Voices of Experience: Alice Wang, Managing Director, Global Credit Markets, J.P. Morgan

by Pamela Weinsaft (New York City)

“Nothing is impossible – there is always a solution,” advised Alice Wang, Managing Director of Global Credit Markets when interviewed by The Glass Hammer. In 23 years with J.P. Morgan, Ms. Wang has seen the company and the industry change dramatically.

She started her career in investment banking after a stint as a CPA with responsibilities that included auditing banks, government entities and non-profits. “When I joined J.P. Morgan, it was still thought of as The Morgan Guaranty Trust Company–the bank–not J.P. Morgan, the investment bank that we think of today. I was offered a role as an internal consultant, which at the time felt like a good fit, as problem solving was and continues to be very appealing to me.”

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Voices of Experience: Rachel Glaser, COO/CFO at Reunion.com

by Natalie Sabia (New York City)

Her journey started immediately after business school when she landed a much-coveted job at Disney. Over twenty years, she worked her way up in the company, holding various leadership positions in finance, operations and technology with studio entertainment, as well as corporate and consumer products divisions.

The imminent birth of her first child was a turning point. About to go on maternity leave with her first child, she was debating whether to take time off to be a stay-at-home mother. Her boss at the time talked her into coming back to work part-time. She was concerned, not sure how to manage the competing demands of work and motherhood. “I was nervous for the change, but I tried not to second guess my decision,” Glaser said. “If he hadn’t invited me back, I would never be in the position I am now.” By accepting the offer, she was able to raise her kids but also keep her foot in the door.

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Voices of Experience: Shelley Hendrickson, Senior Vice President and Division Manager, Wells Fargo California Business Banking

shelley_hendrickson_pc_spencer_brown1.JPGby Heather Cassell (San Francisco)

Thirty years ago, peering into her uncertain future as a Spanish major at Colorado State University, Shelly Hendrickson, senior vice president and division manager for Wells Fargo California Business Banking, made a strategic move that put her in the driver’s seat of her own career and changed the course of her life. Upon someone’s suggestion that the Spanish knowledge could work well in business, she enrolled in a business course. Hendrickson says she “fell in love” and ended up double majoring in Spanish and finance.

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Voices of Experience: Heather Gates-Massoudi, Director, Venture Capital Services, Deloitte

gates-massoudi_heather_spring_07_clr1.JPGby Caroline Shannon (Akron, Ohio)

For Heather Gates-Massoudi, balancing work and personal life has always been a juggling act. When she was in her twenties, it was all work and no play, with her spending much of her time cranking out audits or investment banking deals long into the night. Then, as her early thirties rolled around, Gates-Massoudi found herself squeezing in more personal time, including annual vacations to exotic locales. The same went for her late thirties, when she was able to take time off for her maternity leaves and to spend time with her family.

“Which leads me to today, where balancing means enjoying the time I spend at work and enjoying the time I spend with family and friends,” says Gates-Massoudi, 40, who is the director of venture capital services at Deloitte. “I feel incredibly balanced today taking time to work out, learn with my children, laugh with my spouse, spend with friends and being thoughtful, but efficient at work.”

And Gates-Massoudi’s thoughtful efficiency is exactly what got her where she is today. Graduating with her bachelor’s of arts in accounting from Colorado University, she moved right on to public accounting at Coopers & Lybrand which is now PricewaterhouseCoopers. Despite a brief hiatus, she spent nearly a decade there before continuing on to investment banking at Hambrecht & Quist, where she worked on initial public offerings in corporate finance. Once her work was done there, she joined venture-backed company, Participate Systems, as the vice president of business development and general manager of channel partnerships, eventually, leading to her position at Deloitte.

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Voice of Experience: Kathy Robb, Partner, Hunton & Williams

03011.jpgby Erin Abrams (New York City)

Kathy Robb, a partner in the New York office of the law firm Hunton & Williams, credits her success as an attorney in part to a willingness to embrace change and a passion for environmental issues.

The Glass Hammer recently sat down with Kathy, whose practice focuses on energy, environmental and administrative law, to talk about her background, her accomplishments and her advice for young women in law.

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Voices of Experience: Laura Hinton, Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers in London

by Jane Lucken

How do you make partner not once, but twice, before reaching age 35? To find out, The Glass Hammer spoke to Laura Hinton, Tax Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) in London.

Upon graduation from university, uncertain of her direction, Hinton applied to accountancy firms to boost her qualifications and gain exposure to a range of businesses. With an eye toward some day having a business or consulting career, she started her career in 1994 at BDO Stoy Hayward, an accountancy firm in London.

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Voices of Experience: Christine Bazanowski Scaffidi, First Vice President of Commercial Lending Services at Commerzbank

by Jessica Titlebaum (Chicago)

The Glass Hammer recently spoke with Christine Bazanowski Scaffidi, First Vice President of Commercial Lending Services at Commerzbank, who, refreshingly, cites her parents as her most important professional role models. From her corner office overlooking the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, she recalled dinner conversations from when she was growing up during which her father discussed the staff he managed and the challenges they faced. She also remembered her mother reminding her to “bloom where you are planted” when Christine voiced frustration at being limited to an administrative role when she started with Commerzbank 20 years ago.

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Voice of Experience: Marianne Brown, CEO of Omgeo LLC

by Pamela Weinsaft (New York City)

A true pull-yourself-up-by-your bootstraps success story, Marianne Brown, CEO of Omgeo LLC, spoke with The Glass Hammer about her unusual path to the top and why she’s succeeding there.

A self-professed academic overachiever in high school, Ms. Brown described her university experience simply: “fun won out”. Since she was, in her own words, “debt adverse” and paying her own tuition, she left school temporarily to get a job and earn some money. That job with ADP Brokerage Services, initially as a clerk/secretary, was the beginning of her illustrious career in trade management services.

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Voices of Experience: Julia Kaufmann-Yu, Vice President at Goldman Sachs

Julia Kaufmann-Yu has been going full speed ahead since she on-ramped back into a career in financial services about four months ago. Julia is currently a Vice President at Goldman Sachs, within the Strategic and Technology Initiatives group. At the New Directions: Next Steps in Your Career, a conference about on-ramping sponsored by Goldman Sachs, Julia spoke on a panel about her experiences re-entering the job market after taking some time off to raise her three young children. The Glass Hammer sat down with Julia in an interview recently, where she shared more of her insight and advice about how to re-enter the job market after taking a break.

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Voices of Experience: Robin Gugick Mayer, Corporate Bonds Analyst at UBS

By: Jessica Titlebaum

“Opportunities are changing,” said Robin Gugick Mayer, a Corporate Bonds Analyst at UBS. “Companies are recognizing a talent pool that wasn’t recognized even just a few years ago and want to tap into it.”

Mrs. Mayer is referring to the pool of talented women who are returning to the workforce after a career break. As an on-ramper herself, she participated in the Career Comeback Program sponsored by UBS and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School to help her prepare for her return.

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