Men Who Get It: John Covington, CISSP; Infrastructure Manager, Production Services; TIAA-CREF

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John Covington

“My main message is that people who feel more comfortable at work are more productive. I want to show people that my career has not been limited because I am gay.”

With 30 years of IT experience, initially as a technician, Covington currently manages two teams – the Service Now infrastructure team and the Identity and Access Management team. Having molded both teams, a total of 13 members strong, into a cohesive, collaborative unit, he is proud of how they work together to share information. “I encourage all of them to work hard and understand the value of attitude, cooperation and teamwork.”

Being a diversity champion is important to Covington because of how much the work environment has changed since he started. “When I entered the workforce, it was not the norm for someone to be out at work,” he said; in fact, he personally didn’t come out at work until he came to TIAA-CREF in 2006. “I feel like my goal is to provide a role model for others to help create the environment where people can be more comfortable at work,” he said.

Creating a Culture of Compassion

As the current co-chair of the Charlotte LGBT employee resource group (ERG), Covington helps plan and promote the monthly meetings, lunches and speakers. In addition, the group participates in community events like Charlotte Pride and the Human Rights Campaign. He is also a member of the IT Diversity Council, which is focused on attracting and retaining a diverse IT workforce.

He sees that even though he works for a very diversity-conscious company which has superior support from the senior leadership team, there is still room to improve the culture through social awareness and acceptance.

“I think a lot of young people still don’t feel comfortable at work. They don’t want to be on the LGBT ERG mailing list because they are concerned that if people see their names on that list, then it might hurt their careers.” He notes that the group only has 40 members in Charlotte, out of 5,000 employees. “If you do the math, that doesn’t add up.”

He urges LGBT individuals to be more active and visible and create the environment where people feel and offer acceptance.

Importance of Mentors and Allies

One plan in place to help move the needle is a mentor program that they are in the process of forming for LGBT associates. While the ERG requires attending meetings, having a mentor will provide someone the opportunity to meet privately, until they are ready to be more open.

He says that he wishes he had understood earlier the value of a mentor, and that he’d felt more comfortable, but most of all that the time had been different. “I worried that people wouldn’t want to work for a gay manager,” he said, adding that he believes that LGBT youth who are not yet comfortable would be well advised to have an LGBT mentor; not just for social reasons but to help navigate the workplace.

In addition, the ERG is also working to introduce a new Ally program in June to help promote a “Safe Place” at work.This would increase the number of people at ERG events and perhaps “provide cover” for those who might not yet be comfortable. “They can have a sticker in their office or wear a pin and it can be an ice breaker. It might be an easier entrée for those who are not yet ready to say, ‘This is what my partner and I did this weekend’.”

He also believes that if leaders get involved in the Ally program, it will send a very positive message, and help bring the issue to where it should be – just an everyday thing, and one that supports the core values of TIAA-CREF.

Covington is a native of North Carolina and has lived in the Charlotte area most of his adult life.He is an active cyclist, hits the gym regularly and participates in charity cycling events. He lives in Charlotte with his 92 lb. Doberman; Scarlette.

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Mover and Shaker: Jennifer Macdonald, Director of Product Management, NYSE

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Jennifer MacDonaldWhen Jennifer Macdonald describes her career path as highly unusual, “one very few people would ever even consider,” she is not exaggerating.

Macdonald first attended Brown University and then graduated with honors from the School of Visual Arts in New York. With her partner, Hillary Leone, she founded a fine arts collaborative and successfully exhibited internationally, becoming well-known as the only practicing lesbian art duo in the United States. As up-and-coming artists they showed in the Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art, among other places. Their collaboration ended 10 years later in 1999, when her partner decided to move to Washington DC and they realized that collaborating long distance would be too challenging.

Macdonald wasn’t daunted, because she had always been given the message that there was nothing she couldn’t do from her mother, who had been an opera singer, poet and then psychoanalyst. “She made me feel like I could do anything I put my mind to– it might be harder as a woman and a lesbian, but with hard work, definitely possible.”

From Arts to Tech

This confidence led her to accept an opportunity at Sotheby’s, which was her first stop in the transition from artist to executive. Leveraging her art background and her knowledge of computers, Macdonald accepted a position as vice president to launch Sothebys.com taking the 260 year old Sotheby’s auctions, magazine and educational foundation content online in the space of year. She was soon promoted to senior vice president where she led a partnership with Amazon, as well as oversaw the development of the first live arts and antiques auctions streaming with transactional bidding online.

Being in the arts had always been Macdonald’s expected path but when a friend told her the New York Stock Exchange was working on launching the first ever 3D trading floor experience with real-time trading data mapped to it Macdonald says she figured, “I’ve never done anything in financial services; what an amazing opportunity to find out what that would be all about,” and went to work for the company that handled technology for NYSE and Amex. “I had started my career so far on the right brain side, how could I not want to challenge myself to see how far the left brain side might be able to go?,” she said.

Working for the NYSE as a director of product management, Macdonald moved into developing strategic technology for enterprise monitoring and operational tools as well as several major relaunches of NYSE’s core trading platform. She also developed enterprise platforms for consolidating trade desk customer tools and currently is overseeing a major process reengineering initiative creating a plug and play product management practice that will be used across the company’s disparate asset classes that have come online as mergers and acquisitions have brought new products and services in house.

And that is the professional achievement she currently points to as the one she is most proud of. “The processes that my team first instituted in the NYSE Equities Market are being held up as an example of best practices from a regulatory and compliance perspective,” she said. “When we were audited by key regulatory agencies without whose approval we cannot operate our business, it showed that the model I was able to put in place is top of its class, and will make us highly efficient and more profitable as we look to bring new services and products online.”

Finding Strong Women

Over the years, Macdonald has learned how important it is to find a mentor and cultivate that relationship. But it can be a challenge, she acknowledges, given that the lack of women in many industries mean there are fewer choices from which to select. While she says that you can find good men as mentors, she believes it can be an advantage to choose a woman because they often better understand the challenges that other women face.

She advises women to consider mentors at all levels of the organization — not just at the highest levels. “Don’t discredit a middle manager who can be your mentor when you’re starting out; they know a lot you don’t know,” she says, adding that a mentor doesn’t have to be someone who has achieved absolutely everything you want.

In addition to strong relationships, she believes you have to value your own ability to be ambitious about your accomplishments, to exhibit confidence that you can achieve your goals despite obstacles.

Macdonald observes that financial services is an industry that still has a high fall off rate for women as they reach a certain level. “Add in being a lesbian, and you exponentially reduce the number of women in the industry in my shoes.” That doesn’t daunt Macdonald, though, who says that it just takes courage.

Back in the Closet – and Back Out

And that courage led her to be the first woman ever to come out at the NYSE. What was surprising was that she slid back into the closet when she first joined the industry, on the advice of a colleague He told her that even though she had been well known as an artist, that the worlds were so far apart no one would ever connect her with her fame and identity in her other career and it would be best to start this way.

Ultimately she made the decision to come out at work when she and her partner, now wife, decided to have a child. “Regardless of any real or perceived risks to my career it seemed clear to me that it would be unethical to raise a child from within the closet,” she says.

And that’s one of the reasons she believes in being an agent of change in the industry. “It’s still hard for many individuals in our industry to be comfortable with their identity as LGBTQ. Diversity has been proven to be good for corporations and for individuals. It’s a win for all if we can improve the diversity in financial services.”

Toward that end, Macdonald as Co-Chair of OPEN Finance, runs an organization with a mailing list over 5,000 strong that is comprised of more than 40 LGBT ERG networks across major financial services firms, such as Citibank, JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America. OPEN Finance shares best practices for fostering diversity to member firms. At OPEN, Macdonald is also working to boost women’s involvement. “It’s not unusual for me to be one of two or three women in a room with 80 men,” she says.

Macdonald likes to talk about driving positive change through OPEN, citing the group’s support of marriage equality in the upcoming case before the Supreme Court. “Marriage equality is good for financial services firms. We don’t want a patchwork of different classes of marriage for HR to manage in every state and every country. That makes no sense from a bottom line perspective and we have numbers to prove it, not to mention the injustice of it and inconvenience if you move state to state. Married in one, not in the other? “‘ she said. The group actively worked with member firms to collect a record number of signatures in support of marriage equality in a brief that will soon go before the Supreme Court.

On the home front, she and her partner concentrate on raising their five-year-old son, as well as launching their new business, the first urban mushroom farm in New York City which will grow mushrooms from waste such as coffee grounds and sawdust. They also make time as a family to visit their house in the Catskills. “That’s my refuge”.

By Cathie Ericson

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Career Tip of the Week

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women salesThis Week’s Tip Is…

Expert, Manager or Worker Bee? Which category do you fall into? Where do you want to be? Are you doing what you need to do to get there and stay there?

If you want to be the expert, are you the master/mistress of your domain? Think about ways to specialize your skills and knowledge.

Welcome to Career Tip of the Week. In this column we aim to provide you with a useful snippet of advice to carry with you all week as you navigate the day to day path in your career.

By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Psychologist

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Voice of Experience: Linda Freundlich, Vice President and Head of Agency Financial Operations, New York Life

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Linda Freundlich“Let your voice be heard; speak up and share your opinions and perspective,” says New York Life’s Linda Freundlich. “Women tend to be better listeners, and that’s important too; but don’t let the opportunity pass to contribute to the conversations. Decisions will be made with or without your input and they’ll be better decisions WITH your input.”

She cautions that doesn’t mean that all decisions will go your way, but at least you know your viewpoint was considered, which is vital no matter where you are in your career.

With 31 years of experience at New York Life, Linda describes it as “just as enjoyable today as the day she started.”

She began in a mid-level position in what was the group insurance department, and stayed there for four years before making a lateral move to the distribution business unit, where she held various positions covering training, developing and recruiting, among other functions.

When a position in operations opened, Linda moved, appreciating that it gave her the opportunity to use the knowledge and skills she gained in previous positions. She is currently vice president of financial operations, supporting 12, 000 agents nationwide, plus a field management force of 1,000 in functions such as field compensation, performance analysis and administration operations.

“At this point in my career, I am most proud of my team, and what they do day in and day out to achieve positive results by supporting the field,” Freundlich said. “We help to increase the productivity of our agents, and it’s very gratifying when we see sales increase.”

Right now she is focused on initiatives that will ensure the profitable growth of the agency field force in the years to come. “It’s exciting to be part of the design and planning from the start and determining how best to measure our success, even though waiting to see our plans come to fruition will take several years.”

As “big data” is becoming increasingly important, she sees that systems analysis is becoming increasingly integral in the insurance industry. What she finds different these days is the volume of information, along with the proliferation of tools that quickly analyze information to better understand customers and the overall business.

A Positive Industry for Women

Freundlich has found that pursuing a career as a life insurance agent is a smart choice for women.It offers a variety of positive aspects including flexibility and the ability to work independently as an entrepreneur. “The challenge is convincing women that they have what it takes to be successful.”

New York Life offers a robust slate of Employee Resource Groups, and Linda has been active in the Women’s Initiative, adding that it was particularly meaningful to be asked to be on the advisory board. The goals are to help members develop personally and professionally, with a mission to help women take their place at the corporate table through a three-prong approach – Be Confident.Be Connected.Be Committed.The group goes back more than 20 years, and she says that it was ahead of its time.

Bringing Your Best Self to Work

Freundlich asserts that the most important aspect of her career is the inspiring and caring people she has worked with, so it’s surprising that she spent the first half of her career in the closet.

Although she and her partner of 38 years came out to their families early on, she found a big part of her was missing at work because she wasn’t able to share who she was.

“It’s hard to describe what that’s like,” she says, adding that something as simple as lunchtime conversation about what you did over the weekend or who you went on vacation with adds a stress that runs deep.

Linda wouldn’t wear her commitment band to work but recalls one day when she forgot to remove it and a coworker asked if she had gotten married. “I remember blurting something out about being in a committed relationship, but the fear was extreme,” she said.

But when Linda finally did come out to her colleagues, she was astonished at how incidental it was – a non-event. “I wish I knew that 31 years ago.What I would tell young New York Life employees today is to bring their best self to work every day.”

Linda is a member of NYLPride, New York Life’s LGBT Employee Resource Group. The group was launched around 8 years ago and fosters an inclusive environment with the LGBT community and their friends. “We have a very open dialogue within New York Life about issues of relevance to LGBT employees and we have made tremendous progress. I am really proud to be affiliated with New York Life and how it has pioneered awareness on these issues.”

Approximately five years ago during Pride month, the group started “Coming Out Stories,”an annual panel of New York Life LGBT employees and friends who share their coming out experiences. “It’s a very moving and powerful event,” Linda said, adding that she facilitated the first and was honored to sit on a panel three years ago focused exclusively on New York Life executives.

Freundlich lives in Westchester, N.Y., and enjoys spending time with friends and family at her second home in Cape Cod.

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Thought Leader: Monica Marquez, EY West Region Diversity, Inclusiveness & Flexibility Leader

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Monica MarquezIt was a subtle comment that kept Monica Marquez of Ernst & Young LLP (EY) in the closet at her first job – the sense that coming out would hinder her opportunities. And that’s one of the reasons she is so focused on improving the experience for other LGBT employees. “When you are able to be your authentic self, barriers dissolve and your performance becomes just about your performance. The LGBT piece becomes moot.”

Marquez attended Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas, studying biology with a dream of becoming a doctor. While in school, she realized she had a natural passion for student engagement and involvement. One of her professors, the vice president for Student Affairs, praised her abilities, telling her she would make a wonderful administrator in higher education. She did some soul searching about what drives her and what she most enjoyed doing, and for the first time realized she had options other than the careers she had seen growing up, such as doctors, lawyers or engineers.

With that, she earned her master’s degree in higher education, and after meeting her partner, decided to move to New York, where she felt people would be more open minded.

The timing was less than ideal: they were headed to New York City on September 11, 2001, but postponed their arrival until Sept. 21, right after the 9/11 tragedy. She soon found out that there was a job freeze at most schools, limiting her options. She accepted a position at an art school, which one would assume would have a more open-minded administration, but that was where she felt the perceived pressure not to come out in the role for which she was hired, so she spent her first four years in New York closeted at work.

That challenge convinced her that when she looked for a new role, she would share personal stories during the interview and essentially “out” herself from the onset. “I’m going to ensure they like me for me.”

Moving to Financial Services

When she was offered the opportunity to pursue a recruiting role at Goldman Sachs focusing on building out their diversity pipeline of talent, she hesitated. She had only heard “horror stories” about working in a corporate environment, especially the financial industry, but after consulting with friends with financial and business backgrounds she realized it was too good an offer to pass up.

And indeed it was. “Joining the financial services industry was the best choice I’d ever made. It was fascinating to watch the same student development theories I had learned during my graduate studies play out in the workplace, as employees entering the working world transitioned into discovering their skill sets and who they are,” she says. “It was the mirror image of freshmen and sophomores coming into college, and I realized I was able to parlay my background to develop professionals as I did students.”

She credits the recruiters, who saw potential in her ability to bring a different perspective.

One of her first efforts was rolling out the Goldman Sachs Returnship program, supporting women returning to the workplace, which stands as one of her proudest career moments. As she progressed in her career, she focused on expanding her diversity experience to work on initiatives focused on LGBT, women, Asian, black and Latino employees at Goldman for the next seven years.

At that point, she decided she didn’t want to get siloed in diversity, and took a role at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where she focused on leadership development, working with senior leaders to help them shape culture, organizations, teams and talent. But after a year and a half, she realized she was passionate about diversity and began looking into other diversity roles. As serendipity would have it, her partner Alaina was asked to relocate to the West Coast by her employer, so Marquez used that opportunity to tap into her professional network and start searching for roles out West. Before she knew it, she was hired for a diversity inclusiveness and flexibility role at EY in Los Angeles, ironically with the same report date as her partner –December 2014.

At EY, Marquez has been working on assessing the environment for flexibility, diversity and inclusiveness, underscoring that it’s no longer just focused on women. As one example, gender neutral bathrooms were included in EY’s San Jose office redesign, a concept Marquez is encouraging teams to implement wherever feasible. Her goal is to capture momentum, engagement and energy and focus on creating high-performing teams while weaving in the concept of inclusiveness. And, she’ll be taking the firm’s global and Americas priorities and customizing them for the west, taking into account different cultural nuances based on client groups.

LGBT in Financial Services

As a whole, Marquez believes the financial services industry has been more progressive and more forward thinking than many.

“Having firsthand experienced being ‘closeted’ in the workplace, it was a priority for me to only consider employers with progressive and inclusive cultures during my job search. I found that, contrary to what I believed, the financial services industry was further along with LGBT initiatives than others. I’m excited to be at EY, a place I knew I could be myself from the beginning, instead of debating the right time to come out.”

She says even though EY has solid stepping stones in place, the firm is always looking for ways to improve and offer an inclusive environment. As part of its overall inclusiveness efforts, EY has initiatives geared toward LGBT professionals and their allies, that promote a welcoming work culture and make inclusiveness real for everyone, whether it’s through support or education.

The firm’s benefits include spousal-equivalent domestic partner recognition (from registration to benefits and policies), gender transition coverage in accordance with the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, and tax gross up on the domestic partner benefits imputed income. “These are subtle policy practices, but they have a big impact on the welcoming feel that things are equal.”

Encouraging Others

Marquez says she wishes that she had been strong and confident enough at the beginning of her career to say “This is who I am!” She believes she was initially unable to reach her full potential by not coming out, because she was always hiding something, which breeds a lack of trust with managers. “Over the course of my career, I’ve seen this mistrust manifest itself in manager-employee relationships. I’ve counseled closeted professionals who felt that their career trajectory was stalled. And I know why: for the manager and the employee, there’s something that’s off, but neither one of them can put their finger on it. In reality it’s that the LGBT professional doesn’t feel they are able to be their authentic self in the workplace, and the manager perceives the employee as being closed off or not engaged with the broader team. This misperception can adversely affect a career because the lack of a manager’s trust can lead to missed career opportunities for that employee.”

She says that this valuable lesson has made her even more passionate about teaching leaders to be careful about their words, to educate them on how to create an inclusive environment.

When talking to younger LGBTs about career opportunities, she counsels them to research companies where they think they want to be employed and dig in to see the culture: to make sure they embrace diversity and inclusiveness and see how other LGBTs have fared. “You’re going to spend the majority of your time there so you have to make sure it’s a good fit, and you don’t realize how important that is until you’re in the midst of it,” Marquez said. “I tell them, ‘Don’t put more time into choosing a car than your workplace.’”

Marquez counsels LGBTs to avoid making it an issue by seizing an opportunity to out yourself to make others feel comfortable. “Talk about your partner like anyone else would. People take your cues so don’t make it awkward; make it a non-issue.”

She says that managers are often afraid to say the wrong thing, but when you see them trying that says a lot. “We shouldn’t get upset if their response isn’t perfect, but instead look at those as teaching moments.”

Outside the Office

Marquez is involved in the Association of Latino Professionals for America (ALPFA), where she has hosted panels to discuss the nuance of the LGBT journey in the Latino community, which tends to be conservative.

She also works with students, helping broaden the definition of success for young minorities. “Growing up in a small west Texas town, success was defined narrowly. I have a huge passion for educating students about what it takes and how it works,” she said, noting for example that they wouldn’t necessarily know that if you want to get an internship at EY you need to apply early in the fall of your sophomore year in college.

Marquez and her partner, Alaina, now live in Los Angeles and have begun to explore all of the amazing areas and outdoor activities the West Coast has to offer. “The adjustment from New York City to Los Angeles has been significant, but we are enthusiastically determining for ourselves if the West Coast really is the best coast!”

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Lindsay Drucker Mann, Vice President, Goldman Sachs

Lindsay Drucker Mann“Taking the easy and popular route often doesn’t add value,” says Goldman Sachs’ Lindsay Drucker Mann, who advises professionals to trust the skills they know, even when it can feel uncomfortable.

Drucker Mann says her start in finance was a happy accident. Though she had earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in computer science from Brown University, she was unsure what she wanted to do professionally, aside from knowing she wanted to move to New York. She nabbed a research role at a hedge fund and then joined Goldman Sachs working in Global Investment Research on the beverage team. From there she moved to a senior analyst position in agribusiness and now covers branded apparel and accessories, including companies from Nike to Tiffany.

Smart, Bold Moves Pay Off

“When you love research, every sector is exciting,” Drucker Mann says, adding that she took the unconventional step of moving to a few different teams to reach her current positon. A more typical path is to begin on a team as a junior analyst, and stay on that team, advancing to a senior analyst in that sector. “It felt risky and uncomfortable to change teams, but looking back, all the moves helped me grow to where I am today.”

The confidence she gained from working on different teams bolstered her when, early on in her current position, she put a controversial Sell rating on a company that was well-liked by investors. “It was a tough way to start a franchise, by telling people one of the names they really liked is something we thought they were going to lose money on, and that we had a different point of view.”

The analysis turned out to be correct, and ultimately it was making that bold, unpopular call that helped her quickly gain credibility as a new analyst with a fresh, smart point of view.

Currently Drucker Mann is enjoying her work with the “Millennial Insights” project, a body of research that looks at how the next generation of consumers is changing consumption. “It’s empowering because the next generation is truly innovative and influential, and will pave new paths instead of just settling for what a brand or business tells them they should do,” she said. “At the end of the day, you’re seeing behaviors and consumption turned upside down, with unbelievably far-reaching effects.”

A Culture of Acceptance at Goldman

Drucker Mann, who had come out in college, harbored the fear that she might not be accepted in the corporate world if she was out, and it might make her career more difficult. She didn’t know many people who worked on Wall Street so only had “urban legend” on which to base her decision, as well as the mixed advice she received, including advice from some people who told her to hold off on being out in the workplace.

“But I knew that I couldn’t operate if I was hiding,” Drucker Mann says, expressing relief that it was a non-issue with her co-workers. She’s been pleased by all the support she received when she took on a leadership role in Goldman’s LGBT network and when she got married and started a family. “The firm has been outspoken in support of same sex marriages, and it has only gotten better with time,” she says, adding that she feels fortunate since not everyone is able to work in an environment where people are supportive or where you feel like you can be yourself.

Drucker Mann has been active in the LGBT network since starting Goldman, noting that it presented her with a way to form relationships throughout the firm. She also served as a co-head of the committee for Pride Month, which coincided with the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York, making it an even better celebration. “Working on these events reinforced for me the caliber of people in all different areas of the firm.”

“Marriage and family planning were very special to my personal life, and through this network, I was able to speak to people at the firm who had gone through that. This unbelievable network of advocacy has had an important impact on me personally and professionally,” she says.

Sponsorship as a Career Cornerstone

Drucker Mann says that the Goldman Research division has a strong tradition of sponsorship and believes that it was a critical component of every opportunity she has had. “I feel very fortunate that I have had a few very senior sponsors who took an interest in my career and offered advice and perspective, becoming important advocates as I progressed.”

While she says that some aspects of finding a sponsor is luck and the quality of people you work for, at the same time you don’t get sponsored if you’re invisible. “You have to have a voice and realize that any interaction you have with senior professionals creates lasting impressions.”

It’s a skill that has always come naturally to her; though she’s not cavalier, she’s never been afraid to ask for opportunities and put herself out there. “I’ve always asked a lot of questions – there’s nothing worse than not having answers when you need them.”

A Busy Family

Drucker Mann married in 2008, and she and her wife are parents to three boys, ages five, three and one. “With two busy careers, we do a lot of balancing, but we spend every second we can with them. We just have a great time together.”

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Career Tip of the Week

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women at computerThis Week’s Tip Is…

What is the job that you want next? Are you working on building the skills for this next job as well as the job after that?

Make sure your skills development plan is lining up for your next promotions. Have a think about how to close any experience gaps that you might have.

Welcome to Career Tip of the Week. In this column we aim to provide you with a useful snippet of advice to carry with you all week as you navigate the day to day path in your career.

By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Psychologist

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Voice of Experience: Janet Visbeen, Partner, PwC Netherlands

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Janet Visbeen (PWC)For PwC Partner Janet Visbeen, her status as a lesbian professional benefits her career. “If you are open about your diversity, you offer a unique selling point that others don’t,” she says. “My orientation colors how I think about the world and gives me some depth. It helps me be visible and defines my personal brand. Anything that makes you stand out is a blessing in this industry.”

Visbeen’s entire career has been spent in the consulting industry. Universities in the Netherlands are business-focused, so Visbeen studied economics business administration, focusing on the tax side, which provided a clear path to either an accounting or a law firm. With her interest in working in an international environment, she joined Coopers Lybrand (which ultimately became PwC), with a short stint at Arthur Andersen after six years. Her next move was to start her own company with some colleagues, but she realized after a few years that despite the positive experience, she had always had the urge to be top notch in her field, which necessitated returning to a larger firm. She rejoined PwC and one year later became partner focusing on the firm’s executive reward design and delivery function.

Being part of an international network of firms has led Visbeen to her belief that many of the issues in the world today can better be solved by big international companies than governments. “Advising clients on how they can improve their performance and seeing where the companies fit within society is a balance that keeps me energized in my work,” she says.

For Visbeen, helping advance the careers of those on her team and contributing to their success has been the achievement of which she is most proud. But she also believes that business will succeed because of the “power of one.”

In her view, approaches today are theme based. “We will offer our clients an ‘Ocean’s 11’ approach where we staff a team with the best people for the job from within or outside of the firm, and then when the job is done they part ways.”

Growing Your Career

Visbeen believes that women need to advocate for themselves, because although they might have great achievements, they don’t always communicate them.

“I find that women tend to talk about ‘we’ instead of ‘I,’ but in a corporate world where you have to continually compete, it’s vital to get the story out there that you are the best person for any particular role,” she said.

Interestingly, she finds that while most women consultants are tough when it concerns their clients, they don’t bring that same tenacity and self-confidence to promoting themselves.

She believes women must be clear about what they want and go for it. “To be successful in business, you have to rely on yourself and your own compass. If you do that as a free thinker you add more value to your clients.”

A Culture of Acceptance

Visbeen has always appreciated the openness that the professional services industry offers for LGBT individuals. “This field attracts well-educated people, and though they might not be more open minded, they deal with it differently.” In fact, she believes that LGBT offers a unique selling point as a consultant. “Your diversity can be an important tool to help you stand out.”

Of course, she acknowledges, you have to be comfortable with yourself, and while gender or cultural diversity can’t be hidden, LGBT orientation can be private. However, as she says, “The consulting business requires more than regular office hours. Do you want to work somewhere where you can’t be yourself? Everyone has to answer that question for themselves.” For Visbeen the answer is clear. She believes that respecting coworkers is what brings out their best, so an open environment is a requirement.

She sees the issue as one that offers two clear choices: you might not be universally loved if you are open, but you are able to have deeper relationships. She characterizes it as “brand or bland.”

“There will always be some people for whom you who won’t be their cup of tea, but the others will love you for it.”

Visbeen has been active in Gay Lesbians and Everyone Else (GLEE), a strong PwC network that reaches beyond the firm to include others in its gatherings. As a business network, it blends networking with advocacy. “As a global network of firms, it’s part of PwC’s DNA to make sure that it is as safe to be an LGBT consultant in Amsterdam as it is anywhere in the world. It’s what we stand for.”

In addition, Visbeen takes that advocacy outside the workplace as a member of the Netherlands Committee of Human Rights Watch. “Economies that have a lot of wealth can take care of human rights and social issues. In economies where there is less wealth, there is less well-being. I believe they go hand in hand.”

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Career Tip of the Week

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sad womenThis Week’s Tip Is…

What are your triggers? We all have them. Think about your most stressful moment, what behaviors tend to surface time and time again? If you can identify them, you have a chance at not reacting in the same old ways. This will give you control over tough moments at work and help you to “show up” the way that you want to!

Welcome to Career Tip of the Week. In this column we aim to provide you with a useful snippet of advice to carry with you all week as you navigate the day to day path in your career.

By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Psychologist

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Voice of Experience: Fangfang Chen, Senior Vice President, State Street

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Fang Fang Chen“Because we are all different, there is not just one model that works the best. You can succeed with many different leadership styles, and you have to find the one that’s true to you. Acting like ‘someone else’ is challenging and creates too much pressure over the long run,” says Fangfang Chen.

Chen’s own personal style has been built by constantly taking on new challenges in her many career roles. She attended school in China and then came to the United States to earn her MBA at Yale. Planning to stay for only a few years, she ended up staying for 13, embarking on a consulting career and then moving into financial services with AIG and Fidelity Investments before joining State Street in 2007 with the global strategy and new venture group in Boston.

Her eight-year journey at State Street has not been a static one – it has spanned three countries and four different roles. Since it was always her plan to eventually move back to Asia, her first strategy role seemed like a great fit to understand the critical issues the organization was facing and to garner the exposure needed to a diverse and seasoned network.

This role allowed her to build a strong network with senior executives globally, and so when the head of State Street for Asia Pacific region heard of her interest in returning to China, he hired her in 2010.

Chen spent a year in Hong Kong running strategy, and was put up for promotion to senior vice president seven months after she took on this role. When her company opened a bank branch in China, she said she was pleased that her manager had the confidence to move her to Beijing to become deputy general manager. She enjoyed the diversity, as it was a completely different job from her previous strategy role to manage and grow a small branch, in addition to interacting with regulators and clients.

Fast forward a few years, her manager offered her a chance to move back to Hong Kong and assume a chief of staff role, which she seized on as a “great opportunity to work with a smart man and build new skill sets.” Her work involves driving organizational alignment to develop and execute business strategies and management priorities.

“My role is less about tangibly executing a particular strategy and more about navigating the company to build consensus and support to achieve end goals we have set.”

Willingness to Take Risks

Chen said she has always been proud of her desire to take the risk to try new things and not be afraid of failing when taking on something new.

“I’ve never been bored. Moving from location to location and taking on different roles is what has kept my experience fresh,” she said, adding that the organization is one where they encourage mobility and are willing to let their employees take the risks inherent in a new role. “They have the confidence to stretch you and develop you further.”

Her desire to learn new things comes from the excitement of seeing the “nervousness because you don’t know what you’re doing replaced by the sense of accomplishment when you master it.”

A Culture That Needs More Women

As she has climbed the career ladder, Chen has noticed an interesting trend among women. They enter the field in equal proportion and many times even grow faster, but then they plateau, whether from family obligations or other forces. “We need more role models at the top levels to help other women see how they can navigate organizations and respond to the tough questions. Sometimes I feel like I’m working in the dark, and having more women would help illuminate the path.”

Chen believes that authentic leadership is more sustainable in the long term but that women need role models to help them determine their own style.

At State Street, Chen has led the regional initiative of winning State Street the nomination by Asian Pacific Economic Corporation (APEC), as one of the 50 leading companies for women; just one of three American companies selected.

While Chen has long been focused on women’s issues, she recently took a leadership role in the State Street’s Women in Leadership program in Asia Pacific. This program focuses on three different yet interconnected initiatives: “Pay it Forward,” a structured mentoring process for younger women that helps them navigate substantive issues; Professional Women’s Network, which focuses on helping female staff build skill sets in areas such as presenting and networking; and a sponsorship program where key female talents are matched with senior executive sponsors to expand their roles and responsibilities. She also works with organizations such as Women’s Foundation in Hong Kong to build broader networks and sponsorship opportunities.

Helping Hands

For a woman to develop a sustainable career, a support network is absolutely critical. Chen says she is fortunate that her husband is sharing half of the family responsibilities and her parents are lending hands to help out.

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