Voice of Experience: Laura Martinez, PwC US Assurance Diversity Leader

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Laura MartinezOne of the best pieces of advice that PwC Partner Laura Martinez heard early on has carried throughout her career: how important it is to engage with as many people as possible. “Early in your career those people are peers, managers, mentors and coaches, and you need to build relationships and be open to their coaching and guidance,” she says. “You’d be surprised how many people are willing to help you if you just reach out.”

Martinez has spent 25 years at PwC, specializing in serving registered investment companies, investment partnerships, hedge funds and private investment advisors. Most recently she served as the San Francisco Financial Services market team leader. When she first started her career there, becoming a partner wasn’t yet on her radar. “I’ve had great mentors during my whole career, and as my seniority has increased, so have my goals. When I first started, most of my mentors were managers and senior managers, but as they became partners, I was able to hear more about that track and my interest developed.”

Named partner in 2004, she credits that as her most important professional achievement, but adds that now she has the opportunity to help support others through the process, which she finds extremely rewarding. She encourages senior women never to underestimate the important role of serving as a mentor and support for younger women.

Diversity Always a Focus

Involved in diversity initiatives from the beginning of her career, Martinez was recently named as the diversity leader for PWCs US Assurance practice, the largest audit and risk assurance practice in the United States. She’s proud of this new role where she can devote time to thinking about diversity inclusion and how she can help shape and lead diversity initiatives. “It’s key to engage all levels in the firm, from our partners down to our youngest professionals, to get them interested and involved in driving sustainable impact.”

She sees her role in talent management and cultivating a diverse workforce at all levels as vital to the firm’s overall strategy, as well as being an area in which she and PwC can provide guidance to clients who are also dealing with similar issues.

Reminiscent of her advice to build a network is her belief that it should include people who are not exactly like you. “We often search for mentors who are just like us or what we think we want to be, but that means we can miss out on learning from some great individuals who may appear to be very different,” she says. “That’s the beauty of a diverse and inclusive work force – valuing the differences will make you a better professional.”

Women as Part of Diversity Initiatives

Martinez is proud of PwC’s culture that supports women and diverse professionals and helps them succeed.

In fact, she believes that some of the challenges women face are about trade-offs. “Every professional has to make sacrifices, but women have a harder time reconciling those choices,” she says. “We struggle with them and place a bigger burden on ourselves, especially when women explore having a family and a meaningful career,” Martinez says, adding that women can overthink opportunities and worry about failure and the impact of our trade-offs first.

And that’s why she encourages women to realize that they have limitless opportunities and they must be fearless about looking for them and taking advantage of resources firms offer to help them develop the skills and the network that will further a career. Whether women are at a junior or senior level, she sees that there is always an opportunity to grow and improve.

She attributes much of her success to the fact that she has always taken advantage of the resources offered, including those for gender and ethnic diversity, which have enhanced her skills and helped her develop into a better professional.

Over the years she has seen the offerings evolve to be more relevant to women’s needs as they also evolve, mirroring the changes in Corporate America through Lean In initiatives and other conversations about developing more diverse and female leaders, as well as gender equality. “We’re highly focused now on sponsorship, enabling early career success and career flexibility, all the while working to come to a better understanding for why such a gap exists among women leaders in Corporate America.”

She cites the “He for She campaign,” which supports PwC’s drive to not only be visible out in the marketplace but encourages people internally to support these causes.

Multi-Tasking in Her Free Time

To make the most of her off hours, Martinez participates in hobbies she enjoys that her whole family can do together – whether it’s golf, movies or travel.

Philanthropy is important to her – she has led PwC’s national recruiting efforts at her alma mater, University of California at Berkeley. And, even in her charitable endeavors she does double duty. “I love to partner on community service efforts with my team and my clients,” she says. “I can engage with my colleagues while giving back to the community and having a whole lot of fun in the process.”

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Voice of Experience: Jacqueline Lawand, Vice President and Senior Real Estate Portfolio Manager, Voya

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Jacqueline lawand“When hard work and results aren’t recognized by others, which will sometimes happen, you have to advocate for yourself.”

That is the lesson Jacqueline Lawand has learned during her rise at Voya, where she is proud of the fact that she has been able to drive business, and exceed goals, no matter what geographic area she was assigned or their subsequent challenges.

Describing her career path as largely linear, Lawand earned a double major in finance and real estate, completing three internships in the field during her college years. An active member of the Finance Management Association and Real Estate Society groups at her college, she first became familiar with Voya, previously known as ING U.S. Investment Management, during a joint field trip in her senior year. After meeting with the management team, she stayed in touch and ultimately joined the firm right out of college as an analyst.

For the past 11 years she has worked her way up through four different positions, to the one she holds now as vice president and senior real estate portfolio manager.

Along the way she has taken on international assignments, twice spending two weeks in Santiago, Chile which she believes helped pave her way to her current role. Fluent in Spanish, Lawand spent part of her childhood in Honduras, which offered her an international perspective she appreciated exploring through those assignments.

She also earned her MBA at the University of Georgia while working, part of her goal to make herself more valuable to the company. “One key path to success is to recognize your gaps and weaknesses, as well as those in your company, and seize the opportunity to grow and advance by filling those gaps.”

Lean In, Be Yourself to Succeed

One lesson she wishes she had learned earlier in her career is the importance of “leaning in.”

“I wish I hadn’t pulled back but had developed the confidence earlier to volunteer for challenging projects, knowing that I was equipped to handle the curve balls along the way.”

Lawand says that one of the keys to her success has been the sponsors both within and outside the company that have wielded influence and helped her become better established both at Voya and within the industry as a whole.

“It always came to me as a surprise when someone would say, ‘I’ve heard great things about you,’ when I wasn’t even aware someone was advocating on my behalf.”

She also credits robust programs at Voya that foster women leaders with training programs and initiatives and mentoring opportunities.

Both a mentor and mentee, she has found them key for learning new perspectives. “I would definitely recommend that others participate in mentoring programs, whether formal or informal, as the benefits are well worth the time invested.”

Describing the real estate industry as “still very much  predominantly a man’s world,” Lawand says she initially tried to be “one of the guys,” but realized that wasn’t sustainable. “I started to be more authentic and transparent and, as a result, was able to forge better relationships and earn credibility. Being ‘you’ can really help your career.”

Finding Balance

As a new mom, Lawand is learning the challenge of juggling a growing family with a prospering career. “I want it all, but it requires balance, which has been a learning experience for me,” she says, adding that her husband is a good advocate. “He believes in a collaborative approach at home which helps me manage career and family life.”

She and her husband run half marathons together and also enjoy traveling. They have visited South Africa and much of Europe and South America, and the family recently took a trip to Alaska.

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Mover & Shaker: Isabel Yepes, Director, Women Who Code

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Isabel Yepes

As the director of Women who Code in Colombia, Isabel Yepes thrives on capturing the interest of women. “It’s something I feel strongly about; there are very few of us in the telecomm field and there’s no reason why. Women can do it as well as men.”

Trained as an engineer, Yepes says she realized she had a passion for telecommunications and decided that is where she wanted to dedicate her career. Currently an independent software developer and founder of Hacemos Contactors, she also parlays her knowledge into a teaching position at a local technical college.While she used to teach more advanced classes on how to configurerouters and servers, she prefers her new position because of its open, positive work environment and the inspiration of teaching technology to people who are not yet immersed in it.

When Yepes first began her career, she realized how different the corporate world is from school. “You figure out the skills you learned in school weren’t always applied skills,” she says, adding that learning the importance of networking and relationship building is also something that has to be developed.

Yepes’ mentor has been a teacher who was a friend of her mom, who has been an advisor at different points in her career. And she considers her sister, also an engineer, as her role model during school. Another role model has been a colleague who founded a startup that is now a thriving corporation.

Attracting More Women to the Field through Women Who Code

Yepes’ goal at Women who Code is to work on attracting more women to technology. She and a friend are developing tools to introduce women to the many benefits of a career in technology, including a video channel that they will offer to conferences and other interested groups.

She also believes it’s important to include men in the conversation. “It’s not just about women helping women,” she says. “We all need to speak a common language to let women know that it’s a robust and attractive field.”

Before her role with Women Who Code she volunteered for United Nations, sponsored by Cisco, with the objective to bring Cisco Networking Academy program to an underserved population, primarily unemployed young people. “We had no budget so we were able to accomplish it through the goodwill of the stakeholders and the generosity of Cisco as a sponsor.”

Time With Family

In her free time, Yepes enjoys being with her family, including her parents, sister and nieces, and spending time outdoors and traveling.

By Cathie Ericson

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Voice of Experience: Anilu Vazquez-Ubarri, Chief Diversity Officer and Global Co-Head of Talent Development, Goldman Sachs

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Anilu Vazquez-Ubarri“I wish I had known earlier in my career that the most rewarding experiences would come from the more unexpected opportunities.”

Reflecting on her career, Anilu Vazquez-Ubarri says that her path might seem to be carefully designed, but in reality what has led her to where she is today is her appetite to try new and different roles at critical points in her career, the wise counsel from mentors and her belief in facing challenges head on.

Analyzing Talent for Individual and Firm Benefit

Vazquez-Ubarri began her career as an executive compensation and employee benefits lawyer, advising clients on employment matters in the context of corporate transactions. Even at an early stage of her career, Vazquez-Ubarri enjoyed advising clients and understanding every aspect of their business to provide holistic solutions, particularly with respect to the people side of the transactions.

This led to her first job at Goldman Sachs in Employee Relations, where she provided advice to managers and employees on how to navigate their careers and manage conflict.She then became chief of staff for the Human Capital Management division and is now Chief Diversity Officer and global co-head of Talent Development.In her current role, she is responsible for evolving and integrating leadership and the talent and diversity priorities at Goldman Sachs.

“Had I known this type of work existed I would have gone into it earlier, since my current position is a perfect match for my interests and allows me to apply the knowledge I have collected throughout the years in the different roles I have held,” she says.

Building and leading this new group has also presented an entrepreneurial opportunity for Vazquez-Ubarri, which she considers to be one of the more rewarding aspects of her job. “I appreciate being allowed to lead and innovate in a space that is so important for the firm and also to have the opportunity to build new career paths for the people on the team. It is a privilege to be part of their professional development,” she says.

As part of this entrepreneurial mindset, she and her team are looking at the firm’s practices with a fresh approach.They have continued to build on the firm’s data-driven approach, using people analytics to identify priorities in their talent strategy.In addition, they use a person-by-person approach to design customized solutions for different talent pools. Realizing the crucial impact that managers have on someone’s career, the firm has also reinforced its emphasis on manager effectiveness as a driver of performance.

“Women Should Feel Inspired About Their Chances for Success”

Vazquez-Ubarri believes that what may have historically been perceived as challenges for women in particular are actually questions and challenges that men and women share. “At different points in our career, we all question our ability to manage our personal and professional responsibilities and interests,” she says.

Vazquez-Ubarri observes that it is critical in those moments for employees to have a support system at work that encourages them to discuss their situation and also take advantage of the resources available to them.“I had just returned from maternity leave a few days before being promoted to managing director at Goldman. It was of course a very important time personally and a significant milestone in my career, and the flexibility and support I received from the firm made all the difference.”

“Women should enter the industry in full power, with the expectation of success and confidence in their abilities. They should pursue opportunities that put them in the middle of the action, where problems need to be solved, where challenges exist and where they can contribute in a meaningful way,” she says.In addition, Vazquez-Ubarri believes that developing strong relationships with clients and mentors has been crucial to her career trajectory.She equally believes that Hispanics/Latinos should be proud of their heritage and seek work environments that embrace their difference as an asset.

“My cultural background and upbringing has had a major influence on how I approach situations of ambiguity, how I build relationships with people with different points of view and how I manage a team – all things that have been crucial in my career progression,” she says.

Offering Guidance to Others

Vazquez-Ubarri knows that managers and sponsors play a critical role in developing and retaining talented people, and she highlights how important it has been in her career to have managers and sponsors who believed in her and provided tough feedback along the way. “Their belief in me has driven me to want to deliver for them and to make them proud of their investment in my career.”
She recommends that those starting out do their research, be intellectually curious and challenge themselves to expand their horizons as they consider career paths.he suggests that they network to find out information about different sectors and industries, but also so they have different examples of how to achieve success as there is not just one path.

Regarding her responsibility to mentor and sponsor women and Hispanic/Latinos she says, “We have to reach out to the next generation and remember what it felt like to be new and unsure of your next step or how to complete a project for someone you really wanted to impress.” This is particularly important when it comes to women and Hispanics/Latinos, she noted. “We need to be visible and accessible to them in order to continue to build a diverse talent pipeline.”

She urges her peers to spend an extra 10 minutes with more junior colleagues after a meeting or in their office. “To you, it’s only 10 minutes, but to them it makes such a difference,” she says.

Outside of the office, Vazquez-Ubarri spends her time with friends and family, including her husband and two sons. A competitive swimmer growing up, she has passed on that passion to her two children, ages two and ten, during treks to the pool each weekend – time that she makes all about being with her loved ones.

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Voice of Experience: Natalie Eckford, Managing Director, Cambridge Associates

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Natalie Eckford“I am a black woman from Jackson, Mississippi, and that experience gives me a valuable, unique perspective. I shouldn’t shy away from that difference,” says Natalie Eckford. “I’m using my education and my skills to make my stamp on justice and equality, and I’m really proud of that.”

Eckford describes her career path as traditional – developing a solid background in finance by joining an investment banking firm right after earning her undergraduate degree. She then moved back to Mississippi, where she worked for WorldCom in its broadband division. “Even though I was still in finance, my work at WoldCom was completely different. In banking, I worked with prebuilt models to try to make the deal fit, but at WorldCom, I had to build the model to fit the situation. I was learning how to run a company.”

In addition, she had much more interaction with people, which was lacking in her former role as an Investment Banking analyst. When evaluating potential M&A deals for WorldCom, she had to understand how every department would be affected. “I actually had to get out of my chair and talk to people,” Eckford says, adding that it was an important development in her career skills.

After attending Harvard Business School, she landed at Cambridge Associates, which was the perfect fit for her. At Cambridge Associates, Eckford helps institutions navigate the global markets, access profitable investment opportunities, and grow their endowment capital. “My role here takes all the skills I’ve been building and utilizes them to help further missions in which I really believe,” she says. Her clients include nonprofits that work in education, community development and civil rights advocacy.

Eckford feels she is following the model set by her parents, both of whom earned their degrees during the Jim Crow era and used them to combat inequality and poverty. “The example they set was that I had a responsibility to use the privileges with which I had been blessed to try to help someone else, and I’m proud of what I do to help my clients access capital to further their important missions.”

The passion for the work she’s doing has its roots in her undergraduate thesis on women-focused microfinance as a means for broader economic development. She says that she has always been interested in how you can make investments that have a double bottom line – not only are you making an impact that is visible, but you are doing it through a market orientation. She says that she is seeing a broader use of impact investing in portfolios, though it’s still in the early stages. “There are more funds being created to bridge the gaps in income inequality and education through new technology, and a growing number of these funds are being led by women. It is a very exciting time.

Learning To Speak Up

Eckford recognizes the power of sponsors, citing that advocacy as the reason that she earned her initial spot on the real estate investment banking team. Someone for whom she had interned on another team championed her, alerting the decision makers that Eckford had really made a difference on their team and had potential to be a value-add for the group. “I’m very thankful that I have had advocates, but we also need to do it for ourselves – we need to shed the fear of telling our colleagues how we’ve added value to the company.”

And she says that young women should not be afraid of taking risks. She looks back on her business school experience and how most of the women in her class took jobs within very established companies or industries, whereas many of the men were looking for positions with independent groups, angel investors or start-ups. “They were not afraid to go to a place that had been unproven and because of it, many of them have been able to benefit from valuable experiences learned when you are part of a small team working to grow a business or when you have an individual investing in your career because your success is tied to the business’s survival.” She cites her time working for a start-up group at WorldCom as a risk like that: “I was coming up with the ideas and that really impacted my viewpoint on the rest of my career.”

“They were not afraid to go to a place that had been unproven and because of it, many of them have been able to benefit from valuable experiences learned when you are part of a small team working to grow a business or when you have an individual investing in your career because your success is tied to the business’s survival.”

Over the years, Eckford has learned that it’s not enough to just work hard – that women need to promote themselves and develop a network of allies who will help promote them. “As a black woman I had worked so hard to just fit in over the years, it felt unconscionable to try to stand out,” she says, “and yet, you get to a point in your career where it’s critical if you’re going to progress. Most likely, your male counterparts are not holding back.”

She says that speaking up and sharing your unique perspective is what will make people remember you. “I’ve worked so hard to get the seat at the table, and when I got promoted to managing director I really thought about how I wanted to use that.” Eckford knows that even if was her stellar resume that got her in the door, it is the sum of her experience that differentiates her in meetings.

She knows that her clients appreciate the different perspective and voice that she can bring and believes that all organizations can benefit from incorporating diverse perspectives to their governing bodies. She firmly believes that women need more board representation. “Even as we look for more diversity in portfolios, that decision tends to be determined at the board level. We have to have a more diverse board calling for diversity in our portfolios.”

Walking the Walk

Eckford is active in a group at Cambridge Associates that founded a Diversity Council, which encompasses employees of different ethnicities, genders and sexual orientation through all levels of the firm.

She knows that her firm is interested in the business case for diversity – and that clients care. She says that in the past year, they’ve talked frequently about the barriers for women and minority managers. “We’re making progress, but there’s a lot of work to be done,” she says.

As if her busy professional life wasn’t enough, Eckford also makes time to give back outside her firm. “Nonprofit boards have always been a passion throughout my life.”

By Cathie Ericson

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Voice of Experience: Stephanie Cohen, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs

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Stephanie Cohen“What makes the difference between people who are good, great and world class at their job are small things, and you only find those out if someone points them out to you,” says Stephanie Cohen.

“Even if you are just a little bit off at a certain point in your career, it’s that much harder to get back on track, so it’s vital that women actively ask for, and receive feedback.”

That advice has been crucial to Cohen’s success throughout her career.

As a “lifer” at Goldman Sachs, Cohen is quick to point out that even though the firm has been her only full-time employer, she hadn’t necessarily intended to stay this long when she joined. But the opportunities continued to come. Her first position was as an analyst in Mergers & Acquisitions in 1999, and she was then promoted to associate in the Industrials group, where she has spent the majority of her career. She did a stint in the San Francisco office as a vice president, where she worked in M&A with a broader array of clients, until she was asked to return to New York to oversee Conflicts and Business Selection in the Americas during the financial crisis. She then became sector captain for General Industrials in the Global Industrials Group and a member of the Merger Leadership Group in the Investment Banking Division. She was named managing director in 2008 and partner in 2014.

Building a Business

Just this spring Cohen was tapped for an exciting new assignment – creating and heading a new group, Global Financial Sponsor M&A. Cohen says she is proud that her team’s success in driving financial sponsor M&A for the Industrials Group was recognized such that she was given the opportunity to build this broader business across the company.
“It’s really exciting to be building a team, while being an active part of the current M&A deal environment, which is once again near its previous peak,” she says. “My group is able to assist clients in navigating this complex environment and achieve maximum value for their businesses.”

From a deal perspective, Cohen is proud of her work on the team that helped Chrysler negotiate with the United States government in paying off its debt in May 2011. By living and breathing the deal, she came away highly impressed with how much the employees cared about the company, and the resulting turnaround and pride in the positive strides they made in relation to the quality of their cars.

Seeking Diverse Qualities in Mentors

As she has ascended the ladder, Cohen says that an important lesson she learned is to understand the longevity of your career, and how the relationships you build will help you along the way. “At the junior level, you might be immersed in a project where you are working with someone constantly, and then the project ends and everyone moves on. While you might expect the relationship to go on, the reality is that it takes effort to maintain those relationships — but it’s worth it,” she says. Social networks like LinkedIn give the illusion that it’s easier to stay in touch, but that isn’t a substitute for actively managing your network in today’s transitory professional environment.

While she realizes that the financial services industry has fewer female role models, she has found it largely irrelevant in her career. “I would have really been stuck if I’d fixated on finding the ‘senior woman in M&A’ to emulate,” she says. “Your role model doesn’t have to be someone who is similar to you in every way. And furthermore, trying to figure out exactly what got someone to a particular seat isn’t extremely helpful either, since that exact seat likely won’t exist in its current form by the time you get there.”

Instead, she recommends creating a “personal board of directors,” and incorporating aspects of individual people that will help you in your career. “Thinking that a single mentor will help you to achieve success in all aspects of your career is not practical,” she says. Building a network of different people whom you can go to for advice and feedback means that when you make big career decisions, you have a lot of people whose input you value.

Climbing the Career Ladder

For women starting out, Cohen recommends building a base of expertise and advises younger people to avoid pigeon holing themselves. “At the end of the day, you have to have good judgment, and be able to adapt to different situations,” she says.

And again, she underscores the importance of actively seeking feedback. “If you’re not getting negative feedback, it’s not because you’re perfect. Women might get less feedback because they don’t ask for it, but it took me a while to fully appreciate that men tend to get more direct feedback on areas of improvement which allows them to know what to work on.”

Support of Women

Cohen believes that women should support other women. “There are not that many of us, and we can help each other in ways that are very impactful.”

She has seen that men in the workplace tend to be better at blending their personal and professional lives, and using that to create more client and networking opportunities. She believes that it doesn’t have to overwhelm your personal life, but it makes the networking easier and more fun when you can build and create personal connections at the same time.

To help build those bridges, Cohen created a women’s M&A event several years ago to bring together clients and other professionals who work in M&A, such as lawyers and accountants. The goal is to create relationships between those who are involved in the broad M&A infrastructure. And she reports, it has done exactly what she hoped it would.

In addition, Cohen acts as a mentor to junior women as they think about their careers, and she stays involved in recruiting and retaining a core group of female analysts. “Keeping top-quality women is vital,” she says.

Making a Difference Outside of Work

Outside of work, Cohen spends time with her husband and young son, who “helps me hone my negotiation skills,” she laughs.

She is also on the national board of the nonprofit group Reading Partners, which focuses on literacy in grammar schools, helping underprivileged kids who are behind in reading. She was first involved with the effort when she worked in San Francisco, and brought it with her when she came back to New York. She helped the organization to secure financing for a local chapter, and the group has since spread nationwide.

“The organization does great work very efficiently. The fact that we are working on literacy lends itself well to testing, so we are able to ensure the efforts are successful,” she says. The program is self-sustaining in that schools pay for it with money set aside for a literacy specialist.

“If you can’t read, you can’t succeed. Teaching a child to read will fundamentally change his or her trajectory in life.”

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Men Who Get It: Phil Porado, Content Director, Advisor and Financial Services Groups, Rogers Publishing

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Phil PoradoAs content director for the Advisor and Financial Services Group at Rogers Publishing, Porado oversees three teams that produce trade publications read by financial industry professionals in Canada. He’s been with the company for 10 years, holding six different positions. Prior to joining Rogers, Porado worked for a variety of publications in the United States in the finance, architecture and political industries and also covered general news at United Press.

“Having held a variety of different journalism and publishing positions really helps as a manager,” he says, “because when people ask about processes you can give them a real answer.”

Following His Mother’s Advice

“I’m a diversity champion because my mom told me I had to be,” says Porado, only half joking. He says that he had an advantage through growing up with a mom who was an early 20th century career woman, which normalized women in the work force to him.

“I’m a diversity champion because my mom told me I had to be,”

After her father died, she went to work to help support her four siblings when she was just a teen as a bookkeeper at General Electric. It was during World War II when women were welcomed into the workplace so she took advantage of the opportunity to contribute to her family’s income. Before her 19th birthday, she was running the payroll department.

Porado said she stayed home to take care of her own children, but continued to do people’s taxes on the side and assisted with the bulk of financial planning for his father’s business.

“I remember her telling me when I was 10 that someday I would be in charge and I would have to advocate for diverse people in the workplace, because I was a ‘privileged white male,’” he said, adding that his family never hesitated to make him aware of the fact that he was better off than many.

Porado admired that his parents modeled an even division of labor and says that his home was very much a partnership, with no one shouldering the bulk of the less desirable tasks.

Given his upbringing, Porado expected it to be standard operating procedure to work with women and was surprised to enter the workforce and find that sexism was still rampant in the 1980s.

“It offended me,” he says, since he had been raised in a different environment. “If you’re fortunate enough to be enlightened, then it’s your responsibility to pass it on.”

Publishing Industry Better Than Most

On the whole, Porado says the publishing industry was better than most, largely because it is a desirable field for women. He found that there were a large number of women who were choosing the field who were not only interested, but what he calls highly motivated to succeed.

“I find that women differ from some of their male counterparts many times because they are looking to learn things and up their game. They are constantly soliciting information they can use to become more skillful, which men don’t do as much,” he says. He has had the experience corroborated by others. In fact, just recently a colleague who was hiring for a writing and reporting job asked him, “Is it me, or do you also find that the woman are just stronger candidates?”

He says that when people demonstrate a willingness and desire to learn, he can facilitate their learning, making a point to actively teach them how they can progress.

That’s the greatest management lesson of all, he’s found, to help people thrive and then get out of the way. “That’s when championing gets interesting — when people whom you’ve taught show signs of eclipsing you. And that’s when you need to be able to point them to someone who might know better, though not everyone is comfortable with that. Mantle passing is hard, but if you are able to identify and help mentor a protégé, then you are doing your job.”

He has found that being a sponsor comes naturally since his focus is always on helping others with their career growth. He believes you have to advocate for promotions for people behind the scenes, and the best way to do that is to speak up for people when they’re absent, giving credit where it’s due.

“I have the uncomfortable position of people giving me credit when I am undeserving since it was an entire group effort, and I am just the leader,” Porado says. He rights the confusion by being quick to name the team members who actually did the work and acknowledging that even though he might have outlined the game plan, they were the ones who carried the ball.

Boldly Questioning Stereotyping

He says that over the years, he has seen the effects of stereotyping and has been bold about questioning it. “I would step up and say, ‘Why not so and so?’” when the situation presented itself.”

“I would step up and say, ‘Why not so and so?’” when the situation presented itself.”

Another way that he encourages inclusion is by always suggesting that other team members join meetings when it’s appropriate. If he does find himself in a meeting where he feels another team member should have been invited, he makes the contributions he thinks they would have made, even deliberately pointing out that if that person was there, this is what they would say. “The subtle message is that you were remiss in not inviting that person and only consulting with me.”

However, he is quick to point out that things are progressing rapidly; whereas 20 years ago a stereotypical mindsight was noticeable, now it is much less of an issue. “I’ve been privileged to see a lot of change in my life, and I often point out to young people that they are living in a world that we hoped would one day exist, and they should realize and appreciate it.”

By Cathie Ericson

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Mover and Shaker: Lauren Koopman, Director, PwC US Sustainable Business Solutions Practice

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Lauren Koopman“The notion of ‘career’ has such a different meaning these days than it used to,” reflects PwC’s Lauren Koopman. “You ask yourself what you are going to be when you grow up, but when I think back, I couldn’t even have named it because it didn’t exist. To get the most out of your career, you have to be very fluid and realize how much change there will be over the course of your life. Don’t feel like you’re hemmed into something and just have to make the best of it.”

Koopman’s observations come from her own career trajectory, including the initial impression that she was going to be in derivatives the rest of her life, and it was just a matter of deciding for which company. But traveling the world allowed her to figure out the new, rewarding career path that she travels today.

Detour Through Wall Street on the Path to Sustainability

Koopman’s first professional position was as a management consultant and manager of e-business during the dot com craze, where her charge was to work with large banks to help them define their internet strategy — helping them switch from “brick to click” as it is commonly known.

That was her first realization that you can’t plan your career too meticulously based on the information you have. “When I was going to school, there was no internet, and then all of a sudden, I was the manager of e-business. The world is morphing so quickly, there’s really no way to look out five to 10 years to identify what you are going to do.”

She decided to return to school to earn her MBA in finance, and there she became intrigued by the complexity of derivatives, realizing that if she could master a technical skill like that it would serve her well. She was subsequently hired by Deutsche Bank and worked on the Wall Street trading floor, which was literally all men. “They used to call the woman’s bathroom ‘Lauren’s room,’” she laughs.

Koopman describes an intense environment that would begin at 7 a.m. when she would familiarize herself with overnight action in Asia and Europe, and then begin monitoring four computer screens and six phone lines.

For five years she worked on the floor, until her new husband, who had just sold his business, asked if she could make it work to travel with him. “I had always wanted to travel around the world so I took a year off and we created our “BC” (Before Child) trip, where we tackled all the harder places to travel, such as India, Beirut, Syria, China, East Asia, the Arctic Circle and Africa.

“It was the best decision I ever made; completely game changing for me,” Koopman recalls. “After seeing firsthand the real issues in the world that people were experiencing, I decided I needed to do something to make a difference.”

Combining her finance background with a second master’s degree, this time in environmental engineering, she began investigating potential options where she could make the biggest impact. She approached it with strategic analysis, creating a database of more than 100 people to speak with at foundations, banks, corporations and consulting firms.

At the time, PwC US was just starting its sustainability practice, and she jumped at the opportunity to build it out and wield true influence, a positon she has held for five years. In fact, she cites her professional role model as the person who hired her, who had the foresight to understand the business benefits of sustainability and the inspiration to build it out.

Though she describes her current position as a complete career shift, she is able to rely on her deep insight in the financial world by focusing on financial service clients. “They appreciate that I am able to speak their language,” she says, adding that even three years ago most of the companies hadn’t even thought about incorporating a sustainability mindset into their investment decisions. “I am proud of how much we’ve done and I am excited to expand our work into asset management and other asset classes.”

Koopman was also recently appointed to the World Economic Forum (WEF)’s Young Global Leaders (YGL) forum, a group selected from around the world to form a next generation leadership network to engage in global affairs. The honor recognizes outstanding and proven young leaders under the age of 40 across business, government, and arts and culture, for their accomplishments, commitment to society and potential to contribute to shaping a better future. Previous and current YGLs include Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google Co-founder Larry Page, and Statistician Nate Silver.

Lessons Learned Along the Way

As Koopman has navigated her career, she’s learned the importance of reading people. “I had always assumed people at the top knew everything and were always right, but over the years I’ve figured out that people are people. You have to learn to evaluate your audience and understand where they’re coming from and how to speak to what they need,” she says, adding that understanding people and how an organization works is as important as technical knowledge. “Think about who you’re talking to and their needs.”

She also has seen the value of taking on every opportunity that’s presented without immediately worrying about why it wouldn’t work. “We tend to worry about failure and stay in our comfort zone,” she says. “But there’s so much value in taking on those new opportunities. Even if it‘s something that you don’t think you want to do, inherently you are learning so much from new skill sets and new people. This creates a knowledge and network reservoir you will draw on throughout your career.”

She cites learning by simply paying attention and absorbing as critical, for example times when she has watched CEOs sell an idea to a huge group of people. Koopman also pays credit to the mentors and colleagues she has met through participating in Women in Wall Street.

A Traveling Family

Koopman is quick to point to her supportive, “amazing” husband as one of her inspirations. With a two-and-a-half-year old and a six-month-old, her home life is as busy as her office. And, even though their life-changing trip was designed to hold them over until their children were a little older, they already have robust passports: the little travelers have visited Holland, Canada, Colombia and the west coast of America, along with regular trips to her husband’s family in New Zealand.

PwC US? Or globally?

By Cathie Ericson

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Voice of Experience: Laura Rogers, Director, Executive Business Manager, Information Technology, TIAA-CREF

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Laura RogersYou have to be your own best advocate,” says Laura Rogers. “Sometimes women can shy away from opportunities that they don’t feel ideally suit them, but when you take assignments that are good for your company in the short-term, they can end up being great for your career in the long-term.”

With degrees from University of California at Berkeley, New York University and an MBA from Wharton, Rogers chose a career path in financial services. She has worked for firms such as Merrill Lynch, Citibank, and Cognizant Technologies focusing on leading internal teams make smart decisions based on strong financials and metrics.

Own Your Opinion

Working in the financial services industry after recently graduating can be difficult, especially given its competitive nature. However, earlier in her career, Rogers learned a critical lesson on holding her ground that has enabled her to be successful to this day.

In the period leading up to the financial crisis, when markets were especially frothy, many business units were taking on more risk. Though many in her company at the time wanted to expand into different types of trading, she didn’t believe the right risk management systems were in place in her business unit and advised against some trading they weren’t prepared for, ultimately saving the company millions of dollars in potential lawsuits.

“You have to think about the full vision and take ownership of your position rather than going the easy way,” she says. “I was able to make a significant difference for our division and our clients even though my stance was unpopular at the time.”

Rogers believes that this is a great time for women’s careers, since there is a real drive to engage them and help them succeed. Her advice for women is to have an opinion and own it.

Managing Change through Technology

By owning her opinion, Rogers has continued to carve a successful career path. She joined TIAA-CREF in 2013 and was recently named executive business manager for the production services group, overseeing business management and metrics, the project management office, software licensing and continuous improvement efforts. “TIAA -CREF feels like home to me,” she says, citing the open environment and the company’s mission, unchanged since 1918, to serve those who serve others – focusing primarily on institutions and individuals in the academic, medical, cultural, research and governmental communities. “Its motto of ‘Created to Serve. Built to Perform.’ is a great match for my personality and beliefs.”

In her new expanded executive business manager role, Rogers leads a cross functional IT team which is focusing on analyzing software spend and identifying opportunities for the company to reduce costs. “It’s a role that will allow me to look outside my day-to-day functions and help make a significant difference to our cost structure.”

Rogers says that as IT moves to cloud technology, it will be a game changer in terms of how people engage within the firm. “We are increasingly using the cloud as a complement to our current infrastructure, and incorporating it in such a way that it is seamless to the client.”

Networking for Career Success

Aside from leading cross-functional working groups, Rogers is a strong proponent of cross-functional mentoring. She encourages women at all stages of their career to set up peer networks – both within the company and also outside their particular division and company.

She finds that women have different questions in different stages of their career. This makes it vital to have a group that you can rely on to ask how they handled something, or what worked or what didn’t given a certain situation. “It’s about more than networking,” she says, adding that it’s important to be open and ask for advice, because people want to give it.

She herself has engaged in formal peer-to-peer networking and found it to be a game changer because of the accountability factor. She cites a friend in a similar position in a different company who was reluctant to seek a new opportunity and how Rogers was able to counsel her to try it. “Select someone you trust and seek their advice,” she says. “The further you get in your career, the more reluctant we are to be vulnerable but we still need that guidance.”

Benefits of Women’s Groups

Rogers does not just employ these practices herself, she shares her experiences with her colleagues. At TIAA-CREF, Rogers is involved in three key women’s initiatives.

First, she co-leads a mentoring group that launched in April which has received excellent feedback. It consists of two tracks – women only and mixed groups – with each group having two mentors who work with a group of eight to discuss topics that are both industry-specific and company-related.

Secondly, Rogers is active in the firm’s women’s ERG (Employee Resource Group), which she values because it allows her to get to know others in a wide variety of departments around the company.

And finally, she is excited about TIAA-CREF’s Woman2Woman: Financial Living, an online community where women can connect with both experts and peers to ask questions and share stories and tips related a range of financial topics and goals. “It fits in well with our mission of being created to serve,” Rogers says.

An Advocate for Bone Marrow Donation

Rogers, who is married with three children, enjoys spending time with her family and also is a passionate advocate for bone marrow transplants. While just out of school she volunteered in the pediatric cancer ward of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and saw firsthand the immediate benefits of bone marrow donation.

She is a involved with charities focused on this effort including both Gift of Life and Be the Match, and has encouraged family and friends to register for the national bone marrow matching site. “Becoming registered essentially takes no effort,” she says. “If you could save someone’s life, why wouldn’t you?”

Rogers was extremely gratified that her mom in New Jersey was matched with George, a 43-year-old man who lived in England, and was able to save his life.

No matter whether its work related or her personal interests Rogers is a passionate advocate for anything she believes in, owns her opinions and encourages other women to do the same.

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Men Who Get It: John Cannon, Partner, Executive Compensation & Employee Benefits Group, Shearman & Sterling LLP

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John CannonThe message is an important one for women … and for men as well:

“Define what success means for you, and then go for it. When you first start your career, make a point of asking yourself every day where you are going and why, and look to peers and more senior colleagues to find careers and best practices to emulate.”

So says John Cannon, a partner in Shearman & Sterling’s Executive Compensation & Employee Benefits group in New York, who has long been a champion of helping women progress in their careers, both informally and as co-chair of the firm’s Diversity Committee. He volunteered to join the committee almost immediately after becoming a partner 20 years ago and was asked to chair the committee shortly after.

Early Influences Sparked Interest In Diversity

Being a diversity champion has been important to Cannon from an early age when, as a “history nut,” he was deeply affected by what he perceived were the many injustices committed in the country over the years against minorities, women and those who didn’t belong to the dominant groups of their times.

Cannon carried that ethos into his career, and when he began practicing at Shearman & Sterling in 1985, he decided to look for ways to help fellow lawyers who did not as obviously “fit in” as well as he did — a self-described private school and Ivy League- educated heterosexual white male.

“While I felt confident in my own ability,” he recalls, “I was certain that others of equal or greater innate talent but different backgrounds than mine would have a much more difficult path to professional success ahead of them, and I wanted to do something.”

He was also influenced by the fact that many of his closest friends, mentors and colleagues at the firm have been women and people of color, including his practice group, which for many years has been a majority female.

Championing Diversity throughout the Firm

In his various firm administrative and management capacities over the years, Cannon has focused on advocating for women at the firm and for the issues that have been important to them.

During his time as co-chair of the firm’s Diversity Committee, he helped establish a number of successful associate-led affinity groups, such as WISER (Women’s Initiative for Success, Excellence and Retention), which has galvanized women associates in the firm for networking, business development and leadership skill enhancement. He has also been a supporter of subsequent women-focused programs, such as a Women Partners Initiative, regular Lean In circles, a social media presence that includes @ShearmanWomen on Twitter and a Shearman Women showcase page on LinkedIn, as well as active participation in Ellevate, the professional women’s network founded by Sallie Krawcheck.

But more meaningful to him has been the mentorship, encouragement and assistance he has provided to female colleagues, from professional guidance and career sponsorship to a role as a sounding board and informal advisor.

Addressing Blind Spots

Cannon knows that it’s crucial to avoid subconscious bias or stereotyping by maintaining constant self-scrutiny — questioning one’s initial reactions to a person or work product, and then examining even more closely the subsequent judgments that might appear to be well-considered and open-minded.

“Although I have undoubtedly failed on many occasions to objectively assess each person with whom I have worked based on his or her own individual merits, I have not ceased cross-examining myself,” he says.

The firm’s Diversity Committee has dedicated time and effort to combating the effects of stereotyping and unintentional bias, principally by keeping itself informed of the performance reviews and career development of diverse associates and intervening where appropriate. “We have tried to impress upon our partners across the firm that despite our best intentions, we are prone to making assessments of other people based on mental shortcuts, including both conscious and unconscious assumptions about the backgrounds, talents and character traits of the members of various groups,” he says.

Leading by Example

“On diversity, as with other matters, the members of an organization take their cue and model their behavior on those who are admired and acknowledged as the most powerful and successful within the organization,” says Cannon, who has consistently advised firm leaders to confidently express their commitment to diversity while also taking concrete steps to help advance the careers and leadership opportunities available to women and other diverse individuals within the organization.

For example, he encourages leaders to actively seek out and personally encourage women and other individual members of non-dominant groups. He has seen that play out at Shearman & Sterling, which he believes has many leaders who have accepted this responsibility and are fully committed to increasing inclusiveness.

Although he notes significant progress in the profession since he joined it 30 years ago, he says that it still strikes him how relatively modest the gains have been in the representation of women and minorities among the most senior leadership ranks. He cites as an example his graduating class at NYU Law School and his summer associate class at Shearman & Sterling, which were roughly 50 percent female.

“Had you asked me then to predict what percentage of the partnerships at the elite law firms would be women by 2015, I would probably have answered 40 percent or so when in fact the actual number is about half that,” he says, adding that similar observations can be made about minorities.

“The bottom line is that much work still needs to be done to promote diversity in our profession,” he says, adding that as law becomes an increasingly competitive business in a challenging economic environment, the market may hold sway in law firm diversity efforts. “Clients regularly insist that diverse teams staff their matters, and I expect that they will continue to reward the law firms that perform best in this regard.”

By Cathie Ericson

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