Voice of Experience: Annica Lindegren, Partner, White & Case

Foto Lindegren_3x4cm_300dpi_tifBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

For Annica Lindegren, partner at White & Case and head of the firm’s bank finance practice in Germany, a keen focus on providing top service for her clients has been one key to her success – the other is finding a unique balance between her work life and family life. Working in Frankfurt during the week, Lindegren heads home to her family in Spain on the weekend.

She says, “In a sense I have found my work/life balance. When I’m home my priority is my family, and when I am here [in Frankfurt] my priority is my clients (but of course my family is always a top priority). The clients are aware of my travel situation, and it hasn’t affected their view of working with me or the team here.”

And the balance seems to work – Lindegren expresses pride in the team she’s built in Germany, and the success it has seen since the start in 2001.

She continues proudly, “Within 3 years [of starting at White & Case], we were nominated for The Bank Finance Firm of the Year in Germany by JUVE, a guide to the legal profession which ranks lawyers and law firms in Germany. And we won in 2006. We were nominated last year again – all in all we’ve been nominated 4 times with one win.”

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In Case You Missed It: Business News Round-Up

Beth 005Contributed by Beth Collinge of CTG – a division of ILX Group plc.

In the US, President Barack Obama signed into law the nation’s Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Bill: the most comprehensive overhaul of banking regulation since the 1930s. In Europe, the results of stress tests on Europe’s leading financial institutions showed that only seven of 91 banks failed to meet capital requirements. Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell have pledged $1bn (£659m) for a rapid response unit to battle future spills in the Gulf of Mexico, as US oil climbed to almost $80/barrel as a storm threatened the Gulf region.

Economic Backdrop

  • Global equity markets reacted well this week to encouraging earnings reports and robust European data releases despite Friday’s news that seven European banks had failed stress tests. The disclosure that seven out of the 91 institutions examined had failed the tests was roughly in line with expectations in the markets – although there appeared to be some scepticism about the methodology used.
  • Worries about the recovery in the US resurged when Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, described the outlook as “unusually uncertain”.
  • In the UK, figures released on Friday showed the economy grew at its fastest pace in four years in the second quarter. The UK’s gross domestic product rose by 1.1%, far greater than the 0.6% rise forecast, thus taking the UK’s annual growth rate up to 1.6%.
  • The data supported sterling, prompting speculation in some quarters that the Bank of England could move to exit its ultra-loose monetary policy stance sooner than expected. Over the week, the pound rose 0.8 per cent to $1.5416 against the dollar.
  • The euro touched a two-month high against the dollar above $1.30, although it retreated slightly by the end of the week, as the credibility of stress tests on European banks was called into question. Over the week, the euro eased 0.6 per cent to $1.2820 against the dollar.
  • In commodity markets, US oil climbed to within a whisker of $80 a barrel, helped by a storm threat to the Gulf of Mexico’s energy infrastructure, but the general improvement in investor risk appetite, and the firmer tone of the dollar, pushed gold back below $1,200 an ounce.
  • Government bonds also lost some of their haven appeal, with the yield on the 10-year US Treasury edging up 2 basis points to 2.96 per cent over the week. But the two-year US Treasury yield touched a record low of 0.56 per cent in the aftermath of Mr. Bernanke’s cautious comments.

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Brand Preservation: Five Critical Steps for Effective Crisis Communications

Susan 07_2008Contributed by Susan Stern, President, Stern + Associates

Few companies or organizations will never face a serious and immediate challenge at some point during their history. How effectively and quickly the organization deals with the threat and communicates with the media, customers, employees and other key publics often determines how its products, services and corporate leaders are viewed – positively or negatively – for many years to come.

What essential steps should executives and managers take to avoid damaging their brand and ensure a positive outcome when a crisis occurs?

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Movers and Shakers: Rachel S. L. Minard, Partner and Managing Director, Optima Fund Management, LLC

RSLMBy Gigi DeVault (Munich)

When the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley opened in 1991, it marked the first time that five United States presidents had gathered in one place. This prestigious gathering of ribbon-cutters—Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Bush Sr. and their respective First Ladies—at the largest Presidential library in the nation, could be attributed to a number variables. Three factors come immediately to mind: Longer lives due to improved health care, Presidential privilege, and the marketing acumen of Rachel Minard.

Fresh out of Northeastern University in Boston, from which she graduated with honors in journalism and philosophy, Minard got her start in marketing with the launch of the library. She has, since that time, focused on launches of a different sort.

Skip ahead one year, from Simi Valley to London. Pareto Partners, a currency overlay investment management firm had opened its doors about the same time as those of the most recent Presidential library. A young woman named Rachel Minard was hired as assistant director of marketing and client services at Pareto, helping the firm grow to one of the most highly respected currency overlay firms in the world.

Minard’s is both an “opener” and a “closer.” Early in her career, Minard was hired to be an opener. First she opened her own marketing firm, and then opened a Presidential Library. Her next decade would be spent securing new assets for her firms, raising well over $9 billion in her career. In a new position created for her, Partner and Managing Director, she was hired in May by the hedge fund-of-funds firm Optima Fund Management to open and oversee their San Francisco office as well as build the firm’s global institutional business from the bottom up. She has 18 years experience building businesses and raising assets globally for investment management companies. Minard knows how to close business, too. For the last eight years, Minard has been engaged in building fund of hedge fund firms into global institutional powerhouses.

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Why Communicating CSR Efforts to Women Can Really Pay Off

iStock_000008881479XSmallBy Andrea Newell (Grand Rapids, MI)

Currently women make up about half the U.S. workforce, so more than ever before, retaining women in the workplace is an important issue. Many businesses offer work/life balance, flex time, and other family-friendly incentives to attract, inspire and keep female employees, but a recent survey shows another surprising way to make women happy: do good, and tell the world about it.

A survey conducted by the Simmons School of Management and Hewlett-Packard during the 2009 Simmons School of Leadership Conference reported that female employees who thought their employers were ethical and supported socially responsible initiatives were happier with their jobs, thought less about quitting, and were more likely to champion their company in social settings. However, the findings also showed that since many women were unaware of their company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, employers were missing out on this unexpected benefit.

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Due Diligence: Critical for Investment Management (and Building Your Career, Too)

stone_house_-_holly_h_miller_-_photo11By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“The difference between a million dollar account and a hundred million dollar account is a couple of zeros – and a lot of time,” said Holly Miller, Partner at Stone House Consulting, LLC. Miller has a passion for due diligence. Benchmarking and record-keeping, she says, are going to be critical for the success of investment management firms moving forward.

“Due diligence is a big, hot topic, particularly since we all found out about Bernie [Madoff].” she said. “If you look at the investment management industry, we have a poor track record for tracking metrics – metrics on trades per day, orders, how many portfolios, fail rates, etc. …The industry needs to do a better job of benchmarking. What do things cost? What does it take to support the business?”

She continued, “In the past we were able to ignore this because of the high profit margins. But those days are gone. We, as a business, need to do a better job – and benchmarking has become more critical.”

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Reframing Flexwork for the New Economy

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iStock_000004944174XSmallBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Having weathered a recession that revealed inefficiencies, carelessness, and just plain antiquated business practices, companies are facing new demands from shareholders, employees, and customers alike: increased productivity, accountability, and sustainability.

And the solution to these demands may be an idea that has, for years, been relegated to the HR department or affinity groups, marked a “woman’s issue” and not taken seriously in the boardroom.

Judith Cherry, Head of Research and Insight at the UK-based organization Opportunity Now and author of the report “Out of Office: Solutions for an Agile Future” [PDF] explained, “We’re moving the debate away from flexwork – because we’ve come to the understanding that we’re all flex workers. What we’re doing now is “agile working.”

The distinction is important, she said, because agile working is about more than working from home, or using mobile devices. It’s a whole new system of management.

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Changing the Game: Ending the War on Moms

iStock_000006061643XSmallBy Tina Vasquez (Los Angeles)

In her book The War on Moms: On Life in a Family-Unfriendly Nation, author Sharon Lerner is spot-on when she writes, “To say there is a sinister plot against American women is both overblown and exactly right.” She was also right in her astute observation that giving birth is the new financial turning point for many women.

Lerner details the plight of American professional women; working mothers exhausted from their countless obligations at work and home, their lack of options, flexibility, and assistance. The result of years of apathy on behalf of employers – and the country as a whole – has resulted in what Lerner refers to as the “maxed-out generation,” which she characterizes as an “epidemic of exhaustion sweeping through cubicles, cluttered kitchens, and child-care centers around the country.”

According to the author, the things that are really bringing American women down are the things they lack: guaranteed paid maternity leave; decent, affordable child care; health coverage; and good, flexible work options. These things they do not have, but so desperately need, are always in the back of their minds as they also continue to play the role of primary care taker to their children.

“The idea of super moms is a construct created by the media,” Lerner said. “There’s no such thing, it’s something we project on to women. Women [leaders] never say, ‘I’m a super mom.’ We turn them into super moms, but it’s impossible to do everything.”

Despite the challenges, says Lerner, there is reason to be optimistic about the future of motherhood in America.

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Voice of Experience: Michelle Clayman, CFA, Founder, Managing Partner & Chief Investment Officer, New Amsterdam Partners LLC

N_MClaymanBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“I was born and raised in England, and did my undergraduate degree at Oxford,” began Michelle Clayman, CFA, Founder, Managing Partner, and Chief Investment Officer of New Amsterdam Partners. After graduating, Clayman took a job in commercial banking with Bank of America in London for two years, before heading to California to attend Stanford Business School.

“After business school,” she said, “I took a job at Salomon Brothers in sales and trading, and then, after a few months, was asked to go into a new division called quantitative equity research, and I was there for six and a half years.”

“Then I decided to start my own company – and the rest is history,” she continued.

Clayman has built her career and her company on the value of performance-based quantitative metrics. And she believes performance-based careers, like those in investment management, are more amenable to women. Because they’re based on results, she said, there’s less room for gender bias.

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In Case You Missed It: Business News Round-Up

Beth 005Contributed by Beth Collinge of CTG – a division of ILX Group plc.

The US this week passed a sweeping overhaul of bank regulation, while the EU is in the process of finalising similar legislation. Goldman Sachs settled its lawsuit with the SEC, paying the largest-ever penalty by a Wall Street firm to the Commission. BP’s shares are up, after reporting that it has successfully capped the damaged Gulf well.

Economic Backdrop

  • Markets in the US weakened during last week, as a series of disappointing data on retail sales and consumer confidence coincided with the release of the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s July policy meeting, at which it lowered growth forecasts and hinted at concerns that the threat of deflation might be rising. The DJIA ended over 100 points lower. The yield on the US 10-year Treasury sank back below 3 per cent on Friday.
  • In the currency markets, the dollar dropped to a 10-week low against the euro, as the single currency went above $1.30 for the first time in two months: the euro also advanced against the pound.

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