Foto Lindegren_3x4cm_300dpi_tifBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

For Annica Lindegren, partner at White & Case and head of the firm’s bank finance practice in Germany, a keen focus on providing top service for her clients has been one key to her success – the other is finding a unique balance between her work life and family life. Working in Frankfurt during the week, Lindegren heads home to her family in Spain on the weekend.

She says, “In a sense I have found my work/life balance. When I’m home my priority is my family, and when I am here [in Frankfurt] my priority is my clients (but of course my family is always a top priority). The clients are aware of my travel situation, and it hasn’t affected their view of working with me or the team here.”

And the balance seems to work – Lindegren expresses pride in the team she’s built in Germany, and the success it has seen since the start in 2001.

She continues proudly, “Within 3 years [of starting at White & Case], we were nominated for The Bank Finance Firm of the Year in Germany by JUVE, a guide to the legal profession which ranks lawyers and law firms in Germany. And we won in 2006. We were nominated last year again – all in all we’ve been nominated 4 times with one win.”

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N_MClaymanBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“I was born and raised in England, and did my undergraduate degree at Oxford,” began Michelle Clayman, CFA, Founder, Managing Partner, and Chief Investment Officer of New Amsterdam Partners. After graduating, Clayman took a job in commercial banking with Bank of America in London for two years, before heading to California to attend Stanford Business School.

“After business school,” she said, “I took a job at Salomon Brothers in sales and trading, and then, after a few months, was asked to go into a new division called quantitative equity research, and I was there for six and a half years.”

“Then I decided to start my own company – and the rest is history,” she continued.

Clayman has built her career and her company on the value of performance-based quantitative metrics. And she believes performance-based careers, like those in investment management, are more amenable to women. Because they’re based on results, she said, there’s less room for gender bias.

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vivian tsoiBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Vivian Tsoi, Partner at global law firm White & Case, sees opportunity just about everywhere, a trait which, no doubt, plays into her success working in mergers and acquisitions at the firm.

Working out of White & Case’s Beijing office, Tsoi says she is amazed at the attitude of possibility that she sees in her clients in China. She said, “You can really see the growth and see how much they have learned. The level of sophistication they have achieved in just a few years is astounding. It keeps you on your toes.”

“A career in Beijing was, frankly, not something I ever anticipated,” she continued. “But I love being here right now.”

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yvonne

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Yvonne Schneider is a panelist at today’s Women in IT event, hosted by The Glass Hammer.

“I consider myself a global leader,” said Yvonne Schneider, SVP Global Commercial Services Technologies at American Express. “I align employees across five regions around the world and we’re a high performing team. My employees have a lot of responsibility and visibility.”

Schneider’s role at Amex is about managing – and creating – change. She works to create and deploy new solutions to the company’s global corporate client base, she explained. “The adoption of emerging technologies is something we’re paying a lot of attention to. But it’s a matter of putting the right technology at the right time in the right market – the same technology is not the right solution everywhere in the world.”

“What we do is work on automating the workforce,” she said, “and this is changing the face of the world and how it operates and its people.”

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NIHI100705By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

In talking to Margo Cook, CFA, Executive Vice President of Nuveen Investments, its clear that what she’s valued the most throughout her career is her ability to be a part of and to build effective teams.

While her career has taken her from The Bank of New York to Bear Stearns Asset Management, and now to Nuveen Investments, she continues to prize her role as a manager and team builder, investigating and working to improve the dynamic and effectiveness of the groups she’s led.

Cook said, “The most rewarding thing is to have a strong team that works together well. They know how to respond to challenges, and move ahead. It may be more time consuming – but a strong team can accomplish more than a group of people acting as individuals.”

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Avis Yates RiversAvis Yates Rivers, CEO of Technology Concepts Group International, has spent her career in the technology sector – and after 25 years running successful companies, she says one of the most important things she’s learned is “put the right people in the right seats.”

Staying ahead of shifting technology, she said, means “hiring the right people with knowledge about the field. They stay on the cutting edge of new technology and know what it means for us and the customer. I wouldn’t be able to do that on my own,” she explained.

“I’m very heavily involved in civic engagement,” she said, pointing to work with the government and politics, as well as non-profit leadership, such as the National Minority Supplier Development Council, the Women Presidents’ Educational Organization and other organizations working to increase opportunities for small, minority and women-owned businesses. She sits on the board of the National Center for Women in Technology.

She continued, “If you’re entering the technology field, understand that your contribution is very much needed and commit to it.”

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Wendy Stops AccentureBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Wendy Stops is a panelist at our upcoming event “Women in IT: Staying Technical and Getting to the Top.” We still have a few tickets left – to register, click here: https://theglasshammer.com/events/

“I guess it’s the individual, smaller things that inspire me. When I see very confident, articulate people who are genuine, and know what they want to achieve and share their story with you,” began Wendy Stops, Global Managing Director of Quality and Client Satisfaction for Technology at Accenture.

Stops’ career has brought her around the world – from Australia, to several locations across Southeast Asia, back to Australia, and now to New York City. She said, “My area of current experience and focus – consulting and tech – is helping our business delivery quality solutions for the client. Delivering these quality solutions is very important, and we are always looking to make improvements and changes. My challenge is to innovate how we can continually deliver high quality solutions.” She explained, “I like change – I like dealing with things I know are going to make a difference.”

She continued, “I get inspired by people who are not afraid to make tough decisions – who aren’t hiding and [are willing to] admit when they make mistakes. That’s the sort of person I want to be.”

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agnesBy Elizabeth Harrin (London)

For the last five years, Agnès Hussherr, Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, has led the Women in PwC project in France. It’s part of a challenging and interesting role that has kept her at the company for over twenty years.

“I joined PwC twenty years ago just after graduation, aged 22, as an auditor, and was appointed partner at 33,” she says. “In the early days of my career, I worked on a variety of projects including non-audit work. Also, I had the opportunity to be on one job which widened my knowledge of the banking sector. This meant I didn’t become too specialised which might have limited my opportunities to become a partner.”

As a young partner, for six years Hussherr split her work 50/50 as a client partner and as a technical partner specialised in IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards), which gave her a strong technical background and the opportunity to work within a worldwide global and virtual team. However, while the technical background has given her a good grounding, it is not the most critical part of her road to success. “Working long hours and being a technical expert are not the most important things,” she says. “The most important are relationships, both with clients and internally.”

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SandyUrie_Cropped_CMYK_hi_res[1]By Pamela Weinsaft (New York City)

“Figure out what you really like to do. Don’t do things because other people expect you to do them. If finance is your passion, then absolutely jump in fully. (Go ahead and get that CFA and MBA because they give you true credibility from the start.) But it is most important to do what you love,” advised Sandra Urie, the President and CEO of Cambridge Associates.

For her part, Urie said, “I love mission-driven, non-profit institutions. These institutions don’t exist to make money; they exist to achieve a mission, but they need money to do it. I strive to help these organizations have greater financial stability so they can focus on advancing their missions. I think there is a great psychic reward to doing that.”

Growing Up Feminist

Urie was born and raised in Massachusetts, where, she says, she “grew up in the company of women as one of four sisters.” She explained, “My parents were the first feminists I knew. They really inspired us to understand that the only limitations we had were the ones we put on ourselves and that we shouldn’t allow the world to tell us what we could be or do. In the 1950s, not many parents were communicating that message. My three sisters and I grew up thinking the world was our oyster.”

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Image Courtesy sec.gov

Image Courtesy sec.gov

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“We are still at a juncture in time where it’s very important for senior women to be a resource both for other women and men,” said Elisse B. Walter, Commissioner for the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In describing her life and career, it’s clear that Commissioner Walter cherishes her position as a role model and a leader. She enthusiastically articulates the importance of guiding other women coming up the ranks.

And with over thirty years in public service, she has experience to share. Her advice for women working to advance in their careers: “Charge ahead.”

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