Voice of Experience: Natasha Moffitt, Partner, King & Spalding

moffitt-natasha-4938-176x240Sometimes dad knows best. That’s what Natasha Moffitt, Partner at King & Spalding, learned when following her father’s suggestions for her career path.

Raised in Germany by a German mother and American father, Moffitt decided in high school that she wanted to be a lawyer, but her father urged her to leverage her skills in math and science. He counseled her to first pursue a computer engineering degree (an emerging field of study at the time), and then a career in patent law; and that’s when her career path was born.

Moffitt graduated with a computer engineering degree and a minor in German, and then worked as an engineer for several years before pursuing her law degree, focused all the while on becoming a patent attorney.

“Many engineers don’t consider patent law as a career path until later in their careers; I decided to pursue patent law from the get go.” She became a summer associate at King & Spalding in 2000, joined the firm full time in 2001 and was elected to the partnership in 2008.

Meaningful Wins Are Key to Satisfaction
While she is naturally pleased about all the wins she achieves for clients, one win in particular stands out. She defended a client in patent litigation brought by a competitor, with enormous stakes that were “do or die” for both sides.

For more than a month the case was tried, and she was delighted to score an outright win, which was later affirmed on appeal.

“Unfortunately, patent litigation has become a routine ‘cost of doing business’ for many companies, but in this case, the suit was directed toward an important part of the client’s business, and it was critical that we win. I always play to win, but this win was especially sweet.”

Moffitt currently is excited about the business development work she’s doing in Germany and other German-speaking countries. “It’s a good fit, given my language fluency and heritage. German tech companies are frequently sued in the United States for patent infringement. I am fortunate to be collaborating with a group of partners who also have German ties and an interest in expanding our footprint to the German market.” She describes it as a “coming home of sorts,” allowing her to marry her personal history with her profession in a way she never dreamed possible when she started her career.

She also views the recent changes in patent law as an area of ongoing fascination – with the increased interest by the Supreme Court, the media, legislators and company executives. “There is ongoing spirited debate involving patents and what should be patentable,” she says. “Different industries have differing views – there’s a lot of discussion but no clear answers. As the entire industry changes in an unprecedented way, we will be tracking the developments and counseling our clients on what these changes mean for their patent portfolios and litigation strategies.”

More to a Law Career than the Law
As Moffitt has ascended the ladder, she’s learned that law partners must wear multiple hats – as mentors, teachers, managers, recruiters, marketing professionals and accountants.

“When I started my legal career, I expected that lawyers would spend most of their day practicing law; I didn’t appreciate how many roles we would have to play,” she says. “Law school gives you the skills you need to become a great lawyer. It does not train you how to do the rest. Over time, I have learned the business side of law and how to build a practice, but had I realized then what I know now, I would have focused the early part of my career on not only doing excellent work, but also on learning the business of building a practice.”

Changing Perceptions
One challenge she believes women may face in the industry is one of perception. “For high stakes patent litigation, more senior, male litigators may be perceived to be a safer hiring choice than female litigators,” Moffitt says. “Women litigators simply need to demonstrate that this perception is unwarranted. With time we can change these biases, but it takes women stepping up and showing they are as good as, if not better than, their male counterparts.”

She sees the industry becoming more accessible as more women enter into math, science and engineering-related disciplines in college, which may translate into more women practicing in the area of intellectual property, but there is still room for improvement.

She believes it’s important for those already working in the technology industry to educate the women who are following them about what the opportunities are – that they can become engineers, scientists and researchers, but there’s also an alternative path in the law.

And for women who are getting started, she advises them to invest in their career by taking advantage of every opportunity and experience – and if you’re not getting the opportunities you seek, then go find them.

“People will be impressed by the initiative. It’s vital to create opportunities for yourself if they’re not coming to you for one reason or another.”

And she says that while women should be the best they can be at any given moment, they should cut themselves some slack.

“Women can be unnecessarily hard on themselves – we want to be perfect in all areas – as a mom, spouse, and employee – and then we give ourselves a hard time when we feel we’re not meeting our own expectations.”

For women at her level, Moffitt recommends building a practice by focusing on one particular area for business development. “Sometimes lawyers want to appear as a jack of all trades, but that can dilute the expertise you do have,” she says. “Clients are looking for subject matter experts, so you don’t want to spread your expertise too thin.” She sees this as particularly important for women who are balancing family, work and other time commitments, that in order to make your limited time count, you have to identify your strengths and focus your efforts there.

Committed to Diversity
Moffitt says her firm is very committed to diversity with committees, initiatives and events, and she has been active in both informal and formal diversity programs. She feels fortunate that she has had lots of mentors at the firm over the course of her career, and in return she has mentored others in a variety of capacities – always finding the informal relationships to be invaluable.

Currently, she is co-leader of the Atlanta office’s Women’s Initiative, which creates networking and mentoring opportunities for the firm’s Atlanta women lawyers, but also provides tools to help women attorneys expand their profile internally and externally. Recently she hosted a guest speaker to talk to the women attorneys about how to maximize the impact and visibility of their LinkedIn profile, for example.

Sharing Love of Horses and Heritage
A busy mom with three kids ages three, six and nine, Moffitt sees weekend time as family time. One hobby she’s been able to share with them is her love of riding dressage competitively– she recently competed in the U.S. national and regional championships. Her oldest daughter has started riding, and all of them enjoy spending time at the barn.

In addition she is sharing her German heritage, raising them to be bilingual by attending an international school where they learn in German and English.

“It’s a challenge to make time for everything, but it’s worth it. I’ve gotten really good at time management!”

By Cathie Ericson

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Voice of Experience: Stephanie Smith, Managing Director, Global Head Credit Operations, Goldman Sachs

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Stephanie SmithCuriosity and a willingness to say “yes” have been the driving forces behind Stephanie Smith’s successful career in the hypercompetitive Wall Street environment.

Smith joined Goldman Sachs in July 1999 at the height of the dot-com boom. Though her background was in marketing, she was drawn in by the interesting work that Goldman was doing in e-commerce and spent five years developing strategy for the business. Then, in 2004, she leveraged the many internal relationships she had formed through networking to pursue a new opportunity in the firm’s Operations Division.

While Operations was not necessarily an expected career change, she was immensely curious about the space. Smith was offered an opportunity to join the Client Onboarding team, which is responsible for creating new accounts for clients across all products traded by the firm. “I was quickly catapulted from being a team member working on projects to leading a team of 20,” she recalls. “I was out of my comfort zone, but loving every minute of it!”

Her next “yes” was to the Credit Operations group. “Again, I had no background in this specific industry but was curious about the product and the business. I realized that even if I didn’t have direct experience, I was highly motivated to learn and excited to dive into the opportunity to try something new,” Smith says. “Ultimately I felt supported by the firm that if it didn’t work out, they would redeploy me. Trying something new was 50% fun and 50% challenge.” She soon rose from her initial regional oversight to managing the global team of over 400 people.

In her current role, Smith is excited to be constantly challenged to learn new regulatory rules, partner with her peers and team to develop implementation strategies and develop ideas that will build operational efficiency in the support of fixed income and derivative products.

She relishes a role that enables her to think strategically about issues such as how the firm should build its technological architecture, what consortiums it should join, and what its response should be to proposed rule changes. “We are working with industry partners and leaders internally on how to scale this business and what technological infrastructures we should put in place to help us in the future.”

She says that many of the current changes are driven by the changing regulatory environment and also because of client demand. “Our clients are looking for more creative ways of generating and preserving revenue, and at Goldman Sachs we continually challenge ourselves to develop solutions that meet their needs.”

Just Say Yes

Smith’s advice, especially for women, is simple. “You have to take a chance and speak up, ask questions and expand your network.” Smith says women have a tendency to opt themselves out – after achieving academic success in school, they tend to withdraw when surrounded by a team of smart people. This manifests itself in staying quiet if you don’t have the perfect answer or know 100 percent about a product or solution.

“I was guilty of opting out early in my career, but by working with mentors over the years I’ve learned that we’re all just trying to figure it out,” Smith says. “The beauty of success is harnessing the power of the team — I bring something to the table, you bring something and collectively we develop an answer.”

And that is the advice she believes young women need to hear as they start their career: to jump in with both feet; take risks; and say yes.

“Even when I didn’t know all the details of what I was asked to do, I trusted my managers and said yes, in spite of the butterflies in my stomach. It wasn’t always easy, but it was always worth it.”

This “yes” mentality, combined with her curiosity, is what has led Smith up the ladder.

Along the way, she has learned valuable lessons about perspective and pivoting. Each success and setback is part of a broader journey and should not be evaluated in isolation.
Smith acknowledges she had roles in which she performed well but didn’t feel sufficiently motivated. However, she notes, “I learned something through every experience that led me to my next step, whether it was because I met new and interesting people or learned about a new line of business.”

She says she is most proud of her opportunity and ability to change course in her career. Smith remarks, “I joined the firm in the Securities Division headed in one path, then pivoted to Operations where I was heading down the path of being a strategic individual contributor, and then I pivoted again to management. That’s the beauty of Goldman Sachs — it doesn’t matter where you start, you have the ability to remake yourself multiple times throughout your career.”

Mentoring Emerging Leaders

Smith is active in the firm’s Emerging Leaders Program, which identifies up-and-coming diverse leaders within the firm and offers a network where they can receive coaching and establish informal and formal mentoring relationships.

While she is now able to speak about successfully navigating the firm, she didn’t arrive understanding the rules of the road, some of which she attributes to her background as a first generation immigrant.

“I didn’t know what to expect or how to navigate Wall Street,” she says, adding that although she worked extremely hard during her first couple of years and achieved success, her exposure and impact were limited because she kept her head down. “I assumed that if I worked hard, someone would recognize me, but it wasn’t until one of my managers challenged me to be more vocal and develop my network that my career took off.”

Smith is sure to share her advice across the spectrum of diversity found at Goldman Sachs, be it racial, gender, sexual orientation or cultural. “By celebrating our diversity, we create a more cohesive firm that makes us more effective in our day jobs.”

Goldman Sachs also values diversity outside of work. The firm sponsors and partners with several successful organizations that promote the development of diverse talent. Smith currently serves on the board of one such organization, Council of Urban Professionals (CUP). Founded in 2007, this non-profit’s mission is to connect, empower and mobilize the next generation of diverse business and civic leaders in financial services, legal, media, entertainment and both non-profit and public sectors.

“I love CUP because it allows us to supplement our leadership development as a firm. We can create networks and informal connections between Goldman Sachs professionals and our peers in the industry.”

Outside of work, Smith spends time with her husband and two sons, whom she says keep her grounded and focused.

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Voice of Experience: Candace Ewell, Principal, PwC US

Candace Ewell“Be open to a career that isn’t exactly what you thought it would be. I don’t know that anyone can predict the opportunities and challenges they will face when they are only 18 and in college,” says PwC’s Candace Ewell.

And that is particularly sage advice coming from a current PwC principal, who spent the first seven years of her career as a nurse. Ewell thought that the healthcare industry would be her career path, but when she decided to go to law school with the goal of studying health law or health policy, a core tax class piqued her interest. “I had a lot of fun in tax; I really enjoyed my professor and the content. It was the first law school class that I really connected with,” she says.

When she returned for the third year, her professor offered her guidance on finding other tax courses and she ended up continuing straight through to complete her Master’s of Law (LLM), in part, she says to prove how serious she was about tax.

After graduate school, Ewell took a position at the IRS Associate Chief Counsel corporate division. While she appreciated the foundation it gave her in understanding the IRS and how regulations and guidance were promulgated, she also felt she was missing the bigger picture on how taxpayers work to be compliant, so she decided to move on.

Ewell’s next stop was in the Office of Advocacy at the Small Business Administration, where she was involved in new ways of thinking about compliance for smaller businesses. While there, she learned all she could from that perspective, but felt the isolation of being the only tax person and decided she wanted to be in a larger community of professionals. She found her home at PwC in mid-2007. “It was a challenging environment to get lots of experience quickly at a faster pace and higher level. It really was a lot of fun.”

In July 2013, she was named principal, which she considers the professional achievement she is most proud of. “I didn’t come to the firm thinking it was an option; I was just looking for an interesting community and challenging work, so being able to achieve this honor is very gratifying.”

Right now she is thrilled to be at the forefront of a new wave of information reporting, a broad subject that has developed over the past years to become more global. She has watched foreign governments embrace information reporting to help improve global compliance. “I get to talk about what I do every day to people and governments that never considered they could ask for so much information. Here in the United States, we have a culture where tax compliance is expected, but it’s not that way everywhere.”

She sees the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) as having a big impact worldwide. Other new regulations, including basis reporting which follows the sale of securities, that will continue to dominate her work are also of significant impact. Of particular interest to her are the information reporting requirements for payments made on the Internet. “It is fascinating to learn how Internet commerce works and how they engage with their customers and clients.”

“Merging Gracefully”

Ewell learned an important career lesson from her first start in the nursing field, the art of “merging gracefully.” In other words, she says she would often approach a new challenge with the belief that she could bring a new perspective and that she knew as much as other, more established professionals. “That got me in trouble when I assumed I knew more than the people whom I reported to. Through this journey, I’ve learned that when you’re starting a career, you’re excited and focused and yearn to make a big impact. But it’s a matter of picking your spot — you have to see that you will have the opportunity to bring perspective, but you can’t start with the ‘bull in the china shop’ mentality.”

Her other advice to those beginning their careers is to have patience and let your career develop. “We let go of some of our goals and desires because we ‘quit early,’ putting them to the side before we get started. You have to be open for how opportunities will present themselves.”

Ewell says that one of the reasons it was an easy decision to come to PwC was its mentoring program, which includes both a coach and relationship partner. “In addition to the fact that this was a community of high-achieving people, I knew that it would be useful to have designated points of contact to call on and help me get to the next stage of my career.” She says that since she is a bit of an introvert, she finds one-on-one coaching to be the most valuable, among the many other programs PwC offers for women in the workplace.

And she says that she takes seriously the charge to now give back to both women and men and facilitate the opportunities for them to meet their goals. “I try to be as candid as possible about how the firm works and the types of experiences people need to meet their goals. I was lucky enough to have people do that for me and I want to do it for others.”

Carving out Time for Renewal

And, as careers mature, she said it’s key to remember that this is high-pace, high-demand work, and it’s vital to carve out time to renew and take care of yourself, something she thinks all women struggle with.

For Ewell, that renewal comes when she carves out time for her family. Married for 20 years, she has an 11-year-old son who is a swimmer, so they spend lots of family time at the pool. Another favorite family activity is delivering food to seniors together because as she knows, anything you do together becomes family time.

By Cathie Ericson

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Voice of Experience: Mylan Denerstein, Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher

rsz_mdenerstein-press_1-171x240Mylan Denerstein, partner in the New York office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, is a woman driven to leave a positive impression on the world. Her career is best characterized as one that takes ahold of opportunities to grow and empower those she serves.

Public Service

As a 1993 graduate of Columbia Law School and Skadden Fellow, Denerstein began her professional life working for the Children’s Defense Fund in Washington, D.C. This opportunity led to a position with the Department of Justice as a special assistant to the Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division. According to Denerstein, the experience “was a great introduction to Washington and how things worked there.” But DC couldn’t hold her for very long.

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Mylan Denerstein

“Generally, people want to help you with your career, but you have to ask. Anybody can be your mentor, but you can’t let your fear of rejection get in the way of asking for help, or asking for advice.” – Mylan Denerstein

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Voice of Experience: Pamela Click, Director and Senior Development Manager, TIAA-CREF

Pamela Click“You will work hard, but it will be rewarding,” says Pam Click of a career in technology. Now a senior manager and respected technologist at TIAA-CREF, Click’s hard work has finally paid off.

Her path to her current position at TIAA-CREF was somewhat circuitous: After earning a degree in accounting, Click started her career as a management consultant with Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), working with various clients in industries as diverse as consumer products, utilities and oil and gas.

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Kathryn Kaminsky, Partner, PwC

Kathryn KaminskyKathryn Kaminsky will be a panelist at theglasshammer.com’s 4th Annual Navigating, Negotiating, & Building Your Strategic Network Event on February 26th.

“There is a lot we can learn from men in the workforce,” says Kathryn Kaminsky, a Partner at PwC. “When they leave early to attend one of their kid’s sporting event, they do it with pride. They don’t slink out of the office — they’re excited, and women should behave that way too.”

Kaminsky, who started her career with PwC in Canada before moving to the firm’s New York office, has always been cognizant of the fact that she works in an organization where only 19 percent of the partners are women. “Male relationships are critical so I have always tried to build my relationships to be gender neutral,” she says.

Going on her tenth year as a Partner, Kaminsky has appreciated that during her 20-year tenure at PwC, she has been constantly challenged, noting the opportunity to be in a career where she can do different jobs at the same place. She’s moved from the asset management space to banking and capital markets.

“Being admitted to the partnership is definitely the professional achievement I am proudest of,” she says, adding that she is always looking forward to the new experiences and new engagements that she will undertake as she moves up the partnership ranks.

The industry is constantly changing and she is fascinated by where it might go. “Ten years from now, will we all bank via cell phone??” she muses. She sees huge potential for disruption in the financial services industry, especially with tech companies that can stay nimble and entrepreneurial since they are not hampered by the regulations that banks have to grapple with.

Confidence Builds Careers

Kaminsky sees confidence as a trait that women need to learn to develop as they progress in their careers. “It can be hard to be in a room where you are the minority but you have to speak up – you can’t be in a meeting and not talk.”

That confidence translates into knowing how to discern among competing priorities. “You have to evaluate internal versus external focus,” she says, noting that in a client-based business, you often need to choose the client side.

One thing that Kaminsky has learned over the course of her career is that “this too shall pass.” She says there are times that she wishes she’d had a thicker skin and realized that what seemed like a big deal at the time wouldn’t be in the long run. “I wish I hadn’t taken things so seriously and lost sleep over things that I shouldn’t have cared about,” she says.

She knows from experience that you have to have a stellar work performance, but success is based on more than that. “Aim high – don’t just put your head down. Get out and meet people – growth comes from experiences and relationship building, both internally and with clients. Business books alone won’t tell you what’s going on in the world, you have to get out there.”

And while you’re out there, she advises having some fun. “In the 20 years that I’ve been at the firm, I definitely could have had a little more fun!”

Lessons to Be Learned from Men

“Many people don’t like to hear it, but there are lots of things men do very well that we could emulate,” she says. For example, she appreciates that men are more open in how they talk about things. She says they’re more apt to admit they’re having a bad day, or discuss something they’re struggling with rather than sit behind a closed office door by themselves.

They also are more likely to own the career decisions they make. Currently, she works in the New York office while her family has relocated to the west coast for her husband’s job. “Men commute all the time, and don’t have any problems with it. I have found that my schedule allows me to focus on work during the week and home on the weekend, which is a benefit for everyone, but somehow that is not as accepted with women as with men.”

As part of her desire to create a gender-neutral network, Kaminsky has worked within the wide range of programs PwC offers – some specific to women, and some geared toward general career development. In particular, she has benefitted from an Advocacy and Sponsorship group which matches professionals with more senior partners. Over the years, her male match became a friend, sponsor and advocate, someone she confides in on a regular basis. Kaminsky says that women don’t necessarily need to be sponsored by women – it’s more important to just make sure it’s the right person.

And she finds that at PwC mentorship is inherent in a wide variety of day-to-day activities even aside from dedicated programs.

Still, she says that there is competition even as you climb the ranks, and she feels fortunate that even though she has great male friends and sponsors, she has a network of four to five women who are the ones she calls upon for the closer friendship that everyone needs. “It’s important to remember that not everyone is a competitor.”

Weekends Are For Family

Mom to three boys – an eight year old and seven year old twins, Kaminsky in many ways feels her dual life allows her more focus than if she was home every night. Throughout the week, they FaceTime and talk, and she is able to have “me time” on the plane each way. That allows her to focus exclusively on her kids when she is home. This fall she was the association treasurer and team mom for her twins’ Pop Warner football team. “Our weekend is extremely active with family time with the kids,” she says, always ending with Sunday night dinner. “That’s what weekends are for me – 100 percent focus on my family. They know all about my work life and are very involved with it. But when I’m home, I’m home.”

By Cathie Ericson

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Voice of Experience: Joanne Moffic-Silver, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at the Chicago Board Options Exchange

Joanne Pic (1)“I wanted to be a criminal lawyer until I worked at the Northwestern law school clinic where, as a law student, I assisted in defending alleged murderers,” said Joanne Moffic-Silver, the Chicago Board Options Exchange’s (CBOE) Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. Moffic-Silver ultimately decided that career wasn’t for her after attending a graphic crime scene.

Moffic-Silver graduated from the Northwestern University’s School of Law with a J.D. degree with honors in 1977. Inspired by one of her employment law professors, her first job out of school was at a labor and employment law firm.

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Voice of Experience: Nancy Laethem Stern, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary, Allston Holdings LLC

stern nancy“Industries are always evolving, and adapting to the changes is a key part of your career,” says Nancy Laethem Stern, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary for Allston Holdings. “You can’t view the world as static; instead you have to be prepared to adapt and anticipate ways in which things are going to change.”

Wise advice from Stern, who has seen many of those changes throughout her career. After graduating from law school at the University of Michigan, she clerked for a federal judge for two years and then joined a large law firm as a litigation associate. She subsequently transferred to the corporate department, where she worked on M&A and securities matters. She was elected partner and named vice chair of the corporate department. After 10 years she moved to another large law firm, where she focused on M&A and corporate governance.

Stern joined Allston in July 2013, where she says she is excited to be in a role where she can have a strategic voice, helping the CEO make business decisions and cope with today’s evolving regulatory environment.

In fact, she cites that as the professional achievement she is most proud of so far: developing her judgment to help guide others in decision making. “I’m always working to refine and strengthen that skill set, but the opportunity I’ve had to tackle a variety of different challenging assignments throughout my career has been instrumental in developing strong judgment.”

As part of that strategic counsel role, she is excited about the opportunity her position offers to delve into the nuances of the business. Currently she’s learning about new tools to analyze risk and help inform business decisions, which she finds fascinating from a more quantitative perspective.

Helping Shape the Law

Echoing her assessment of the industry as one of rapid change, Stern has found that the pace of change has accelerated over her career. In the wake of Michael Lewis’ book Flash Boys about high-speed trading, there has been a lot of debate about market structure and how trading should be regulated. She has found that regulators, legislators and reporters alike are very interested in speaking with industry participants who are knowledgeable.

“It’s been a wonderful opportunity to help shape the law,” she says, adding that she recently had an opportunity to meet with senior staffers at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, along with congressional representatives who wanted to learn more from people who are immersed in the business.

“They want to know what the issues are and how they can impose regulations that will have the intended effect, while avoiding unintended consequences as much as possible. In such a complex industry, it’s challenging to develop the regulatory schemes that accomplish that.”

The Best Kept Secret on the Industry’s Opportunities for Women

Stern says that since many of the jobs in the trading industry require deep knowledge of math and computer science, women tend to be underrepresented, which in turn can make them feel unwelcome in the culture. But she sees immense opportunities for women who have these skills; and in fact, she says that the transition of trading from a physical interaction in a pit to an electronic interaction has contributed to the field becoming more of a meritocracy, which can benefit women.

“It involves anonymous trading on a screen, and that’s an area where women who have the skills can do very well,” she says, as it removes the physical nature of the business. “Unfortunately I don’t know how many women are aware of that. Trading is not a common career aspiration for a lot of women, but I believe that many would be well suited to it if they knew more about it and the skills needed.”

Stern says that the best advice she can give women beginning their careers is to not only become very competent at their jobs, but to couple that with being helpful. “This will encourage others to want you on their team, and mentors will appear. However, it’s vital that you start with the substantive work because people want to invest in people who have potential and have demonstrated aptitude. Start there and dig in and you will reap the benefits.”

Though there aren’t formal programs at her firm to advance women, she says that having a diverse group of people is very much part of the culture. “If you have the combination of a meritocracy that rewards hard and good work, with the core value of diversity as part of the fabric of the firm’s culture, it’s going to have more of an impact than a program. Here, we are driven by the desire to attract and retain the best people, whomever they are.”

Stern also mentors women both formally and informally. She participates as a mentor through WILD (Women in Listed Derivatives) and then supplements that with informal mentoring of women she meets through other paths, such as friends of friends.

For example, she recently met with a student from DePaul University whose mentor, a former law partner colleague, knew of Stern’s background. He connected them because of the student’s interest in M&A law and Stern’s willingness to give advice to others interested in traveling that path.

Stern is willing to invest the time in her mentoring role because she knows the benefits are double-sided. “I learn from those interactions as well,” she says. “Over the course of my career I’ve enjoyed connecting on a personal level with people I interact with professionally no matter where they are in their professional lives,” she said, and encourages her peers to realize the importance of successful women making the effort to connect with those beginning their journeys.

A Soccer Mom at Heart

Outside the office, Stern is devoted to her family and enjoys their life participating in activities, such as travel soccer, with her kids who are 11, 9 and 6. “I have a wonderful and supportive husband, and being with him and the kids is what I look forward to after a busy day at the office.”

By Cathie Ericson

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Voice of Experience, Jessica Lieberman Quinn, Senior Vice President, Corporate Planning, American Express

rsz_jessica-headshot_whitebkg-159x240Fresh out of college with a dual degree — a BS in Economics from the Wharton School and a BA in History from the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania – Jessica Lieberman Quinn’s first position was an ideal avenue into the business world. Working at a small investment banking firm, she was privy to a wide variety of deals, from M&A to IPOs across a variety of industries.

“Even as a more junior person, I was fortunate to spend time with clients who were CEOs. They were running small to mid-sized businesses, and I was able to have a look through their eyes at what was important in running and growing a business. These early experiences taught me to view business in a big-picture framework.”

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