always going to be looking to take you out, but it’s not because you’re a girl, it is because you are competition. We need to raise our voices, as uncomfortable and dangerous as it can feel, when we see bias.” Why? Because for our businesses to thrive in this rapidly changing landscape we need the smartest, most innovative team we can muster, which by definition brings a diversity of thought to the table. This is an obligation for senior executives, including women.

The views expressed in this material are the views of Deborah Lorenzen of State Street Global Advisors through the period ended April 13, 2016.

The whole or any part of this work may not be reproduced, copied or transmitted or any of its contents disclosed to third parties without State Street express written consent.

State Street Corporation, One Lincoln Street, Boston, MA 02111-2900

© 2016 State Street Corporation – All Rights Reserved

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Change Leader: A Q&A with Christine Hurtsellers, CIO Fixed Income, Voya

Christine HurtsellersWe caught up with Christine Hurtsellers, Chief Investment Officer of Fixed Income for Voya Investment Management (IM), to talk about the future of the financial services industry.

Nicki: What has changed since we last interviewed you back in 2010?

Christine: I still have the same role, however, following our IPO in May 2013 and separation from ING Group, we rebranded as Voya. It’s been an exciting process to define Voya’s values and recalibrate our investment policies. In 2015, Pensions & Investments Magazine named Voya IM one of its “2015 Best Places to Work in Money Management” list for the first time. The firm also recently received distinction as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies® by the Ethisphere Institute for the third year in a row.

Nicki: Why do you think it is so important to help advance good talent, including more women in the industry?

Christine: I am passionate about making the investment industry better. I want to help rising stars in the industry that are women and provide them with a toolkit. I believe that women can be phenomenal investors, and I want to challenge and speak with them to help them grow as thoughtful investors. People entering this industry are looking for more than a paycheck. They value experience and want to work for places that are more values-based. I think it is great that millennials are thinking way more about linking their values to their workplace experience than previous generations.

Nicki: What is your advice to someone entering the industry or who is in the early stages of her career?

Christine: The cost of doing business is increasing and as a result we will see some consolidation. Some products are becoming more commoditized with ETFs showing up more for retail investors on that side of the business. It is an interesting time to be in the industry as institutional clients look for unique, customized approaches for their portfolio. The road is becoming more and more bifurcated. For people entering the industry, there is a temptation to become specialized early at a boutique firm. I believe it is critical to stay flexible to learn a variety of skills for the first 8-9 years of your career. My advice is to look for companies with multi-dimensional businesses to give yourself that opportunity.

Nicki: You recounted to me how one time a woman said you were an unrealistic role model. How did that make you feel?

Christine: I don’t want to be the poster child for women at work because I have five kids and I run marathons, that isn’t everyone’s version of life. How do we lift as we climb? That is the bigger question, and I think the answer is to share with people my failures and some of the decisions I have made. I try to be real and make sure my advice is very content oriented about the markets and investing. By challenging and teaching people, I can be a better role model. Lastly, if I can use my network to help women and make appropriate introductions, then I know I am walking the talk.

I try to hire women and I use my network because a long time ago a woman did the same for me and she was instrumental in helping me get my next job. She was in fixed income sales and she introduced me to many clients and people in the industry. This was crucial in me securing my next role at what is now Alliance Bernstein

Looking out for each other in times of trials is so important. To have someone put her credibility on the line and say “hey, talk to this person” is incredible, and this woman did that for me, so I want to pay it forward.

Nicki: How do we ensure other leaders are as accountable as they think they are for real change?

Christine: I think the best way to engage leaders in the discussion of having diversity in their teams is to challenge them to think about what they do to shape the culture.
Sometimes it isn’t obvious to other leaders that they need to create pathways and a culture for success for women that goes beyond mentioning their women’s network and other HR policies.

I want to see accountability for diversity, and if I start with the numbers – literally asking how many women are in senior roles – then it usually opens up an honest conversation with most male leaders to think more about how they can approach hiring and developing more women.

Nicki: How have you successfully built relationships in the industry – both within your firm and with people in other firms?

Christine: Networking can be such an implicit action; it’s just something we do. You meet interesting people along the way and share relevant insights with them – add value to the other person and they will reciprocate – like in a marriage you have to love and you have to love first.

I joined the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee in 2014 and I am enjoying working with really talented and intelligent people on a very interesting subject that has real consequences. I work at leaning in with them. Sending an article to a small group who share common interests, dropping them a note from time to time. It is about contributing as best as you can to further the task and mission. Building relationships is ongoing, and it is an honor to work with such great people providing recommendations to Treasury on a variety of debt management issues.

Nicki: Do women help other women at work?

Christine: I would go as far as saying that I believe that women help women in tough situations, more than men help other men. It is also important to look for your advocates in male and female leaders as I have great examples of how men have believed in me. Rob Leary, now CEO at TIAA Asset Management, was the person who gave me the job at Voya. I wasn’t the most obvious candidate, and he took a risk on me. He knew I was great with people and an exceptional investor, and I delivered for him.

Nicki: What is the one thing you know now that you wish you had known when you were first starting your career?

Christine: I went it alone for a long time. The power of networking peers and mentoring is something I wish I had considered when I started my career. I wish I had focused more on the quality of management, their values and ethics, and the culture they create at the company.

In life, you take every opportunity and you learn – in careers, as long as you maximize learning, you are on the right path. I ended up fine tuning my experience in mortgage derivatives when I made a move to Freddie Mac. Many advised me against it, but I knew it was important for me to spend more time with my family as previously I wasn’t seeing them from Sunday night to Friday afternoon. I learned so much. It meant I could come to Voya due to my deep knowledge, and for my life at that time it meant my family and I could be happy, which is of course really important.

It’s about making the best out of any experience.

Christine is also a panelist at our upcoming event – theglasshammer.com’s 5th Annual Navigating your career event on May 4th 2016.

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Mover and Shaker: Christine Molloy, Manager, Accenture Consulting

Christine MolloyMolloy began her career with Accenture in 2009 as a summer intern, and joined Accenture full-time in 2010 after graduating from Southern Methodist University with a Masters degree in Information Engineering. Since joining, she has worked with several large utility companies to help them implement complex systems and specializes in customer care solutions for energy providers nationwide.

Molloy understands what it takes to continue to raise through the ranks in her career as she comments,

“Many of my assumptions entering the corporate world were around work-life balance. In the beginning of my career, I believed the more I worked, the faster I would stand out and get ahead. I quickly realized this was old thinking – working smart and taking time to focus on your own well-being are extremely important to creating a successful career path.”

When asked about professional achievements so far, she replied,

“I am proud of several professional achievements I have had throughout my career. The ones that stand out most are when I have brought teams together to deliver great outcomes and, subsequently, when clients have been the most satisfied. I think it is about adding value.”

She goes on to give an example of having been a member of a team across geographies that was working across multiple US states, as well as Canada and India. The team had been working to solve a complex problem for a client and the team was struggling to integrate together around the task. Molloy comments,

“I guided the group to come together as a team, realize common ground and deliver a solution that was agreeable to all and beneficial to the client – and that felt like I added a lot of value.”

She also talks about a recent project that she has just completed, which consisted of a SAP Customer Information System and business intelligence implementation project for a large utility project. She states,

“This was such an exciting project because I got to work on it from the early stages through to a successful go-live. I was responsible for consolidating two systems into a single solution to improve operational efficiency and enhance customer experience. The nature of the work was complex and rewarding since my client was an early adopter of the technology.”

Molloy repeatedly cites her strong team and a good company as a key element in her success and also mentions sponsorship as playing a significant role in her career. She states,

“I would not be where I am today if it was not for the mentors and sponsors who have helped guide me. Everyone needs a strong team of support but, in many cases, you will have to seek out and identify mentors and sponsors that will be there for you along the way. “

Equally she recognized that it is important to take the time to support and mentor others,

“My father, now retired, taught me what it means to be a leader, to work hard and also to put family first. I owe my leadership skills to him and I know that as I continue to learn, build my network and give back to those around me, I too will be successful.”

Molloy states that she has learned the most from working with a diverse array of people, on her own teams at Accenture, with clients and with other people she interacts with daily. She enjoys working with people who have different ways of working, who expect the highest performance and people in different geographies with cultural nuances. She states,

“Working alongside people with a variety of differences can be difficult but, ultimately, it improved my listening skills, increased my flexibility and taught me how to better apply my own social style.”

Accenture has numerous programs and initiatives across the company to support women in succeeding and advancing and personally Molloy is involved with the Miami Women’s Enterprise Resource Group. She comments,

“We have a strong network of women within the company and in our local community. As a part of this, I lead several local women’s groups at different client sites to encourage our women to collaborate and learn from one another in the communities that we work in while traveling.”

Molloy is also the corporate citizenship lead for Accenture’s Miami office and is currently working with a nonprofit partner called Covenant House Florida on several exciting initiatives. Covenant House is a homeless shelter for youth that served more than 51,000 youth last year across 6 countries and 21 cities in North America, providing nearly 700,000 nights of shelter.

She excitedly shared that in a few months, Accenture volunteers will be helping them roll out a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) awareness program. “I currently lead a mock interview initiative where we bring Accenture volunteers to the nonprofit to work one-on-one with disadvantaged youth to prepare them for job interviews and the working world.”

She lives in Fort Lauderdale, FL with her husband and enjoys paddle boarding, traveling and spending time at the beach.

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Voice of Experience: Wendy Mahmouzian, America’s Head of Corporate Services and Real Estate and Global Head of Hospitality, Goldman Sachs

Wendy MahmouzianThe ability to recognize and support talent and lead diverse teams in a high-performance environment, along with a keen appreciation for people’s individual balance between work and personal lives, have significantly contributed to Wendy Mahmouzian’s career. She has not only found the right work/life balance for herself, but supports this pursuit among the teams she leads.

“You have to understand that we’re all somewhere different on the work/life spectrum, and there’s no one answer to the question on how to achieve balance. It’s up to you to determine what it takes to make you feel comfortable and allow you to bring your best self to work,” she says. “It might be your family, sports, culture or education that allows you to achieve that balance, enabling you to bring 100 percent of yourself to work and perform at your best.”

For Mahmouzian, performing at her best has meant constantly learning new skills and being willing to take on new challenges, all while continuously looking for ways to solve problems and create new opportunities for clients. During her 20-year career at Goldman Sachs, she has spent the latter half with the Corporate Services and Real Estate (CSRE) team, first as global chief of staff and now as head of the team for the Americas and global head of hospitality. She joined the firm in the Global Investment Research division and subsequently co-managed the Securities e-Commerce group. Common themes in all of her positions have been contributing to transformative change and enhancing engagement with clients.

A Diverse Set of Priorities That Range From Crisis Response to Sustainability

One of Mahmouzian’s most significant undertakings was leading the team in 2009 that opened the firm’s world headquarters at 200 West Street, overseeing the startup of operations and multi-month migration of employees to the new building. Ensuring that everyone in the new headquarters could be productive on day one was a significant undertaking.

She remains focused on improving the firm’s workplace strategy to respond to business needs and creating a high-performance environment that enables the flow of business, promotes client engagement, maximizes productivity and reflects the firm’s commitment to sustainability and inclusion. She is currently involved in a number of projects, including refurbishing existing buildings, developing new campuses and ensuring that the firm’s spaces meet the needs of employees, clients and guests.

Reviewing past milestones, Mahmouzian notes the vital role her team plays in supporting the firm during key events, including Superstorm Sandy. During the 2012 storm, she organized the team that managed the firm’s response. “We focused on protecting the firm’s assets, particularly its people, and making sure that the business remained up and running throughout the storm and its aftermath,” says Mahmouzian. “The intersection of planning, communication, managing risk and being nimble enabled the team to ensure the firm’s business continuity and was a hallmark of our response.”

Mahmouzian also helps manage the firm’s environmental and operational impacts through innovative strategies in energy efficiency, investments in green building and initiatives to ensure a sustainable and inclusive supply chain.

Advice Along the Career Ladder

For Mahmouzian, patience and listening were skills she developed over time, but she also notes the importance of individuals’ establishing their own voice and speaking up. “You have to learn how to balance soliciting the opinions of team members with articulating your own view as well,” she says.

She also advises women, especially those early in their careers, not to be deterred by a historically male-dominated field like real estate, but to seek as role models more experienced women who have succeeded professionally in the space. “Your capabilities will make you successful, so don’t be intimidated by a room full of people that look different from you.”

While Mahmouzian also supports hospitality, a typically female-dominated field, she says it’s important for both hospitality and real estate to cast a wide net and seek diverse talent that is accretive to the team and delivers for clients.

“Embrace the strengths of those around you and use them to your advantage – engage, encourage and enable,” she says, adding that as she has become more senior, a big part of her job is supporting high-potential talent and creating a platform for their success.

Helping Evolve Women’s Initiatives

One of the projects that Mahmouzian undertook in the CSRE division was to help formalize the division’s women’s network. A cornerstone of this effort was establishing a signature women’s conference that features speakers and a wide range of professional development initiatives to enhance participants’ skills. Over the years this conference has evolved into a global event via video conferencing. She is also proud that many male colleagues have increased their attendance and advocacy. “It’s gratifying that they are eager to support and sustain broader efforts to advance women in the firm,” she noted.

Work/Family Balance Comes From Being Present in the Moment

For Mahmouzian, balance depends on being present in the moment. “With today’s technology, demands are coming from all different angles, and we need to remember that five minutes of focused attention on a challenge or in a discussion will yield a better outcome than an hour of distracted work. Take the time to listen, interpret and have a clear mind,” she says.

She brings that ethic home to her husband and two daughters, whom she calls her “support network.” Being present in the moment is the best way to ensure we have quality time, she says, adding that they love to ski and value the time they spend together as a family.

Superstorm Sandy offered a situation that allowed her to test the merits of this approach. Her family understood that she needed to continue working throughout the weekend in response to the storm: “They knew that in this crisis, my focus was to protect the firm and our people, and they gave me the freedom to do what I needed to do.” As the crisis subsided, her work team returned the favor, ensuring she could hand over the reins to be with her family. “Being present is the cornerstone of success, whether it’s work or family.”

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Intrepid Woman: Linda Davies, Banker to Bestselling Author

Linda DavisNew York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author Linda Davies wrote this guest article for theglasshammer.com about how she succeeded as an investment banker and then made the leap from corporate life into full-time self employment as a novelist. This is surely a dream that many people share, but is it really that easy?

The GH: Linda, tell us about your career in finance in the city of London?

Linda: When I first stepped into the hallowed streets of the City of London as a callow twenty one year old graduate fresh out of Oxford, I only ever intended to stay for a few years.From when I was a little girl, I had always wanted to be a writer.Corporate life was a means to that end.

In the City, I had two objectives: one was to make as much money as I could legally in as short space of time as possible, and the second was to prove a point to myself and whoever I fancied might be watching.

The City lured you in with the promise of money but it had another USP that appealed to my young and foolish ego: it prided itself on its hair-cloth-shirt toughness, insinuating that you had to be something of a superhero to survive let alone thrive.

There weren’t any super heroines back then in the American investment bank I went to work for.I was the first woman they employed in European corporate finance.Back then, the glass ceiling was at entry-level and I was thrilled to have smashed it.
The work was an intellectual challenge, but the environment was not a fit for me..

Dealing in astronomical sums of money and being lavishly rewarded can be very corrupting, can lead you to think that you deserve the money, that you are entitled to the money, and that you need that amount of money to live a satisfactory life.

I had a plan and I stuck to it. I deviated occasionally and allowed myself indulgences, but the greatest indulgence of all is time and money buys time in my opinion. After seven years as a leveraged buyout and high-risk specialist, it was time to leave.

I had for several years been searching for a plot, and then, one day, I was sitting at my desk, feeling particularly annoyed with my boss, and wondering idly how much trouble I could cause financially, when the bare bones of a story leapt into my head.

It was a totally illegal plan, it would have made a lot of money, but I like to sleep easy at night, and so instead of doing it, I wrote about it. After six months, I knew that this plot could turn into a book.

I was young, free, and single. After seven years I had saved up enough money. It was time to take a risk, to turn my back on my large six-figure salary and bonus, and the status and security that went with it.
I remember the day I handed in my notice. I felt as if I had jumped out of an airplane without a parachute. It seemed like I was in freefall for weeks afterwards. It was a gloriously heady feeling.

The GH: Ok, so that is definitely a moment that some people would consider scary, possibly even risky! How did you go from quitting your day job to realizing your dream?

I wrote for 18 months, refining the plot until it was time to test the reality of my dream. Through a friend of a friend I was introduced to a literary agent. I went to see him, handed over my manuscript. It was a Thursday.

Then in some strange feat of serendipity, a kind of fortune favors the brave moment, a bizarre thing happened over the weekend.

About four months earlier, I had written a speculative letter to the Sunday Times, where I suggested writing an article about my experiences in the City. I was contacted a few weeks later by the editor of the Sunday Times Magazine who said absolutely, yes please, do write an article for us about what it is like to be a woman in that extremely testosterone-fuelled environment.

I had no idea when the article would appear, but, as luck would have it, it came out, covering six pages, on the Sunday immediately following my Thursday meeting with the literary agent.

This produced two rather wonderful and wholly anticipated results: one, an auction ensued amongst a number of publishing houses to buy my novel and two, I was contacted by about six different highly prestigious and successful financial boutiques and offered jobs (I have to say at this point, nothing in my article suggested that I wished to return to finance.)

This was 20 years ago.The book was Nest of Vipers – an adrenaline fuelled insight into the life of an investment banker, Sarah Jensen, who was recruited by the Governor of the Bank of England to go undercover in her investment bank to investigate an insider-trading ring that stretched from a central bank to the Mafia. Unbeknownst to her, she was also working for MI6.The novel went on to be published in over thirty territories and to be optioned three times for movies.

I am now on book number 13. Jumping out of my investment banking career had been a risk worth taking on every level.

The GH: What advice would you give our readers today?

I suspect that a number of you reading this are contemplating or have contemplated leaving the corporate system and so my advice to you would go along the following lines:

* While you are inside the system, be wary of buying into it and into the lifestyle to match it if you are intending to leave it, particularly in highly paid professions such as investment banking. Investment banking is a great way to amass money, but only if you do not spend like an investment banker.

* Many women in corporate life can still in some ways feel like outsiders. As the first woman employed by Bankers Trust’s European corporate finance department, I was patently and obviously an outsider and always felt like one. That was a real advantage. Relish and use that feeling. It gives you perspective, the ability to stand aside and look at your position and your broader options in the outside world and gives you greater flexibility in terms of the choices you might go on to make. There is no wonderfully set career path stretching out ahead of you. You have far greater freedom to make it up as you go along.

It’s been shown in personality tests/behavioral profiles that entrepreneurs are overwhelmingly outsiders. Being too wedded to corporate life can blunt your desire and ability to take risks with your career. Being an able quantifier of risk for your organization often does not extend to being able to quantify risk as regards your own life.

I’m a contrarian by nature and it’s led to some odd but potentially beneficial opportunities: the first was my Sunday Times article which I had thought was a very public exercise in boat-burning, in deliberately removing any fallback position, any hint of a Plan B should Plan A fail.I believed that the very absence of a Plan B would make me work harder to ensure Plan A worked!

How contrary was it then that my article and my attitude produced all these offers. I’m sure had I gone knocking on their doors the week before those same doors would have remained closed to me.

Being an author these days really means that you are an entrepreneur so a lot of my experiences and the lessons I have drawn from them can be applied across the spectrum to different areas of entrepreneurship besides writing.I hope some of these above might be of help.For those of you who are budding writers here are a few tips that have helped me.

* Write a whole draft before you begin editing.Writing and editing at the same time is a dispiriting and inhibiting process.Just get the first draft down and then you can play around with it.

* Make use of the most current technology to help you.I don’t type really well or very quickly but I have always typed out my novels on my desktop computer.However, just over a year ago, an old friend of mine who is an investigative journalist told me I was mad not to write about the story of my kidnap and detention in Iran.I started to think about it, suggested it to my agent who leapt at the idea.He said, look if you can write it in the next two months, we can publish it at the same time as your latest thriller, Ark Storm, which was due to be published nine months later.

Two months is a tight deadline, especially for someone who cannot type very well.So I did something I had been contemplating for a while.I installed Dragon Dictate voice recognition software on my computer.And I dictated the book, the memoir, which would go on to be called Hostage, Kidnapped on high seas, the true story my captivity in Iran.And I discovered a very welcome side benefit.I had wanted this memoir to sound much more intimate than my novels. I wanted it to read as if it were a tale being told at a dinner party perhaps to someone I had just met, one of those rare and special human beings who manage to elicit the most candid of confessionals.

And it worked. The act of dictating bypassed the overthinking intellectual part of my brain and turned out to be some of the best writing I have ever done. Instead of having to do my customary ten drafts I did only three.

If you are writing Instead of dictating, still read your work aloud. You will pick up many infelicities and awkwardnesses in the writing that silent reading and editing just will not detect.

We all know the maxim, write what you know, but also research and use what you know. Dictate great snatches of fabulous dialogue that you have heard in the workplace into your phone and then email them to yourself to save them and use them.This hones your ear for dialogue and also keeps fresh the characterizing lexicon of whatever workplace you happen to be in and will render your book much more immediate and real to readers.

Remember, everything is material. As I found during my seven years in the City, there’s always a silver lining.

Linda Davies’ latest book, Longbowgirl, a novel for children and Young Adults, is published on September 3rd by Chicken House Books.

To find out more about Linda and her novels and her memoir, Hostage, please see: www.lindadavies.com
www.longbowgirl.com

You can also find her on Twitter @LindaDaviesAuth

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Mover and Shaker: Mary-Kate Ryan, Manager, Advisory Consulting, PwC Ireland

Mary-Kate Ryan, Pwc“People are like tea bags. You don’t know how strong they are until you put them in hot water.”

This advice from one of her role models, Eleanor Roosevelt, has always resonated with Mary-Kate Ryan.

“This wisdom is still up-to-date as a great analogy of how women must challenge ourselves in the workplace. Men are more apt to claim they are the right person for any given task, while women often feel ‘imposter syndrome,’ where they’re not sure they have the capability they need. But we all know that if you put tea in cold water it’s not very good, but put it in the thick of things, in the ‘hot water,’ and you see how well it works.”

Ryan’s career has been a series of hot water scenarios that she has willingly put herself in and come out stronger. After studying economics and finance in university, she and two of her sisters opened a successful fashion boutique in Dublin which she managed for eight years, attracting a devoted clientele – think Beyoncé caliber!

She says that looking after the business and seeing the fruits of her labor in a niche market was a wonderful training ground throughout her 20s where she had to learn to be adaptable and willing to take on any role; then as she built a team, acquire a comfort level to let go and allow the team to develop as well.

After a brief stint in another business with one sister, she noticed a curiosity about the corporate sector, specifically management consulting, as she approached her 30s. Deciding to act on that gut instinct, she took a career break to go back to university and earn a master’s degree in Management Consultancy at UCD Smurfit in Dublin, something she said feels even more important at that point in your life, because you are more committed and yet able to fully appreciate the freedom of being a full-time student. She made the most of her time there, building up her network and even playing on a touch rugby team that went to the MBA Rugby World Cup in North Carolina.

Learning the Ropes in a Corporate Environment

Earning top honors in her class, Ryan felt confident that she could parlay that success into the skills needed for management consulting and joined PwC Ireland. Some people were confused by her move, expressing that she had been living the dream with her own company, but she enjoyed the leap to the corporate environment. “One of my key skills is my adaptability. I am good at jumping into new situations so I put my head down and figured out the culture.”

Since then she has enjoyed her work on long-term projects in complex environments, overcoming challenges and working with high-performing teams.

She credits her robust support network with helping her along the way. “Sometimes you just need a few conversations that remind you how capable you are and that it’s fine to not know everything because you will learn what you need to,” she says.

Her projects helping organizations integrate after a merger can be quite intense. “The change management and personnel aspect is very interesting, as each situation entails complexity and ambiguity,” she says. “There’s no magic formula and that’s what keeps it exciting.”

When she first started at PwC, she assumed it was going to be a dog-eat-dog environment but was pleasantly surprised at her experience. “Business is always going to be competitive, but I soon learned that high-performing people are also very nice and accessible.” She found that building relationships with clients worked in the same way. “As I got to know them, I found that they were more supportive than you would imagine. We all are just trying to do the job well.” And she adds, PwC offers a diversity of backgrounds that allows its employees to nourish all the aspects that make each person individual.

Along the way, she was able to acquire mentors and sponsors, which she says came about naturally because she showed she was interested, curious and enthusiastic. “Bringing those aspects to the table didn’t have immediate rewards but they put me on people’s radar. A year or so later, someone would think of me and present me with an amazing opportunity,” she says.

For example, even while working offsite, she kept in touch and because of her initiative was offered a project in Dubai with a client with whom she really wanted to work. “It came about because I maintained a network and let people know what I was interested in. If you share the views of what you want to do and have the right conversations, it will naturally happen.”

Multicultural Assignments Feed Her Work/Life Balance

In addition to her work in Dubai, she has enjoyed other international assignments because of what she’s learned about global and multicultural issues. “When I was working in Ireland, there were mostly similarities in terms of approaches, but the international assignments have shown me I can build a team of people with different backgrounds and still be able to see the commonalities,” she says. “You learn not to make assumptions, but instead to really listen and understand people’s motives and objectives.” For example, if someone is being resistant in a meeting, it could be because they don’t agree, but it also could be because they don’t understand and you have to draw them out.

She says that has made her more open-minded and perform better in cross-functional teams, as well as making her gravitate toward more global assignments with an eye to what else she can learn.
Her love of travel extends to her personal life, where she spends as much time as she can trekking and traveling, exploring her interest in different languages, cuisine and cultures.

“As Eleanor Roosevelt said, ‘Life must be lived and curiosity kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.’ I believe that approaching life with a curious mind keeps you invigorated and allows me to bring that level of enthusiasm to my work.”

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