Tag Archive for: Executive Director

Intrepid Woman: Stephanie Sandberg, Executive Director, Team LPAC

Stephanie SandbergStephanie Sandberg is a fan of bringing your whole self to the lunch table, or anywhere.

“There’s so much energy that is consumed by not saying the things you are thinking,” she says. So right up front when she was at a business lunch and someone would ask what her husband does, she would blurt out early that she was with a woman. “It helped ease the conversation and provided me a sense of wholeness,” she says, in urging young gay people to be open with their reality.

A Career in Media As the Foundation for Her Current Work

Sandberg spent the first 25 years of her career in magazine publishing, working on marketing for titles like the L.A. Times, Newsweek and the New Yorker before becoming president and publisher of the New Republic and, later, executive publisher of the Columbia Journalism Review. Then she pivoted to consultant work.

After dabbling in a variety of projects, she realized she wanted to focus on one area and became interested in women’s leadership and the barriers to advancement women faced at the top echelons. Sandberg joined Out Leadership on a project basis, which aligned with her interests in diversity and inclusion.

But, she found, “inclusion” was often male-dominated.

“Lesbians are underrepresented, underleveraged and don’t have a voice at the table,” she says. “The gay world is very similar to the straight world in how gendered it is.”

So she helped the organization launch OutWOMEN, running discussion dinners to get people around the table.

“We realized that women don’t come together as intentionally around professional matters,” Sandberg notes, so they launched both formal and informal events. The satisfaction she derived from this work pointed her consulting in that direction, and she ended up at a holiday party for LPAC in 2018, where she learned they were looking for an executive director.

Leveraging the Voices of Gay Women

Today Sandberg heads LPAC as a political voice for the LGBTQ+ community. One of her first moves was officially shortening the name from “Lesbian Political Action Committee” to its acronym, as she found the name wasn’t embraced by everyone.

Then she began leveraging what she learned at OUTWomen about how women come together. Just as she had previously discovered that women prefer to socialize differently, she learned in her early days with LPAC that LGBTQ women’s political concerns are different, but rarely discussed as such. “Gay women don’t always have the same priorities as gay men,” she points out, adding that healthcare, choice and women’s equality are paramount to gay women. “We needed to carve out a place and build a voice for this subset from the LGBTQ community and address inequalities by championing candidates who support us.”

Right now her mission is to make sure the community knows about LPAC, particularly people who have the financial capacity to support the group. The biggest challenge, she finds, is building the group out to where potential donors not only know about it, but also choose it as a priority among so many worthy causes.

“If they understand that their investment is an investment in strengthening this community, and then convert that enthusiasm and awareness by including us in their giving, I will have done my job,” she says.

Sandberg believes that will come as they build empirical data about how they have amplified the effect for the candidates they endorse. To that end, they launched a nonprofit group Project LPAC and have a fundraising event—Levity and Justice for All –scheduled for June 25, the only official World Pride event specifically for women.

Sandberg has the benefit of knowing the work she does will benefit her personal life, too, including for her wife of 20 years and two daughters, ages 16 and 12, but she also knows the importance of making them the focal point of her life aside from work.

“While my work is important, a broader wholeness comes from have a balance; a lot of career people find themselves too deep in the work, and while it matters, it can’t at the expense of family,” she says. “You have to treasure being able to have family experiences at the end of the day; my main goal is to spend that time with my girls.”

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Voice of Experience: Dalia Ahmed, Executive Director, Ultra High Net Worth, UBS

Dalia AhmedYoung professionals tend to take everything personally – whether comments come from colleagues or clients. “It’s easy to be sensitive, but it’s important to realize that most of the time, the comments or feedback are not personal. Developing a thick skin, especially in a male-dominated environment, will help you succeed,” says UBS’ Dalia Ahmed.

Deep Relationships Propel Her Career

This observation has helped Dalia throughout her professional life, which has been focused on building strong relationships with her clients. She began her career in London, joining Coutts bank where she spent 8 years covering private banking clients in the Middle East. After the birth of her second child, she took a short break and then joined UBS in Dubai as the second client advisor in their first advisory office in the region, a position she still holds.

Over the past decade she is proud of the trusted advisor role she has achieved. “That’s the most important factor in this business — becoming part of clients’ lives and not just as a banker,” she says. “I’m proud of the deep relationships I’ve built with these amazing families and being invited to share in their success stories.” She notes that by nature her ultra-high net worth clients are very interesting people and although their conversations begin around finances — investments, risk and return, performance, etc. — these exchanges frequently turn to the personal side.

They’ll discuss issues much closer to the client’s heart, such as the client’s vision for the family and family business, whether the children are ready to take over and any specific educational needs for the next generation.

“Research shows that less than one-third of family businesses survive the transition from first to second generation ownership and another 50% don’t survive the transition from second to third generation. I meet many families whose main concern is how to efficiently transfer their business and wealth to the next generation,” she says.

One of the areas that she finds most interesting in the industry today is the rising trend of ultra-high net worth families setting up family offices for intergenerational wealth transfer. This has highlighted the need for private banks to think more radically about how they can best serve this type of client, she says, because a traditional wealth management setting will not be sufficient for the sophisticated demands of these family offices. “Increasingly private banks will have to include services such as global custody, lending, execution, investment banking, private markets and more, which of course not all private banks have the scale to provide.”

In her client-facing capacity, every day is interesting because she is constantly meeting new people and forging new relationships. “You have to make sure you are always doing something satisfying and inspiring or every day will be challenging. If you don’t enjoy what you’re doing, the pressure and hours can be very difficult to manage,” she says.

Helping Women Be Successful in the Industry

Although the industry begins with a 50/50 male/female split, female attrition happens as they rise through the ranks. The question, Dalia notes, is why women leave the industry. She believes that there are no structural barriers or barriers caused by overt hostility but rather an ingrained unconscious bias about what it takes to perform at the top, such as being aggressive and determined, attributes people are less likely to ascribe to women. “These issues are very subtle which makes them harder to identify and tackle,” she says.

The male-dominated culture can be intimidating to talented women, she says, but notes that much of the reason there are more men are because of lifestyle issues: late nights and overnight travel become more difficult, and many women are likely to look at that lifestyle and decide they don’t want to do that. “Financial industries need to change their old-fashioned work practices that reward people for working at the office late at night, because it’s not conducive to many women who have families at home,” she says.

That’s why she encourages women who have risen in the industry to realize the importance of being role models for younger women. “Since we are a minority it’s more important than ever for us to help each other, to be visible. We have to show the new female entrants that women can succeed in these positions.”

She is proud of the initiatives UBS has developed to support women and create change within the culture, such as the Diversity and Inclusion Council that ensures that the firm creates an open environment. As a service organization with a diverse client base, it’s particularly important that they be visible with a diverse workforce.

The firm is in the midst of rolling out training in unconscious bias that all wealth management staff will take by 2018. The training will cover gender and other diversity issues that she says forward-thinking firms have to learn how to acknowledge and overcome. One area ripe for additional focus is supporting and retaining women after maternity leave.

Ahmed participated in the Women in Wealth Forum, an annual event that provides a platform for women to network and bolster their skills and is very supportive of the Leading Women of Wealth Management group, which provides coaching and helps women develop their talents. She encourages young professionals to seek out similar groups to help them nurture relationships with a trusted mentor who can offer advice in the challenging situations that are sure to arise.

In her free time, Dalia likes to read and cycle, but most of all she focuses on spending time with her children, a son, age 14, and a daughter, age 11. “I love to listen to their views and opinions; their simple perspective helps me to cut through all the unnecessary complexities of life.”

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Voice of Experience: Bettina Huser, Executive Director, UBS Geneva

Bettina Huser“Be curious and get a good early overview of the business and then position yourself with colleagues and managers so you are able to advance,” recommends UBS’ Bettina Huser. She sees many young women who finish university beginning their career as assistants where men are often guided toward faster advancement. “As a woman, you have to very loudly and clearly articulate your desire to advance and earn more responsibility, and that is how you can gain the same advantage as others.”

Building a Career in Banking

Huser began her career studying law but decided to go another direction and joined a graduate banking program where she simultaneously began working in wealth management as an assistant to a private banker. There she learned a great deal about the business and client service, which paved the way for her to spend her career in the sector in different positions, including discretionary portfolio management and advisory services in various financial companies. She has currently been at UBS for five years as an investment advisor for UHNW customers of the Near East region.

This career path is very fulfilling to her, as she enjoys the close relationships she builds with customers — giving them advice, following markets and staying well informed about what’s happening in politics and the economy, which allows her to make wise investment decisions.

Ongoing changes in the industry have led to new regulations that require constant attention. “My challenge is to stay ahead of those developments in an environment that is more and more complex for investing also.”

However, she knows that adapting to these changes is a necessary element of success; in fact, she advises young women that the most important thing to do to build your career is be open to what is new, from new people to new ways of working. “You have to be comfortable with the unexpected.”

Overcoming the Balance Challenge

Over the years, Huser has found that the challenges of being a woman in a male-dominated field are not related to the work itself but rather the environment and expectations. While she has never felt that she was treated differently than men in work-related matters, she acknowledges it is challenging to find success in your professional and personal life simultaneously.

The job requires long hours, which means many women have to choose if they want to have a career or family because it is hard to have both. “You are expected to work hard, of course, and if something comes up you need to stay late at night, which can be difficult if you have a family,” Huser says, noting that many of her male colleagues have a wife at home, which allows them to travel and be present with clients in a way that can be more challenging for women.

She finds that although every woman experiences different challenges and pursues a different lifestyle, she has learned that sometimes you have to work even more than the men do to be considered for promotions.

In fact, balancing that demanding work with raising a daughter is the professional achievement she is most proud of – demonstrating that as a woman you don’t have to choose between a professional career and a family but can successfully do both.

Huser has enjoyed raising her 17-year-old daughter and appreciates that she will grow up in a world where she can pursue any dream she has. In addition to her ongoing balance of home and work life, Huser also takes time to travel and read and is interested in causes related to the environment and animal protection.

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