Life After Corporate: Leila Kanani, CEO & Founder, Intermix Legal Group

By Robin Madell (San Francisco)

Do you have an entrepreneurial idea that you just can’t shake? Leila Kanani recommends pursuing it. “Lawyers are all, as a group, very risk averse,” says Kanani. “I’m not in that group. My advice is to quit your job and go after any idea you may have. Take the risk. Your fallback is that you can always go back to your corporate job.”

Kanani speaks from experience. After spending a decade as an associate in BigLaw firms in DC and Atlanta, she now runs her own company in Chicago, Intermix Legal Group, that helps professionals achieve better balance between work and family. She left her position last March as an intellectual property attorney at Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox to launch Intermix.

Her goal in starting the company was to help attorney parents keep their skills sharp and their resumes current if they’ve opted to leave their firm to focus on family life. Kanani’s company helps match these parents with project-based work with law firms and corporate legal departments. Participants in the program work from home, choosing their own projects and hours.

“Intermix is really an answer for all those women that leave these firms and then think, ‘Now what?’” says Kanani. “Why let their hard earned skills and education go to waste just because they choose to stay at home?”

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Movers and Shakers: Laurie Nordquist, Director of Institutional Retirement & Trust, Wells Fargo

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

According to Laurie Nordquist, Director of Institutional Retirement and Trust at Wells Fargo, one of the most important pieces of advice she has ever received was on the value of staying true to herself.

“Be yourself – it’s important for all of us. The more you can be authentic at work, the more you can use that energy to make a difference,” she explained. And after thirty years in the business, she has the experience to know it’s true.

She explained, “I had a wonderful boss who gave me that advice and it’s really helped me over the years. It’s okay to be unique or a little quirky – don’t think there’s a particular style you have to follow. Just come in and be yourself.”

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Voice of Experience: Carol Sawdye, Chief Financial Officer, PwC

carol sawdyeAccording to Carol Sawdye, Chief Financial Officer at PwC, it’s important to maintain a “sense of urgency” about your career. It took Sawdye 17 years to figure this out, she said with a laugh.

After climbing through the ranks to partnership at PwC, she set out for a new chapter as CFO and COO at the M&A firm Skadden Arps, which led her to a more recent, challenging role as CFO at the NBA. Now, she is back at PwC, working as part of the US Leadership Team to transform the nature of how the firm does business in a rapidly changing, 24/7, global marketplace.

Sawdye explained, “You don’t necessarily need to move to new employers. There are typically a lot of opportunities in the place where you are currently employed to get new experiences and advance your skills. The way to get from point A to point B is not necessarily a straight line.”

“After moving up the ranks at PwC for 17 years, I made the move to Skadden – it was a big leap. But I had the desire to become part of a management team so I just decided to do it. You really need to be willing to see opportunities and take calculated risks.”

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Movers and Shakers: Catherine Reimer, Vice President, Senior Insurance Portfolio Manager, ING U.S. Investment Management

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

After excelling in mathematics at her Quebec high school, Catherine Reimer, now Vice President and Senior Insurance Portfolio Manager at ING U.S. Investment Management, went on to study actuarial science in college. For her first internship, she worked on the investment side of an insurance company and from there she was hooked. “I really enjoyed the dynamic environment of fixed income,” she said. She began her career working in asset and liability management and then moved to new product development for institutional clients, derivatives and then to Insurance Portfolio Management.

“I had a great boss at the time, who gave me plenty of opportunities to work on new projects. When he moved to the USA, he asked me to work at his new company, so I moved to the USA too.”

In fact, Reimer emphasized the importance of good bosses and mentors she has had along the way in helping build her career. “I’ve never had a formal mentor, but I have been blessed with having really strong male bosses, who opened doors for me and gave me credit when I deserved it. Being surrounded by great people has been the key to my career.”

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Voice of Experience: Julie Sweet, General Counsel, Accenture

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Reflecting on her career, Julie Sweet, General Counsel at Accenture, says her path was shaped by a drive to do the unexpected. “One thing to note is that I didn’t set out early in my career to be the general counsel at a big company.”

She explained, “Sometimes early in their careers, young people think they have to have it all figured out. But I think it’s important to leave your life open to unexpected opportunities.”

Sweet began her career at the global law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore, and spent ten years there after making partner. In 2010, she made the leap into the corporate space at Accenture. “At each stage of my career, I’ve really focused on doing something that others haven’t done – I call that exploring uncharted territory,” she said.

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35 Under 35: Vivian Lau, Partner, Serengeti Asset Management

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“What excites me and makes me driven is that I love to invest capital,” began Vivian Lau, Partner at Serengeti Asset Management. “And when it comes to investing, the markets are exciting. Every year it’s hard to make money until you finish the year and find ways to make money. I just love coming to work every day.”

At 34 years old, Lau has achieved quite a bit. After graduating from Harvard in 2000, she began her career at Goldman Sachs on its distressed investments desk. Six short years later, she became managing director at the firm. She ran Goldman Sachs’ proprietary business until 2008 when she joined Serengeti Asset Management as a partner.

At Serengeti, she is responsible for managing the business as well as the portfolio. “Our goal is to find investments that are cheap or misunderstood in some way.”

“I’ve never been someone tremendously proud of accolades, but I think what I’m most proud of is what we have accomplished here at Serengeti. We’re a five year-old business with a billion dollars in capital,” Lau continued. “I’m also proud of the team we have built. We’ve attracted people we’ve worked with in the past – I’ve worked with these colleagues for seven to ten years.”

“I work with people whom I trust and whom I truly love working with. When you find the right people and work with them, I think you can build a tremendous investment firm.”

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Thought Leaders: Davia Temin, CEO, Temin & Co.

thought-leadershipToday, with our myriad platforms on which to publish, promote, “like,” and share, maintaining a reputation is both easier and more difficult. The Internet as a tool can make our thoughts and feelings public instantly – so you had better be sure what you do share is authentically you, and carefully considered. That goes doubly for leaders – because especially when they self-publish over social media, leaders are the subject of other people’s scrutiny and discussion. And that’s the essence of reputation – you can craft it with your own behavior, but it is spread by other people.

Davia Temin, Founder and CEO of the global reputation management firm Temin & Co., sincerely believes that your reputation is your biggest asset – and it’s also a big responsibility. She explained, “The first quote on our website is by Warren Buffett and I think it’s the best and most true way leaders think about reputation. He says, ‘It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.’”

Your reputation encompasses how you conduct yourself, what you say and do, what you say about yourself, and what other people say about you. It’s built on a lifetime of actions and interactions, Temin says. Leaders need to be sure they’re living up to the reputation they want to have. “Seek to create an authentic and consistent reputation that encapsulates and captures your best self. And then live up to it.”

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Voice of Experience: Stephanie Breslow, Partner & Co-Head of Investment Management Group, Schulte Roth & Zabel

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“You really have to take charge of your career,” began Stephanie Breslow, Partner & Co-Head of the Investment Management Group at Schulte Roth & Zabel. The reason, she explained, is because while partners or senior people may take an interest in you, you have to leverage that interest into advancement.

She continued, “It’s like the television show Downton Abbey – the people who work downstairs know so much more about the people upstairs than the other way around. You know that your firm is going to try to train you, but you will be much more aware of what you need and what you are pursuing than the partners.”

Breslow advised junior lawyers not to be timid about seeking more responsibilities or experience from those at the top. Also related, she continued, is knowing when it’s time to start doling out responsibilities to people who are more junior.

“It’s human nature that people will be happy to let you handle work if you are happy to do it. But you have to learn when to start to delegate or to hand off tasks to someone else so you can get to the next level.”

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Voice of Experience: Sue Rissbrook, UK Partner, PwC

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Sue Rissbrook, UK Partner at PwC, says her advice to professional women is “being true to yourself, being who you feel you truly are, and supporting others.”

She recently moved to PwC’s London office after working in the smaller Birmingham office mainly partnered by men, and was pleasantly surprised by what she found. “I’ve now walked into a diverse set of partners. I see far more of my peers are female and I see them being very supportive of one another, which impacts positively on all partners and the team.”

“We’re supportive, creative, and entrepreneurial, and I think that’s fantastic for people to see,” she added.

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Thought Leaders: Natalia Oberti Noguera, Founder & CEO, Pipeline Fellowship

thought-leadershipAccording to the Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire, only 12 percent of angel investors last year were women. Only three percent are people of color.

But a new program has set out to change that – as well as increase funding to women-led for-profit social ventures. Natalia Oberti Noguera, founder of the Pipeline Fellowship, explained that many women are interested in angel investing – but haven’t had a lot of exposure to it. At the same time, women-led startups often lack access to networks of early-stage funders. And many investors have trouble seeing the business sense in for-profit social ventures.

The Pipeline Fellowship works to boost all of these groups, bringing funds to these types of startups (women-led for-profit social ventures), while encouraging women to confidently enter the angel investing space. Oberti Noguera remarked, “Hybrid ventures need more hybrid investors who understand and value the triple bottom line.”

Plus, she said, the result is more diversity in the startup space – on the entrepreneurial side and on the investor side. “There’s a huge lack of diversity in the angel community,” she explained, and investors tend to fund companies run by people who look like themselves. “What I’m interested in doing is turning on its head that pattern recognition and that familiarity. By getting more women and people of color into the community, we can fund more ventures led by women and people of color.”

Now entering its second year, the Fellowship has introduced a diverse range of women to angel investing – from senior leaders in the Fortune 500 to entrepreneurs and other professionals. “Many people – even ones who work in the financial services – have said they have no idea how to conceptualize investing in an early stage company, but that interest is there,” she explained. “Also, learning to invest in a startup gave one Pipeline Fellowship graduate the confidence to engage more with her financial adviser.”

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