Tuesday marked The Glass Hammer’s biggest “women on the buy-side” investment management event so far – due in no small part to the turbulence and uncertainty in the capital markets, driven by the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
Moderated by journalist Heidi Moore, our panelists discussed how Dodd-Frank will impact the investment management field – regarding transparency, compliance, consolidation, and more – and what those changes mean for individuals in the industry, and their companies.
The panel featured Gina M. Biondo, Tax Partner, Financial Services, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP; Christine Hurtsellers, Chief Investment Officer, Fixed Income and Proprietary Investments, ING Investment Management; Donna M. Parisi, Partner and head of the Asset Management Group, Shearman & Sterling LLP; Marcy Engel, Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel, Eton Park Capital Management, LP; and Holly H. Miller, Partner, Stone House Consulting, LLC.
Dodd-Frank’s Biggest Surprises
Moore opened the debate with a discussion of how the regulatory bill had evolved since reform was first being considered – and asked the panelists what Dodd-Frank’s biggest surprises were.
Engel replied, “The biggest surprise was the Volcker Rule saying that proprietary trading by banks should be prohibited.” Early on, she said, no one had thought that it was likely to be included. “The more banks lobbied against it,” she explained, “the harder the push back.”
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Voice of Experience: Camille Mirshokrai, Senior Executive and Director of Global Leadership Development, Accenture
Voices of Experience“We all have different definitions of success,” said Camille Mirshokrai, Director of Global Leadership Development at Accenture. She continued, “The only way we can define it so to truly know ourselves.”
After almost 17 years at Accenture, the majority of them working in leadership development and succession planning, Mirshokrai has helped design the fabric of the company’s leadership culture. She said, “We have to manage our career instead of the organization managing our career. Be in control of your destiny.”
Mirshokrai said, “It’s important to me, [when working with] groups of women, to urge them to be supportive networks to each other. We have to help the women in generations that come after us. Someone helped us climb the ladder, and we have to help them climb the ladder.
She continued, “The best way to retain women is to take on roles with responsibility for the next generation.”
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Corporate Philanthropy: Touching Lives and Filling the Career Pipeline Too
Women and PhilanthropyOn The Glass Hammer, we’ve covered a number of corporate philanthropy and development programs. Lately, we’ve been hearing a lot about the importance of making sure those programs are sustainable in the long term, and measuring success over time.
But by maintaining a large-scale, institutional focus (as important as it may be for strategic planning and benchmarking success), it can be easy to lose sight of the individuals whose lives are touched by volunteers and scholarship programs every day.
Recently we had the opportunity to speak with a remarkable young woman, Sophie Kirby, who is one of those people. After growing up in California’s foster care system, Kirby, who was married and a new mom at 21, and then divorced and single mother 4 years ago, is working to finish college and enter the financial services industry. She’s faced down lifelong challenges, and with the help of mentors and sponsors, and a scholarship from Mass Mutual‘s general agency, Sapient Financial Group, she is well on her way to entering the leadership pipeline. Here is her story.
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Voice of Experience: Anne Erni, Head of Leadership, Learning and Diversity, Bloomberg LP
Voices of Experience“As my career on the trading floor progressed, I began noticing women disappearing all around me,” said Anne Erni, head of diversity at Bloomberg. Before moving to Bloomberg, Erni was one of the founders of WILL, Lehman Brothers‘ women’s network. After founding WILL, she said, “I really began to understand the importance of sisterhood in the workplace.”
Erni, who described her career as “non-linear,” began her career on the trading floor, eventually becoming SVP, Prime Brokerage at Lehman, before taking on the Chief Diversity Officer role there.
“I want to drive people to contribute their very best, so they can make the most of their careers,” she explained. “I am passionate about people feeling passionate about coming to work.”
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Nordic Countries Top Gender Equality List: What Are They Doing Right?
Featured, Managing Change, NewsThe World Economic Forum has just released its Global Gender Gap Report [PDF] for 2010. And for the second year in a row, Iceland topped the list as having the smallest gender gap. The report ranks countries based on gender balance related to economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.
The report showed that across most countries, the gender gaps in heath and education are nearly closed, but parity is a long way off for economic and political attainment. The report says:
The continued gap in these areas is a serious problem. When women across the globe are not considered as valuable as men economically or politically, we are ignoring half of our best and brightest individuals. It follows that companies and countries are only performing at half capacity. Vineet Nayar, Chief Executive Officer, HCL Technologies, said:
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35 Under 35: Sara Grillo, CFA, Principal, Diamond Oak Capital Advisors
35 Under 35“Lead with your heart and don’t be afraid of who you are,” said Sara Grillo, Principal at Diamond Oak Capital Advisors and Adjunct Professor at Marymount Manhattan College.
She continued, “If you’re a leader, a role model, a mentor, you have to live it. You have to breathe it.”
Grillo takes her duty as a leader seriously, working to mentor or teach as many women as possible that they can succeed if they believe in themselves. Why? Grillo says she is on a crusade to increase the number of female CFA Charter holders to 50% – currently only 19%.
While she serves as a mentor within the New York Society of Security Analysts (NYSSA), Harvard, and the NYU Stern School of Business, Grillo explained, “Mentors are more in need for women who aren’t in programs – like the woman who gets picked on by her boss or who doesn’t quite fit in with the other girls at school.” From the subway to the schoolroom, Grillo does her best to inspire women to reach higher.
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What Does “Board Ready” Really Mean?
Breaking the Glass CeilingBased on the latest Catalyst figures, women constitute only 11 percent of U.S. Fortune 1000 company board seats and 25 percent of Fortune 1000 companies still have no women on their boards. Numbers are similar in Europe, where women account for just 9.7 percent of board members in the top 300 European companies. When discussing why it is that women are still so underrepresented on boards in the U.S. and abroad, there are differing opinions. Some strongly believe there is a glass ceiling in place that hinders women from moving up the ranks, while others believe it’s a matter of too few qualified women being in the pipeline. According to new research released by the three-year-old London-based company Bird & Co Board & Executive Mentoring, the glass ceiling is a distraction and the real problem is clearly a lack of “board ready” women in the pipeline.
In 2008, the company undertook a research project to identify what will help get more women into board positions – and what resulted was their Glass Ladder Report [PDF]. According to Kathleen O’Donovan, founding partner of the company, their aim with the report was not just to identify barriers, but to seek opportunities for positive change and to find out what would help more women get to the top.
“Our research confirmed there is widespread recognition that a board’s performance can be enhanced by the addition of one or more women and indeed, there’s much enthusiasm for programs to increase the number of women in senior management positions,” O’Donovan said. “Our research also made clear that this is a supply-side issue. Increasing female representation on boards is simply not going to be feasible without a significant increase in the pool of women who have the experience and preparation to be classed as genuinely board ready.”
By being board ready, O’Donovan means having a real sense of what is expected of board directors and how to deliver; understanding that a non-executive directorship is not merely an extension of the executive role – it is another job with its own requirements and responsibilities; being clear about what they bring to the board and what experiences they have that will be of value to that board; and understanding the process of board search and nomination committees and being prepared for interviews and board panels.
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Voice of Experience: Pamela J. Craig, Chief Financial Officer, Accenture
Voices of ExperienceAccording to Pamela J. Craig, Chief Financial Officer at Accenture, the best piece of advice she has to offer is: “Just go for it.”
“It sounds so simple,” she said. “That was particularly the case with my job as CFO… it just came up. And, my husband and co-workers were supportive and gave me the confidence that made a very big difference. It’s easy to lack confidence. It’s harder to have it. Go for it and make it all it can be. This a big deal for me.”
She continued, “Be open to stretch roles and go out of your comfort zone. It’s easy to say, ‘I’m not sure I can do that.’ You should say, ‘I bet I can do that.’”
Moving Up and Giving Back
“I graduated [from Smith College] in 1979 with a liberal arts degree – and I wasn’t quite sure what to do with that. So I entered an MBA program at NYU in Accounting,” Craig began. “After a couple of years, I realized I didn’t want to be an auditor all my life. I switched to consulting.”
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In Case You Missed It: Business News Round-Up
NewsWeak US employment data – non-farm payrolls unexpectedly fell by 95,000 last month – emphasized the fragile nature of the economic recovery in the US. Talk of currency wars resulted in high volatility in foreign exchange markets and protectionism as countries are trying to boost their exports at the expense of others. The dollar weakened against the yen – the most closely watched indicator of the week. The B of E, the ECB, and the Reserve Bank of Australia kept rates on hold – and the Bank of Japan lowered rates.
Economic Backdrop
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Talkin’ About a Revolution in Female Charitable Giving
Women and Philanthropy“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give” – Winston Churchill
So reads the quote on the site, Women In Philanthropy, an organization for women transforming the
South Carolina Midlands community through active and collective philanthropic investment.
The group is in partnership with United Way of the Midlands and the Central Carolina Community Foundation. This is one of the many philanthropic groups solely supported by women across the United States.
With women commanding more than half of the U.S. wealth and on track to hold two-thirds of it by 2030, it appears that a seismic shift in the way philanthropic endeavors are doled out to various charities and foundations is underway. While the University of Tennessee Alliance of Women Philanthropists reports that men are more inclined to leave money to the arts and humanities, a majority of participants surveyed by the National Foundation for Women Business Owners identified education as one of the top three causes they support, followed by women-related groups and the arts. Other beneficiaries include health-related charities, religious organizations, youth-related groups, social and human services, local community service groups, political organizations, and environmental issues.
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Women on the Buy-Side: What Does Dodd-Frank Mean for the Capital Markets?
Featured, Industry Leaders, Leadership, Women on the Buy-SideModerated by journalist Heidi Moore, our panelists discussed how Dodd-Frank will impact the investment management field – regarding transparency, compliance, consolidation, and more – and what those changes mean for individuals in the industry, and their companies.
The panel featured Gina M. Biondo, Tax Partner, Financial Services, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP; Christine Hurtsellers, Chief Investment Officer, Fixed Income and Proprietary Investments, ING Investment Management; Donna M. Parisi, Partner and head of the Asset Management Group, Shearman & Sterling LLP; Marcy Engel, Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel, Eton Park Capital Management, LP; and Holly H. Miller, Partner, Stone House Consulting, LLC.
Dodd-Frank’s Biggest Surprises
Moore opened the debate with a discussion of how the regulatory bill had evolved since reform was first being considered – and asked the panelists what Dodd-Frank’s biggest surprises were.
Engel replied, “The biggest surprise was the Volcker Rule saying that proprietary trading by banks should be prohibited.” Early on, she said, no one had thought that it was likely to be included. “The more banks lobbied against it,” she explained, “the harder the push back.”
Read more