Alma Rosa Montañez: Chief Corporate Counsel, S&P Global

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Alma Rosa Montañez “One of the big challenges for most people of color, and perhaps for many women, is individuating,” says Alma Rosa Montañez. “Being able to cast yourself as an individual by whoever is perceiving you, as opposed to whatever the perceived group stereotype might be.”

Montañez speaks to her journey as a woman bridging two cultures, the pain of being reduced to a stereotype, and what she did when a young woman intern tried to get her coffee.

Exploring Her Roots as a Lawyer

Montañez recalls first aspiring to be a lawyer at eight years old, when she was sitting in an immigration lawyer’s office with her family as they were finding a way to make a life in the U.S. But over the years, she’s considered that when you create your life in another country, you never know who you may have been if opportunity had existed back home.

“The funny thing about immigration is as much as you are drawn to America, and many of us are, for everything it has offered and hopefully will continue to offer, it’s still not the first option,” says Montañez. “If we all had the ability to make a life and a real path in the place where we are from, where we have these deep ties, we likely would choose to stay.”

As she moved through undergrad at Stanford University, Montañez came to understand more of her family’s personal migration story, which was catalyzed by the petrodollar crisis of the late 70’s & early 80’s. The crisis was ultimately traced back to imbalances at the negotiating table between sovereign borrowers and their lenders.

Coming out of Columbia Law School, Montañez chose to represent sovereign borrowers primarily in the oil industry working for the Mexican, Venezuelan and Brazilian governments while based in Mexico. This gave her an opportunity to explore what life might have looked like if she’d never emigrated. It would be her first attempt to bridge the space between her identity and her profession.

“I was drafting in Spanish and English, day in and day out. It answered a lot of questions about what my life might have been,” says Montañez. “I could skip generations of work in Mexico because now I was going back as an American, with Ivy League degrees, who sounds like a local and can function without feeling restrained by cultural stuff. But in many ways, I’m not from there anymore. I learned to become comfortable with the fact that I’m really not either Mexican or American – I’m both.”

Testing Herself in New York

Ultimately more interested in the workings of finances than oil and with some closure on personal issues, Montañez decided to test out her law chops back in New York City: “I wanted to find out if I was actually a good lawyer, not just a good lawyer in Latin America. If you took out my language skills, how would I measure up in New York?”

In 2006, she jumped into the deep-end of structured finance.

“You’re drinking from a firehose, billing 300 hours a month for many months a year, and not getting a whole lot of sleep,” she remembers. “But to be able to go from zero to running deals in the span of six months gave me the confidence to get past the imposter syndrome that accompanies so many of us who aren’t cisgendered heterosexual white men.”

Her journey hit a bump when the market crashed and the once steady lockstep career progression fell out from under her. She began some traveling, volunteering, learned Portuguese and tried to redefine who she was now.

Letting Go of Comfort to Evolve

As she was putting the pieces together, Montañez received what she describes as a call for a “purple unicorn”. It was for a role at S&P Global Ratings, for which a handful of lawyers fit the brief: experience in structured finance, ideally real estate focused, with Latin America language skills. She joined S&P in 2011, as Associate General Counsel, advising on everything from esoteric structured finance to sovereign debt, flexing all the muscles she developed in New York and again influencing outcomes in Latin America. For the first time all the pieces of her puzzle seem to fall into place.

Montañez grew to managing the team of lawyers advising on ratings in the Americas, but after five years that came to feel like cruise control and her drive to challenge herself returned.

She let go of safety and comfort and made a jump to S&P Global, the publicly listed parent company of the rating agency. She took a step back, giving up managing, to build a new skill set and eventually worked her way to managing and joining the GC’s leadership team, now on a trajectory to becoming a public company general counsel.

Becoming More Valuable As a Lawyer

“As a junior lawyer, your job is to impress with legal nuance and detail, the nitty-gritty of the legal analysis,” says Montañez. “When you become more senior, you get access to clients and to business people, so it’s about whether you can communicate and connect in a way that’s meaningful: being able to craft a legal narrative, not only for yourself and for the organizational needs, but also for your specific client and what they’re trying to achieve.”

Montañez notes that in any organization or practice, there’s the formal process, but also many informal processes that often take longer to navigate: “There are invisible gatekeepers at a lot of places. If you can figure those out, it’s a great asset. If you can make people’s lives easier by having a quick call or a conversation on the side, it makes you invaluable in a very different way.”

Learning To Belong Without Belonging

Montañez says that as a Latina lawyer, she is often confronted with potential biases : “My last name is Montañez with a tilde over the n. It’s not Montanez, but my anglicized name has been Alma Montanez for 30 years. When it comes down to the resume, do I add the tilde? If I do, does the person flipping through thirty resumes get put off by having to figure out how to say my name?”

Montañez notes that when people meet her in a meeting, they experience her as an individual. But from a piece of paper, questions and assumptions are created that have nothing to do with who she is. She also acknowledges the privilege of being able to individuate more easily because she doesn’t have an accent and is white presenting.

Still, weary of stereotypes and of being pigeonholed, she has shied away from leadership roles strictly in Latin America, notwithstanding how much of her career and development is tied to the region.

With only a handful of other women at her level of seniority and no other Latin American woman near, she’s learned to claim her seat for herself: “You have to learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable all the time. If I was waiting to feel comfortable in a room, I wouldn’t be in any of the rooms that I’m in. You figure out how to belong, without belonging.”

What Montañez has found most deflating along the way are the instances when people whom she has worked with for years learn she was born in Mexico and suddenly shift from substantive conversations to things like “wow, your English is really good” or “wow, you don’t have an accent” or “so then, are you a dreamer?”

The speed with which one transitions from a peer with a cultivated relationship and track record to a stereotype is astounding, dehumanizing and painful.

Valuing Your Voice and Not Getting the Coffee

“When there are no mentors who look like you, you figure out who you can take a little bit of learning from,” says Montañez. “I’ve had the blessing of being mentored by a lot of really amazing women and they have been my saving grace.”

“One of my coping strategies has been to make observations about the things that I need to avoid. Never in my life will I get coffee for anyone other than a close friend,” she notes. “I reamed out this poor intern once: she came in on her second day looking for something to do and she offered to get my coffee. I told her: ‘Absolutely not. You will not be getting coffee for anyone, ever. Never offer that again. If you get the coffee, you’re going to be the coffee girl, and I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of a coffee boy, but I haven’t.’”

Over the years, she has heard even the fiercest senior women speak to gaps in parity, even if seated at the table. It’s taught her that everyone struggles, and she makes an effort to bring that into her mentoring. “Some women of color and people with different cultural upbringings are often taught to respect the room and not to draw attention to themselves,” she says. ”It’s really hard to overcome that, but you start with reminding yourself that you have a unique perspective, and you actually do have valuable things to say.”

Through mentoring, she’s learned the value of validating other people’s experiences in dealings with bias: “Bias is like gravity. I don’t like it, but I have to deal with it. So if I’m going to move, I have to move, notwithstanding it. Yes, my load is heavier. Does that mean I stop, or does that mean I get stronger?” In acknowledging the weight her mentees are carrying, she hopes to support them through their own journey to get stronger.

She recommends mentees to begin with getting deeper in touch with their authentic and inherent value and values: “When you get in touch with your center, reaching out is from a place that’s more authentic, giving and more supportive. Anyone who feels supported in a genuine way is going to respond very differently.”

Making a Little Time Can Matter A Lot

Her law career has always kept her occupied and on call, but Montañez now also finds the energy to contribute to areas she’s passionate about.

In February, she was compelled to go from being a casual donor to joinng the board of directors of Mextica Organization, Inc., a Sunset Park based organization that supports essential needs in health, education, social, and legal issues for the Mexican and Latin American immigrant community in Brooklyn. She also supports The Squirrel Comedy Theatre, a non-profit people of color and LGBTQ+-led improv theater her sister co-founded.

Her professional skills help her serve these organizations. In making a little time to support causes and people she loves, Montañez is finding another way to unify her professional skills, her culture and her values.

By: Aimee Hansen

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Anna de Jong: Head, Client Advisory Benelux and Nordics, PGIM Fixed Income

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Anna De Jong“A lot of people will tell you this or that can’t be done, and that goes for your personal and your professional life, but don’t take that as a given,” advises Anna de Jong. “Have the confidence and be strong until you get the answer that works for you.”

De Jong speaks about how the journey you take is what shapes you, the importance of knowing yourself and having the confidence to pursue the important questions.

What Defines You is the Journey You’re On

After growing up in a small village in the north of Holland, where she felt her limbs wanting to stretch even as a girl, de Jong adventured for a half year opportunity in London that became fifteen years between Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and other firms, thriving amidst a diversity of people, experiences, inspiration and opportunities.

Just when she reached the point of considering a move back to Holland for family motivations two years ago, PGIM Fixed Income approached about her current role in the Netherlands, which met the professional trajectory she also wanted. With London life having felt as much like home to her, de Jong reframes the question of where are you from to what it’s really about.

“It’s not where you’re from that matters. It’s just a box that people want to put you in. Ultimately, it’s about the journey that you’re on and the journey that you take that opens doors, or closes them,” she reflects.

It’s About The Personal Factor

The people factor has always magnetized her to her work. “In my field of work, I work for my clients and prospects, and I need to very quickly understand who I’m dealing with and how to progress things,” says de Jong. “You must be able to read people quickly in order to be successful, and that still holds today. I think that human element is what makes me most content in my work.”

De Jong advises that when working closely with others, it’s important to know yourself so you don’t lose your own intentions in any deal or interaction: “I’ve learned you need to hold your ground. You must understand yourself in order to do well professionally, but also personally. That’s a journey I also help other people with: stick with your convictions, yet be open to learning.”

Being approachable is important to de Jong: “I don’t think in different levels. I’ve learned from all walks of life and different parts of business and people,” says de Jong. “I’m always available and listening to everybody around. I am genuinely interested in people, and I think if you can understand what’s going on, then a lot of things make more sense, and it also matters when achieving the right results.”

De Jong notes that while remote working has been validated, being together with your team and clients is invaluable for creating connection and work culture.

“Covid is a lonely time, I think,” she reflects. “And ultimately you spend so much of your time at work. It’s good to see people, but being behind a screen also hides a lot. There’s no longer an excuse for saying that we can’t work from home because we all clearly can, but it’s also important to be with colleagues and have face-to-face time.”

Knowing and Balancing Your Values

“Someone once told me that when your career takes off, something else is going to suffer. For a long time, I was convinced that you have to work very hard while other things would have to take a backseat,” says de Jong. “ I have become of the opinion that’s entirely untrue. You are actually more successful when you understand what is really important to you and cultivate personal satisfaction, as well.”

Years ago, a friend introduced de Jong to a four pillar system. The four pillars represent what is personally important to you and emphasize keeping what matters to you in a balance. She uses the analogy of a chair, it can function with three but ideally needs four legs to be fully stable. For de Jong, she values home and family, friends, work and health: “If one gets out of whack, it makes the rest volatile and you do not perform as well, personally or professionally. It can be a juggling act, but you don’t have to forget about what’s important in your personal life in order to succeed in professional life and vice versa. In a way, they all become one.”

When the work aspect of life becomes too much, de Jong feels it’s important and okay to speak up about that, and not fall into the cultural notion of having to keep everything separate. Personally, she doesn’t resonate with a sense of being “successful” that connotes “achieving the best results regardless.”

De Jong does not perceive that getting the result, no matter what the impact on others or personal life, can ever be success. Rather, she speaks more to harmony and co-creation from a place that is aligned with your internal values.

When it comes to her personal success, “I do my work with lots of pleasure and have happy clients who are keeping and raising assets,” she notes, “but it’s also being home with my daughter and husband. It’s as elementary as that.”

De Jong feels well-matched by the atmosphere at her workspace: “PGIM Fixed Income has this fantastic work culture, that when I joined just felt like a warm blanket – where people work together, give each other challenges and opportunities. It’s been really fantastic.”

With a desire to keep growing, she is curious about pursuing courses in ESG investing and being able to mentor even more in that space.

Guidance For The Journey

“Some guidance that really stuck with me is to ask the same question until you get the right answer,” she notes, having tried this out in areas like promotion as well as anytime you’re immediately told something isn’t possible. “I will continue asking a question until I get the answer that I think works best.”

De Jong tells mentees: “Know, embrace, respect yourself and dare to be different. You have to be yourself, because if you don’t know who you are, then you don’t know where you’re going. It’s the journey you’re on that defines who you are. Embrace that.”

She emphasizes accepting and learning and being willing to let something go when it’s not the right thing. The more honest and non-judging you can be with yourself and others, feels de Jong, the more trust you build and the more you create results together. She has always advised women to be kind to each other, as it can be especially tricky to navigate in banking or finance when you first begin as a woman.

The hardest experience she’s had was in a previous role when she returned from maternity leave only two and a half months after having her daughter, and found part of her region moved from her remit and no expanded team as anticipated. Reflecting, she realizes the feeling that she could only take such a short leave was a red flag in feeling supported.

De Jong feels both men and women can contribute to normalizing parental leave by embracing it, and notes that her own husband has been a huge support.

Vocalize and Invest In Your Needs

De Jong now realizes that earlier in her career, she was often too scared to really ask for what would fulfill her, and so she often got something else. She feels it’s important to be very clear when you’re not satisfied.

“I would get frustrated but nobody seemed to notice, and then I would hand in my resignation and people were so surprised and often disappointed,” says de Jong. “They would ask, ‘why did you not tell me before?’ And I seriously thought I had, but clearly hadn’t been very vocal about my dissatisfaction.”

De Jong enjoys her four-year-old daughter, playing piano and is still looking for an experience in Holland akin to the community volunteer hub she loved in London. Her favorite volunteer work has been a charity she helped create called Launchpad Labs, which offered workspace and mentoring to those with challenging backgrounds.

“Helping others is a great way to stay on your feet to understand the bigger picture and that helps in your personal space and helps with your work,” says de Jong, “It helps to ground those four pillars and understanding what is important.”

She emphasizes investing in yourself and your personal happiness, as well as listening to your body. She loves exercise, baking, and continuing to learn and grow.

By: Aimee Hansen

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Lara Aryani: Partner, Mergers & Acquisitions, Shearman & Sterling

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“I think what junior lawyers need to understand is that the conversations you have with your firm about what you want for yourself are brief and fleeting, but they’re iterative,” says Lara Aryani. “Associates need to be having these conversations early, they need to build the ramp, so that it is there when they need to actually use it.”


Aryani speaks to the broad and dynamic nature of M&A, the importance of listening, modesty and asking, and being supported when it mattered the most for her family.

Conducting the Dynamic Orchestra

Aryani began working in both capital markets and M&A, and gravitated towards M&A when she moved to Shearman & Sterling in 2014, finding she loved the generalist and technically challenging orientation of the practice.

“If you’re representing a company as an M&A lawyer, you’re really advising them on everything,” she says, “you are the conductor of an orchestra that involves a whole range of legal expertise.”

Aryani notes you get to learn “enough to be dangerous” about many specialist areas while keeping a broad, dynamic overview and strong client interaction, which she thoroughly enjoys.

She admits that though her group has women associates and female partners, throughout her career she has often found herself to be the only woman in a negotiation room. M&A has a reputation for being male-dominated, though Aryani feels that this reputation might have become something of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

“Let’s be honest: there aren’t enough women in leadership positions, there aren’t enough women in M&A, there aren’t enough women in Big Law and there aren’t enough women in law, period,” says Aryani. “But there’s nothing about the technical nature of M&A that is more or less male or female friendly relative to other legal practices. Though it’s possible that cultures that exist outside of the practice of law may create a perception that deters women from the practice of M&A.”

The Importance of Resilience

As Aryani has become more experienced, she’s realized that being open, empathetic and socially adept can really make the difference between an ordinary and an extraordinary practitioner. But it also takes a little courage and vulnerability, and a lot of luck and support to scale a career.

“Everybody that survives in Big Law should be technically excellent, that goes without saying, but to thrive, it isn’t good enough to put your head down and simply be a technically good lawyer,” says Aryani. “It takes a lot of additional qualities to succeed in Big Law, but as a starting point, to make partner you need to put yourself out there and have conversations with the leadership that may feel uncomfortable and unfamiliar to you. No one can make it in this business alone, and so to garner support you need to be able to ask for it and by implication, be prepared to be scrutinized and rejected.”

“You don’t get what you don’t ask for, as the old adage goes. Hopefully, the worst thing that will happen is somebody will say no and forget about it. You are the only person driving your career, and it’s sometimes hard to remember that, particularly in private practice. People should be thinking more proactively about their futures rather than letting inertia determine it for them. They should also be having conversations about it a lot earlier than they think they deserve to,” she says.

Aryani observes people often hesitate to talk about future career prospects because they feel both uncertainty and that it’s too early to be appropriate to discuss. She argues the conversation is iterative and builds over time.

“You can’t just come in as a very senior associate and start building the ramp for the first time,” says Aryani. “We need to start having these conversations earlier, so that the process becomes more fluid, open and transparent, expectations are created and everybody can work from the same playbook. People will need to revisit these conversations regularly to ensure that expectations remain aligned and progress is being made. The process of professional development can feel painstakingly slow, so it may take a while before it feels like anything tangible has happened.”

“As important as it is to initiate these conversations and follow up on the goals that they establish,” Aryani says, “it is also important to figure out how you fit within the larger business framework and the extent to which your skills and ambitions complement and further the firm’s business goals,” she says.

The Value of Respect and Change in Relationships

Through experience, Aryani has found that in a practice where you’re interacting with and representing people from many different places – whether that be geography, language, culture or markets – it’s important to approach things with more respect and receptivity than she sometimes witnesses in the field.

“We are being hired for our expertise and for what we know, but everybody around the table has something to learn from everybody else, including those junior to you,” says Aryani. “I try to approach deal tables with an understanding that the way we do things is not necessarily the only way to do it, and I need to listen as much as I need to weigh in with my advice.”

Her approach to mentorship is to be open and to remember that while there is a hierarchal environment in private practice, that hierarchy is fluid.

“The associate hierarchy is very rigid, partners are always senior to senior associates, who are always senior to midlevels who are always senior to juniors. But people who have been around for longer understand that eventually these hierarchies can flatten or even flip, either within the law firm or because someone leaves and becomes a client,” says Aryani. “So as hierarchical as our structures are within the law firm, the relationships that we build with people throughout the hierarchy change and our orientation and position in that hierarchy, with respect to any one particular person, is absolutely subject to change, and will likely change.”

“Every year law firms move further away from their guild-like origins and the business aspect of the practice becomes more and more prominent,” she notes. “The relationships we have with our colleagues, counterparts and clients are important and need to be respected and cultivated not only because it feels like the right thing to do, but because it makes good business sense.”

Being Supported When It Really Mattered

Aryani had previously heard the startling advice from peers at other firms that being pregnant and being promoted were incompatible. With some disbelief, she notes: “I was advised: ‘get pregnant at the place that you don’t want to make partner, because once the partners see you as pregnant, they’ll never be able to see you as anything else.’

Fast-forward to four years ago, while with Shearman & Sterling, Aryani’s identical twin sons were born three months prematurely as micro-preemies. Weighing in at only 1.6 and 1.3 pounds, each needed to stay in the hospital, for six and nine months respectively.

After recovering from her C-section with disability leave, she asked about returning to the office to “preserve” her maternity leave for when the twins came home from the hospital. Instead, the firm encouraged her to stay with her kids through hospitalization and begin her formal maternity leave only once they came home.

Aryani returned to work 13 months after the birth: “My firm never pushed me to come back. They never had a conversation about cutting my pay. They paid me full salary and bonuses, and I had insurance. They were a hundred percent fully supportive and said: ‘Your family is what you need to be doing right now and we want to help. When you’re ready to come back, give us a call.’”

“I’m not saying that being a working parent in M&A or Big Law, no matter where I am, is easy,” she reflects. “But when it really mattered, my firm stood by me and my family. And so, that’s really important and meaningful.”

The time and attention Aryani and her husband were able to give their sons during those critical months made a huge difference in their survival, recovery and development. Each weekend these days Aryani and her family go hiking in the forests or mountains near NYC. The longest hike her four-year olds have taken this summer was 5 miles long, “with elevation!” she brags, “that’s more than most adults can do and they have to take twice as many steps!”

She finds it so therapeutic and relaxing she can’t believe it took all these years to really appreciate getting out of the city.

By: Aimee Hansen

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Megan Hogan: Chief Diversity Officer, Goldman Sachs

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Megan HoganIn the latest edition of the Glass Hammer, Megan Hogan, Goldman Sachs’ chief diversity officer, shares her path to the firm, comments on her passion for diversity, equity and inclusion, and discusses her interests outside of the office. 

Megan Hogan, Goldman Sachs’ chief diversity officer, joined the firm in 2014 as a vice president on the Diversity & Inclusion team, and has spent her time at the firm supporting efforts related to the recruitment, development and advancement of diverse professionals.

Prior to her current role, Hogan led the diversity recruiting team, spearheading new programs such as the firm’s Black Analyst and Associate Initiative and Neurodiversity Hiring Initiative, which provide mentorship and networking opportunities to Black and neurodiverse individuals, respectively. In addition, Hogan’s team partnered with teams across the firm to establish the Market Madness: HBCU Possibilities Program earlier this year, which recruits students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

She notes that she’s most proud of launching the neurodiversity initiative in 2019 on World Autism Day. “As a mother of a child with learning differences, it has been important for me both personally and professionally to create opportunities for children like mine who are exceptionally bright, but navigate the world differently,” said Hogan.

A Thread of “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” Throughout Prior Work

“Prior to joining the firm, there was a thread of advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in my corporate law work,” said Hogan. She worked as a litigation associate at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP covering white collar, insurance, and complex commercial cases and trials. During that period, Hogan dedicated significant time to pro bono cases, primarily representing immigrants seeking asylum. “I come from an immigrant family – my mother’s family came from the Dominican Republic to find better educational and economic opportunity for themselves and their children. It’s always been important to me to advocate for people seeking refuge from persecution as a way to pay it forward and allow others to find those same opportunities,” said Hogan.

During an externship, she also spent six months working for MFY Legal Services, where she provided legal assistance to low-income New Yorkers to resolve issues in the areas of housing and foreclosure. “A large part of my work was focused on identifying housing opportunities for people who had difficulty finding affordable housing,” Hogan said. “This included protecting them from private actors or individuals who might be biased against them.

Commenting on her decision to interview at Goldman Sachs, Hogan said: “I ultimately realized that I wanted to work on diversity, equity and inclusion full time.” She went on to say of the firm’s diversity and inclusion work in recent years: “We have done a lot of great work to level the playing field across recruiting, and opening up opportunities at the firm to an even greater array of candidates.”

Recruiting and Diversity-Related Goals

Discussing Goldman Sachs’ recruiting and diversity aspirational goals, Hogan highlighted that the firm has “seen the power of having goals, as well as remaining transparent and holding ourselves accountable.”

She went on to underscore the importance of providing transparency to ensure that managers across the firm understand their role to recruit and retain diverse individuals on their teams: “We need to ensure that every individual throughout Goldman Sachs understands they have a responsibility to help reach our aspirational goals and foster inclusion and diversity.”

“I Never Lose, I Only Win or I Learn”

Hogan, who earned a BA in African-American Studies and Psychology from Yale University in 2003 and a JD from Fordham University School of Law in 2006, shared that early on in her career, she reflected often on a Nelson Mandela quote: “I never lose, I only win or I learn.”

She went on to note that, “As a first generation college student, I thought there was no room for failure or mistakes. I realized there should be no fear when it comes to failure – we only learn from our missteps over time, and it leads us to do more interesting things.”

Hogan also shared advice for individuals beginning their careers, noting the importance of taking risks: “After graduating from law school, I felt the need to have a five-year plan mapped out. But, by being so focused on implementing this plan, I didn’t take advantage of other stretch opportunities, such as mobility or working in different areas of law.” Her recommendation: “Innovate and learn by thinking outside the box, taking risks and betting on yourself.”

A Passion for Helping Others

Hogan has been a long-time advocate for addressing hunger insecurity throughout New York, a cause she describes as “near and dear to my heart.”

For several years, she has volunteered with the West Side Campaign Against Hunger, and notes that the employees of this organization are “on the front lines, making sure that homeless individuals or those in shelters have access to their next meal.”

In addition, Hogan serves as a member of the Advisory Board for the Center on Race, Law & Justice at Fordham University School of Law and the Hispanic Scholarship Fund’s New York Advisory Council.

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Katherine Stoller: Partner, Litigation, Shearman & Sterling

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Katherine Stoller“You have to be able to step back and think about not only the problem in front of you right now, but what are the next several months of this case going to look like?” reflects Katherine Stoller. “Where are the risks that we’re not focused on today, but we need to be able to see coming at us from other directions?”

Stoller speaks to how listening matters, the importance of presence and anticipation, and bringing the hard-to-navigate topics into the office chat.

Growing Through High Intensity

Working in the litigation practice, Stoller represents clients in criminal and regulatory investigations – representing people and companies involved in government investigations that can involve allegations of money laundering, sanctions violations, securities fraud, insider trading and market manipulation. She also represents clients in civil litigation, advises financial institutions on their ongoing relationships with regulators and conducts internal investigations.

“By the time clients bring in an enforcement lawyer, they’re frequently in high-stakes situations with a potential crisis on the horizon, so you come in as the steady hand and repeat player. You have to be a good listener,” says Stoller. “The first job is always to understand the facts and figure out the strategy , and then be ready to adjust the strategy as you go. It’s fascinating working with clients through these high intensity stretches.”

Not only is Stoller energized by the caliber of clients she works with on both the legal and business side, but she finds the cross-border aspect of her practice means that she is constantly learning – be it political, legal or cultural differences among the various international jurisdictions.

“Every case involves a different geography and a different business. You have to get steeped in the facts and the relationships among the clients and the regulators or enforcement agencies,” says Stoller. “You learn so much about how other countries operate, and I love that.”

Holding Grace Under Fire

Stoller finds good listening is a prerequisite of being an effective lawyer.

“I think a lot of lawyers come in and think it’s their job to start speaking right away. But there’s so much listening you need to do to understand the business, what the authorities are looking at and what matters to each of the stakeholders,” she says. “Taking all that information and building it into a strategy, and making sure you’re not missing out on what’s important to each of the stakeholders, is a really important skill.”

Stoller feels that understanding “the importance of narrative” is also very important, the ability to shape the story in a way that people can not only understand it, but follow the facts that are crucial to your argument.

As the daughter of an M&A partner at Skadden, she remembers hearing her father on the phone and even as a girl, she picked up that he modeled being a trusted advisor: “He was always calm and precise. You could count on his judgment. There’s a presence to being the calmest person in the room when things become challenging and intense. I hope I picked some of that up from listening to him.”

Moving More Towards Vision and Anticipation

Stoller joined Shearman & Sterling in January 2020, recognizing the opportunity to thrive with the firm, and made partner on July 1st of this year.

As a junior lawyer in the investigations space, doing well was about being meticulous, understanding the record well and not losing track of the details. But as she’s grown more senior as a lawyer, Stoller notes the remit has moved much more to big picture strategy and anticipation.

“The more senior you get, the more you are responsible for steering and being able to see around the corner and anticipating the different challenges that you’ll face along the way,” she observes. “You get more experienced at identifying the problems you may be seeing tomorrow.”

Stoller also values being able to effectively mediate conversations through difficult or stuck places so they can move forward, and without having to be a “bang-on-the-table sort of lawyer”.

Learning from Witnessing, Including Yourself

Having joined Shearman just a few weeks before the lockdowns, with few days in the office, Stoller looks forward to again experiencing in-office time with colleagues.

She notes that for her, much of her most valuable mentorship has happened through witnessing other lawyers in action when it counts: “I’ve learned a lot from sitting in people’s offices on the days when things are going wrong, when you get bad news and you respond to it, and one call leads to another. The chance to watch how excellent senior lawyers practice is important for more junior lawyers.”

Stoller emphasizes to those whom she mentors that it’s up to them to think about where they want to go, what they are good at and what they still need to learn.

“I think young lawyers need to feel empowered to ask for the kind of work they want and to speak up in meetings. There’s a strong tendency to stay quiet, which is the flip side of how important it is to learn from listening,” notes Stoller. “I encourage my junior associates to jump in, tell me if I missed something, ask a question, make the point someone else didn’t make, and start getting used to the sound of your own voice and advice. Of course, you also need to back that up by being diligent and having command of the facts and details.”

Bridging the Conversations

Stoller believes certain conversations should happen more often around law offices, so she will often bring up the topics that more junior lawyers may be reticent about.

“There are conversations that are hard to have and times where you don’t know if it’s okay to ask for something,” says Stoller. “I try to open the door to conversations I wanted to have when I was starting out. It can be a matter of just saying to someone, how are you doing? What kind of support do you need?”

Taking care of very little ones while managing a career that values long hours and lots of face time is one topic example, and a challenge she navigated some years back: “It’s hard to talk about the reality of your career during those few years when you need to leave the office at a certain point, or you don’t know when you’re going to be able to get the baby to sleep.” She feels it needs to be spoken to more explicitly, so parents can be open about what’s going on.

With a son of nine and a daughter of six and a passion for reading herself, Stoller makes sure to read to her kids every night and is currently in middle of a Laura Ingalls Wilder book, quite the throwback to her own childhood.

By: Aimee Hansen

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Geklang Lee: Chief Operating Officer, PGIM Real Estate, Asia-Pacific

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Geklang Lee“I think women’s trajectories should not be compromised when they have children, and that’s something that we need to advocate for,” says Geklang Lee. “I was fortunate enough to work in companies which were more enlightened.”

Lee speaks to accepting challenges, taking a career break for motherhood, being an executive and showing up in full integrity.

Seizing The Opportunity to Level Up

Born in Singapore, Lee was initially drawn to chemistry and biochemistry and scientific research. Unable to align with a path in genetic engineering, she took a completely different turn and chose to do research in the financial world.

She began in a research role on the sell-side in the public sector: “That fulfilled my desire and my interest in research. It fulfilled the analytical aspect of me.” Her enjoyment of the work drove her success and by 32 years old, she was a managing director.

Then Lee shifted to become a strategist, heading up the equity business in Singapore for Indosuez WI Carr, before moving again to become an Executive Director at UBS, to set up the Singapore Equities institutional research team which was subsequently ranked by Institutional Investors. As leadership opportunities came at her, Lee took them on despite the internal doubts to whether she was ready.

“Very often, women are much more cautious about opportunities or in raising their hands for opportunities. We feel like we need to be sure and know everything before we commit, because we want to do well,” says Lee. “But my view is that we should not shy away from challenging opportunities, putting ourselves out there and getting out of our comfort zone. If we set our minds to it and are willing to put in the hard work, then we can get the job done.”

Letting Go For Motherhood and Coming Back Again

“So many women feel that if they take time off to have a baby, they will be disadvantaged,” she says. “Sometimes organizations feel that way, too: you take time off, someone has to do your work, so there has to be a compromise. But I strongly disagree with that.”

In her case, both times Lee took maternity leave to have her children, she experienced an advancement. While on maternity leave with her first child, she received a big salary increase. When she came back from her second maternity leave, she was promoted to head the Singapore equity business at Indosuez WI Carr.

When over 40 years old, Lee left the UBS Executive Director role to spend three years with her three children, even though it felt like a risky move.

“I had already missed the growing years for my two older kids. I’d always had that guilty feeling of not being a mom, and had told myself I would look after my grandchildren,” she says. “But when my youngest was born, I decided, no, why should I wait? I actually wanted to spend time and bond more with my kids.”

For the first year, she retained a part-time consultancy with UBS. For the second two years, she was a full-time mom. Then as circumstances changed with her husband’s firm, she decided to return to work and reached out to her network contacts, which she had nurtured. Soon she was running the global real estate market neutral strategy for a hedge fund, before moving to PGIM Real Estate.

“Women shouldn’t be concerned about not being able to come back into the workforce, but I think what is critical is that we need to keep our contacts, “she says. “I always encourage people to keep your contacts within the network, as it’s extremely important for helping to build career path and opportunities, staying in touch with the markets, and moving jobs or returning to the workforce.”

Shifting To The C-Suite

At PGIM, Lee had the opportunity to go from managing the Asia Pacific public equities real estate portfolio to assuming the position of Chief Operating Officer for Asia Pacific real estate business. Moving from investments to a COO role was definitely pushing beyond her comfort zone.

“As a COO, you cannot be an expert in everything, but the team is there to support us as leaders. We provide the strategic direction,” says Lee. “Humility is important, recognizing they know more than me in the job they do, because they are the experts.”

Lee is dedicated to developing people, and emphasizes the leadership traits of versatility and adaptability—being open to different mindsets, perspectives and ways of doing things.

“Even if someone presents something that I do not agree with initially, I do need to listen, and reflect before making any judgments,” she says. “Everyone has a lot to offer. The young people today have a lot to offer, and if we are open enough to listen and allow them to present their ideas, then it will make us all stronger leaders and a stronger organization.”

Showing Up With Integrity

Lee never planned her career path, but has always put her best into anything she does. She feels that in her case, her commitment and hard work produced results, earned recognition and created opportunities.

Lee learned by emulating some of her previous supervisors. When she was deputy head in a previous firm, she noticed and admired how the head of the team did everything with the team’s interests in mind.

“When I was subsequently promoted to his position, because he moved on to greater things, I remember asking myself: am I willing to fight for my team, even to the extent that I may compromise my job? Am I willing to fight for my team for what is right?” she says. “Only when I was prepared to do that, did I accept the role.”

Thinking to her childhood, Lee remembers being a little girl in an underprivileged family and loving music but being unable to afford music lessons. When she was able to join the school band, her instructor said: “whether it rains or it snows, you have to turn up for practice.” She laughs that it never snows in Singapore, but if it were to, you still show up. At seven or eight years old, this left a big impression upon her.

“I think that developed my sense of commitment,” Lee reflects. “When you commit to do something, you just turn up. You turn up all the time. Regardless.”

Doing Things Differently and Better

Lee feels that as a woman, she shows up differently in a way that strengthens the table.

“As a woman, I don’t look at everything just as a task. There is often that softer touch that we bring to the table,” she says. “That helps when I’m running teams, because I’m not only interested in the output, but just as much in the individual.”

Lee is excited about how the forced circumstances of remote working has created rapid technology advancements and mindset shifts while raising questions: “How do we connect with our colleagues? How do we make sure that they feel part of the organization? How do we continue to build a team culture?”

Lee is energized by the company’s strategic operating initiatives —known as PGIM Real Estate 2.0—being ed by PGIM Real Estate’s Global chief operating officer, Cathy Marcus: “It’s essentially encouraging us to rethink the way we do things, and why we do them that way, in order to see if things can be done better,” says Lee.

Her children are now 27, 25 and 21. Lee loves sports and runs every day. She also plays the saxophone, enjoys pottery and embroidery, and does volunteer work with refugees in the greater region as well as migrant workers.

By Aimee Hansen

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Grace Jamgochian: Partner, Mergers & Acquisitions, Shearman & Sterling

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Grace Jamgochian“Law professionals are not selling widgets. We’re selling thoughts. We’re selling our expertise. We’re selling relationships,” advises Grace Jamgochian. “So remembering the human nature of our business is so integral to what we do.”

Jamgochian speaks to why M&A is animating every single day, the pay-off of being goal-oriented and why it’s important to treat law as a service-oriented business.

Loving the Hub Responsibility of M&A

As a full-service Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) partner at Shearman & Sterling LLP (Shearman), Jamgochian works across a broad general corporate practice — from public M&A, to private M&A, to private equity — gravitating towards the areas of tech, media, and telecom, infrastructure, and consumer products.

“M&A is a quasi-business and business strategy function. We advise our clients on more than just the technical aspects of the law. We partner with them to achieve their objectives, and we work closely with our internal specialists to make sure all bases are covered,” says Jamgochian. “As an M&A lawyer, you’re responsible for managing, coordinating and completing the entire deal. I love M&A because that responsibility fits well with my personality and drives me.”

Jamgochian thrives on the pace, breadth, variety and overview that M&A demands of her at Shearman.

“Every day is different. I have a general sense of my to-do list but M&A is often a series of fire drills,” she says, “Being on my toes is the type of practice that I’ve always wanted, and that’s why I’ve continued in M&A for more than a decade.”

Jamgochian also enjoys the teamwork needed for M&A transactions. “M&A is the central hub for a deal. My group handles the “corporate” pieces but we also collect the input of specialists such as in IP, Tax, Compensation, Real Estate, and Regulatory. I view a transaction agreement like a complex puzzle, and each person contributes a few pieces into the big puzzle that I’m ultimately 100% responsible for,” she says.

Jamgochian credits a year-ish long stint as an in-house attorney at Thomson Reuters, right after graduating from Cornell Law School, with immersing her into the business perspective of law from the very beginning.

“While others used the Shearman associate deferral year in 2010 for non-professional pursuits, I chose to work at a client handling M&A and securities matters so that I could get my feet wet right out of the gate. Having this opportunity set me up to be a practical, business-minded and solution-oriented attorney from the start,” Jamgochian reflects. “A deal needs business-minded lawyers. It can’t just be working in theory. You need to assess and advise on the risks, but you also need a good dose of reality and know what market practice is.”

Being Goal-Oriented As Her Key to Success

Though Jamgochian is newly elected to the Shearman partnership this year, it’s been in her sights since she first began her law career. Her journey to partner felt both intentional and linear.

“Always give yourself options. From Day 1, I tried to put myself in a position to be partner down the road, even if I couldn’t predict the future and would have been open to other paths. I volunteered for basically everything, from deals to extracurricular responsibilities like involvement in inclusion networks and bar associations. If you want to be a partner, you don’t wake up one day and suddenly have the skills. You should start thinking about business development early on and what technical and “soft” skills you’ll need to develop,” says Jamgochian.

She says her colleagues would most likely also remark on her efficiency, organization and ability to carry through a goal to completion.

“I’m a goal-oriented person. If we all have an idea in mind of what we think should be the finish line, let’s get there and let’s be efficient about it,” says Jamgochian. “In order to do that, you need to be organized, create processes, reduce any inefficiencies of people not knowing what their role is and communicate clearly. That’s me in a nutshell.”

When it comes to her next level goal, Jamgochian would love to continue to develop herself as an M&A lawyer to rank among the top of her field.

Law is Foremost About People

Early on, it was imparted on Jamgochian that law is a service-oriented industry in which the business is “people” and “our minds”.

“We’re getting paid to think. It’s about essentially our brains and our relationships: these intangibles. So the thing that lawyers need to focus on and remember throughout our careers is our clients and to develop those relationships with clients,” says Jamgochian. “Provide them with the best legal advice, which is essentially your thoughts and expertise, but then also don’t forget that everything is people-based in law firms, whether your clients or those you work with.”

When it comes to diversity, M&A as an industry is a more white male dominated area in particular.

“I have definitely had occasions where I’m the only woman in a room of thirty people. Once you already have a male-dominated industry, then you have the lack of mentorship, you have the lack of role models and it kind of snowballs from that,” observes Jamgochian. “But I think all firms, and the industry itself, are trying to pull the reins in. Shearman is really focused on D&I efforts, plus an increasing client focus on diversity is also helping to increase the law firm diversity focus as well.”

Busy Summer and Time for Family

As it’s only a block away from home, Jamgochian has been working out of the office this year, where her workload — focusing largely on tech, media, and telecom and infrastructure — has continued to boom when she might normally see a summer slowdown.

She notes that with the change of executive administration, as well as regulatory and tax changes in the air, many people and organizations are wanting to work through deals quickly. So these days, her expertise is a commodity in fast demand.

Jamgochian’s husband is also a Big Law lawyer, and with both of them having a high-intensity lifestyle, time with their five year old son is precious. They enjoy weekend picnics in Central Park and being surrounded by family in New York City and nearby.

With a background in dance history, Jamgochian turns to movement as part of keeping her balance, which may very well help in flowing with the pace of her work. She also loves learning instruments and reading music to stay sharp – along with piano and flute, she has recently also taken up ukelele.

By: Aimee Hansen

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Aine Leddy: Information Technology Business Partner, AIG Investments

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Aine Leddy“Curiosity is a hallmark of who I am and has been a huge enabler to my success. I am trying to grow all the time,” says Aine Leddy. “One thing I found when I first came to the U.S. decades ago was that many people were specialized, deep and narrow. I always aspired to know a little bit about everything.”

Leddy speaks to elevating to the C-Suite, cultivating intellectual curiosity and being proactive in expanding your ability to lead.

Stepping up to the C-Suite

Irish by birth, Leddy emigrated to the U.S. in the late 80’s while training to be an oil trader. Finding that her personality was not suited to the aggressive trading environment, she moved into financial services at Morgan Stanley, where she received an analyst training that she likens to an in-house Executive MBA.

After holding a variety of financial roles across 22 years at the firm, she reached an inflection point while working as the finance partner to the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the investment management division, Marianne Bachynski, AIG Investments+ Chief Information Officer, at the time. Technology was developing to become its own branch of the business, and Leddy was given the opportunity to step into a Chief Operating Officer (COO) role with overview of the IT business.

“I’m a big picture kind of person. I find closeness to decision-making and strategy very compelling. I love to ideate and be in a position where you can see ideas taking shape and then ultimately come to fruition,” says Leddy. “I enjoy the increased personal responsibility to make things happen as well.”

After a few transitions, Leddy began working at AIG in September 2020, motivated by the opportunity to learn about the insurance industry at a highly reputable firm, expand her skillset and reunite with Bachynski. While she has yet to be in the room with her team due to the need to work virtually, she’s been highly impressed by the collaboration, communication, cutting-edge performance, and progress on the big, gnarly technological issues like cloud migration.

Being Curious with Breadth

“I personally like to know enough about everything ‘to be dangerous’ and went out of my way to equip myself with that knowledge,” she says. “That curiosity has served me, particularly with my entreé into the tech COO world. I could show up at the table and enter right into a discussion about the business strategy and where technology fits in, and that was apparent to the people who have given me the opportunities.”

As a teacher’s daughter, Leddy prides herself on being super-prepared and putting the “sweat equity” into knowing her stuff, and it’s a hot-button for her to watch someone trying to wing it when they clearly haven’t done the same preparation. Despite this, she has learned to take in stride the out of left field questions as she is also prone to be the one to ask the question.

Being curious as a principle means the willingness to reveal what you don’t know: “I think a lot of women think it’s better not to ask because maybe you should already know. So, I might soften that by prepping my question with, ‘I probably should know this, but would you mind explaining it anyway.’”

Nine out of ten times, the person next to her will thank her for asking because they were wondering the same thing.

Taking Action in Empowering Yourself

Leddy emphasizes it’s critical to be solution-focused: “I do like to ideate and strategize, but I’m also an action-oriented person. You can sit around and admire the problem for a long time, but ultimately, you have to get the stuff done.”

She feels that taking personal initiative in growing yourself is foundational, as she, too, often hears people defer the responsibility of their learning limitations to their organization, when she argues you can be proactive yourself.

“Training is out there. It won’t always be the customized training that you do as part of the code of conduct or something like that,” advises Leddy. “But you can go and talk to someone with a different skillset than yours. There’s tons of information out there for you to train yourself, and there’s so much you can do for yourself in terms of expanding your horizons.”

When Leddy glances around her senior circle of peers at AIG Investments, and at some of her previous employers, she’s invigorated by the presence of women leaders. She has found herself fortunate to be in environments that reward intellectual curiosity, foremost, and where she felt she could be herself.

“Some women feel they need to be more aggressive to be successful. I never felt I had to be anybody other than who I am,” says Leddy. “When you bring your authentic self to the table in any situation, you’re going to be more successful.”

Being Willing to Move, But Also Move On

“You don’t realize how immersed you are in a culture until you have to get to know another one. I think switching companies taught me to be more open and not to bring my bias from another culture,” says Leddy. “That includes listening upfront and taking in how people work, work together and what’s important to leaders in one company versus another.”

Earlier in her career, while putting three children through college and being motivated by a compensation-focused opportunity, Leddy learned that you don’t always know whether something is going to be a good fit until you’re inside of it.

“I tell those I mentor that you cannot know all of the elements of anything ahead of time, you just can’t. So, if you want to switch departments or companies or even careers, you think you are going in with ‘eyes wide open’ but you may not be,” she says. “The lesson I learned is that if it’s making you miserable, change your situation as quickly as you can, learn from what you don’t want and then move on. Don’t stay where you’re unhappy.”

Staying True to What You Want

While Leddy feels she was most often mentored on business skills, her mentorship has always begun with listening into: what do they really want?

She’s found that it tends to be guidance on the softer side of matters, such as how she managed to get promoted while her kids were little and still feel present in the home. Leddy is known by her peers for being grounded and ‘unflappable’, and she carries that grounding to her mentees.

One thing she imparts onwards is never be afraid to ask for a raise or promotion but be solid in arguing your case for why you’ve earned it. She also advises to not get caught in emotional defeat when you don’t receive what you want, but be resilient, prepare to go back in and to argue your case again.

“I think women do ourselves a disservice, because we take things personally and get annoyed with our manager if we don’t get the raise or promotion,” she observes. “Whereas men seem to think, ‘If it doesn’t happen, I’ll get back in the ring and I’ll fight the good fight again next year.’ Ultimately, promotion is a numbers game. It can’t happen for everybody all of the time, so rather than take it so personally, elevate your case and prepare to ask again.”

Leddy has been married for almost 33 years and her three grown children are now in their mid-late twenties. She loves her Peloton bike and taking in the sun in her garden. She is a huge reader, a passionate etymologist and prides herself on living holistically to enjoy all aspects of her life.

By Aimee Hansen

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Marie Carr: Global Growth Strategy, Insurance and Financial Services, PwC US

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Marie Carr“I’ve spent my career helping companies grow in a way that takes advantage of disruption and new trends,” says Marie Carr.

From back when the internet seemed like an insecure and unproven place to do business to Artificial Intelligence (AI), Carr helps companies determine how to grow, particularly by taking advantage of technological changes that redefine customer interactions.

“People now want you to understand them,” Carr says of the client mindset: “I need you to understand me and frame things based not on what you want to sell me but on my unique needs.”

Carr champions adoption of new technologies that can help companies create better experiences for their customers, as well as actionable data that facilitates those positive experiences.

But what’s led Carr to where she is now and how has it related to her choice of careers? She cites motivation, how faith supports her, and how to find and respond to mentorship moments.

A Motivating Mission

“I went to business school to become a better entrepreneur,” says Carr, who decided early on to get her MBA at University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

She soon began to receive feedback that she’d make a great management consultant and realized that interning at a consultancy could support her education. She joined Diamond Technology Partners for a summer and twenty-five years later, long after PwC acquired the firm in 2010, she still loves where she is.

“I’ve been very blessed to work with leadership whose mission I believe in,” she says. “It’s easier to stay when you’re working with leaders who are building a culture that’s consistent with your values.”

She was initially inspired by Diamond founder Mel Bergstein’s vision in “forging a new path.” At the time, it was “unheard of” for a firm to grow to become publicly traded so that employees could own their own stake in it.

“To be able to work in something that you’re good at with like-minded people that also have a mission of greater good,” says Carr, “was a rare combination.”

With PwC, Carr found a new mission—to help build the advisory practice and ensure that what “was excellent about Diamond became part of PwC’s DNA.”

“Ten years later, folks who were younger consultants are coming into leadership positions and living those values,” says Carr. “It’s been a good journey.”

Overcoming Adversity and Keeping Faith

Carr feels her parents and faith instilled within her the ability “to never let temporary circumstances determine what your ultimate success is going to be.”

“Whatever adversity you have to overcome, overcome it,” says Carr, describing her parent’s motto, who both experienced tough challenges in childhood. “You can’t let the fact that there may have been discrimination stop you,” she says.

Raised in faith, Carr learned to trust in a greater power, which has enabled her to be comfortable in herself and have less anxiety than some in a high-pressure field.

“It’s not just about my own ability. I have confidence in and the ability to appeal to a force higher than myself. That’s helped me to be more patient, to put myself in other’s shoes, to not be so hard on myself,” says Carr. “You have to be able to center yourself, because you’re often going to find yourself in an environment that’s not going to affirm you. So, the ability to affirm yourself is really useful.”

Learning from Everyone

“I’ve learned a lot through observation. I’m very much a student of everyone. My dad taught me that ‘even the village idiot can teach you something’,” she says. “As I got older, I learned not to rush to judgment but instead ask, how do I learn from who I’m interacting with?”

She continues, “I’ve also found that people are very generous in helping you if you help yourself. Lots of people have given me advice in the moment, so I became good at getting feedback without being sensitive or defensive,” she says. “I’ve tried to learn from everyone, because there are a lot different paths to success.”

As she’s moved through her career, Carr has realized that she hasn’t always been aware of who’s advocating for her. As a result, she makes a conscious effort to advocate for others who she feels deserve a voice in the room.

Playing sports, particularly basketball, helped shape Carr’s approach. Being on a nationally ranked basketball team in high school meant being open to coaching and learning to do things differently to improve.

“Basketball is a team sport that really requires everyone to be able to fluidly move in and out of roles, that ability to adapt,” says Carr. “It has made me always look for what I could do to draw out the best of someone I’m working with.”

Leave It Better Than You Found It

Coming from a long line of ministers and pastors, Carr approaches management consulting as part of fulfilling her desire to serve.

Her mother advised her to always invest in people. For her, helping companies to grow and adapt is about affecting all the people who depend on the work to support their lives and families. She enjoys helping people and companies reach their highest potential.

Carr has run a financial summer camp on wealth empowerment and financial literacy for several years now, working in the community with younger generations to envision their possibilities.

“We’re accountable to making a difference in the world, says Carr. “You have to leave it better than it was when you got here.”

By: Aimee Hansen

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Silke Soennecken: Head of Risk Management, Commerzbank New York

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Silke Soennecken“You are motivated and grow when you are being challenged,” says Silke Soennecken, “when you have to use your resources to get your head around things you didn’t think would ever happen.”

Soennecken speaks to growing through challenge, retaining your power as a woman and letting go for others to grow.

When Things Turn Upside-Down, Learning Curves Go Up

As a Managing Director at Commerzbank New York, Soennecken is tasked to oversee governance and strategy for all risk management in the region, and is responsible for the bank’s entire North American credit portfolio. Based at a branch rather than head office, she enjoys the vantage point of gleaning how initiatives flow and come together, while gaining insight into areas of risk management that interrelate with her expertise in corporate credit.

As a risk manager, she thinks that despite the challenge, it is precisely the unexpected and unprecedented moments that provide the strongest learning experiences and opportunities to grow your skillset.

She experienced this first-hand in September 2008, when she joined Commerzbank just one month before the financial world fell into crisis, and then again this past year with the pandemic. Now Soennecken approaches these big upheavals with some fascination by observing how various players respond and react to crisis on all levels.

She notes her “extremely analytical mind” gives her the ability to remain curious and agile, as she is naturally prone to dissecting how the many pieces of a system work together and interact with each other—including considering the consequences in a scenario when one piece fails.

Flipping the Worst-Case Scenario

Soennecken had a first-hand experience of a worst-case work challenge, when years ago, her firm initiated a significant restructuring. Consequently, she witnessed a mass exodus of her entire 25 person department over just a few months, including team members she thought she could not afford to lose.

Tasked with restructuring the department, and never imagining she would end up doing it alone, she recalls a “breakdown moment” in the bathroom after the last person announced they, too, were leaving. However, beginning with temporary patches, Soennecken stood up and began to rebuild the entire department.

Although she had a private office, she instead moved her desk to the middle of the open floor, where anyone who joined would have access to her. Only after a three-year journey rebuilding the team did she return to her office with an open door policy.

“Rebuilding was hitting rock bottom where there was nothing left, and then climbing out from there to create a completely new department,” she recalls. “I didn’t know what to do except to put myself right in the middle and build from the inside out. I was just put in charge and swam my way out. But when I look back, I’m proud of the approach I took, and of what I accomplished.”

For Soennecken, the most impactful part of this experience was learning via unsolicited team member feedback about how her collaborative approach positively impacted their individual and collective growth.

Staying Confident as A Woman

“I had the advantage that I found progressive male mentors that supported me,” says Soennecken, “but I also found a lot of opposition along the way for being a woman.”

Having worked in banking for a few decades, she remembers earlier in her career being the only woman in rooms of men where she was asked to pour the coffee. Though she recalls wondering ‘why her?’, the request wasn’t entirely out of the norm at the time, and she wasn’t equipped to confront it like women are today.

“I wasn’t entirely aware that I was sometimes being treated in a way I shouldn’t have been treated,” says Soennecken. “As a consequence, certain elements of confidence were lost along the way that I didn’t notice I was losing, until I look back now.”

Today, she can recognize the minimizing ways in which she was talked to or handled as a woman, and how that wore down her natural confidence, while other habits arose to compensate and created a double bind.

“I ended up being a little harder than I was expected to be. I even had a coach for supposedly being too straightforward when talking to people,” she says, “but I think it was, in part, a consequence of navigating through a world where I had to push with my elbows to try to be heard. Now I know that I could have used a more feminine approach to get what I wanted without having to try to act like a man.”

In retrospect, Soennecken observed she could have used her intuitive and relational skills—such as sensing someone’s feelings about confrontation or mirroring their conversational tendencies—to achieve the influence she instead struggled for.

“Our sensitivity as women can work against us, but I realize I could have used that sensitivity to my advantage in interrelating,” she reflects. “It would have spared me some stress along the way.”

The Danger of Over-Explaining

Soennecken believes that it is important to encourage gender diversity in managerial roles, but on the flip side, women need not be required to champion every woman when it’s more objectivity that is needed.

When asked, one way she’s personally observed how women can undermine their own power is by defending themselves too much in the meeting room.

“We often think we are being attacked personally,” she says, noting many moments when she’s listened to another woman get drawn into over-explaining herself, going further only to lose her ground.

“If you make yourself small by defending yourself too much, by giving a lot of explanation for something that could be a simple answer,” she continues, ”then you lose all your power and the advantage you might have had.”

‘Letting Go’ For Others to Grow

Over the years, Soennecken has adapted from guiding people with a hands-on approach, to guiding people while letting go.

“When you are hands on, you do things a certain way and tend to believe others should do it the same way. But people have different approaches, and it takes time to admit to yourself those approaches are fine, and so are the consequences,” she says. “You are supporting the growth of people by allowing them to also make mistakes. You’re going to support and guide them, but there’s purpose in delegating and giving others the opportunity to grow and shine in their own way.”

As a mentor, she notices when people are stuck: “You see that someone is in the wrong job, but they are afraid of changing, finding the right job and really being happy. They’re making a big effort, but they can’t grow because it’s not what they want to do.”

“The potential is in embracing the unknown, not in staying in their comfort zone, but you get a lot of resistance because most people don’t like change. The success story happens when finally somebody embraces the change that is good for them,” she says. “You can help them realize the potential is there, and trust and support them, but they have to ultimately make the decision.”

When it comes to finding fulfillment at work and advancing up the career ladder, Soennecken feels it’s about going beyond. Being interested and doing “the extra” is what creates the sense of fulfillment for her.

“If you come to work every day and you type five pages because your job is to type five pages, you’re not going to progress,” she gives as an example. “But if you come in every day, and instead of typing five pages, one day you decide the pages could be a different color or a different layout or you can type eight pages or a book, then you grow.”

Never Forget “The Little Heart”

“You cannot have a more loyal employee than if the person has a personal situation, and you show you can be supportive,” says Soennecken. “Never forget about the personal side of the people you work with. It’s what I call ‘the little heart’ and everybody has ‘a little heart’. Very often, I think about ‘the little heart’ of my colleagues, regardless of their role or responsibility.”

When it comes to non-business workplace issues, for example redesigning seating arrangements, she knows certain things are important to people, and if she can accommodate a request, she will. While you can’t please everyone, she has found it makes all the difference to thoughtfully consider all parts of someone in the decisions she makes.

Speaking of little hearts, Soenneken is the single mother of two bright, energetic twin six-year-old girls. She feels the pandemic has helped to highlight what is most important in life and is enjoying the unexpected, but welcome, togetherness with her family.

By Aimee Hansen

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