Indra Nooyi is one woman who has broken the glass ceiling. Named CFO of PepsiCo in 2001, she went on to become the company’s fifth CEO in July 2006. During her keynote speech at the Catalyst Awards last week in New York City, a rapt audience of mostly women from over 100 companies laughed and nodded at her advice on various topics. Here are a few highlights from this gracious and accomplished woman: Indra Nooyi opened her remarks by saying that she suspected that everyone in the room knew the huge difference that a welcoming environment can make. Indra explained that PepsiCo embraced who she was and so she never had to waste energy trying to be something other than who she is. Her keyword for the audience was “authenticity.” Read more
This week, BusinessWeek released its Top 50 list of all-star performers. The list identifies top performers across the 10 sectors that make up the S&P 500. BusinessWeek notes that this list of executives is the most international ever, with companies across the globe represented. Trends emerged in the energy sector, where winning performers were able to capitalize on higher energy costs, and in the housing sector, where rising stars were able to take advantage of the housing boom before it went bust.
After ten years at the helm of eBay, President and CEO Meg Whitman announced that she intends to retire effective today, March 31, 2008. A visionary in the field of online commerce and a true leader, Ms. Whitman offers a Voice of Experience for young women in business. She will be succeeded by John Donahoe, 47, who has headed eBay’s auction and e-commerce businesses.Meg Whitman became President and CEO of eBay, the online auction website, in 1998. One of only 12 female CEOs in the Fortune 500, she has lead eBay with a vision and unique sense of direction that has enabled the company to grow from a small online trading website to the largest e-commerce site in the world. When she took the helm of eBay, Ms. Whitman focused on building the eBay brand into a household name, and improving consumer trust and confidence in the online commerce experience. Read more
“I don’t like the word balance,” Annemarie DiCola said, when asked how she balances her career and personal life. “It implies a perfect symmetry.”
Annemarie DiCola is the Chief Executive Officer of Trepp LLC, a leading technology company in the commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) sector. Ms. DiCola began her career in law after she earned her degree at New York University Law School and worked at a private law firm. Due to some unexpected twists and turns in her career, she found herself at Trepp.
To continue our Voice of Experience series with another up and coming young woman in finance, The Glass Hammer interviewed Jennifer Ralph Oppold, a research analyst at a long/short hedge fund with about $6.5 billion under management that invests in small and mid-cap companies.
Educational Background and Early Work Experience
Jen graduated from Princeton in 2001 with a BA in International Relations. From there, she went on to work as a business analyst at McKinsey in New York, where she focused on strategic management consulting. At McKinsey, Jen was able to hone her skills in analysis, communication and problem solving.
There is one word that describes why I go to the Columbia Women in Business (CWIB) conference every year: inspiration. Every year, I leave the day-long event feeling invigorated, thrilled, exhausted, and tremendously inspired by the wisdom shared by the experienced women in finance who speak at the conference. This year was no exception.
Columbia Women in Business, an organization for women business students at Columbia University in New York City, sponsors the annual conference. The organization helps their members with networking and access to resources that can help their professional careers. The conference brings together Columbia students, alumnae, and other professionals for a day of networking, workshops and panel discussions, all designed to help attendees address various career and life issues.
Contributed by Heather Cassell, Glass Hammer contributor and freelance writer in San Francisco.
As many of you loyal Glass Hammer readers know, we love the practical and down-to-earth financial advice for women offered by personal finance guru Suze Orman. In a recent interview with a Glass Hammer contributor, Orman explained that she didn’t buy into gender differences regarding how men and women think about and handle their money until five years into her Emmy Award-winning financial show, The Suze Orman Show, on CNBC. After listening to five years of callers’ questions and observing her own friends’ relationships with money, she began examining the differences in how women and men handle money.
For this Voice of Experience article, The Glass Hammer focused on Julia Mord, a young woman on the rise at a New York-based boutique investment management firm.
Julia is an Investment Analyst at a private investment office that manages money for a high net worth family. The firm manages two alternative investment portfolios that invest predominantly in both private equity and hedge funds. She is one of five investment professionals in the small office, which includes a fund manager, two analysts, an accounting manager and an intern. Read more
Wanda Wallace, Ph.D. is President and CEO of Leadership Forum, Inc. The firm specializes in working with organizations to enhance corporate capability in leadership including strategic thought, customer insight, people and inclusive cultures.
Dr. Wallace has worked with many firms in the financial arena, including Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Ernst and Young, and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Prior to founding Leadership Forum, Inc, Dr. Wallace was Executive Vice President of Duke Corporate Education, Inc, which she helped found after her tenure as Associate Dean of Executive Education and professor of marketing at The Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.
What prompted you to use your psychology background in the financial arena?
I believe the best strategies succeed or fail based on engaging hearts and minds in the opportunities and the requirements for success. To do so, one must understand people – how they think, how they react, how they make sense of their world, what communication style is best, and so forth. To me, this is the essence of what I bring from my psychology background.
Five years ago, the financial world was interested in high quality coaching, strategic planning and teamwork development. They still are, but in the last year there has been an increasing focus on improving the ability to manage people in a business where numbers count for everything. As an industry, I see financial professionals placing an increased emphasis on retaining the great talent they worked so hard to recruit. Improving retention requires improving management practices. Even in diversity efforts, which are critical for financial services firms, better management practices increase the chances of developing and retaining diverse talent.
What I enjoy most is the ability to go into an organization, identify and clarify the issues and present solutions, using training and development activities and/or coaching.
For our Voices of Experience series, The Glass Hammer interviewed Linda Descano and asked her about her experience in financial services and her advice for young women in finance.
Linda Descano, CFA, is President and Chief Operating Officer of Women & Co., a division of Citi that provides women with educational resources for navigating life transitions and planning their financial future. Prior to joining Women & Co. in 2003, Linda was a Director and Portfolio Manager in Citi’s Private Portfolio Group, where she co-managed customized investment portfolios for individuals and institutions and oversaw the firm’s socially responsible investment program. Before that, she served as Senior Vice President and Director of Environmental Affairs for Salomon Inc., which she joined in 1994 Linda holds a B.A. from Temple University in geology.
Linda is also a sought-after public speaker. She has spoken on personal finance and investment topics at major conferences for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), United Nations Development Program, Environmental Bankers Association, and Cambridge University, among others. For two years, Linda chaired the steering committee of the United Nations Financial Institutions Initiative on the Environment. She has received a Human Rights Leadership Award from Church Women United and an Environmental Leadership Award from the United Nations Environment Program, North America. She is a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts, Financial Communications Society, Corporate Advisory Council of the Center for Environmental Leadership in Business, and the Financial Literacy Committee of Dress for Success in New York.
In honor of her grandmothers, Nina Gaspari Pennachietti and Anna Fortunato Descano, Linda recently endowed the National Organization of Italian American Women with the Nina Anna Scholarship, a needs-based scholarship for an Italian-American woman pursuing higher education.