By Pamela Weinsaft (New York City)

“I think I ordered my first application to Harvard and Stanford’s Business Schools when I was roughly 10 years old,” said Sabrina Callin, a PIMCO managing director based in the firm’s Newport Beach headquarters. “My parents were both educators, and instilled a strong work ethic and belief in me that I could do anything I wanted to do. As a result, I was motivated from a young age by the ability to have an influence and make things happen.”

During her undergrad years at Texas Christian University—a school founded by her father’s ancestors back in the 1800s—Callin decided to pursue a career in finance, graduating with degrees in accounting, finance and economics. A focus on finance, she felt, would provide her with the opportunity to be in a “very dynamic and intrinsically interesting profession,” and could provide an opportunity gain unique insight and expertise that “is very broadly relevant, and well beyond the day-to-day workings of a given job.” In the period between her undergraduate and graduate programs, rather than heading to Wall Street as she’d originally planned, she earned her CPA. “I believed experience as a practicing CPA would provide me with an important knowledge base that would be beneficial for my longer-term career path.”

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By Pamela Weinsaft (New York City)

Audacious proclamations are the hallmark of the many of the successful among us. “You’ve got to raise your hand,” says CDW’s Ann Ziegler, the corporation’s CFO.

No surprise, then, that Ziegler, who is an attorney—not a CPA or Finance MBA—told her boss at Sara Lee— “I want to be the corporate CFO”—and has come to realize that goal.

Ziegler was drawn to the law early, mostly because of strong influence of an older cousin who was an accomplished lawyer. Once she was knee-deep in her legal studies, she realized that, above all else, she was called by corporate law, even though it wasn’t what most of her classmates were doing. “At that time I was in law school, litigation was the sexy part. But I never wanted to be a litigator. I enjoyed corporate law and other similar courses.”

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By Elizabeth Harrin (London)

“I come from a family of bankers so it must be somewhat ingrained,” says Carla Brooks, managing director at Commerce Street Capital. But it’s more than just growing up with the knowledge a career in finance meant. Brooks excelled in math during her school years and took this interest and skill with her to further education. “My college undergraduate thesis was titled ‘Bank Holding Companies: Their Growth and Future,’” she says. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Brooks has ended up in such a senior role in fund management.

“I joined the team at Dallas-based Commerce Street Capital LLC and its predecessor firm in 2002,” Brooks explains. Since then, she has put her three decades of experience analyzing financial institutions to good use. Having built a successful career in bank regulation and oversight, Brooks was in a unique position to help create private equity funds to invest in banks at Commerce Street Capital. “Private equity’s involvement with banks is relatively a young concept,” she adds.

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By Jessica Titlebaum (Chicago)

Melinda Schramm is the founder of the National Introducing Brokers Association (NIBA), the writer of the industry’s only guide for Introducing Brokers (currently circulated by the CME Group) and the owner of MHS Capital Resource, an NFA registrant. A lawyer by training, Schramm decided to go into finance after being physically threatened on her prior job. Knowing she needed a change, she answered an ad in the Chicago Tribune and went to work in a newly created compliance department at Green & Collins (known today as the Rosenthal Collins Group).

Now, more than 30 years later, “Melinda is considered a matriarch to the leaders in the financial arena of Introducing Brokers,” said Karen Bertoli, Director of Communications Strategy at Zen-Fire and an affiliate member of the National Introducing Brokers Association (NIBA).  “I have been lucky enough to enjoy her leadership through NIBA and her friendship outside the office.”

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By Pamela Weinsaft (New York City)

“Change awakens the stranger in you. When you are faced with a different situation, that’s when you find your strength and are able to grow and become a better person,” said Mareile Cusack, General Counsel at Chicago investment firm, Ariel Investments.

That’s the voice of experience talking. Cusack was born in Haiti. At the age of two, she and her family fled to Guinea when her father, a government official, was exiled. They remained in northwest Africa until a nationalist movement forced all foreigners out five years later. “It was an unusual time. It wasn’t yet violent but foreigners were being looked upon with suspicion. I do remember, though, that the father of someone I knew suddenly disappeared because he was thought to be a spy. It was that kind environment, so my parents decided it was time to get out.” The family moved to France, where Cusack lived until she came to the United States to attend boarding school in Andover, Massachusetts at the age of 16.

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