Ivy Tsui: Director of Program Management for DE&I, PGIM Real Estate

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Ivy Tsui“It is very important to have a sponsor for your career” says Ivy Tsui. “You need somebody to advocate for you and be your voice in places where maybe you don’t have a voice.”

Tsui speaks to staying open and authentic, asking for sponsorship and embodying inclusion.

From Banking to Inclusion

“I have always been open to different opportunities beginning from early on in my career to now–because where you end up may not be where you thought you would go,” she advises. “Life is a journey and it’s not always linear.” Tsui’s parents immigrated to the US from Taiwan and Hong Kong, and she has learned a lot from their adaptability and unwavering spirit.

Tsui started out in banking after obtaining her dual-major bachelor’s degree in economics and international relations at Wellesley College. Tsui spent the first 14 years of her career at J.P. Morgan, and crossed many different disciplines–eventually landing in human resources–while obtaining her master’s degree in organizational psychology from Teacher’s College, Columbia University. In 2017, Tsui made the move to PGIM Real Estate.

While DE&I has always been an aspect of her HR work, in April, Tsui joined a new team headed by Christy Lockridge–the first Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer of PGIM Real Estate–which is focused on advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in five key areas of impact: Talent, Culture, Industry, Investing, and Community. To Tsui, the new role feels like a culmination of her professional and personal experiences, especially as an Asian American woman.

Tsui is passionate about how the work of the DE&I team impacts people directly, and she’s especially energized about building a diverse pipeline of early talent. One of her key programs is the PGIM Real Estate Sophomore Training Program (STP), which gives college students early exposure, training and experience in the real estate industry–an industry that has historically not been very diverse. Tsui noticed the need to introduce real estate to students before their junior year (when students usually apply for internships) and has tripled the number of sophomore interns in the past four years.

“We often see students majoring in real estate because of a family member in the business. STP provides sophomores from diverse backgrounds, who otherwise may not know about real estate as a career possibility, the opportunity to work in real estate asset management.” says Tsui. “Some may not stay in real estate, but it opens a lot of different doors for them regardless.”

Being Open and Authentic

Tsui accredits her openness, adaptability and flexibility to her diverse and varied experiences: “I’ve never strategized about how this or that will bring me to the next level. I’ve been more interested in learning new things–sometimes, you have to take a step back or go lateral to really develop yourself.”

“I’ve always found people feel comfortable to talk and open up with me, and I make connections quite easily, and am able to meet people where they are at, which is quite a valuable skill in the HR and DE&I spaces.”

Describing herself as unconventional and an extroverted introvert, with a quirky sense of humor, Tsui has stayed true to herself and feels she has grown in self-confidence with time.

“One of the biggest pieces of advice to my younger self would be to let go of the fear to share my opinion,” says Tsui. “Early in my career, I was more conservative in offering my perspective and spoke only if I had the perfect comment. I’ve realized it’s okay to not always have the right answer or right idea, but it’s important to use your voice. There is power, value and hopefully impact, in sharing diverse perspectives.”

Tsui encourages mentees to do the same: “It doesn’t matter if you’re a junior level person in a room of more seasoned executives, you’ve been given a seat at the table for a reason and it is in the firm’s best interest to encourage and embrace your perspective. You have valuable things to say, so don’t sit in the background. Use your voice, early on.”

Asking For Sponsorship

Tsui absolutely recognizes the importance of being championed at work. She cites the difference between mentorship and sponsorship as critical: a mentor is someone who provides you with career advice and feedback and a sponsor is someone who directly advocates for you in your career development, whether for a promotion or an opportunity.

She encourages employees to have mentors and a sponsor but while she’s had highly valuable informal mentors, she has never had either a formal mentor nor a sponsor, and never asked for one.

“I think that’s partly because as an Asian American female, we’re taught ‘Just put your head down, work hard, do a good job and you’ll be rewarded or at least you won’t fail. Don’t ask for anything more and don’t rock the boat.’ But that doesn’t work.”

Tsui wishes someone had nudged her towards the advice she now gives: “My advice to everyone, but especially to Asian American women and people of color, is that you have to be in control of your own career and vocalize what you want. Even if it’s uncomfortable, you have to find mentors, formally or informally, and you absolutely need to find a sponsor.”

“I’ve learned that it’s important to be your own best advocate. Communication is key to ensure my manager and leaders in my group are informed of what I’m doing and know what my future interests are. This helps keep me in mind for both additional responsibilities and stretch opportunities.”

Embodying Inclusion

“As I’ve moved up, I’ve felt it’s increasingly important to make sure that all voices are heard. If a few people are dominating the Zoom conversation, and I see someone trying to speak or someone who doesn’t often speak, I will try to bring them in and have their voice included,” says Tsui. “When I was in that junior position, I would have loved if someone would have asked for my thoughts, so now I have that opportunity.”

Tsui also makes a point of saying hello to everybody she passes. And while it might seem basic, she notes you’d be surprised how often people just walk past each other. Especially as the senior person, it can help to create inclusion by simply acknowledging the more junior people you pass by.

Another regular practice is to thank people for their contributions in public to increase recognition. She also may draw a more hesitant person into a group conversation while at a networking opportunity.

“Much of this comes naturally to me, but some of it, I do with intent–especially if I see an opportunity to lead by example,” says Tsui.

Choosing Her Own Path

Tsui was advised by a current mentor not to compare her life or her career path to others, and that advice has served. Throughout her career, she’s made choices that were not linear, but were aligned to her personal desires–whether a lateral move to an opportunity outside of her comfort zone, time out of her career after having her third child, or choosing her location based on family-work rhythm.

“I made all those decisions based on what was more important for me at each of those times and they did have trade-offs – whether it was a less competitive salary or getting that more senior title, sooner,” notes Tsui. “But I am happier because of those experiences and grateful for them. This was my path, and I don’t compare myself to peers who chose a different path.”

Tsui met her Colombian husband, who was raised in Brazil, during her early investment banking years. They have three children – Sofia, 15, Bruno, 12 and Emma, 6. At any given time in her house, there’s a combination of Spanish, Portuguese and Mandarin being spoken. Based in New Jersey, she loves visiting her parents and sisters in California, and considers them to be a bicoastal family. She plays piano, and recently played Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24 by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra with her nieces and nephew, although ballads are her usual jam.

By Aimee Hansen

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Jingjing Liang: Associate, Compensation, Governance & ERISA practice, Shearman & Sterling LLP

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Jingjing Liang“The truth is, if I can be loving and patient, and approach whatever comes my way with compassion, everything will fall into place,” says Jingjing (JJ) Liang. “Being a good lawyer, a good colleague, a good mother, a good partner, a good daughter – it all starts with being a loving person. Approaching things with a loving attitude will make things easier for you.”

Liang speaks about staying open-minded, building your confidence, using your voice and showing up to the moment.

Be Open to Surprise

“Keep an open mind,” Liang advises law students. She never would have seen herself in law, let alone as a specialist in compensation and governance – yet there are advantages to unforeseen changes.

Having specialized in European history in her undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto, Liang became interested in legal history while studying in Europe. She took her mother’s insightful advice to work as a paralegal before investing in law school. After working for a year as a legal intern in Beijing, China and another year as a legal assistant in Toronto, Canada, she headed to the University of Texas School of Law. During her summer associate program at Shearman & Sterling in New York, where she rotated through the firm’s M&A and litigation practice groups, she received an offer to join the compensation and governance group.

“At that time, I thought, I have no idea what this is, this is so specialized, I just want to do M&A,” confesses Liang. “My work was very tough in the beginning as a first-year associate, because there were nothing from which I could draw on from my law school studies. The learning curve was steep.”

It was only when Liang found herself teaching summer associates that she realized how quickly she had grown and how much she enjoyed the work. Relative to her peers in other practices, Liang found she was not just reviewing and proofreading documents as a junior associate, but actually providing substantive legal advice and engaging directly with clients. “I’m glad I kept an open mind to try out this practice, I never would have known how well-suited it was for me if I hadn’t.”

How You Approach The Moment Is the Practice

Being patient, flexible and quick on her feet has served Liang well, but her ability to approach a situation and respond adeptly is her core practice.

When an urgent request comes in the night before an early meeting, it’s easy to stress. But Liang draws on her work as a meditation and yoga instructor: “The person in front of me and the request is not by definition stressful. It could be stressful to me, but interesting or fun to somebody else,” she observes. “So if the stress is coming from me, then I have the ability to change it. That’s how I try to approach difficult moments. I try to ask, ‘how can I ease the situation so it becomes easier for everyone involved.’”

Early on, Liang received two valuable insights into the enigma of work-life balance in Big Law: “It can be pretty impossible to strive for ‘work-life balance’ on a daily basis, so if you focus on balance in the ‘tree’ of a day, it can feel like a fight. But if you can step back and observe the wave of activities that come and go throughout a month or couple of months, you can take in the ‘forest’ and find more balance.”

Liang recommends that junior lawyers make plans with families and friends and surround themselves with people who will understand when something comes up. Even if you need to cancel a weekend plan, it’s important to still create the room to nurture your personal and social life.

Building and Bringing Confidence

As she becomes more senior, Liang’s advice to her younger self would be to take time and dig into the topics in your field you’re deeply interested in. “What did I enjoy most in this deal and what can I do next to strengthen the skills I gained today?” She recommends stepping back after big deals or intense periods of work to reflect on the learning experience to deepen career development.

“You’re learning so many different topics over time and quickly, it would be worthwhile to categorize your specialties so you can reinforce each one, becoming aware of your strengths and weaknesses in the substantive aspects of law,” says Liang. “I think it’s important to build confidence in your knowledge base, and that’s hard to do when it’s go-go-go.”

Reflecting on how her generation is changing the legal field, she feels her peers in her generation are more likely to just sit at the table rather than waiting to be invited: “Even more, when we sit at the table, we’re not afraid to ask questions and contribute. We’re not afraid to give our view and participate in a discussion among more senior lawyers, ” she says, also noting her parents encouraged speaking up early on in life. “I’m not embarrassed to be wrong (of course, being thoughtful about my contribution is important too). I’m excited to have this conversation with everyone at the table.”

Liang recognizes that she stands on the shoulders of women who have paved the way, and for that, her generation of women tends to hesitate less: “Women lawyers at conferences are always talking about not having to stay quiet because you’re a woman, and I am thinking, I don’t think we’re being quiet.”

When it comes to being Asian American, at certain times in her journey, Liang has felt stereotyped, such as the expectation that she would be quiet, being asked where she’s really from, or being spoken to in some Asian language. These problems can be subtle and until she talks with Asian peers who have had similar experiences, it’s difficult to validate what’s happening in that moment. “It’s a difficult conversation,” she says, “but because discrimination, macro or micro, is still there, we’re still talking about it.”

She does not, however, feel she’s facing a “bamboo ceiling” in Big Law, and found it inspiring last year to witness two female Asian women appointed to partners at Shearman, including Lara Aryani. She also feels lucky to work closely with female partners at the firm who value the mentoring and sponsorship of young lawyers through open dialogue and active training on how to be successful in this industry.

An Ever More Compassionate Self

Certified by Three Jewels Enlightenment Studio, Liang became a meditation and yoga instructor. During the pandemic, she was able to establish a more regular meditation practice to help cope with work, the ever-changing state of the world, and more recently, being a new parent. To give back to her community, she currently teaches yoga on Sundays with Three Jewels.

One of Liang’s meditation practices is “Future Refuge” – where you envision your future and step into that version within your present self: “If I can envision all of these aspects of my future self, what’s stopping me from being that today? Even if I can’t change external conditions, how can I embody the characteristics of the ‘future me’ now?”

Engaging in her meditation and yoga practice regularly, she sees herself in five years as being even more calm, loving and compassionate. Going back to when a client asks her for an emergency request, in a difficult moment, she chooses to view the request as if it’s coming from her best friend who she would do anything for, even if it throws her evening plans awry.

She also loves being with her ten-month-old son, watching how he explores the world and looks forward to traveling the world with him in the future.

By Aimee Hansen

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Elena Kim: VP Business Development, TV/OTT at Global Music Rights

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Elena Kim“I found a different lease on my otherness. I can’t chase everybody’s projection of me,” says Elena Kim, “but the more I recognize the uniqueness of my own experience, the more I feel I have to offer.”

Kim speaks to how she learned to dream, connecting through differences, emotional regulation and integrating masculine and feminine aspects of leadership.

How the Invitation To Dream Changed Everything

Kim spent the first six years of her career in investment banking in Moscow, before the financial crisis of 2008. She decided to take the ‘opportunity’ of the market slump to invest in herself by pursuing an MBA. While filling out the application, she had to answer where she envisioned herself in five years, which she had never considered: “It quickly became a self-discovery journey for me.”

When Kim pondered what she cared or was passionate about, she realized she didn’t know what she really wanted.

“It was the first time when I allowed myself to dream as if anything was possible,” reflects Kim. “At that time, it was films and TV series – my window into the bigger world, into a different world. Growing up in Uzbekistan, I never had allowed myself to even consider the possibility of working in entertainment.”

She received her MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management in Los Angeles when digital media was becoming prevalent in media and entertainment, which created a permissive playing field of newbies. Jumping on the rising wave of digital transformation as major players were just coming onto the scene, she joined a startup and began to reinvent her career path.

For several years, she acquired film and TV content for digital platforms, such as Hulu, Vimeo and iflix. For the past three years, she has negotiated and licensed music rights for programming across broadcast, cable, local TV networks and streaming platforms, which gives her a bird’s eye view of the whole TV and film industry.

“What I’m passionate about is figuring out what makes people’s hearts beat faster. What do they really love to watch and what determines that?” she says.

Having worked across emerging markets, she observed the obvious: whereas what people prefer to watch in Latin America might differ from that in Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa or Southeast Asia, the love for stories about human experience is shared universally.

The Curiosity to Learn

Early on, Kim believes that her strongest asset was curiosity and willingness to dig deep into a subject. She notes she had amazing teachers who taught her the structure of learning a new skill and how to dissect a new concept to understand it.

“So how do you learn a new industry, for example? You look at the main players and their business models: how do people make money? What is the current political, economic, legislative environment impacting the industry? What are the major trends? What stands behind the main buzzwords?” asks Kim. “As you learn the basics, you then start tuning into where the opportunity is. What forms core competitive advantage, and what is driving the opportunity, what needs to hold true to fully unleash value? etc.”

When she was coming from Russia to the U.S., shifting from banking to media, she applied this process: “It became very clear to me that the wind was blowing towards online viewing, and I knew I wanted a job that had something to do with digital distribution.”

She loves how digital distribution of content included many more voices in a global dialogue. Regardless of where you are from and what you believe, you can connect over Game of Thrones or Friends.

The Value In Our Differences

As an avid globe trotter (over 60 countries and counting), she finds traveling therapeutic. She especially enjoys interacting with local people who don’t speak her language, figuring out ways to communicate beyond verbal. She holds such memories dear to her heart after surviving an earthquake in Nepal, sharing music with children from indigenous tribes in Indonesia, self-driving through Botswana and Namibia with local hitchhikers, getting help from local police after being robbed in Argentina, for example.

During one such trip, she traveled to Peru and had her first experience with plant medicine under the guidance of a local shaman, who held space with due reverence to ancient practices and traditions: “This was learning on a cosmic level. I won’t even attempt to describe it in words. If my spiritual inquiry started with understanding the concepts of neuroplasticity (who you are today is not a verdict), my awakening was turbo charged by living through the learning during this psychedelic experience.”

Kim continues, “One of the things now running through my veins is the knowing that what makes me connect with people is the ways in which we are similar, what intrigues and draws me to people is the ways in which we are different.”

“My personal journey with ‘otherness’ has been an emotional roller coaster. I am Korean ethnically, born in a Muslim country of Uzbekistan, mentally grew up in Russian culture in the Russian society,” says Kim. “Now I live in the U.S. as a gay woman, a scientifically-inclined spiritual psychonaut, where I’m ‘too woo woo’ in analytical circles and ‘too in my head’ in esoteric environments, etc. Of course, these are mostly distorted self-assessments.”

Growing up, she felt the disconnection of being Asian in Russia by not ‘presenting’ as Russian. Yet she speaks Russian, not Korean or Chinese, for which she’s regularly mistaken. Last year, prior to the current geopolitical crisis, she spent time in Russia, where she identified a piece in herself that she feels is Russian: her sense of depth. She does not give people any box to put her in anymore: “I don’t even fit the labels I have for myself,” she notes, “I’ve stopped explaining. ‘I’m from Russia’ is all I say now.”

To Kim, whatever makes us different is what helps us to represent a specific side of humanity as part of the whole. She resonates with Jerome Braggs’s notion that if you believe in universal oneness, then excluding experiences that are unique leads to robbing others of a fuller wholeness. Therefore, the more different we’re perceived we are, the more important it is for us to show up in all areas of life – and she notes those differences are defined in so many ways beyond ethnicity, race, gender or sexual orientation.

Integrating Feminine and Masculine Traits in Leadership

In a previous role, Kim was encouraged to start an initiative to foster diversity, equality and inclusion across employees from 40+ different countries and cultural backgrounds, which activated for her the importance of so-to-speak “feminine” qualities of leadership, especially when dealing with something intangible like what gives people a collective sense of purpose, belonging, safety for authenticity, and striving for excellence.

Kim recounts we have historically glorified and rewarded traits of leadership that are labeled as “masculine” – assertiveness, linear thinking, clarity without questioning and go-getting. But traits that we assign as “feminine” – such as empathy, collaboration, creating constructive atmosphere – are considered nice-to-have but not necessarily perceived as attributes of leadership or rewarded.

“The DE&I initiative quickly led me to a path of dissecting and challenging the leadership paradigm that we were operating under,” reflects Kim. “It’s so clear to me that to be successful in a multicultural organization, you have to have an acute level of empathy and cultural awareness. And the soft skills are increasingly becoming must-have.”

She has come to see that “feminine” leadership qualities are a necessary complement to “masculine” qualities, not a compromise or trade-of. “I used to hold this myth that once you start being softer, you lose your edge, an ability to reach goals in a timely manner. I had this notion you either be like a robot or you float in the clouds, and that was a misconception.”

Reflecting on the evolution of her leadership style, she says: “Even if I was telling myself a different story, early on I was truly managing out of egoic fear of losing control. I was never a micro-manager, but I was a micro-controller. I had to know everything, call the shots, be the one interacting with management to control the narrative, etc.”

Kim realizes this came from being extremely demanding on herself, and meant she came off polished and unapproachable. As she steps up as a leader, her focus is increasingly shifting to creating opportunities for others to push their growth edges, normalizing making mistakes while minimizing their impact.

Now she finds herself at a company that’s thriving despite the global pandemic. “We have set clear goals, roles, strategy and timeline, while the flow and interaction within the team remains fluid, supportive and trusting. I don’t need to chase anyone to get their job done, rather keep communicating progress, so folks can self-direct their work streams to deliver on time. This release of control within set boundaries is still work in progress as my ego peeks its head constantly. With that, I find myself being successful at my job, really supported by my team and a much happier me.”

Emotional Regulation and Co-Creation

Kim feels the pandemic, socio-economic inequity, and current geopolitical crises have brought a set of unique challenges around managing people’s mental and emotional states. Leaders are not necessarily equipped with due skillsets, protocols or guidelines to attend to people’s emotional turbulence. She is increasingly interested in the area of emotional self-regulation and has heard many executives speak to challenges of operating in toxic environments where stress and reactivity are the norms: “Even in my relatively emotionally intelligent company, without the acquired self-regulation practices I’ve exposed myself to in the last couple of years, I could not have managed some of the incidents that have come up inside and outside of the company. A simple thing like taking a deep breath might lead to a more beneficial outcome in an emotionally charged situation. These tools are teachable and the impact is quickly palpable.”

Her latest fascinations include Web 3.0 and decentralization, and she’s presently teaching a blockchain fundamentals course at chief.com to a network for executive women.

By Aimee Hansen

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Kate Kenner Archibald: Chief Marketing Officer, Dash Hudson

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Kate Kenner Archibald“The combination of expressing your needs and doing fewer things better is what I have learned in recent years,” says Kate Archibald, who shares on advancing in a workplace of women, creating a spherical life and managing up.

Growing as a Leader While Surrounded By Women

Having grown up in New York, Archibald idolized the big fashion house vibe. She was magnetized to how creativity and business merged together at Estée Lauder, where she spent 14 years specializing in luxury brands, including Tom Ford Beauty and Bobbi Brown, honing her career towards tech marketing. In November, she moved to Dash Hudson, an all-in-social entertainment insights marketing software platform that works across some of the most influential global brands including Apple, Amazon and Disney.

With three kids (currently, seven years, five years and ten months old) and a husband with a full-time job, maintaining her career through the family journey has been a choice she has committed to, partly because she derives great satisfaction from her work, and also because of the independence mindset she adopted early on.

“My father really impressed upon me the value of being independently successful as a woman and used to impress upon me that I could be a CEO,” she reflects, “He’s been a huge impact in my life, so being independent has always been important for me.”

At Estée Lauder, she was surrounded by a workforce of 85% women, so the vertical track to, and horizontal track across, leadership positions were well-accessible for women who wished to advance, and Archibald navigated across several cross-functional leadership positions.

“I was encouraged and enabled, and there were opportunities,” she says. “You still have to know that nobody is going to hold your hand, and you are the owner of your destiny. But it helps to be in a place where the growth mentality as a woman is appreciated.”

Now at Dash Hudson, Archibald enjoys the mix of professional and personal life supported by the tech-like atmosphere and culture while still leveraging the leadership experiences she gained through her tenure in beauty and luxury.

Creating a Spherical Life and Reserving Family Time

“I am very direct in terms of what we’re trying to accomplish and what we need to do to achieve our goals. I try to get to the root of the problem and reduce the back-and-forth,” Archibald says, accrediting her need for work-family balance for the acute focus. “I also enjoy creating an environment of collaboration by enabling people to see outside of their silos, and to understand how the piece they are contributing is interrelated and contributing to the other teams. I’m a huge proponent of creating a structured collaboration framework and connecting the dots.”

Archibald has recently been inspired by the novel approach her CEO takes to hiring and culture at Dash Hudson: “The mentality is people first. Let’s find the best, smartest, most amazing people and figure out where they can add the most value. The strength of the talent and the true belief that diversity makes us stronger creates an incredible culture. The level of support felt between peers and teams is a real shift for most people when they join the company. Especially in a hybrid environment.”

Within a mostly female environment for over a decade, Archibald has had the benefit of sharing lots of honest conversations with successful women. She has often sought insight on managing professional and family demands, even the basics of keeping a household running. A recommendation she received along the way was to think of your life as a circle or a pie graph that includes everything that is important to you:- family, work, health, friends, spirituality, etc.

“If one part of the pie gets more dominating than you want it to be, you have to consider how to make that part smaller so you can ‘right-size’ your family life or your spiritual life, for example,” she says. “That has really helped me to compartmentalize what I’m doing and how it impacts the other parts of my life.”

As a traditional Jewish family, Archibald and her family observe Shabbat every week, reserving Friday night and Saturday strictly for time with family. Honoring this has been fundamental in helping manage her time, and because that time is a weekly fixed date, it’s also helped her feel more peaceful during the week when she needs to work. Additionally, it ensures that she is aligned with her partner on their collective family goals.

“I think a lot of parents feel guilty if they don’t have dinner every night with their family,” she says. “But for me, every Friday is a guaranteed dinner together with all the family and Saturday is family, all day. No exceptions. It has given me a supportive structure in my life.”

In addition to being influenced by her father’s outlook on independence and her supportive husband, Archibald attests that her mother is the hardest working person she knows. While Archibald went off to first grade, her mother went back to school and obtained her PhD in Neuropsychology. Inspired by her, Archibald wishes to model to her daughter and two sons that a woman can have a career and still be present for her family.

Managing Up and Knowing Your Own Expectations

As she’s grown more senior in her career, Archibald has found herself getting better at reinforcing her own brand of executive presence and managing up: “The transition over your career is toward managing up, and ensuring that you get what you need. I learned this the hard way when faced with health challenges, when I was doing too much and not telling people what I needed. I really have come to see the importance of don’t take on too much and do fewer things better, both of which I pass on to women just starting their career.”

When it comes to mentoring, she also tells everyone, but especially mothers with young children, that if you’re not happy at home, you’re not going to be happy at work.

“If your work is really impacting your home life, take that step back to figure out what and how you can fix it. Push for flexibility, which is becoming more common, or figure out what the issue is,” she says, “But if you’re not satisfied with how much time you have with your family, you’re never going to be happy at work, no matter how much money you’re making.”

Archibald advises women to go back to the sphere and consider the balance across areas and really understand “what does good look like, for you?” which is different for everyone. She says, you have to be able to manage life in a way that works for your expectations for your family and work life ― and honestly, check if your employer is willing to support that for and with you.

Changing Jobs Amidst a Remote Workplace

Having joined Dash Hudson well into the pandemic, and in the middle of her crossover maternity leave, Archibald has yet to meet her new colleagues in person. But in this exceptional context of our times, she has hugely valued a strong and communicative organizational culture, which has supported her onboarding and becoming part of the team.

Together, her family loves skiing in the winter and swimming in the summer in the Hudson Valley, where she loves being outdoors and active in nature. She has a real passion for ice cream and swears her ice cream place in Tivoli, New York is verifiably (just check Food & Wine Magazine) the best in the world.

By Aimee Hansen

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Renee Connolly: Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany

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Renee Connolly“I am retrospectively conscious, but not retrospectively critical. I learn from the past, to move me forward,” says Renee Connolly, based in Massachusetts. “I am prospectively thoughtful that the decisions I make today have consequences: so do I have the right facts to make those decisions?”

Connolly talks to why language matters, going for greatness, learning from the past and having the right resources.

From Communications to DEI

Connolly spent her career facilitating understanding in healthcare-related communications, until last August: “For 25 years of my life, I helped to make complex science and life sciences simple and understandable, so people could better support their lives, families and needs.”

As a college senior, Connolly lost her mother (lifelong non- smoker) to lung cancer and was compelled to enter communications in the burgeoning pharmaceutical biotech and life science field.

“I thought to myself, if I could help people on a journey, similar to ours, to better navigate that maze of specialist talk and treatments, then that’s making a difference.”

In taking on her evolved executive role, she agreed to turn her part-time advocacy of DEI into a full-time opportunity to transfer her skills.

There’s still so much to understand in the deep rootedness of what it really means to help people feel they are heard, included, and really belong,” says Connolly. “Language matters and impacts people in different ways, and DEI is a lot about language and the use of words.”

Listening and Language Matters

Now in her DEI remit, Connolly is facilitating how people better understand each other. She collaborates with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany’s many stakeholders including advising senior leadership, partnering with recruiters, engaging with employees at all levels of the organization and importantly partnering with Employee Resource Groups (ERG’s), to tell their stories and amplify their voices. Working in this space internationally requires her to keep her “ears wide open.”

“It creates constant awareness to be truly open-minded and to not put on blinders, to not put defenders up, and to really listen, wholeheartedly,” she says. “We’re creating an environment where people feel they belong and are nurtured and where we are nourishing our business for top-line growth.”

Connolly notes that her role requires emotional, mental and physical muscles every day – leading with empathy. She feels like the right person in this critical moment for our company and communities, with the right balance of skills and experience to take DEI to the next level for her organization.

Going For Greatness

“The world could be imploding around me, and I have a mantra of ‘It will be great’ or ‘I stand in a place of believing in an outcome filled with ‘greatness’,” says Connolly. “It’s not just positive mindset. I actually believe that even if the journey to get there is full of hard lessons, I’m always looking for greatness.”

When told something is impossible, a discerning question she asks is: “It couldn’t be done? It shouldn’t be done? Or it wouldn’t be done?” And depending on the answer, she may turn to how to make it possible.

The loss of her mom left Connolly with resilience. While she feels every scale of her emotions, she still tends to be a “glass half-full” person who considers herself fortunate and brings positive energy to those around her. She does what she says and says what she does, rallying her team when she commits to a vision.

“I’m a big believer that it’s the team, not the individual, that drives success. It is the collective good of many,” she says. “I love DEI because it drives progress when we realize – in some way, shape, or form – that we’re more alike than we are different.”

That emphasis on “team” has been instilled throughout her life from playing many organized sports. Connolly was a college athlete, and her entire family (including her three teenage sons and her 8 year old daughter) is athletic. She loves observing the parallels between business and individual and team sports. That spirit of healthy competition has gifted her great skillsets as well as a deep appreciation for excelling and accelerating her own growth.

There are many “dominoes” in teamwork that make you have a successful win or loss. In business, Connolly applies this and has come to find that “there’s a wisdom in knowing what you don’t know” and you don’t have to be the smartest person in the room.

“Earlier in my career, I thought I had to be the one with the voice. Now, I realize what I have to do is give or encourage or support the voices that have the information required, not always be the voice,” she says. “That’s the muscle you develop with maturity and by realizing the amazing contributions that many voices bring to a conversation. That’s the muscle you develop when you embrace the diversity of thinking in a team to drive forward.“

Retrospectively Conscious, Not Retrospectively Critical

Cultivating patience for herself and others is perhaps a skill Connolly built up by raising four children, as this year she has one in elementary, one in middle, one in high school and one in college. Talk about patience. Each age, experience and interaction requires you to be patient and that has mattered for Connolly as a leader.

“In a field like DEI, you see so much potential right away. But it’s necessary to have the patience to realize there are steps to get there, and you have to do those steps well. You can’t run before you walk,” she says. “Patience is not weakness, as I may have seen it before. It’s a virtue of understanding that you must work towards goals in a methodical way to make sure that you’re iterative enough to get the best possible outcome.”

Aware that she makes her own decision based on current knowledge—and that there will always be more to learn, Connolly tends to not focus on criticizing how past decisions were made, hers or others: “I try to learn from the past, but focus forward. Especially now, every day brings new circumstances and we use our best judgement, and most of us have positive intent.”

This makes her retrospectively conscious, not retrospectively critical, as she puts it – focusing on her responsibility today.

Why You Don’t Need “More”

When Connolly was leveling up from doing to managing others, she used to say she needed “more” to get it all done, but one of her mentors changed her entire frame of thinking: “Your problem is not getting more people or more money or more resources,” he told her. “It’s getting the right people, the right money, the right resources.”

Other words she lives by as a communications professional is to treat every opportunity like opening night: “It doesn’t matter how little or big the engagement is, respect and know your audience. Realize that people are spending time to listen or talk to you so make sure your message lands.”

She values the advice to be true to your purpose: “When you’re often counseling senior leaders, do you want to tell them what they want to hear? Or do you want to be true to yourself?” While a job may require different approaches at different times, it’s important to keep a purposeful essence in how one approaches everything (for her, a spirit of greatness and creativity).

Guiding Others and Serving a Mission

Mentoring young talent fulfills her soul. It reminds her of her younger self, looking for guidance after losing her mother. She loves instilling in young women to have the confidence that they can do more than they thought possible. As a mission-centered person, she sits on several boards, from the Massachusetts Conference for Women to the Home for Little Wanderers (child welfare to American Cancer Society (New England). One of her most prized awards was entitled: “Service above Self”—it is this she uses to guide her commitment to share her talents, treasure and time to help those who are in most need.

She emphasizes the importance of having fun. At her best moments in her journey, she was enjoying the work, serving a mission, or making something better.

By Aimee Hansen

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Jessica Jones: Managing Director, Head of Asia, PGIM Investments

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Jessica Jones“There are not many people that are willing to take on that challenge of being in a new role and different geography,” reflects Jessica Jones. “I was very open to this change, and put myself forward early in my career. I made sure that my managers knew, that while focused on my current role, this is something that I would be interested in, if the right time came.”

Working in Asia

Born in the UK and raised in South Africa, Jones became comfortable with change, adapting, and being the new person in an environment from an early age.

Jones worked for Goldman Sachs for 17 years, where she headed diversified businesses across Europe, Australia and ultimately in Asia. She took a Hong Kong-based opportunity with PGIM, a top-10 global investment manager after completing her second maternity leave last September.

“I have had a very rewarding and dynamic career with another exciting chapter ahead. Because I’ve had such supportive managers and sponsors, I’ve had fantastic opportunities to step up, and have had the privilege of covering a number of regions and countries from a very early moment,” she says.

After visiting Hong Kong during her gap year, Jones became fascinated with Asia and kept her eye on opportunities in the region. She eventually made the leap ten years ago, taking a Head of Asia-Pacific role based in Australia first, before moving to Hong Kong. As the APAC asset and wealth management industry continues to grow exponentially, driven largely by China, the number of high-net worth clients has grown, and global private banks have sought to expand their footprint–making it an exciting region to work in.

She’s had the privilege of watching her client counterparts move around too: “It’s been incredible to develop these long partnerships with clients who are also moving in their roles all the time. It has helped me to understand the global businesses that our clients are in, so it’s fantastic perspective.”

Immersing in a Culture Through Passion

Accustomed to being the ‘outsider’ who doesn’t speak the local language, and often the only woman in a room, Jones is passionate about getting to know a new region and has found her clients enjoy the different perspectives she can bring to the table.

“I am building teams who are local experts in their regions, who are Cantonese- or Mandarin-speaking in Hong Kong, and who can get much closer than I ever will to the relationship managers or investment counselors,” she says, “They bring the local perspective and the ability to converse and steer me in the right direction. That’s a fascinating aspect of my role–to adapt and enjoy the cultural differences.”

Located in one of the most restrictive quarantine regimes over the last two and a half years, and having yet to meet her PGIM team or clients in an office, Jones still has a feeling of “going through it together.” In Hong Kong, there’s been a rebirth of popularity around the traditional 19th century Chinese tile-based strategy game named Mahjong–involving 144 tiles placed on the table and four players. Having begun playing regularly during semi-lockdown and mostly with women, she’s a self-confessed enthusiast, and highlights language happens in many ways.

“You put these tiles out, shuffle them, and basically try to create order out of the chaos,” she says. “It’s been really fun, and with everything closed, that’s been our chance to network and support each other. It has become a bonding opportunity and stress reliever.”

Jones’ passion for the culture has helped her open new doors and develop great relationships. “The game is about luck and skill, but also has become a way of honing in on my local cultural skills. My clients are amazed I know how to play, although I still have so much to learn. I can’t speak the language, but I can speak the language of Mahjong,” she says.

Jones is emphatic about becoming a part of the region: “I have my residency and both my children were born here, so I’m very much rooted here. This is home for me, and I’m committed to Asia, and so my clients tell me they have adopted me as a local.”

Raise Your Hand and Stretch Your Limbs

Jones attributes her career success both to raising her hand early to say she was open to new opportunities, and a willingness to take on stretch roles as they came up.

“Don’t just assume that people know what you want. You need to make sure that your managers and your stakeholders know that you are interested in other opportunities,” she says. “Don’t be scared to let them know. It’s not like you’re going to be fired because you’re driven and want to move and grow.”

For anyone else who feels the call to get out of their comfort zone, she emphasizes you don’t need to have been there before or know the language to thrive: “If you have the right attitude, being outside of your comfort zone makes you stronger and stretches your mind, and it makes you learn at a very fast pace.”

As the years have accumulated, Jones’s steady base is her product and business acumen, with new regions and new types of wealth management presenting opportunities to stretch. Learning on the job has taught her a lot about herself and how she adapts.

Being brave and taking risks are two traits she feels have supported her journey: “It’s always tempting to stay in the safest option, because you’re scared of making a mistake or damaging your professional reputation. But being open to trying new strategies, new areas, new growth and new innovation are a great way to progress your career. Risk needs to be calculated, but take those risks early.”

She recommends building a strong network from the beginning, and is amazed how much the relationships she has built over two decades help her to stay in touch with lessons, inspiration, opportunities and innovation from different regions.

You Cannot Communicate Enough

“My advice to anyone going into a new leadership role is you can’t communicate enough. There is no such thing as over-communication,” says Jones. “Good communication helps us be connected, engaged and understanding where we are all trying to go.”

As she’s become more senior, Jones has had to get even better at communication.

“As a leader, you need to constantly be communicating your vision–the goals, the purpose of the team, the roles that everyone has and responsibilities. You need to keep communicating the progress that’s being made, within your team but also to stakeholders,” says Jones. “Especially being so far from headquarters, you really need to communicate and advocate for your team, and be the PR agent for your team, your business and the opportunities in the region.”

She’s learned the importance of tailoring your approach: “There’s different communication for different people and learning styles, so I need to keep thinking about how my messages may be coming across. Do I need to adapt the way I communicate to my team and to different stakeholders? Some people want a lot more analytical data, others want the big picture strategy, and also there’s the consideration of different cultures and perspectives–all influence how someone wants to be updated.”

People Want to Work With Others They Like

Blessed with wonderful mentors who championed her growth and her dreams, one of the best pieces of advice Jones has received along the way is that people want to do business with people they like and enjoy working with–and that translates to all regions and parts of life.

“We’re all very busy, so people want to work with people they feel they have a good connection with,” she says, “You want to develop relationships where you become their best business friend or partner, and where you also enable your clients to look good in their role by bringing the best investment advice, research and ideas. I advise my team that we cannot control the investment products or the market, but we can control the relationship we are building with our key partners in the region. Every opportunity you have, make sure to develop a great relationship with impact, and over time that builds a great partnership.”

She also advises women to leverage being the memorable person in the room or the social event or the pitch: “Rather than being intimidated, use it to your advantage because you don’t realize that you are going to be memorable. People are perhaps not going to remember all twelve guys around the table, but they’re going to remember you, so remember you bring a different perspective.”

Above all, she iterates the importance of enjoying what you do, and feeling a sense of purpose and passion.

“For me, living and working in these different cultural environments has broadened my horizons, perspective and experience, personally and professionally, and I feel I have a dream job,” she says. “I get to work and live and travel in such an exciting region of the world and call it my home and it still fascinates me every day.”

Stand Where You Are

If there’s anything Jones has discovered in being unable to leave Hong Kong in the past two and a half years, it’s to take advantage of the place you are living. Before this time, she mostly traveled off to another country for a spectacular beach or to see family or friends, and realizes now she had not been as present in the moment and enjoying where she lives.

Since embracing “staying put,” Jones and her family have been appreciating incredible hiking trails and island beaches and other parts of the surrounding area, right on her doorstep, that she never knew existed.

“No matter where you are in the world,” she says, “it helps to realize how lucky you are, and to take full advantage of the present and the place that you are in to get more inspiration.”

By Aimee Hansen

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Dr. Sarah Carrier, MD: Emergency Physician, JH Quillen VA Medical Center

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Sarah Carrier“Medicine is both an Art and a Science,” says Sarah Carrier, MD. “The science is knowing what kind of disease the patient has. The art is knowing what kind of patient has the disease.”

Carrier speaks of the call to become a doctor, establishing herself as a peer among men and why soft skills matter especially in her profession.

Heeding the “Burden” to Pursue Medicine

Carrier did not come from a medical family (her parents were in engineering and real estate), but recalls being drawn from an early age. After being a volunteer “candy striper” in high school, she began to think of a career in medicine. Her mother’s solid advice was to get her foothold in nursing before seeing if she wanted to invest her study and finances in becoming a doctor.

“I spent ten years in nursing. But there’s an expression in this part of the country that people are ‘called to preach.’ They have a burden to preach, meaning they can’t not do it,” she notes. “Well, in my case, I felt called to medicine. I had a burden to be a doctor and it would not go away.”

What catalyzed the decisive moment to embark on becoming a physician, as a thirty-year old working nurse with small children four and six years, was the shock of losing a good friend in a car accident: “When she tragically died, I thought we never know how much time we’ve got on this planet, so I really don’t want to go to my grave without having tried to do what I felt I was called to.”

Despite the bewilderment of her friends, she spent a year preparing for the MCAT entrance exam and then entered medical school while raising what became three children, still practicing nursing during some of her summers.

From Nurse To “Female” Doctor

Having been a nurse before becoming a doctor gave Carrier a kindred respect for nurses: “I think first being a nurse made me a better doctor, because I know what their job is like and I’m there to work with them. Whereas a lot of physicians come in acting like the boss, it’s a different demeanor and often more of an ego thing. I knew first hand that the nurses you work with can either make your job easy or they can make it hard. You should never forget that you are on a team. You may be the Captain but it is still a team. Everyone matters.”

Working in the South, in a generally more paternalistic culture, Carrier admits that the medical environment still carries a bit of pecking order about it, though there are many more women in emergency medicine than when she began. Nonetheless, she has had to regularly “out” herself as the doctor to her patients.

“When I started, I’d go into the room and patients would presume I was the nurse. I realized it was up to me to let them know that I was in fact the doctor,” says Sarah Carrier. “In my line of work, you are meeting people on the fly. No one comes to the ED because they’re having a good day, so that’s where we start. You have to get good at gaining trust and confidence.”

Carrier has never felt she is competing against male peers in the medical field, but she has organically developed tactics to quickly establish herself as a peer, especially when doctors are calling each other up to transfer patients or get patients admitted into specialist departments, and there is just her voice to go on.

“I want to make sure they know that I’m the doctor, not the transfer coordinator, so I use their first name to create more of a level playing field. Instead of saying ‘Dr. Smith’ for example, I’ll say ‘John, this is Sarah Carrier over here in the ER’,” she notes. “I’ve found the conversation comes more collegial with that small, simple thing.”

One mentor Carrier remembers was a chief surgeon at John Hopkins who exhibited tongue-in-cheek confidence. She would walk through the hallway announcing, “Okay, the girl doctor is making the rounds.” She advised Carrier to not take nonsense from anyone and importantly, to not expect perfection from herself.

Carrier has observed the peer dynamic between female physicians is surprisingly more supportive than she experienced as a nurse. She suspects that being fewer in number relatively increases camaraderie and forthcomingness to support each other.

It’s actually outside of the hospital, when working with other women on volunteer projects, that Carrier has felt her role as a physician can seem to affect the way women relate to her, and she might hold back on that detail when first connecting as friends.

The Soft Skills of Emergency Medicine

With a range of patients from pediatrics to geriatric, women are usually involved in emergency visits, from caregivers to mothers to spouses. Carrier has found that women seem to relate better to other women in these contexts of vulnerability, so being a woman is often an asset.

“Generally speaking, I think men will more often stand with the clipboard and take care of business. In my experience, they don’t tend to try to make the emotional connection as often,” she observes. “Whereas women tend to sit down in the room and talk to people and make the emotional connection.”

She notes, “You don’t have to spend a lot of extra time, but to just sit down and ask, ‘are you under a lot of stress?‘ or ‘what’s been going on besides the baby being sick?’ is enough to let them know that you identify with their situation.”

Carrier often has to speak transparently about health to patients she’s known for only five minutes before the tests, and while she values telling it like it is, she also says that in any profession there’s a delicate line to observe: “I think patients appreciate the fact that you’ll sit down and say, ‘I’ve got some things I’ve got to tell you. Some of them are going to be hard to listen to. Some are good. Some are not so good’. You can be honest, but you don’t have to be brutally honest. You don’t have to say,’ ‘you’ve got a lung mass and it’s probably cancer’. But you can say, ’there’s something there that doesn’t belong there, we need to get some more tests and here’s the five things that might be.'”

Seeing Her Role as Education

Carrier encourages questions and educating people in a way that empowers them in their own health. She has appeared on Discovery Channel’s “Untold Stories of the ER” four times, and while the show dramatizes the emergency room, it also allows her to educate people. An episode in which she throughly explains a heart attack, around a situation where a patient was resisting the diagnosis while going into cardiac arrest, has been viewed over 500,000 times and could save lives.

“I’m basically explaining the physiology of a heart attack, which is something I deal with nearly every day. But the average person doesn’t really understand how they get from feeling fine to being literally at death’s door,” notes Carrier. “So that particular episode where I could explain in very simple terms how a heart attack works matters.”

Appreciation and Presence

Working in a 24/7 emergency situation requires calm in navigating chaos. Carrier has learned how to compartmentalize and switch gears from an urgent situation to a more standard injury, while being present to each patient. Being an emergency physician during Covid has definitely stretched her stamina.

More than anything, her job is a constant reminder of the relative nature of problems, and to appreciate her life. Since returning to school with young children, preserving quality time with family mattered more to her than achieving perfect grades. And it still matters to make that time.

She enjoys being involved in organizations where she can work beside other women outside of the medical field, such as in volunteer groups and, presently, an art commission.

By Aimee Hansen

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Bessie Kokalis Pescio: Vice President, Global Internal Communications, Philip Morris International

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Bessie Kokalis Pescio“You are stronger than you think,” reflects Bessie Kokalis Pescio on the best piece of advice someone gave her as she embarked upon a new hobby of cold-water swimming last fall. “What a true statement. Perseverance and resilience apply to swimming as well as work.”

The pandemic she believes has evoked progress in the workplace as it pertains to creating more access and interaction between senior leaders and employees, creating opportunity for careers to flourish. She comments on how interesting it is that employee habits changed so quickly and how things shifted when the traditional working environment went remote.

“The pandemic created a democratization of communications. How much easier is it to get in touch, to send a message to a senior executive now than before? Even the CEO is accessible in a way that wasn’t possible until recently. Throughout his inaugural listening tour we had 15,000 people interacting with him, asking questions and sharing their perspective.”

She is passionate about connecting people and letting them tell their stories. She is excited to see the electronic PMI platform, called One PMI, let people connect in a way that wasn’t used as optimally pre-pandemic. She cites that when you combine the right types of tools, it helps connect people to others and to their communities with pride and dignity as something that is energizing her at work right now.

“We have a unique opportunity to facilitate a dialogue between senior leaders and employees. A two-way conversation to learn what people want to talk about is now possible with technology and intent.”

In fact, this idea of a two-way conversation between managers and employees is at the heart of the PMI’s internal communications strategy and exploring what success, growth, and belonging looks like for each person is the central tenet for this year. She adds that the three main questions that occur are around how to be successful, how to grow and what can people contribute to be part of a community. This came through time and time again, and giving people a range of ways to connect and relate to each other, from podcasts to panels, is at the heart of the progress plan.

“People are tired of slogans and campaigns and want to see how the workplace is experienced. Who doesn’t? You have got to be straight with people and transparent. You have to do what you say you are doing to make work ‘work’ for people today.”

The Path to PMI

Kokalis Pescio grew up in a bilingual home and originally planned to follow an academic career as a French language professor. It was in an entrepreneurial environment while working as a linguist that she realized she loved learning about business, the customer, work habits and continuous learning itself. Flash forward to an MBA and DC-based consulting work in healthcare later, she joined PMI (Phillip Morris International) and now is the Vice President, Global Internal Communications, based in Switzerland. She recalls entering the firm sixteen years ago completely compelled by the mission and continues to be fascinated by the operational and culture change that is happening at PMI, noting that the best part is that the company has really put its money where its mouth is for the change work involved in creating a smoke-free future.

“People at PMI feel aligned to the same incredible mission. Change isn’t easy, but we have had such a clear idea of where we are going and watching the company be successful in taking a legacy product to fund a new and innovative product, upskilling people, and operationally transforming at the same time has been a great journey to be part of.”

Career strategies

Kokalis Pescio believes the most important thing to do is to know yourself. Her advice to her younger self would be to try to self-aware, to have the sensibility to ask yourself where you are truly with relationships, and to know the parts of your personality and traits that show up.

“Knowing where you are and who you are can enable self-correction where appropriate and also allow you to be authentic.” She believes that knowing this information about yourself can help you to take advantage of opportunities in your career and help you capitalize on your strengths and partner with others who can either teach you or be partner experts in doing the work that they are good at also.

“Figure out who can help. You cannot be a master of everything, nor should you be. Get a distributed style of management to get further, faster. Ask yourself who do I know and what do I need to learn?”

Kokalis Pescio is passionate about mentoring women and is doing so as part of PMI’s gender-focused employee resource group, Women’s Inspiration Network (WIN), and externally as part of her alma mater, Babson College’s F.W. School of Management. She admits that she didn’t have a formal mentor as she was coming up the ranks and reiterates that with or without a mentor everyone, not just women, should stand up for themselves.

“Have the courage, dignity, and self-respect to understand your boundaries, this will make you confident and comfortable. People make tradeoffs, those compromises, if you go too far, can make you lose a little part of your soul. It is important to stay within your boundaries.”

When asked what has surprised her most on the journey? She replied that she was surprised by how much she can learn constantly from the people around her.

“I have learned to not be afraid to do something new, no matter how large or small the task. While I have worked at a large corporation for 16 years, my career path is far from traditional. This aspect of my career, working not only across many different divisions, but also with employees from and located in numerous countries, has taught me to continuously be open to trying different things. Some are harder than others, and some efforts are more successful than others, but I am always ready to try something different.”

By Nicki Gilmour

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Leveraging a Bicultural Background and “Celebrating” Diversity: Akiko Koda’s Story

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Akiko KodaThe chief of staff for Japan discusses her time at Goldman Sachs and shares career advice in the latest edition of The Glass Hammer.

“I have a bicultural background – I lived in Queens, NY until I was 10, and then my family moved back to Japan, where I have lived ever since,” shared Akiko Koda, chief of staff for Goldman Sachs in Japan. “I was motivated to apply to Goldman Sachs due to my prior experience growing up in both the US and Japan – I thought I could contribute in a unique way to a global firm and serve as a facilitator between both cultures.”

Koda joined Goldman Sachs as a campus hire in 1994, initially within the Equities Division, as a member of a sales trading team. She gained seniority and held numerous roles within Equities, before moving to the Financing Group within the Investment Banking Division (IBD). In 2008, Koda joined the IBD Advisory Group, and then transferred to the Executive Office in the midst of the financial crisis. At that time, she began her current chief of staff role, and now also serves as co-chief administrative officer for Japan and head of Human Capital Management in Japan.

“My day to day role is focused on ensuring that the Japan office is running effectively and efficiently in all aspects,” Koda said. “Looking ahead, the office will be moving to a new building in the coming years, and we’re excited about further growth in the region – particularly following the launch of the Goldman Sachs Bank USA Tokyo branch earlier this year.”

As the new year begins, Koda shared that she typically selects a word to help lead and rally her team around, noting that for 2022, she selected “Focus.” “I believe that by focusing and prioritizing our work and the output, we can continue to make progress,” Koda said. “Given we have now entered the third year of the pandemic, I think it is important to focus on what we can control, rather than what we cannot, and focusing on what is important to you and on what brings you joy during this challenging period.”

Supporting Goldman Sachs’ Focus on Recruiting, Retaining Talent

Commenting on the firm’s focus on recruitment, Koda shared: “Our Japan entity was voted the ‘Best Financial Firm to Work For’ by both potential campus hires and former employees.

This is an incredible recognition of our business over the last 45 years.” She added: “The firm has a long history of hiring campus hires who go on to lead the business – several members of the Japan leadership team are campus or MBA hires.”

Koda noted that her own experience at the firm has included extensive, firm-provided coaching. “I was a member of the firm’s first class of VP LAI, or Vice President Leadership Acceleration Initiative, in 2004. Participating in the program helped me to understand how I could be a better leader,” she said. “Throughout my time at the firm, I’ve asked Pine Street, the firm’s leadership development group, to help me evolve my leadership style, and received a lot of helpful and candid feedback from my coach.”

She noted that during her time at Goldman Sachs, she has aimed to pass along the guidance she has received over the course of her career by serving as a mentor to others, both to individuals based in Japan, as well as those in other countries. Koda notes that she regularly reminds junior professionals of the importance of soliciting feedback and guidance from a variety of mentors: “Think of your mentors as your Board of Directors.”

Koda also shared that mentors, managers and colleagues have all helped her progress throughout her tenure at Goldman Sachs. “I haven’t come this far in my career without the help of many people – I’m incredibly grateful to those who have helped guide and support me throughout my time at the firm.”

Finding Time For Herself – and Her Community

Koda shared that after being at the firm for several years: “I burned out in 1999. I needed to take a break, and left the firm for a year, and then returned to Goldman Sachs.” She
reflected on guidance she received later on in her career, which has continued to shape her approach to work: “A mentor advised me to be ‘relentless about managing my schedule, and to feel empowered to make my schedule my own.’”

“That advice has stayed with me, and I would recommend others really understand their limits and priorities. You need to take control of your calendar to prioritize what is important for you at each moment. For me, that’s my family,” shared Koda.

Throughout the pandemic, Koda has focused on spending time with her sons – who are aged 8 and 10 – and training their new Pekingese that they welcomed during the pandemic. In addition, she has a “green thumb” and tends to several orchids that call her office home. “When I became a board member of the firm’s Japan entity, I was gifted several orchids from clients – I’m lucky that they continue to bloom each year and remind me of that important
accomplishment.”

Outside of her day to day responsibilities, Koda is also a managing director ally of the LGBTQ+ Network. “When I lived in New York, there were only a handful of Asian students in my school – I was different,” she said. “When my family moved back to Japan, even though I looked like my classmates, I was labeled as a ‘returnee’ and considered not Japanese enough. To fit in, I tried to hide the fact that I grew up overseas.”

Koda noted: “I know firsthand how hard it can be to be considered different. I continue to be an ally to the LGBTQ+ community because it’s so important for each individual to feel comfortable bringing their authentic self to the workplace, and to be welcomed.”

She described the progress the firm has made in fostering an environment where all diverse individuals can succeed, and highlighted as one example the variety of events the firm’s LGBTQ+ Network holds each year, including celebrating Pink Friday. “As a Japanese woman, who grew up in the US and became a devoted ally of the LGBTQ+ community, I feel my own identity and experiences touch on so many aspects of diversity. I want to celebrate them all.”

Learn more about Goldman Sachs’ recent awards and recognitions and the firm’s diversity and inclusion efforts. Listen to an Exchanges at GS podcast, in which Koda discusses the evolution of LGBTQ+ rights in Japan and companies’ efforts to create more inclusive environments.

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Danielle Arnone: Chief Digital & Technology Officer, Combe

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Danielle Arnone“In times of uncertainty, the focus has shifted from seeking answers to raising questions and building relationships to lead through the unknown,” expresses Danielle Arnone. 

Arnone speaks to leading through disruption, the value of listening and encouragement and the importance of taking risks as the stakes rise.

Be Willing to Challenge, Even as Stakes Rise

“Each step along the way has offered me an opportunity to learn and develop my leadership style. From a career perspective, I continue to challenge myself to push ahead in order to grow,” says Arnone, about her twenty plus year of working in technology, digital and e-commerce across various industries – and most recently, in beauty, health and wellness.

With tech at the center of every business, her work is about leading enterprise change “from the inside out and the outside in.”

Early on in her career, she felt she brought a different perspective to problem solving and would regularly test the status quo. Often the only woman in the room, as she began to move up the ranks and the stakes rose, it began to feel riskier.

“It’s a double whammy. You’re challenging the status quo and you represent change in just who you are,” says Arnone. “I’ve had many moments where I had to remind myself – you’ve got to stick with it – because I believed in what I was fighting for.”

She continues: “I won’t say it’s not hard, because in my opinion, it’s unnecessarily hard for women in STEM and why we lose so many and particularly those with high potential. At a certain stage, I decided I didn’t want to be another of those women.”

Being in a male-dominated industry can amplify self-doubt, but being aware of that has often helped her to overcome it.

While many hurdles are systemic and the pace of change is very slow,” Arnone says, “I realized that I’m the only one that can get me unstuck and that is powerful.”

Navigating Uncertainty through Vision

Despite the challenges during these pandemic years, Arnone has focused on leading long term change. While the emphasis in tech has often been to develop the next innovation as quickly as possible, today she stops and asks at every critical decision point: “Where do we ultimately want to go? Not just in the next twelve months but what do we want to envision in five or ten years time? And are the things we’re focusing energy on now truly in service of that long-term goal?”

“The circumstances of the last two years have made me a different leader. I had to take a step back and ask: what did I do in this time? And take the necessary steps to hopefully be proud of the answer,” reflects Arnone.

If there’s one thing Arnone has confronted as she rose, it is getting comfortable with uncertainty. She’s found that by letting go of the notion that you need to have answers, you can come together with curiosity and openness as a team, and arrive at better results.

Speaking to vision and prioritization, she says, “You have to conserve energy to focus on what’s really important, knowing that can change in a moment’s notice.”

“I’ve had to get comfortable with ambiguity. We often don’t know the target or the rules of the game to hit the target,” says Arnone.

Listening and Fluidity in Thinking

“The leaders that I admire most have the ability to listen deeply and surface the question behind the question, without putting people on the defensive, and in a way that takes the conversation to the next stage,” says Arnone.

She feels that listening is key and that an analytical approach can be useful in managing conflict and problem solving. “In an emotionally charged situation, I will encourage the team to tease out the facts, take the personalities out of it and then listen for what is not being talked about.”

When it comes to what she brings to the table, Arnone is adept at absorbing new and broad ideas and loves encouraging the exchange of ideas around the table.

She also enjoys the invitation to step out of linear thought and indulge her penchant for abstract thinking, in which perceptions move and change shape, which is not unlike the leadership skill of having the flexibility to navigate uncertainty.

She will often step away from work to get in the zone so that she can reset and let ideas pour in. These days, she’s exploring artistic outlets. She also jokes that if you saw her many playlists, you wouldn’t even believe they belonged to same person.

Encouraging Others Towards Their Best

Arnone finds leaders who encourage others towards their personal best in service of a greater mission to be the most inspiring. She feels it is rare to encounter, but she has had the fortune to have supportive mentors along the way that have greatly impacted what she values most in her life and in her work.

“Encouragement can be an antidote to self-doubt and frustration. It’s as simple as saying, ‘I see you struggling – what’s going on and how can I help you’.”

She wants to be known for her work to develop people and is especially passionate about helping women succeed. She observes that women coming into the workforce today have a strong sense of what they expect from employers beyond a paycheck.

“I want to see this generation of women keep the momentum going. They are demanding more equity, more balanced and fulfilling lives and holding leaders accountable. To me, that is progress.”

By Aimee Hansen

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