Voice of Experience: Nikki Darden, Program Director for Global Rewards, Citi

Nikki Darden, CitiWhen Nikki Darden was first starting her career, she took care to conform to cultural norms. “I would look at those who were successful and think I had to dress like them or present myself the same way,” she says. “But I know now that the more comfortable you are with yourself, the more you drive value for your employer with the qualities that differentiate you.

“I’m a Southerner; I’m a woman; and I’m a minority. I used to water it down, but now I embrace those traits that make me who I am.”

Finding a Career Path That Resonated

Darden has spent her entire career in financial services, although not as a banker. She started with NationsBank in Charlotte (now Bank of America) as a marketing analyst and then moved into the team that was focused on what was then called “PC banking.” As the predecessor to internet banking, customers would receive floppy disks to do banking on their home computers, a very advanced service at the time.

While involved with planning and launching new products, she became frustrated with what seemed to be a lack of customer focus, mainly an understanding of the impact of initiatives on customers. She requested a move to a branch management leadership program where she rotated through four branches over a year to learn how to run a branch. It was a critical juncture in her career as it changed her trajectory. She realized that she didn’t want to be in sales, but rather that she was more interested in how customers consumed and interacted with products and services.

For the following few years, she worked for a strategic research firm in Washington, D.C., that was focused on financial services, followed by 12 years at American Express focused on loyalty and engagement.

For five years she has performed a similar function at Citi, expanding to include a strategic focus on rewards. “I enjoy my work that puts the customer first and creates solutions that enrich their lives, while growing revenue for the business,” she says.

Constant Challenges, Constant Learning

Each day is full of new challenges, none more so than what she’s currently working on, “this baby I’ve recently birthed and now am bringing up through toddlerhood,” she says.

And that is launching a consistent rewards program on a global scale. Initially they intended to roll out the same program everywhere, but soon found that it needed to be localized to deliver consistent value across markets. “My role is constantly challenging and I learn something new every single day. I’m confident that has never happened in my previous positions,” she says.

The loyalty industry is always growing, with the challenge of taking advantage of innovations without watering down the value proposition and making loyalty programs a commodity. “We want our customers to engage with Citi in a meaningful manner and feel emotionally connected to the brand and what it offers,” she says.

Embracing the Value You Bring

Darden finds it energizing to see the ways women are revolutionizing the loyalty industry. “There are some incredibly inspiring women who are bringing unique perspectives to the table,” she says, citing their value in creating the emotional connection that drives revenues.

She believes mentors can help drive career success; she herself has leveraged several mentors and created champions to help position herself throughout her career. At Citi she now finds herself as a mentor, both formally and informally, to several younger women across the organization. “It’s important to help them think strategically about their long-term careers as well as gaining valuable insight on day-to-day interactions – to have someone with more experience to bounce ideas off of,” she says.

And for both younger women and men, she urges them to be their authentic selves, but also to remember that their boss is not a millennial. The great energy and ways you challenge traditional thinking is absolutely needed, she tells them, while also reminding them to understand their audience. “Try to communicate in a way that brings them in instead of shutting them out. In a large company you are dealing with superiors who are not necessarily like you so you need to respect that.”

At the same time, she is enjoying learning from others around her about both the global arena and the digital experience, two areas of rapid growth that are relatively new to her. “Those of us who are more established need to push the boundaries and engage with whatever trend is next. That’s how we stay sharp and show value,” she says.

A Travel Bug

Darden recently developed a passion for travel, now taking the time to explore with colleagues when on a work trip. Through Citi’s Global Talent Development program, where employees spend six months abroad, she visited Brazil, which she says was her turning point to becoming someone who wanted to explore new cultures rather than just take a vacation. “I’m more interested in learning about cultures and consumers in a different place,” she says. “The best part is that it is also relevant to my job.”

/by

Voice of Experience: Anissa Thompson, Managing Director, Accenture

Anissa Thompson“The best piece of advice I have ever received is that no one will, or should care, more about your career than you do,“ says Accenture’s Anissa Thompson. Thompson lives by this advice and is constantly seeking opportunities to expand her knowledge on a variety of issues, to stay relevant and to seek feedback on how she is doing. She believes it is essential that her and her peers make sure they build out their succession plans and ensure that they are full of diverse candidates whilst taking the time to nurture future leaders.

Thompson finished graduate school with a Master’s Degree in Public Administration. Eager to find work as a policy analyst she started her career at a global policy think tank and spent two years as a research assistant, working primarily on research for the United States Army and Joint Chiefs of Staff. She describes this experience as, ‘excellent,’ but was keen to effect actual solutions that solved problems facing the public sector and began to explore other career options. She found herself drawn to management consultancy and began working at Accenture in 2001.

Variety within the same career

Over the course of her 15 years at Accenture, Thompson has worked across industries serving a diverse array of clients ranging from the US Federal Government, to an energy corporation and a large telecoms firm. In 2009 she moved from working with clients to an internal role where she was asked to build and lead a sales support team to help Accenture respond more effectively to proposals. That decision and role represented a major turning point in Thompson’s career and ultimately led to where she is today as the Director of Accenture’s North American Proposal Response Center, where she manages a team of proposal development professionals.

“I’ve been extremely fortunate to be able to explore new career paths. My main professional motivations have always been interesting work and the opportunity to work with great people and I’ve experienced both at Accenture – I have never been encouraged to simply continue down the path on which I started. As a result of moving my career into a new direction of my choosing, I was able to build an internal sales support function that has achieved a very positive reputation and been replicated throughout.”

Currently, Thompson is excited about expanding the services that her Sales Support team provide at Accenture, so that they will be involved throughout the whole entire Sales lifecycle, enabling more sales and greater efficiency. An area that is of particular interest to her is how at Accenture they are doubling down on automation, especially in the area of content creation.

By conquering this work, Thompson comments, “we are able to create content for our sales collateral using software rather than “search and find” efforts, thus allowing us to respond to proposals with greater speed and efficiency.“

She is also enthused with how they are finding creative ways to better source and staff their resourcing needs through crowdsourcing platforms and are always looking at innovative ways to get their messages across visually, helping bring to life Accenture’s focus on all things digital.

On a personal note she is excited about the impact they are making in the local D.C community.In January she volunteered with Urban Alliance – a local non-profit that empowers disadvantaged youth to succeed through internships, training and mentorship – during Accenture’s Martin Luther King Day of Service, one of the largest corporate efforts in the country. 1,500 Accenture people volunteered at more than 85 projects in the Metro DC area. Thompson is presently involved in another exciting project outside of her day to day role, leading Accenture’s relationship with the 11th Street Bridge Park Organisation – one of Accenture’s non-profit partners in the D.C area.

Thompson describes it as ‘a multi-partner project to transform an old bridge into the city’s first elevated park: a new venue for healthy recreation, environmental education and the arts’.She recently completed a pro bono skills based volunteering project to refine their strategic plan.

Mentoring and Sponsoring Others

The professional achievement of which Thompson is most proud, is the number of women and minorities that she has helped excel to executive level at Accenture, both on her own team and in her mentoring circles. She has received great mentoring at each stage of her career and very much believes in ‘paying it forward’. Thompson began by registering as a mentor on Accenture’s Global Mentoring Program and shortly thereafter was matched with an African American Female who was a new hire at the company. Over the course of 18 months she helped her navigate her path at Accenture, sharing career advice along the way.

“For me”, Thompson adds, “it was very gratifying when I received an email from her announcing that she had been promoted to the next level.”

For women across every industry she would encourage them to find a sponsor internally and seek support from mentors formally and informaly. Throughout her career Thompson has learnt that you will face challenges.

“The reality is, many of the decision makers you will encounter may not look like you, but it is important to understand that this is not a deterrent to success,” she states. She believes that for women especially, it is important to seek sponsorship and support from a diverse array of people versus turning to just those within your demographic.

Thompson is proud to work for a company that has not only announced its’ commitment to gender equality, but one that is committed to supporting the professional goals and aspirations of its’ more than 130,000 women globally. Accenture recently announced an investment of over $840 million in learning and professional development in 2015, which includes a range of training programs to develop the next generation of women leaders. Personally Thompson mentors four women personally and many more informally.She partakes in learning and networking opportunities during events like Accenture’s celebration of International Women’s Day, which she has previously co- hosted in D.C.She has also had the great fortune to work directly for a strong woman leader who also serves as her career counsellor- helping her to define her own path to success and to ensure she achieves it – and to sit in a highly diverse organisation with many senior women reporting in to her.

In her spare time she loves to travel and recently spent time in Buenos Aires, Rio and San Juan, Puerto Rico over the holidays. She expresses that she is fortunate to have a geographically dispersed set of friends and that she spends time abroad almost monthly. She is an avid reader and is never without her kindle. Some may find the most surprising thing about Thompson is her love of football, or soccer as it’s called in the US. She supports FC Barcelona and DC United and given the opportunity will happily while away a weekend watching the various European leagues play on television!

/by

Voice of Experience: Carol Noel, Senior Director, Team Leader, BNY Mellon Wealth Management

Carol Noel, BNY MellonBy Cathie Ericson

As important as hard work is, success is built on your relationships, says Carol Noel, senior portfolio manager and team leader for BNY Mellon Wealth Management. “The skill set you needed in the beginning of your career is not the skill set that will drive you forward. In the early part you focus on hard work, and while that’s important to provide access and recognition, you have to constantly ask for feedback, course correct and build out relationships in order to move to higher levels,” she says.

Making a Difference in Private Wealth Management

After earning her bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and her master of business administration from Georgetown University, Noel worked at Bankers Trust Company for five years, and then joined BNY Mellon’s rotational leadership development program. From the beginning, she was part of private wealth management, a group that focuses on client relationships to help high-net-worth families achieve their financial goals.

Noel’s career epitomizes longevity: She has been with the group for 18 years and now leads a team of 13 professionals.Over the years, she has mastered all aspects of the business, from managing portfolios and researching stocks to managing people, executing business plans and guiding important client relationships.

She is particularly proud that her team earned recognition from BNY Mellon’s corporate leadership, which welcomed the group into the prestigious Chairman’s Circle in 2014 as the top revenue team. “Our successes represent a team effort of doing well for both our clients and the firm,” Noel says. “I work with an amazing group of people who care as deeply about the clients as I do, and we appreciated the recognition for our collective success,” she adds. “It was a nice topper to our efforts.”

The team continues to explore new ways to grow the business, including reaching out to new client segments where they have expertise. One such area is in supporting endowments, where they are working to provide services around philanthropic endeavors.

Over the years, she has watched the wealth management industry change dramatically, with clients seeking a more holistic approach to their wealth planning. Clients today expect more than just investment performance: They might be seeking advice on how to handle the long-term care of a grandparent or to provide for a child with autism. Approaching them with a 360-degree view of their financial and family situation allows her team to provide better solutions.

Building Your Career Involves Others

Noel has found that women will often believe it’s their responsibility to fix any problem on their desk. But that’s not the case, she says, underscoring that having the right team to resolve an issue is just as good as doing it yourself. “Bring together the right people to share the challenges that have to be met” she says, adding that a robust network should include people in your department as well as in others, and should cross cultural, gender and hierarchical lines.

She also advises women to start off by differentiating themselves from the pack. “There are lots of talented people, but you have to show that you can be successful, whether that’s meeting financial goals or working collaboratively with internal partners.” She says that if you take accountability for managing your career, you’ll go farther by being intentional and strategic.

“It’s not offensive behavior to be offensive about your career,” she says, even though that might seem contrary to what many girls learned growing up. “Having and executing a plan is vital to moving ahead. It’s not a negative thing to say you want a certain role and go for it. Have coffee, ask colleagues for an informational interview.”

And while she believes that women should help each other, she sees value in having both men and women as sponsors. “The diverse background in your network will help you get where you want to be.”

To that end, Noel is active in Impact, a multicultural Employee Resource Group where she’s a mentor and also participates in the Women’s Initiative Network (WIN). In addition, she has piloted a leadership development program designed to encourage people with diverse backgrounds to seek senior leadership.

“The firm is a strong supporter of building up good people internally, as much as hiring externally. They’ll look anywhere for the best people.”

A CFA charter holder, she also stays active in professional groups, including the New York Society of Security Analysts and the CFA Institute.

A Balanced Life

Noel finds her quest for a balanced life is getting easier as her two kids get older. She and her husband enjoy traveling as a family and her children “are enjoying the ride now too,” she says.

Equally important to that balance is giving back, and Noel is a member of the finance committee for the Havens Relief Fund Society, a foundation that provides one-time grants to help struggling families overcome imminent financial crises.

“I do what I love, and I never run away from a challenge. “

/by

Margaret Anadu, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs

Margaret AnaduPatience. That’s a word that Margaret Anadu, managing director at Goldman Sachs, would recommend to others in the industry, especially her millennial cohorts.

“There is some truth to the millennial stereotype that we want everything in business right away,” she says. “But I’ve found that the hard work you put in during your early years will really bear fruit later on. Whether it was changing roles or working on a tough transaction, everything I went through along the way made something else in the future easier. Tenure is something that I encourage my generation to respect and place value on.”

Anadu joined Goldman Sachs’ analyst program directly after graduating from Harvard in 2003. She says that the program was the ideal entrée to both the firm and the industry as it allowed her to learn all facets of the business and form a close-knit group of colleagues whom she relies on to this day. She spent her analyst years in the firm’s Securities Division, delving into the markets and helping to serve the firm’s clients. Taking advantage of the firm’s opportunities for mobility, she spent her final year as an analyst in the Urban Investment Group, where she climbed the ladder to eventually become a managing director. “I loved it when I started, and I love it today,” she says.

Impactful Work

Goldman’s Urban Investment Group deploys the firm’s capital by making investments and loans that benefit urban communities, largely in underserved neighborhoods. When she first started, investments were in the $2 million range; in 2014, the group committed $300 million in its biggest commitment for a project to date – the Essex Crossing project on the Lower East side.

“That illustrates the growth of the firm’s appetite in terms of these transactions,” she says. The capital is being used to transform a moderate-income community on the Lower East side [C1] to create a new multifaceted neighborhood that includes affordable housing, market rate housing, a community center, a senior center, new retail and more.

Along with the increased transaction size, interest in the sector has grown from all sides – from other corporations, institutional funds and even business schools which now offer classes in impact investing. “The more types of entities that get involved, the better for our work,” she says, adding that it’s been extremely rewarding to watch the next generation of impact investors develop, including her team of 30 “incredibly smart, ambitious people,” as she describes them.

Putting Stock in Early Career Advice

Anadu says she wishes she’d recognized that all the advice she got early in her career would end up being so pertinent along the way. “People at our firm take a lot of time to sit down and mentor you, and I’ve realized that along the way, the advice I’ve used the most is what I heard back when I started. If I’d known how relevant it would all be, I would have captured it in a notebook,” a practice she uses these days, which she recommends as a way to reflect and invest time in thinking about your career intentionally.

She also advises women who are starting out to realize that their network and mentors should be comprised of people at all levels. “A mentor is traditionally thought of as someone senior who will lift you up, but peers and even those who are junior can be impactful,” she says, adding that those she began with at Goldman as analysts have been helpful all along the way, giving advice on projects or how to view a client issue differently.

She says that the industry is continuing to evolve with more senior women, and the ranks will continue to grow, offering more opportunity to mine their examples of success and how to balance work and family. “All the efforts we are making today will have impact on the senior level landscape 10 or 15 years from now.”

Anadu says she grew her own mentoring network through her involvement with Goldman’s Emerging Leaders Program, designed for high-performing vice presidents. In addition to gaining a senior sponsor, she was able to build a network across the firm through the panels and informal events, developing useful contacts and mentors who have helped as she advanced.

Hobbies Then and Now

As a new mom, Anadu notes that she now spends most of her free time with her six-month-old daughter but she still makes time for her favorite hobby, walking, which dovetails well with her work. “I love to walk the streets of New York and learn about new neighborhoods,” she says.

/by

Voice of Experience: Meredith Addy, National Chair Patent Litigation, Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP

,

Meredith AddyMimi Addy is probably the only artist/electrical engineer/lawyer/MBA you will ever meet. And each part of that description represents an interesting facet that has contributed to her successful and varied career.

Addy initially earned a degree in electrical engineering for one important reason: she recognized the value of being financially independent, and when researching which careers were the most lucrative, engineering came out on top. To maintain a balance, she combined it with a double major in something about which she is passionate — art.

After graduation, she decided to parlay her technical education into a career that was more “people-facing” than a typical engineering career and pursued law school to become a patent lawyer.

New Degrees, New Opportunities

With the ‘90s recession in full swing, Addy’s background as an electrical engineer lawyer gave her an advantage, and she joined Willian Brinks Olds Hofer Gilson & Lione (“Brinks”). She remembers how privileged she felt to be an associate at the large, established intellectual property firm and worked there for 17 years.

While an associate at Brinks, she returned to school at John Marshall Law School to earn her LLM in intellectual property, which introduced her to new areas of law, but one of the biggest benefits was the networking opportunities the school offered. Her teachers were federal judges and top practitioners, and she also forged meaningful relationships with her peers that have paid off as they have risen in the industry.

One important connection she made was with the Honorable Paul Michel, a federal appellate judge specializing in patent cases. She told him that if he ever needed a law clerk, she would love to be considered, and a year later, his office contacted her about an opening, which she applied for and earned.

“That clerkship really focused my career,” she recalls, adding that it was a bold move that put her on a new path.

After a year in Washington, D.C., she returned to private practice at Brinks where she focused on federal appeals in patent cases. She was named a partner in 2000 and stayed there until 2011 when it appeared the firm was going in a divergent direction. “Because of the great people, I would have loved to have stayed at Brinks for my entire career, but I got to a point where I needed something different than the firm was able to offer.”

She had learned that she enjoyed the process of managing, building and growing teams so turned her attention to finding an opportunity where she could run a practice. She moved to Steptoe & Johnson’s Chicago office as managing partner and head of their office, which she doubled in size during her tenure.

“It was fun to be collaborating with the people whom you respect in the community and whose company you also enjoy,” she says.

While there, she started to note that the practice of law was changing and that individual skills were no longer enough to gain an advantage so she returned to school and earned her MBA at the University of Chicago. “At various points in my career, different accomplishments appear to be my biggest achievement, but right now it’s earning that MBA because it reinvigorated my interest in my career and in new ways that I could succeed.”

She then landed at Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, which was looking for someone to chair and grow the patent litigation group, and she was eager to apply her managerial skills to running the practice and large litigation teams.

Along with her legal work, Addy is currently focused on trying to develop a new model for reviewing and billing legal services. “Most clients are looking for a better way to forecast to management what the legal costs should be,” she says.

Women in the Legal Field

Addy believes that there are issues that will always make it harder for professional women than men. “If I’m the one having the child, I have to take time to be with the child, and that will affect my career path. Life is about choices: You can’t have it all, all of the time, but if you plan well, you can do a lot,” she says. “Even in today’s legal practice, however, there are subliminal biases you can’t get rid of, and no matter how hard we try to level the playing field, women will always be working harder.”

As a lawyer and former engineer, she understands firsthand the importance of encouraging more women to pursue careers in male-dominated industries. She sees a need for more networking-based women’s groups for mentoring and business development opportunities. “We can be successful in the system as it is, but women need to help women,” she says, adding “We network differently than men do, and that’s a fact.”

Addy, who wishes she had had the confidence and assertiveness when starting out that she developed later on, feels passionately that women need to be taught to be assertive because you will never get what you want unless you ask for it, even pursue it. “People will notice your good work, but that’s not enough. You have to ask for assignments and opportunities and put yourself out there. If you don’t ask, the answer is always no.”

On the Home Front

Addy still embraces the creative side of her nature, saying that creating and collecting art relaxes her mind and enhances her legal career. But her best stress relief? Her daughters, Jackie, age 14, and Meaghan, age 12: “fantastic athletes, outgoing girls and my buds.”

/by

Voice of Experience: Michelle Orozco, Assurance Partner and Diversity and Inclusion Leader, PwC Mexico

Michelle OrozcoPwC Mexico Partner Michelle Orozco reminds women not to be afraid of being ambitious. “It’s important to express your desire to develop professionally and share your opinion,” she says, adding that the issue of work/life flexibility is one that women need to be upfront about. “If you want more flexibility, or need to change some aspect of your work or home life to better balance, you can’t be shy about addressing it.” Over the years, she has learned that it’s ok to say no: “Sometimes you feel overwhelmed and even though you want to say yes, saying no demonstrates that you know what you want and can prioritize what’s important at any moment in your career.”

Orozco serves as a role model of a professional woman capable of successfully addressing work/life balance.

She joined PWC in 1997 as an auditor, soon heading to London where she spent four years assisting in developing guidance for accounting standards used by the firm worldwide. She returned to Mexico City, where her successful experience from London formed a critical part of the business case for her admittance to the partnership as an expert in International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Her current role as head of Global Accounting Consulting Services in Mexico includes supporting clients with complex transactions, assisting with internal and external training in IFRS and providing advice to clients with respect to their accounting approaches.

“Everything that affects our clients is of interest to me, and it’s vital that we are prepared for the accounting consequences of global and national economic issues so we can advise them.”
She also was appointed diversity leader in June 2014, which she terms both a great honor and a great challenge. “My background is more technical and related to numbers so dealing with diversity initiatives allows me to explore a different side with more emphasis on business skills. It’s been a learning experience I have appreciated.”

Rooting Out Subconscious Bias

Orozco believes that subconscious bias is still prevalent in Mexico, reinforcing the stereotype that women should stay home and men should be the bread winner. “That belief can affect decisions about who is the best person for a certain role,” she says, adding that there needs to be an emphasis on accepting that not all women and men have the same desires.

“We need to focus on talent, rather than gender, and be cautious about how our beliefs may affect decisions that could prevent women from continuing to grow.”

For their part she says that women need to realize that they don’t need to be super women. “As long as you’re delivering results, you can manage your personal and professional goals. Take your flexibility and use it as needed and make sure you have the balance of teamwork you need at home and at work.”
Over the years, she has found that women face greater challenges in tackling balance. “Becoming a partner involves difficult work, and you have to make a choice that you will be sacrificing some of your personal time, but you have to balance that with the pride you feel in your professional accomplishments. In truth the sacrifice has been very limited; I’ve never had to miss an important family event or any of my children’s special occasions,” Orozco says.

She also believes that young women should carefully consider their partner’s support of their career aspirations. “It’s vital to ensure that you have the same interests and goals. Here in Mexico we have cultural differences, and some men believe women should stay at home, so that’s an issue that should be addressed.”

She has also seen great strides in men being more upfront about their desire to spend time with family, and that’s where she believes flexibility is important.

And she has seen that women have a role to play too: “We don’t always help other women, and that needs to change. We need to be more open and understanding that even if it was difficult for you, it doesn’t have to be as difficult for others.”

Making Time for Other Women and Family

That belief plays into her ongoing efforts to mentor other women. She has recently assisted in creating a firm network to discuss issues such as personal brand, improving confidence and other professional skills that they will formalize this year. She is also part of a mentoring initiative with the American Chamber, and next year will be involved in “Reach Out” — an initiative first introduced in India that involves PwC, American Express, Microsoft and General Motors. Women will be selected to network and attend monthly professional development sessions and also be mentored by the CEOs of those companies and others in the group.

A mom to three children, two boys, ages 12 and 7, and a four-year-old girl, Orozco relies on other supportive women, including connections she has with other families via her children’s schools.

Orozco prioritizes personal time, visiting her parents and friends often and focusing on her husband and kids. They enjoy traveling but also spending time at home, going out to the cinema or weekend restaurant nights, where, as she says, devices are forbidden and distractions are few, so they can really connect.

/by

Voice of Experience: Janine Shelffo, Managing Director, Co-Head Technology, Media & Telecom Group, Americas, UBS Investment Bank

Janine Shelffo“When I started my career, I didn’t appreciate the extent to which different is good in our business,” says UBS’s Janine Shelffo. “Thinking differently and approaching problems from different angles is critical in coming up with great ideas for clients. Being authentic is more important than fitting the stereotype of an investment banker and is a stronger foundation for building long-lasting client relationships. As I look back on my career, I believe that being a little different became one of my biggest strengths.”
Shelffo, who describes her career path as “surprisingly linear,” recently celebrated her 26th anniversary of working on Wall Street. After graduating from Georgetown, she started as an investment banking analyst in mergers and acquisitions, then focused on high-yield and distressed investments before earning her MBA from Columbia Business School. She returned to investment banking at DLJ, where she joined the sector coverage team focused on tech, media and telecom and has subsequently maintained that focus for almost 20 years, working for Credit Suisse and Lehman Brothers prior to joining UBS seven years ago. Shelffo currently co-heads the firm’s Technology, Media and Telecom investment banking effort for the Americas.

When asked to describe the professional achievement she is most proud of, Shelffo laughs and points to her resilience, having survived two bankruptcies and three sale transactions of her employers during her investment banking career. “You have to learn to replant, reposition and roll with the punches, and commit to earning the respect of new colleagues along the way,” she says. “Hopefully the volatility of the financial services industry won’t be quite as dramatic going forward, but the fact remains that the ability to adapt and reinvent yourself is a key skill set in our dynamic industry.”

Unprecedented TMT Industry Shifts

Right now Shelffo is immersed in the significant impacts of disruptive technology across the sectors she covers.This includes significant changes in consumer content consumption, communication and purchasing habits, including mobile adoption that has been faster than predicted. As a result, the economic models in the industry are changing dramatically as advertising dollars shift away from historical categories with incredible speed, content bundles unbundle, consumer appetite for subscriptions is tested, and the line between content and commerce blurs. In addition, the sheer amount of data and information available on customers and their purchasing and consumption habits has increased exponentially.

Not only are her clients trying to adjust their businesses to prosper in the changing landscape, many of them are also suddenly facing new competitors as some of the historical distinctions between technology, media and telecom companies fade. Shelffo says all this disruption is incredibly intellectually stimulating, and adds that the best part of her job is waking up every day confident that she will learn something new.

Overcoming Stereotypes

As co-chair of the Diversity Council for UBS Investment Bank in the Americas, Shelffo feels good about the cultural transition that has taken place during her years in investment banking. “I believe the business case for greater diversity and inclusion in our business has been proven and that the large Wall Street firms are intensely focused on it,” she says. Yet negative stereotypes of a male-dominated investment banking environment persist, and she admits to being frustrated when some young women on college campuses shun the industry without thoroughly investigating it. In fact, she says UBS and other banks have started reaching out to women on campus earlier, specifically to get to them before they form false impressions and make up their minds that the industry is not for them. To that end, Shelffo took matters into her own hands and conducted a speaking tour on college campuses last year entitled “Navigating Wall Street in Heels.” She also created a webcast on “Women on Wall Street” for the bank’s inaugural sophomore program that was distributed through social media and is available on UBS’s website.

What she does see as a potential impediment to increased diversity is a lack of senior female role models. This makes it harder for women to see themselves as the primary client interface and can undermine the self-confidence necessary to bring their whole selves to work as they move along the career path. “Being a trusted advisor to clients actually requires a lot of skills that are more stereotypically female, such as gently building consensus, fostering collaboration, active listening and navigating emotionally charged situations. Our role is often to help other people look smart and, for better or worse, that’s something that women generally do well.” In addition, Shelffo points out the significant increase in gender diversity among clients in her coverage sector and notes, “Our female clients are delighted to see gender diversity on our side of the table too.”

Supporting Women

Shelffo urges younger women to resist what she sees as a growing trend to try to plan their whole lives before leaving college. “These days I find that many young women are calculating how the job will accommodate a family and evaluating the merits of finding a career path that’s less demanding before they’ve even started out,” she says. “If I’d had that mindset, I might have talked myself out of investment banking and never discovered what an amazing career it can be. In truth, it would have been entirely speculation since I had no idea then what it would be like to be a mother or how supportive my future husband would be of my career.” She advises young women to focus on how to maximize their learning and build a strong foundation to create career optionality, rather than trying to be clairvoyant about how their lives could unfold a decade or two down the road in a particular job.

These days, Shelffo views diversity among new hires on Wall Street as less of an issue than retention of women over the long term. “Our incoming class was 40% female last year and I feel very good about that,” she says, “but data shows that across Wall Street there is an acceleration in female attrition starting at the director or vice president level,” which is typically the point when women are stepping up to be a primary client interface and are also often simultaneously starting their families. Transitioning from subject matter expert to new business originator can be very intimidating for women and men, and it often happens at the same time they are dealing with meaningful transition in their home lives.

She sees some women opting out at that juncture because of the pressure they put on themselves. “We hire women who are Type A and used to being the best of the best.When you’re balancing a family with a banking track, you are often out of your comfort zone on all fronts and it becomes harder to feel like you’re doing an A+ job in everything,” she says, adding that many conclude they’d rather find a less-demanding career path to get back to feeling “best” in all areas of their lives.She points out that raising preschool-aged kids, while working in a demanding occupation, is a really challenging life stage for both men and women, and that it is difficult to maintain perspective and appreciate that it’s a relatively short period in the arc of a long career. Shelffo commends financial services firms for doing what they can to support young families and applauds UBS’s recent increase in paid primary and secondary caregiver leaves by 33% and 50%, respectively, in the United States.[C1]

Shelffo says her diversity council is intensely focused on the issues of female retention at this mid-level and is launching multiple initiatives aimed at that population. For example, Advance, a year-long UBS program for Directors that was launched in 2015, combines networking between women to encourage peer support, individualized coaching to increase skills and confidence and a sponsorship program that encourages senior executives across the bank to champion these women. “We have incredible rising female talent in our investment bank and these women are poised to become the next generation of amazing role models, so we want to support them in every way we can,” she says.

She is sympathetic to the challenges the managers of these women face in their efforts to be supportive. “They want to make sure that their promising women know that there are opportunities to downshift if they want or need to, but don’t want to be patronizing or suggest that their ambition levels have suddenly changed because they are starting families,” Shelffo says, acknowledging that it’s a difficult balance to strike and that managers are understandably worried about saying the wrong thing. Her diversity council is also launching a Fostering Diversity & Inclusion training program for senior managers in the investment bank to provide them with the right support and tools to feel better equipped for those conversations.

Finding the Right Balance to Thrive

“A career on Wall Street is a marathon not a sprint. It’s critical to recharge in order to foster creativity and original thinking,” Shelffo says. She claims that her best ideas for clients rarely come to her while she’s in the office and that clients don’t enjoy spending time with people who do nothing but work. Shelffo says that while she and her generation might not have thought twice about devoting every waking minute of their lives to their jobs when they were starting out, she commends today’s graduates for generally having more well-rounded definitions of success, which are more sustainable over the long term. New UBS initiatives like “Wickedly Smart Working” solicit and implement the best crowdsourced ideas from junior bankers to reshape current work practices in order to encourage employees to be successful in every dimension of their lives. [C2]

Shelffo is passionate about extracurricular activities which quiet the mind, and credits painting, yoga and meditation with being important to sustaining her own personal balance.A part-time student at the Woodstock School of Art, she now enjoys taking weekend painting workshops with her 13-year-old daughter, whom she proudly describes as an amazing artist.She is also a trustee of the Kripalu Center in the Berkshires, the largest yoga and meditation retreat center in the country, and executive sponsor of the first UBS mindfulness program pilot in development for later this year.

“There is no one-size-fits-all blueprint for balance in a demanding career path,” she says.“It is a deeply personal thing.It’s an issue for men just as it is for women, and it’s not just about family time.You must have the self-awareness to figure out what you need for renewal and the self-confidence to create space for it.”

/by

Voice of experience: Ana Malvestio, tax partner, diversity and inclusion leader, PWC Brazil

Ana MalvestioI have learned that technical expertise is essential. But clients assume all advisors have it. So it merely gets you into the game. What helps you to win the game is your capacity to collaborate with others,” says Ana Malvestio, tax partner and diversity and inclusion leader for PWC Brazil.

Malvestio started with PWC as a secretary while still in law school. She gleaned an important on the job education typing letters that partners sent to clients. She soon asked if she could start as a trainee. She was shocked when her boss turned her down. He said it would be too challenging for a woman because it involved lots of travel and it would be difficult to manage with eventual family responsibilities.

She persisted in her quest for an opportunity. Subsequently she became a trainee and the first woman in the tax department of her São Paulo state office. She has proved more than capable of balancing career and family demands: she has since been married and had two daughters, now ages 13 and six. And as the partner in charge of PwC Brazil’s Agribusiness industry specialty, her role is hugely significant. Brazil is the second largest global supplier of food and agricultural products. So Agribusiness is one of the most important sectors of the economy. It accounts for 20% of GDP and 43% of all Brazilian exports.

Ana is justly proud: “It’s motivating to serve an industry that feeds the world: in future, Brazil will contribute 40% of food consumed by the world’s population.”

Infusing diversity into the workplace

Partnering with an Agribusiness Association in Brazil, Malvestio conducted a survey to identify the role of women in the sector: “it’s still very much a male dominated business which spurs me on to drive change,” she adds.

Malvestio faced scrutiny from clients at first: sometimes she had to take a male consultant to meetings because clients wouldn’t interact with her. “It’s changed a lot,” she says, but she is determined to do more. Much more.

Her proudest professional achievement? “That’s easy,” she says, “I get so much satisfaction from contributing to the careers of my team and the success of women in the office”. She’s thrilled that another partner and director in her office began as her trainee and she’s now promoting another woman to director position. “Women in my position must make it easier for the next generation. That will be our legacy”.

She continues to encounter the stereotype she first worked against. Women don’t receive the same opportunities as men because others assume they will be compromised in their careers by families. “Careers are equally as important for women as they are for men: I wouldn’t be a complete person if I stayed at home. You need to find what makes you happy. For many women that’s the feeling that you are contributing to something, to have your own achievements. Your family are the most important people in your life. But they are not everything, and I am a better mother for having a career which gives me satisfaction.”

Malvestio supports the UN “HeforShe” initiative as a way to reposition perceptions of women and achieve greater equality. “If we keep the debate only among women, we will not change the conversation. Men have to be involved and together we can improve things for everyone. It’s not just a woman’s problem.”

In her diversity and inclusion role, she has been instrumental in launching a flexibility policy for mothers. She insists employee reviews are based on results, not hours worked. She also inaugurated a diversity and inclusion committee involving partners and key talent managers, pushing diversity firmly up the agenda. Nothing gets in her way.

A passion for travelling and music

A music lover, Malvestio adores live concerts-everything, she says, from the local orchestra to global rock bands. She has travelled extensively across Europe and the United States and always incorporates adventure into her travel for PwC. “When I have an opportunity to travel for a meeting, I will search out the best theatres, art galleries, restaurants and landmarks so I can immerse myself deeply in the country or city I am visiting. Every holiday we are on the road, and my daughters love it just as much as me.”

/by

Voice of Experience: Susanne V. Clark, General Counsel, Senior Managing Director; Centerbridge Partners, L.P.

,

Susanne V. Clark“Be brave. Take smart risks. Recognize that you belong at the table.” For Susanne Clark of Centerbridge Partners, those are three key elements for women who aspire to success in the professional world.

Clark has lived the philosophy of “smart risks,” with a career path that has involved a series of decisions to step outside of her comfort zone, each of which added a new layer of experience.

She began her career as a capital markets lawyer at Shearman & Sterling and after a few years joined Goldman Sachs in its Investment Banking Division, which expanded her responsibilities and skills to the broad range of investment banking services. She later joined a team working for Goldman’s public parent company, which extended her responsibilities and had the benefit of allowing her to see the business through an even broader lens, interacting with all of Goldman’s divisions including sales and trading, prime brokerage, research and asset management.

She became increasingly curious about asset management from Goldman’s dealings with fund clients, took a leap and reached beyond her historical skill set to join Amaranth Group, her first experience working directly for an investment adviser. From there, she took her first general counsel role at Basso Capital Management, which she found was a perfect place to learn how to hold her own as a general counsel. From there, she joined Centerbridge Partners, a private investment firm that manages capital for the world’s most prominent pensions, endowments and foundations, where she is a Senior Managing Director and the firm’s chief legal officer. In each case, she let the excitement of a new challenge overtake the fear of failure.

At Centerbridge, she has designed and developed its Legal & Compliance department, which she credits as the professional achievement she is most proud of so far, having built the department from the ground up, but with ample credit to her team for their role in the department’s success. “We have a diverse team of professionals who are dedicated to each other and their work. It is a pleasure to step back and observe how capable they are,” Clark said.

Confidence Counts

Clark knows that it’s good to be humble, but cautions women not to confuse humility with unhelpful and unnecessary self-deprecation. She says that early in her career, she wrote in a self-evaluation that she needed to “gain confidence in her new role.” Although her intent was just to set personal goals, that comment found its way into the next year’s review – “Be more confident.” Clark recalls. “Seeking to convey that I was eager to learn, I unwittingly created a false impression that I was unsure of myself. It was a good lesson to have learned early on.”

An Ideal Industry for Women

Clark finds there is an inaccurate presumption that the asset management industry is a man’s world. “In fact, investment firms are a great place for women because there is no glass ceiling. In general most asset management firms are meritocracies where success is defined and driven by one’s work product and results,” she says. “It’s a dynamic industry that offers great career mobility for motivated professionals who do excellent work.”

Making an Impact

She has been following recent studies on board composition, which show that better decision making occurs on boards of directors that include women. And she has started to see more and more women in the GC seat within the fund industry. “It excites me to see these high-impact women at complex firms who are doing a great job for their firms.”

During her early years in large organizations, she participated in and benefitted from programs that focused on career development. At other firms, she finds the approach may be more organic, but equally powerful provided that the organization is focused on the growth of its professionals, as is the case at Centerbridge. Whether large or small, she believes that firms benefit from good managers who prioritize the career development of others.

Outside of the firm, Clark participates in various mentoring platforms and professional peer groups – including a few for C-suite women – where she has “made many long-standing friendships.” She notes that “These groups provide a context for exchanging professional insights, sharing pitfalls and triumphs, establishing connections and collecting wisdom that covers the full career arc.” Among Clark’s favorite mentoring moments was the fast-paced award-winning Minute Mentoring® program, which she describes as speed dating for career success.

Clark’s philanthropic activities are largely focused on education, including sitting on the board of an independent school in Connecticut. She also participates in a foundation that focuses on education. Though it’s not limited to girls, the group benefits girls as well as boys by helping them develop their confidence and a wide range of life skills.

By Cathie Ericson

/by

Voice of Experience: Joan M. Dillon, Senior Equity Analyst, Voya Investment Management

Joan M. Dillon“The only barrier to success in the financial industry is if you aren’t willing to work hard,” says Joan M. Dillon, an equity analyst at Voya Investment Management. “Hard work will always pay off, but the puzzling part is that you don’t know when it will pay off. It might not be at your current company or division, but it will happen eventually.”

Dillon has been a healthcare equity analyst for the past 24 years, 17 investing on the buy-side. It was a path she pursued partly based on an interesting college course on investing and portfolio management. A friend mentioned that Dillon was “really good at doing homework,” a skill honed through many hours logged in the library. “This concept resonated with me, and I decided that I should pursue a career in which you never stop learning; where focus and dedication matter; and where complicated projects are the norm – that’s a financial analyst,” Dillon says.

Prior to joining Voya, she was a senior analyst assigned to the health care and consumer staples sectors at Equinox Capital Management.She also served as health care analyst with Dreyfus Corporation, JPMorgan and CS First Boston.In the Wall Street Journal’sAll Star Analyst Survey for 1997, Dillon received the top award as “Best Stock Picker in Health Care Services”.

Her interest in the field is buoyed through the research she does on pharmaceutical and biotech companies, where she learns about new therapies in drug development, makes financial models on the earnings opportunity and calculates the stock’s potential value.She cites several new therapies targeting cancer and Alzheimer’s disease that are in late stage clinical trials and could be on the market helping patients over the next two to three years. “When people find out that you analyze health care companies, they often tell you about the medicines they take and ask you if there’s something new or better coming. So I can be pretty popular at a BBQ,” she says with a laugh.

Advice for Moving Up

Dillon knows the value of keeping your eyes open for opportunities, whether it’s asking your manager for more responsibility or a promotion, spending time working on a team you haven’t worked with before or raising your hand for new projects. She advocates settingprofessional goals every year and viewing your career in annual increments. Sometimes achieving the goal can mean you have to take a class after work or get an advanced degree, as she did, earning her MBA while working full time at an investment bank. Or, it might mean you have to join a new firm to work with different people and gain new experiences.

She also underscores the importance of taking the time to deliver your best work. No matter what the assignment, Dillon recommends over-preparing and practicing, especially when you are presenting to a group, and she always advises people to view their work with a critical eye. “Your work is you. Triple check it because it should always be the best it can be.”

That advice applies at every stage, but Dillon says that especially when you are new, you should be extra cognizant of the impression you are creating. “You’re the person who has a lot to learn so you should always be early to meetings – whether you’re walking in or dialing in. That shows interest, initiative and that you care,” she says. “And those are some traits that help lead to success…no matter what your level.”

By Cathie Ericson

/by