Welcome to The Glass Hammer’s Celebration of Asian Heritage Month! All month long we will be profiling successful women here in the US who have Asian heritage as well as spotlighting some amazing women in Asia and discussing what it means to work there.
According to Elinor Hoover, Co-Head, Financial Strategy and Solutions Group and Vice Chairman of Capital Markets Origination at Citi, it is important to maintain contacts, nurture relationships, and build networks from the moment you begin your professional career.
“When you are starting out in your career, you might be so focused on building up your technical skills that you fail to recognize the value of establishing relationships that can serve as key factors in your career development and advancement,” she added.
“This networking extends beyond your colleagues and communities,” said Hoover. “You need to think about networking on a global level and understand how this is a component of driving business forward.”
Career in Banking
Hoover entered the financial services industry in the late eighties with an academic background in music, biophysics, and biochemistry. “I was not your typical business, economics or finance major, but I decided to go into investment banking,” said Hoover. “After working for a couple of years in the healthcare investment banking area at Credit Suisse First Boston, I accepted a position at The Blackstone Group, which was focused on M&A.”
When Hoover joined Blackstone, it was building its private equity business. At the same time, cross-border activity between Asia and the United States was really heating up. “I was interested in this opportunity by virtue of my heritage to spend some time in the Asia region,” explained Hoover, who went on to perform M&A advisory work with Blackstone in Tokyo for two years.
After she returned from her international assignment, Hoover earned her MBA from Harvard Business School and continued to follow her passion for banking in her next role within the Derivatives Products Group at Morgan Stanley. “I had investment banking experience, but I was not as familiar with the sales and trading aspect. Since my background was in mathematical based work, I decided that a structured products group would be a good fit,” said Hoover.
During this time, there was a strong interest in reorganizing the derivatives business and starting an effort around corporate clients, according to Hoover, who was selected to help launch that effort based on her previous experiences in corporate finance and derivatives. “I helped grow the business domestically in North America, and then globally,” Hoover noted.
In the early 2000s, Morgan Stanley launched another effort to integrate the derivatives business with the cash businesses. “Once this effort was underway, I was in charge of Fixed Income Capital Markets, and later became the Vice Chair of Capital Markets, where the goal was to integrate derivatives, equity, and debt in order to create a much more suitable offering to our clients,” Hoover said. This experience sparked her interest and passion for developing holistic product offerings, something she carried over to her current role at Citi.
A few years ago, Hoover began to look at Citi and recognized the company’s strength in capital markets, and its relationship management process, which was being implemented to elevate its client franchise. “After nearly 20 years at Morgan Stanley, I decided to join Citi,” said Hoover. “I saw this as a tremendous opportunity to join a firm with an established capital base and global reach.”
Serving Clients with Innovative Solutions
Hoover views her current role at Citi as a culmination of her past professional experiences. “The effort is to be cutting-edge and innovative on corporate finance and risk management topics, and as a result offer holistic solutions to clients around important thematic issues,” explained Hoover.