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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Voice of Experience: Juliet Bullick, BlackRock

Recently, The publisher of Glass Hammer spoke to Juliet Bullick, Head of Institutional Account Management in the UK at BlackRock. Juliet shared her insights about her job, flexible work arrangements, and her advice to young women in finance.

Juliet made a good point when I spoke to her about her four-day work week, a flex-work arrangement she has had in place since her son was born almost six years ago.

“Not everyone wants to take a salary adjustment and deliver a full week’s work in 4 days.” She does emphasize that the key to making this arrangement work is flexibility on her part to work whenever needed.

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Voice of Experience: Joan Bavaria, Founder and CEO of Trillium Asset Management

Contributed by Alana Elsner

From a student of the 1960s, to a single working mother, to Time’s “Hero for the Planet”, Joan Bavaria has certainly led an extraordinary life. “I was the generation of women who tried to do everything,” she explained. As founder and C.E.O. of Trillium Asset Management- one of the first and now oldest independent Socially Responsible Investment firms- Joan sits on numerous boards, has won various prizes, and even managed to start two non-profits- Ceres and the Social Investment Forum.

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Voice of Experience : Janet Lewis of SunGard

Janet Lewis, President of Global Accounts Management and Consulting Services at Sungard, answered the question before I had a chance to ask it.

“I’ve punched through the glass ceiling but I do believe there is more for me,” she said. “There is still more opportunity out there.”

She explained that she wanted to coach other women working up the ranks and mentor them. She didn’t have anyone like that in her career and hoped by sharing her experiences; she would be helping others along the way.

“Women’s progress has stalled and we need to get it back on track,” she said. “We need to be more supportive of each other and make sure that there is no gender discrimination in the workforce. We should strive for equal opportunity.”

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Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo CEO on Mentors, Meritocracy and Maternity

2296516641_3b8aa5ce33_m.jpgIndra 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

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Three Female Voices of Experience among BusinessWeek’s Top 50

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.

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