Intrepid Woman: Laura Yecies, CEO, SugarSync

laura_yeciesBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“This was not a hot topic for me until three years ago,” said Laura Yecies, CEO of SugarSync. “Gender issues were not something I focused on. I had this idea that there were plenty of female CEOs – maybe not 50/50, but that there was a good amount.”

She continued, “Then I became a female CEO.”

Yecies said the turning point was when she attended a conference held by her company’s investors. “There was not one other woman at the meeting. I was blown away.” Not only was Yecies the only woman at the meeting, but she was the investors’ first and only female CEO.

“I realized there was more of a problem. It was really consciousness-raising.”

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Voice of Experience: Charlotte Crosswell, President of Nasdaq OMX Europe

charlottecrosswellBy Jessica Titlebaum (Chicago)

“You should hear some of the stories we share,” said Charlotte Crosswell, President of NASDAQ OMX Europe, about discussions she has with other senior level women.

“Like staying up until one in the morning making cupcakes with New York [executives] on speakerphone from my blackberry.  You have to really want a career and children.”

It is a Tuesday morning and Crosswell is sitting across from me at a coffee table at the Hilton hotel in Chicago.   She flew in from London that Sunday night, had plans to fly to New York the following day and then back to London on Thursday.

While being a mother is somewhat new to Crosswell (her daughter is three years old), the business travel is something she has been doing for most of her career.  Crosswell has been all over the world from China to Israel developing business for two prominent Exchanges. 

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Intrepid Woman: Leaning In – A New Graduate in the Real World

EJThompsonContributed by EJ Thompson (New York City)

This past May, Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, stood in front of me and told me to “lean in.” To jump in, make a change, think big, to “pick a field…and ride it all the way to the top.” It was Barnard College’s graduation ceremony, and all around me were 600 women who, just like me, had completed their education. We had, over the past four years been trained to believe in ourselves as women, as leaders, as intellectuals, as scientists, as writers, as human beings who could make a difference. And Sandberg stood in front of us and told us that yes, there were still inequalities in the work place, but we were poised to make changes.

Her speech was replayed across the country – it was a main photo of the New York Times, it was mentioned in the Huffington Post, Forbes said that she “crushed it.” It was described as a speech for the ages, the one that would be remembered, the most influential one of the graduation speeches that year. It was the speech that sent Barnard College’s class of 2011 off into the great world, and we were ready for it.

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Voice of Experience: Lucy MacDonald, Managing Director, London and CIO, Global Equities, RCM

LucyMacdonaldBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

For Lucy MacDonald, Managing Director of RCM and CIO of its Global Equities division, developing a communication style that works is an important part of developing leadership skills.

“It means being able to speak your mind and add value without frightening people away,” she explained with a chuckle.

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Voice of Experience: Yesenia Scheker-Izquierdo, Partner, Financial Services Practice, KPMG LLP, and Co-President and Co-Founder, Women’s Executive Circle of New York

YeseniaScheker
This week The Glass Hammer is celebrating Hispanic professional women – each day this week we’ll feature a profile of a Hispanic woman breaking the glass ceiling.

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

After graduating from the University of Florida with a bachelor’s degree in accounting and a master’s degree in tax, Yesenia Scheker-Izquierdo started as an intern at KPMG’s Miami office. Now a partner in KPMG LLP’s Financial Services Practice, she recalled, “Being born in New York, I always had in my mind that I would move back to New York after college. But I had started working for a very senior real estate tax partner based in Miami who became my mentor and I continued to work with him for many years.”

She added, “But five or six years into it, he retired from KPMG, and I took that opportunity to move to New York.”

In 2005, Scheker-Izquierdo transferred to the New York office and joined its Financial Services – Alternative Investment practice. “It afforded me an opportunity to join a practice that was expanding. My goal was always to become a partner,” she said. And she counts becoming a partner in the New York office among her highest professional achievements.

Additionally, she said, she is proud of her ability to build a new career after moving to New York. She explained, “Moving to New York meant starting over. I didn’t know anyone, and had to build a book of business and find new mentors and sponsors.”

One of the ways she did this, she said, was through networking. “One of the things I decided to do was co-found the Women’s Executive Circle of New York (WECNY) as a way to build my network.” WECNY is a not-for-profit organization with the mission of accelerating the advancement of women from diverse backgrounds to executive positions of leadership.

Currently Scheker-Izquierdo is involved with KPMG’s Alternative Investment practice’s growth initiatives. “It’s an exciting time to be part of this practice and our firm,” she said.

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Voice of Experience: Nellie Borrero, Managing Director, Global Inclusion and Diversity, Accenture

NellieBorreroThis week The Glass Hammer is celebrating Hispanic professional women – each day this week we’ll feature a profile of a Hispanic woman breaking the glass ceiling.

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“Just this month is my 25th anniversary with Accenture,” began Nellie Borrero, Managing Director, Global Inclusion and Diversity, at the organization.

“When I came on board, I was very focused and aware of the possibility and opportunity to increase diversity,” she recalled. Borrero was the first person to start a full time diversity role, having begun in the New York office, and then expanding the diversity program to the US. “Now, today, we have a global focus,” she said.

“I’m happy about the progress I’ve seen in the culture in my organization,” she said. “We’re incredibly diverse. My mission and objective has always been to create an environment where everyone can feel like they can succeed.”

She continued, “And now people – whether they’re in the US, or India, or Japan – are coming in, feeling a sense of belonging, and that they can succeed.”

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Voice of Experience: Marilyn Foglia, Managing Director and Head of Latin America, UBS Global Asset Management

Marilyn FogliaThis week The Glass Hammer is celebrating Hispanic professional women – each day this week we’ll feature a profile of a Hispanic woman breaking the glass ceiling.

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“I used to be very timid,” began Marilyn Foglia, Managing Director and Head of Latin America at UBS Global Asset Management.

After 25 years in the industry, Foglia has learned her lesson. “I wasn’t always so persistent about getting my ideas on the table – but now I am!” she laughed.

“If you’re too polite and wait for an opening to speak you may never get a voice. Don’t be afraid to ask for what you want. We women tend to think that if we work hard, we will be rewarded. But we have to ask for it.”

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Thought Leaders: Ana Duarte McCarthy, Managing Director and Chief Diversity Officer, Citi

thought-leadership“It’s important to remember that everyone can be inspired by your message,” said Ana Duarte McCarthy, Managing Director and Chief Diversity Officer at Citi. Senior women, she added, can help effect change within their organization by seeing themselves as role models – for younger women and for younger men.

“As a female leader, it’s not just the women you influence. It’s also the men whose vision of leadership – that women are effective leaders – changes.”Beginning the Diversity Journey

Duarte McCarthy has been with Citi since 1995, and one of her proudest achievements, she said, was being part of the work to bring employee resource networks to the company.

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Intrepid Woman: Foluke Akinlose MBE, CEO & Founder, Precious Online

folukeakinloseBy Cleo Thompson (London), Founder of The Gender Blog

As a child growing up in Manchester, Foluke Akinlose dreamed of launching a magazine for women and girls who looked like she did. But how did this childhood vision culminate in the creation of Precious Online, an e-magazine, network and resource for the UK’s c. 2.3 million women of colour and of the UK’s only awards for this community, described as a “memorable occasion” and “inspirational” by British Prime Minister David Cameron?

“When I was younger, there were no British magazines that featured girls who looked like me. I’d spend my pocket money on American imports and they were great, but I really wanted to read about the Black British experience. When I grew older and started working in the media as a journalist, I quickly realised how expensive setting up a print magazine was. I just didn’t have those kind of funds, so I decided to put the magazine idea at the back of my mind for a while.

“In 1996, I began working in the online department of TV company ITN. Because of the nature of my job, I spent a lot of time researching online. I came across so many online publications aimed at African-American women but there was nothing for those based in the UK. I soon realised that the web gave me a publishing channel and that it was a way for me to launch the magazine of which I had always dreamed. So I followed my dream.

“Precious got underway in 1999 and was the first publication of its kind to launch in the UK. We now get 80,000 unique website visitors each month and reach 10,000 women via the mailing list – our goal is to be the premier destination for women of colour on the web.”

Precious aims to provide resources for and to showcase women of colour and to shine a light on their achievements in business and life. The site runs articles on health and beauty and profiles black writers and artists, as well as organising events every quarter on topics such as the joy of networking or an audience with an entrepreneurial woman.

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Voice of Experience: Tamara Box, Partner, Head of International Structured Finance, Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP

TamaraBoxBy Cleo Thompson (London), Founder of The Gender Blog

A self confessed “start-up junkie”, Tamara Box always wanted to be a lawyer and was told from a young age that she was too argumentative – an ambition and a personality trait which has subsequently stood her in good stead in her career as an award-winning structured finance lawyer and steering committee member of the 30% Club.

“I grew up in Texas and had a great role model in my mother, who worked in the telecoms industry at a senior level. My first international move came when I relocated to London to study at the London School of Economics. Then I returned to the USA and did law at Georgetown. After graduation, I joined Coudert Brothers, first in New York and then in Singapore where I worked for four years and met my English husband. My first “start up” opportunity came early as a founding member of the first overseas office (in Singapore) of US law firm Orrick. In 1997, I moved back to the UK to open Orrick’s London office and I made Partner in 2000.”

After stints at top London firms Tite & Lewis and Lovells, Box landed at Berwin Leighton Paisner in 2006 – the same year in which her son Hugo was born – in order to build their structured finance business from scratch.

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