Voice of Experience: Marie O’Connor, Partner, PwC Ireland

Women workingMarie O’Connor, a Partner at PwC Ireland, was always interested in mathematics. However, when she decided to pursue Accounting at the College of Commerce, Rathmines, she encountered a slight hurdle. At the time, this business school had not yet opened its doors to female students, but this would change when O’ Connor submitted her application.
“All it took was for someone to knock on the door, and then the barrier came down,” noted O’Connor.

While O’Connor was completing her Accounting degree in business school, she applied for a traineeship position at a PriceWaterhouseCoopers firm where she was one of six females accepted in a class of fifty total graduates. This program established the foundation for O’Connor’s career at PwC Ireland, where she would eventually become the first woman to be made a partner. “I have stayed at PwC for my entire career,” she said, “and I am quite fortunate to have had a variety of roles and experiences here in Ireland and internationally as well.”

A Rewarding Career at PwC Ireland

Becoming a partner at PwC is one of O’Connor’s proudest professional achievements. “Since becoming a partner, I take pride in representing PwC Ireland around the world and enabling Ireland to be a place where companies want to do business,” said O’Connor. She also looks back at the twelve years she spent successfully leading and growing the Investment Management team practice as a very rewarding period in her career.

O’Connor noted, “Today, locally we have 350 people in the Investment Management practice and 17 partners, of which half are women. Growing this practice and developing the networks was very important for me.”

According to O’Connor, the regulatory environment of the asset management industry is presenting many challenges for companies trying to remain competitive while continuing to forge strong client relationships. “There is so much regulation in Europe right now, and more in the pipeline. It is critical for asset managers to be involved in discussions around all these issues to ensure that we can make sense of the regulatory agenda and enable companies to do good business while building trust with investors,” said O’Connor.

She added, “At the end of the day we all want to grow sustainable business”, In addition to the diverse career path O’Connor has enjoyed at PwC, she has also benefited greatly from various non-executive director roles she has had the opportunity to participate in. “Being able to see business from a different angle has contributed to my own professional development and has given me a new range of ideas and experiences to share with others,” noted O’Connor.

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Voice of Experience: Natasha Granholm, Partner, PwC US

natashaNatasha Granholm began her career at PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP) as an intern and is now a partner and though she’s clearly a success in her field, she laughs when admitting that her interest in accounting was by happenstance. She was really only looking for an “easy” honors class in high school that would allow her to boost her GPA, but her teacher saw something in her and decided to enroll her in accounting competitions. “There is such a thing as an accounting competition, I promise,” Granholm laughed.

Once in college, she didn’t have an “absolute desire” to enter accounting, but knew it was worth exploring given her propensity for the field.

“The real appeal to me was that it wasn’t just about computing numbers. Accounting is theoretical; it’s not just about being good at math,” the partner said.

Early in her career, Granholm did a little of everything, from serving clients in the tax-exempt sector to M&A, an area she was particularly drawn to because of the dynamic and fast-paced nature of the work. She even did a “tour of duty” with PwC’s national M&A group in Washington, D.C. where she says she grew both personally and professionally.

“It opened up my point of view and gave me a more global perspective,” Granholm said.

Redirecting
Not too long after Granholm returned to Chicago from D.C., the economy began to decline and when the US economy fell into a recession in late 2008, the deal markets came to a halt. At this time, she was pregnant and decided to take some time off from work to focus on her family. When she returned in 2010, the economy hadn’t fully bounced back and Granholm wasn’t sure which direction to take her career in, though she did know she wanted to continue at PwC.

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Voice of Experience: Leslie Hale, CFO, RLJ Lodging Trust

Leslie HaleRLJ Lodging Trust’s CFO, Leslie Hale, grew up in an entrepreneurial family and from an early age she says she was in love with the concept of taking one dollar and turning it into two. She was a natural. Whether it was getting chosen out of college for GE’s world renowned, ultra-competitive Financial Management Program or becoming a CFO at the age of 35, time and time again it’s been proven that she was born to thrive in the financial services industry.

To Hale, one of the biggest appeals of the industry was that it went well beyond Wall Street, enabling you to apply your skills and learn new ones in areas as varied as real estate and healthcare.

This love of learning about new sectors was fostered at GE, where Hale was rotated to a different area every six-months. Hale has done just about everything the industry has to offer, from working on Wall Street to working in mergers and acquisitions (and everything in between), eventually deciding she liked real estate the best. She would spend five-years in this space before business school.

“The beauty of financial services is that while every industry is different, the actual finance aspect is the same. You can take your skills and apply them anywhere that interests you and you can be successful in that space,” Hale said.

A Career to Be Proud Of

There are very few women CFOs and even fewer African American women CFOs and as an African American woman serving as CFO of a publicly traded company, Hale is one of just a handful in the entire United States. Clearly, this is one of her proudest achievements.

“I’m fortunate to work for a great company with a visionary CEO who was willing to take a chance on me,” Hale said. “Success, as we know, is about being prepared, but it’s also about opportunity. When you’re prepared and an opportunity arises, it can be career changing.”

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Voice of Experience: Lisa Opoku, Chief Operating Officer for the Securities Division in Asia Pacific, Goldman Sachs

Lisa portraitIn 2003, Lisa Opoku came to Goldman Sachs for what was supposed to be a three-month assignment, but her stint became a stay. In 2009, she became Chief Operating Officer for the Securities Division of Goldman Sachs Asia-Pacific and in 2012, she was promoted to partner. She came to the multinational investment banking firm from Richards, Kibbe & Orbe and says that her background as a lawyer gave her an advantage, even becoming partner at the firm while still on assignment at Goldman.

“When I started my career I was all about hard work. My parents are from Ghana and I have inherited an immigrant’s work ethic. My parents taught me that if I put my head down and work hard, the rewards will come,” Opoku said. “The corporate world is much more complex than that. You can do an excellent job and it can sometimes be invisible if you are not careful. You have to be vocal about what you contribute, network with your colleagues and clients, and make sure that you are an advocate for your career.”

Team Work

Currently, Opoku’s favorite project is the team she is building in Bangalore, focused on system enhancements and improvements to global processes.

“I am most proud of the team that I have developed in Asia Pacific; you are only as good as your team. I trust my team with many difficult strategic projects and they always deliver the highest quality product,” the COO said. “It is not easy to learn to delegate when we are all ‘Type –A’ people but, it is the only way to truly gain leverage and be more strategic about your work. Every day we can see the impact. The talent in Bangalore is so impressive and the team there is adding a ton of value to our Global Management and Strategy priorities.”

Right now, Opoku is very focused on changes in technology, with Goldman’s trading desks partnering with its technology professionals to enhance performance and efficiency.

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Voice of Experience: Wanda Hill Managing Director, BK University, BNY Mellon

Wanda hillWanda Hill, managing director of BNY Mellon’s BK University, entered the financial services industry by way of the marketing and communications world. It was a somewhat unusual entry point, but one that has served her well over the course of her career. Hill was recognized as a Woman of Distinction by the Girl Scout Council of Greater New York and in 2006, named one of the 25 most influential women in business by The Network Journal. At BNY Mellon, she oversees learning and development for the company’s Investment Services businesses, which generate approximately $10 billion annually. Previously, as part of the Investment Management business, she was responsible for maximizing cash-related revenue from the company’s institutional businesses, which included product development for BNY Mellon’s global cash investment platform.

When Hill stepped into her new role in October of 2013, her first goal was developing a three-year strategic roadmap.

“When you step into a new role at a mature company there’s always the challenge of putting your institutional knowledge to work, while at the same time being open to very different approaches and the nuances of each strategic business,” Hill said. “It’s a challenge, but I enjoy it.”

Currently, much of Hill’s focus is on the overall learning and developing strategies tied to what the company refers to as the “investment life cycle” where expertise, innovation, and intellectual capital is necessary to support and sustain BKU as a world-class learning organization. BNY Mellon’s employees are located in 35 countries and 100 markets, with the Investment Services business alone comprised of eight major businesses. Hill regularly meets with those businesses to identify how the company’s virtual university will support their business models today and into the future. “I love to build these strategies and relationships,” Hill said.

BNY Mellon’s Impact

BNY Mellon continues to intensify its focus on diversity and inclusion. In an effort to attract and retain diverse talent and create an inclusive workplace, a number of employee-powered resource groups were launched, including IMPACT in 2008, which is geared toward the company’s multicultural employees. Hill serves as Global Chair for IMPACT and is conscious of the group’s approach outside the US.

“We’re a global company and IMPACT has chapters around the world. Outside of the US, our focus is diverse employees because ‘people of color’ doesn’t really translate in other parts of the world. Creating inclusive workplaces is such a part of the fabric of BNY Mellon and being a part of this work means a lot to me,” Hill said.

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Voice of Experience: Latrise Ashford, Managing Director, Health & Public Service Practice, Accenture

Latrise AshfordBy Tina Vasquez, Managing Editor

It wasn’t until Latrise Ashford was interviewing with Accenture that she realized technology consulting would be the perfect career choice for her, enabling her to be analytical and work directly with clients.

“A friend who interned at Accenture introduced me to the company and suggested I apply,” Ashford said. “I always knew I wanted to work in business, but wasn’t aware I could have a career in consulting.”

The Yale graduate is now Managing Director of Accenture’s Health and Public Service Practice. Since the early days of her career she has concentrated on information management.

“After receiving my first assignment analyzing and structuring new data sources, I knew I had made the right choice,” she said. “In my current role I work with data analysts and statisticians on a regular basis and love it. I may not have deliberately chosen this path, but I ended up in the perfect place for my skills and interests.”

Leveraging Assets
Currently, Ashford is focused on helping health & public service organizations become insight-driven by leveraging their best asset: data. By using data more effectively and efficiently, she says, these organizations can better help their communities and the citizens who depend on their services.

“I am committed to working with my clients in the public service sector and I’m passionate about finding solutions to problems that affect those who are most vulnerable in our society,” Ashford said. “The combination of my technical skills and love for creative problem solving has made my current position leading Intelligent Processing and Data Analytics in our Health & Public Service practice the perfect role for me.”

The Art of the Possible
The work the managing director does is new and cutting edge, with advanced analytics and new technologies quickly becoming the buzz in the market. But there are challenges.

“The challenge is that public service organizations often don’t have a lot of room for trying out new techniques and methods without the fear of impacting the lives of the citizens they serve. Balancing limited resources and increasing demand for services is something my clients deal with every day. Helping them understand the art of the possible – and how new technology plays into that – is my biggest challenge and a challenge I welcome,” Ashford said.

The work she did with the Administration for Children’s Services is among Ashford’s proudest career achievements. She spent four-years working with the agency to create a management reporting solution that provided a holistic view of children in the New York City foster care system.

“This tool was a powerful way to track key outcomes to get children and families reunited where appropriate,” she said. “I’m happy I played a role and am looking to create similar and even more advanced solutions for my clients.”

Work-Life Integration
Ashford’s schedule is jam packed and she admits that sometimes it can be overwhelming. But a long time ago she received a piece of advice that has stuck with her.

“Stop trying to strike work-life balance; focus more on work-life integration. I have learned that life may not always be balanced, but my work is very important to me and being able to achieve professional success while still being there for my family provides me with a sense of accomplishment, pride, and true fulfillment,” Ashford says.

Leading By Example
The managing director has equally good advice for young women considering a career in her field.

“Always strive to be an authentic leader; never lead in a manner that does not feel natural – working in this manner is simply not sustainable,” she said. “We spend a tremendous amount of time at work, and give our all to our colleagues, clients, and teams. We should enjoy what we do, and not feel we are forcing anything unnaturally.”

The newly-engaged Ashford knows a great deal about being a leader, too. She works with several NYC non-profits, assisting the under-served and most vulnerable citizens of the community. For the last 10 years she has also led the Metro NY African-American Employee Resource Group.

“I am amazed at the programs we’ve been able to organize and the impact we’ve made within Accenture and our communities,” she said. “This group has been a source of mentorship and camaraderie for me and I’m happy to play a leadership role. Watching the next generation of leaders take the torch and run with it also has been incredibly rewarding.”

A forward thinker, Ashford says she sets her sights on new goals every couple of years.

“I’m shaping my next big goal,” she said, “but for now it’s to be the best I can possibly be in creating viable, profitable, and most important, sustainable, business for Accenture.”

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Voice of Experience: Tamara Fields, Managing Director, Federal Services, Accenture

Tamara FieldsBy Tina Vasquez, Managing Editor

As Tamara Fields began looking into employment opportunities as her college graduation neared, she noticed that all of her classmates were clamoring for consulting jobs. At the time, she says, consulting firms were hiring in large numbers to help support the Y2K buzz and the new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementations that were getting started.

“I wanted to be a part of this fast paced and dynamic world,” Fields said.

And at what better place than Accenture? Once at the global consulting company, Fields initially worked across industries and then moved in to the federal space, where she worked on a project supporting federal financials transformation for NASA.

“I decided I would focus on this area, as I like the concept of serving the government and helping the government be accountable to its citizens,” the managing director said.

Fields has now been with Accenture for 16-years and is currently based in Austin, TX and serving as a Managing Director in Accenture Federal Services. She has since moved on from her NASA project and is currently working with the Department of Defense. Specifically, she is working on a project for the US Army, saying she truly enjoys working in the military space.

In addition to her client work, Fields also serves as the Sales Lead for Accenture’s Army Contract Writing Systems project and is responsible for every aspect, including customer call plan execution, solution designing, win strategy, and competitor intelligence analysis.

“This makes me excited because I truly enjoy planning from the beginning stages. I am also excited because this opens opportunities for the people on my team for new career considerations,” Fields said. “I like contributing to the success of the Army projects and I get even more excited about helping the people who work on these projects succeed in new opportunities.”

Paying It Forward
In a career where there has been so much to be proud of, Fields cites her promotion to managing director as one of her most gratifying career achievements thus far.

“It is not an easy road as an African-American female working in a corporate America that is still predominantly Caucasian and male-dominated. I am thankful I had the opportunity to reach this level, and I am also grateful for the support I received in helping me reach this goal,” Fields said.

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Voice of Experience: Catherine Clay, CEO, Livevol

Catherine ClayThis week The Glass Hammer is profiling successful women in the derivatives industry.

By Tina Vasquez, Managing Editor

In November 2013, Catherine Clay received a career-changing promotion: she became CEO of Livevol, which offers options analysis and trade execution software. The CEO says the company extracts data from the market and gives clients what they need “in a sea of noise.”

If it weren’t for a call from Clay’s sister, however, she may have never entered the derivatives industry. In the early 90’s, Clay’s sister got a job in San Francisco manually updating market maker quotes at what was then the Pacific Exchange. One day she called Clay and told her this was the industry for her, believing her sister’s natural competitive nature would make her a trading floor natural – and she was.

In The Beginning
Clay began her career at Interactive Broker’s market making unit, Timber Hill. She started as a clerk and worked her way up to director of floor trading and operations, spending about 12 years on the NYSE Options Floor, overseeing a staff of 20 traders, brokers, and back office staff. While at Timber Hill, she also served on NYSE Committees and was involved with floor trading, listing, membership, and arbitration.

Her involvement in Timber Hill’s mentorship program continues to be a bright spot in Clay’s career. The formal program hired aspiring option traders, with staff running the educational programs.

“We brought candidates on to the floor and taught them how to trade derivatives. It was good to help others and empower them with the knowledge to make good lifelong investment decisions,” Clay said.

Forging Her Own Path
In 2006, Clay left Timber Hill to co-found Thales LLC, a market making firm on the NYSE Options Floor and on OneChicago single stock futures exchange. Thales employed comprehensive volatility analysis using extensive historical options data. During her time with Thales, Clay noticed a demand for this type of data from professional traders and brokers on the trading floor.

“One of the challenges the industry faces is taking the enormous amounts of live and historical data from the market and harnessing it in a way that gives it meaning,” Clay said.

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Voice of Experience: Kim Taylor, President, CME Clearing

Kim TaylorThis week The Glass Hammer is profiling successful women in the derivatives industry.

By Jessica Titlebaum

Kim Taylor, President of CME Clearing, said that the automobile industry is to Detroit what the futures industry is to Chicago. Taylor moved to Chicago from the Detroit area to work for Sprint, managing 25 telemarketers. One year later when the firm moved her function to Kansas City, Taylor started looking at job ads in the Chicago Tribune.

Taylor received two offers: one was for a newspaper called The Hammond Times, and the other was for a senior analyst position at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME Group). The Hammond Times position was a better opportunity, she said.

“The other job was a management position and had a better salary. However, I liked the people that I met at the CME and felt like I would be a better fit there,” Taylor said.

She also got positive feedback from her roommate at the time.

“My roommate had heard good things about the CME and felt like the derivatives industry was going to take off,” Taylor said. “This was before people had the Internet and it was harder to research a firm. I had to go on what my friend was telling me and she said this was a growing, local business.”

Leader in Training
Taylor joined the CME Group in 1989 as a senior analyst in the Business Development Group (BDG), an internal consulting group within the Exchange. Working under one of her mentors, former BDG vice president John McPartland, Taylor’s team vetted new technology and services at the Exchange’s clearinghouse.

Under McPartland, Taylor co-authored a white paper for the U.S. Congressional Office of Technology Assessment that correctly predicted the impact 24-hour trading would have on clearing and settlement systems. This alerted Central Banks to modify their respective payment systems to better accommodate a global 24-hour trading environment.

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Voice of Experience: Veronica Augustsson, CEO, Cinnober

Veronica AugustssonThis week The Glass Hammer is profiling successful women in the derivatives industry.

By Jessica Titlebaum

In just 12 years, Veronica Augustsson went from developer to CEO of Sweden’s Cinnober, an international independent software company delivering trading, clearing, and surveillance solutions.

After graduating from The Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm with a master’s degree in computer engineering, Augustsson began her career at Cinnober. Soon, she moved from developer into a technical sales support role and worked on a variety of projects in this position. She also spent 14 months in New York as onsite support at the American Stock Exchange (AMEX).

“I am very lucky to have the experience in New York because it is a big financial center,” Augustsson said. “While working on the AMEX trading floor, I was able to learn the rationale behind the trading.”

One of Augustsson’s biggest projects as an architect and developer was the trading system that Cinnober built for Turquoise, a European hybrid system launched by a conglomerate of banks to coordinate on and off exchange traded derivatives clearing.

Technology & the Derivatives Industry
The derivatives industry is quickly evolving because of Dodd Frank regulation, which among other things, has pushed off exchange-traded derivatives, also known as over the counter (OTC) contracts, on to exchange platforms.

Augustsson believes people with technology skills should get involved with regulatory matters.

“Technology is the driver and for the derivatives industry, it means there are no limitations,” she said. “My concern is that the regulators don’t know enough about technology so they sometimes make the wrong decisions when writing rules. I think the technology-skilled people need to be involved in regulation as well. Why, for example, is risk in real time not a requirement in many markets? Why is there not a discussion around real-time settlement?”

With the knowledge to ask the tough questions and the guts to start an industry discussion, it is no wonder Augustsson was able to climb the ladder at Cinnober. She was promoted to head of sales in January 2012 and offered the role of CEO just 10 months later.

Practice Makes Perfect
One of the factors Augustsson credits to her career success is that she played a variety of sports from the time she was four-years-old. Handball, which she played for 20 years, was her favorite.

“You have to understand the game and always be one step ahead,” she said. “I had very good split vision.”

According to the CEO, there are a lot of similarities between sports and the office.

“You learn the value of team work, how to give and take feedback on performance. Nowadays people often ask if I work a lot of over time. I just see it as I’m practicing,” she said.

Women in Tech Stand Out
While we’ve all heard about the challenges of being a woman in a male-dominated industry, with the tech industry being painted in a particularly harsh light, Augustsson asserts that being a woman in the male-dominated tech industry actually worked to her advantage.

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