Tag Archive for: Industry Leaders

Coalition of Investors Calls for Gender Diverse Leadership

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iStock_000012154683XSmallBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Despite a global movement to increase the number of women in leadership, a new report shows that, in the past year, women in the boardroom have only increased by .2%. This is not nearly enough for the improvement in governance diversity that many investors are calling for.

“Women on Boards,” a statistical review performed by Governance Results International, counted female representation on boards of directors, and showed little change in the number of women in leadership roles across the globe.

Julie Gorte, Pax World’s Senior VP for Sustainable Investing said, “Women are under represented on boards. They are better represented now than they have been previously, but the needle hasn’t moved far.”

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From Improbable to Reality – PIMCO’s El-Erian at the FWA

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Image Courtesy FWA

Image Courtesy FWA

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Tuesday evening, the Financial Women’s Association of New York hosted a sold out, members only event featuring Dr. Mohamed El-Erian, CEO & co-CIO of PIMCO. Dr. El-Erian discussed the changes facing the financial markets, the US, and the world, as we navigate what he has coined “the new normal.”

Interviewer Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, analyst and reporter at CNBC, opened the evening by asking what the US Treasury’s first ever issue of a negative yield meant in terms of inflation. Dr. El-Erian said, “It tells you the economy is having some trouble gaining strength.”

But on a broader scale, he continued, “it’s an indication that the unthinkable and the improbable, or at least what used to be unthinkable and what used to be improbable, is not only possible but is the reality.”

Dr. El-Erian believes that rather than simply resetting after the recession, the market is head in a totally new direction – one that is now a structurally different institution. “We came up with the idea that the system wouldn’t reset, that this is the ‘new normal’.” Dr. El-Erian said that the new normal is characterized by slow growth, persistently high unemployment, more political involvement in economies, and a much flatter distribution of outcomes.

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WOWS 2010: Innovation, Ideas, and Action

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innovationBy Natalie Sabia (New York City)

Good conversation, interesting people, warm energy and high powered women are all ways to describe Deutsche Bank’s 16th Annual Women on Wall Street Conference, which is dedicated to the courageous women who represent great power and achievements. Sold out in a matter of 15 minutes, The Women on Wall Street conference drew in over 2,000 women from all areas of the financial services industry to learn about “innovation” and how other women have paved their path to success. “This night is all about empowering, supporting and mentoring women,” said Donna Milrod, Head of Regional Oversight and Strategy, Americas at Deutsche Bank.

The Women on Wall Street network (WOWS) is apart of Deutsche Bank’s diversity strategy, which seeks to develop, retain and motivate diverse talent. Even with a total of 16,000 corporate and investment bank employees, Deutsche Bank has managed to sponsor this conference for members of the financial and broader business communities every year since 1995 and have grown the attendance from just 200 to over 2000.

Kicking off the night, Anshu Jain, Head of Corporate and Investment Bank at Deutsche Bank, highlighted just how strong Deutsche Bank’s view is towards having a diverse population within the firm. Currently, with 138 different nationalities, Jain detailed how important this event is in order to continue the expansion of gender diversity. “Financial innovation is created in many ways,” said Jain. “We should continue to have effortless diversity.”

Hosting a panel of true executive and entrepreneurial women, Sharon Hall, Partner & Co-founder of the Diversity Practice, asked several insightful questions such as what innovation means to them and also what advice that they have learned along the way.

“Innovation means offering creative solutions and collaboration; not being afraid to take risks,” said Reshma Saujani, Attorney & Former Deputy General Counsel at Fortress Investment Group.

“Assessing risk, while having a sense of optimism,” said Alexandra Lebenthal, CEO, Alexandra & James Co. and Lebenthal & Company.

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Women on the Buy-Side: What Does Dodd-Frank Mean for the Capital Markets?

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startup-849804_640(1)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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On Our Radar – Why Female Vision is Critical at the Top

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Closeup of a business woman laughing against a gray backgroundBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Why do companies need women in leadership? According to a new book by Sally Helgesen, Writer and Leadership Development Consultant, and Julie Johnson, Executive Leadership Coach, women bring a different kind of vision to leadership than men. The book, The Female Vision: Women’s Real Power at Work, reveals that women are privileged to a “broad scale notice” style of leadership, while men display a more pointed focus.

While it may at first seem like a ’90s style Men are from Mars Women are from Venus approach to gender diversity, as Johnson pointed out yesterday at a National Council for Research on Women event, the book is based on neuroscience, examining the differences between male and female brains, as well as interviews and surveys with thousands of individuals.

Helgesen explained, “Women tend to focus in a broader way. Our attention operates like radar,” taking into account context and nuance. “Men display a laser-like focus on one thing,” she added.

Kerrie Peraino, Vice President of Human Resources and Chief Diversity Officer at American Express, opened the event, explaining Helgesen and Johnson “are onto something. This is cutting edge work.” Peraino said that Amex is working to position itself as a “gender intelligent organization.”

She explained that means playing to “the competitive advantage that is created when you bring both brains to work. Not only is it a nice thing to do, but really is about creating the competitive advantage.”

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Power, Ambition, Money, Failure: Confronting Career Taboos

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kolbertContributed by Kathryn Kolbert, Director of the Athena Center for Leadership Studies at Barnard College

Power. Ambition. Money. Failure. These are taboos that haunt women today, stunting their climb to leadership positions in both the public and private sectors. We may not like to talk about them, and we don’t necessarily need to conform to typically masculine styles of approaching them, but women must learn to overcome our discomfort with these demons if we are to achieve parity in the workforce.

The statistics are all too familiar to many of us. While today we can see women in positions of power — from heads of state to university presidents to Wall Street executives – more broadly women are stuck, holding only 16% to 22% [PDF] of the leadership positions in many arenas, and in some areas, such as the military and Fortune 500 CEOs much less. For women of color, the numbers are even worse; of the 15.7% of corporate officer positions in Fortune 500 companies that are held by women, just 1.7% [PDF] are held by women of color.

Part of our inability to advance to leadership positions in the numbers that we’d like, of course, is due to longstanding discrimination and cultural biases that lead men in high-ranking positions to want colleagues that look and act like them.

Part is also due to the fact that women who off-ramp, to raise their children and care for family members, are disadvantaged by skeptical, inflexible employers who view such moves with suspicion. The Center for Work-Life Policy’s May study, Off-Ramps and On-Ramps Revisited [PDF}, found that “73% percent of women trying to return to the workforce after a voluntary timeout for childcare or other reasons have trouble finding a job.” Of those who do return, more than 25% reported a decrease in their management responsibilities and 22% returned with a lower job title.

But whether we like to discuss it or not, part of the problem stems from the fact that many women are uncomfortable with power, ambition, money and failure. In some cases women handle these issues differently than many of their male colleagues.

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Head Over Heels: Web Radio for Professional Women

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bonnieBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

The web provides so many ways to bring women together, and help them get to the next step in their careers. And The Glass Hammer is always looking for ways to collaborate with and support other publications that have a mission similar to our own – to inform, empower, and inspire professional women to break glass ceilings every day.

But with the vast wealth of information on the internet – including websites, social networks, newsletters, and more – one new media segment is often overlooked: web radio.

Recently, our founder and CEO Nicki Gilmour had the opportunity to contribute to Head Over Heels Women’s Business Radio with Bonnie Marcus. Marcus, in turn, agreed to tell us why she thinks web radio is the next big thing.

Marcus explained, “The show started as an extension to my coaching practice. Two years ago, I was having lunch with one of my mentors, who said, ‘You have a unique message, how do you want to go on coaching? One-on-one, or do you want to have a more global influence?’”

She continued, “It really hit me – the radio show opportunity came along so I grabbed it – it’s an opportunity to reach a more global audience.”

“I first launched the site September 22, 2009 under the name Women Mean Business. In January, I changed it to Head over Heels Women’s Business Radio.”

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New Solutions: Developing Diverse Leadership at ING

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By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“Our CEO challenged his team to increase diversity – to come up with plans to accelerate the development of female talent,” said Brannigan Thompson, Head of HR for ING US Insurance. “We needed to not just say that we are a diverse company, but to act like a diverse company.”

Rhonda Mims, President of the ING Foundation and Senior Vice President, Office of Corporate Responsibility and Multicultural Affairs for ING added, “Finding creative ways to be ahead of the curve with employee engagement and professional development is really relevant to building a successful company. It’s more than writing a check – it’s about collaborating to deliver on a brand promise.”

Coming out of the recession, Thompson said, ING was “reexamining how we looked at leadership and reexamining how we do business. It was the perfect storm.”

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Five Innovative Ways to Improve Gender Diversity at Your Company

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iStock_000004692549XSmallBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

What makes a firm’s gender diversity programming really work? According to Jacqueline Akerblom, National Managing Partner for Women’s Initiatives and Programs at Grant Thornton LLP, it comes down to culture change. For the Global 6 accounting firm’s workforce, she said, diversity initiatives are “fully ingrained into the culture of the firm.”

But it wasn’t always like that. Six or seven years ago, Akerblom said, the company noticed it was losing a lot of its female employees. Recognizing the value of its women, the firm set out to keep them. Since 2004, when its women’s initiative was launched, the number of the women partners at the firm has increased by 184 percent, growing from 31 to 88.

How did they do it? Innovation. Here are five ways the company has succeeded – and your company can too.

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Five Financial Companies with Fantastic Diversity Initiatives

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By Kate McClaskey (New York City)

In a time when companies are rebuilding their business models to include a more diverse workforce, financial corporations are paying attention. Black Enterprise magazine recently released its list of the best companies for diversity, a list which consists of companies that the magazine believes have achieved a high level of inclusion of minority individuals – including race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. The Best Companies for Diversity list was made through surveys of the top 1,000 publicly traded companies, focusing on technology, sales, marketing, and human resources. Below is a roundup of BE’s five top financial companies in diversity.

Northern Trust

Named one of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers and one of the top 50 Companies for Executive Women, the Chicago based financial company boasts not only an annual Chairman’s Diversity Advocate Award Program which recognizes employees who make contributions to diversity efforts, but Diversity of Work training to encourage work groups to value their people and their contributions.

Director of Global Diversity and Inclusion Mark David Welch promises progressiveness and training with the support of diversity councils. “Northern Trust has long recognized the invaluable role of diversity, and this recognition is a testament to our belief that fostering a globally diverse and inclusive workforce is fundamental to our success as a business enterprise and community advocate.”

The company also gives priority to programs in diverse neighborhoods while offering a broad variety of business groups including Women in Leadership, the TNTPride (LGBT) Community, and the Black Business Resource Council. All combined, this makes Northern Trust an inclusive culture that enables the company to hire and retain a diverse workforce – which Welch says leads to better ideas and innovations and brings out the best in our employees.

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