Tag Archive for: Managing Director

Voice of Experience: Molly McCombe, Managing Director and Chief Marketing Officer, Citi Retail Services

Molly McCombe “If you see an issue impacting the business, jump in, even if it’s a problem you haven’t solved before,” says Citi Retail Services’ Molly McCombe. “Often, women put a higher burden on themselves to have specific content knowledge about an issue and wait to be asked to solve a problem, whereas men just jump in,” she says, adding that her own tendency to stick to safe projects might have limited her at the beginning of her career. “But now I have more confidence and will raise my hand even if I’m not the expert. There’s plenty of truth to the adage, ‘Fake it till you make it.’”

From Strategy to Leadership

After completing her undergraduate degree in finance at the Questrom School of Business at Boston University, McCombe began her career in a commercial credit training program where she was placed in a lending position, climbing the ladder to become a vice president. She began to consider other possibilities in the business world and honed in on management consulting, attracted by its opportunities to solve a variety of challenging business problems. Setting her sights on that career path, she reverse engineered what it would take to get there and realized a top-tier business school was a must.

After earning her M.B.A. from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, she joined McKinsey & Company and became a consultant for financial services firms, a role she found both fascinating and challenging. Eventually she realized that she was ready to move to an operational role, where she could “practice what she was preaching,” and took a strategic role in the credit card group at HSBC, where she held a variety of positions, including leading business development, digital marketing and product development. She joined Citi in 2011 as part of Citi Retail Services, the division responsible for providing credit cards and related services to stores such as The Home Depot, Macy’s, Best Buy and many more. In her CMO role she is responsible for all aspects of joint credit marketing and analytics between Citi and the retailers, from campaign development and management through execution and assessment, as well as leading Citi’s digital marketing, loyalty, and research groups.

One of the achievements she’s most proud of is making the transition from a strategist and advisor to a manager and operator. “It’s been a 180-degree turn. I love both jobs because they’re different and yet they inform one another,” she says. She enjoys the strategic side — working on thorny problems and helping the client see them through — and also appreciates the day-to-day aspects of leading geographically dispersed teams and tackling tactical and operational issues. “I am a better leader and manager because I’ve done both,” McCombe says.

Managing the marketing of credit card programs with leading retailers puts her in a front row seat to what’s new in both the banking and retailing industries, and she is fascinated by the changing ways that people approach shopping.

“Consumers are in the driver’s seat in how they interact with retailers now, because they can leverage so much information to make informed purchases,” she says. No longer is it just about finding product and price information online, but also considering peer reviews about products and sharing experiences.

“At the same time, consumers are increasingly open to building deeper relationships with retailers,” McCombe explains. “Part of the value we bring to retailers is our experience in this area. We’re using our understanding of consumer preferences to drive more relevant offers to our retailer’s customers and enhance market share for our retail partners.”

The Advantage of Being a Women

McCombe says that women can be discouraged when they don’t see as many women farther up the ladder, which will continue to be a deterrent until the payments industry can promote and retain women at multiple levels. “It’s a challenge to say ‘I’m passionate about this industry, and I’m going to jump in,’ when there aren’t many women on the upper rungs,” she says, citing a niece who just graduated from Northwestern University who had remarked on the lack of women in senior roles. But she advocates that young women view it instead as an incredibly relevant place for women since they are the primary decision makers in households on budgeting and how money is spent. “A savvy organization is going to want that experience and input, whether they’re evaluating their product offerings or their payment options. Since I started, there is a much greater appreciation for a woman’s perspective in this business, and the opportunities are endless.”

And as women do rise to leadership positions, she says they should be sure that they are still focused on growing, learning and taking on cross-functional roles to avoid being pigeonholed.

Grow Your Network to Grow Your Career

Along the way McCombe has appreciated the opportunity to mentor and grow other professionals throughout the years, both on the consulting and corporate side. “I have been able to create a strong network around the globe that is both professionally and personally rewarding.”

She encourages women to participate in programs at their workplace for both educational and networking benefits. “These are terrific forums for junior women who want to get to know senior women; it’s a way to demystify and humanize these senior leaders. When you build personal relationships, you find out they’re just like anyone else, and I found that very empowering.”

She finds that these connections often lead to informal mentoring relationships, the type that are grounded in commonality. “It’s so helpful to have an off-the-record sounding board, where you can talk about challenges and get input on how to handle them. Mentorship and connectivity is incredibly powerful and will help retain women,” she says.

A Rewarding Personal Life

Married to a hospitality professional who owns three restaurants, McCombe appreciates that it has gotten her connected to the Chicago dining scene and its farm-to-table movement.

And McCombe remains connected to her undergraduate alma mater — serving on the Dean’s Advisory Board at the Questrom School of Management at Boston University — for a very important reason: She was able to attend Boston University thanks to an academic scholarship, and now is committed to paying it forward by sponsoring a scholarship for undergraduate women studying finance and analytics. “It’s very gratifying to be able to give back to an institution that gave me my start, and to support the next generation of women business leaders,” she says.

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Margaret Anadu, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs

Margaret AnaduPatience. That’s a word that Margaret Anadu, managing director at Goldman Sachs, would recommend to others in the industry, especially her millennial cohorts.

“There is some truth to the millennial stereotype that we want everything in business right away,” she says. “But I’ve found that the hard work you put in during your early years will really bear fruit later on. Whether it was changing roles or working on a tough transaction, everything I went through along the way made something else in the future easier. Tenure is something that I encourage my generation to respect and place value on.”

Anadu joined Goldman Sachs’ analyst program directly after graduating from Harvard in 2003. She says that the program was the ideal entrée to both the firm and the industry as it allowed her to learn all facets of the business and form a close-knit group of colleagues whom she relies on to this day. She spent her analyst years in the firm’s Securities Division, delving into the markets and helping to serve the firm’s clients. Taking advantage of the firm’s opportunities for mobility, she spent her final year as an analyst in the Urban Investment Group, where she climbed the ladder to eventually become a managing director. “I loved it when I started, and I love it today,” she says.

Impactful Work

Goldman’s Urban Investment Group deploys the firm’s capital by making investments and loans that benefit urban communities, largely in underserved neighborhoods. When she first started, investments were in the $2 million range; in 2014, the group committed $300 million in its biggest commitment for a project to date – the Essex Crossing project on the Lower East side.

“That illustrates the growth of the firm’s appetite in terms of these transactions,” she says. The capital is being used to transform a moderate-income community on the Lower East side [C1] to create a new multifaceted neighborhood that includes affordable housing, market rate housing, a community center, a senior center, new retail and more.

Along with the increased transaction size, interest in the sector has grown from all sides – from other corporations, institutional funds and even business schools which now offer classes in impact investing. “The more types of entities that get involved, the better for our work,” she says, adding that it’s been extremely rewarding to watch the next generation of impact investors develop, including her team of 30 “incredibly smart, ambitious people,” as she describes them.

Putting Stock in Early Career Advice

Anadu says she wishes she’d recognized that all the advice she got early in her career would end up being so pertinent along the way. “People at our firm take a lot of time to sit down and mentor you, and I’ve realized that along the way, the advice I’ve used the most is what I heard back when I started. If I’d known how relevant it would all be, I would have captured it in a notebook,” a practice she uses these days, which she recommends as a way to reflect and invest time in thinking about your career intentionally.

She also advises women who are starting out to realize that their network and mentors should be comprised of people at all levels. “A mentor is traditionally thought of as someone senior who will lift you up, but peers and even those who are junior can be impactful,” she says, adding that those she began with at Goldman as analysts have been helpful all along the way, giving advice on projects or how to view a client issue differently.

She says that the industry is continuing to evolve with more senior women, and the ranks will continue to grow, offering more opportunity to mine their examples of success and how to balance work and family. “All the efforts we are making today will have impact on the senior level landscape 10 or 15 years from now.”

Anadu says she grew her own mentoring network through her involvement with Goldman’s Emerging Leaders Program, designed for high-performing vice presidents. In addition to gaining a senior sponsor, she was able to build a network across the firm through the panels and informal events, developing useful contacts and mentors who have helped as she advanced.

Hobbies Then and Now

As a new mom, Anadu notes that she now spends most of her free time with her six-month-old daughter but she still makes time for her favorite hobby, walking, which dovetails well with her work. “I love to walk the streets of New York and learn about new neighborhoods,” she says.

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Voice of Experience: Janine Shelffo, Managing Director, Co-Head Technology, Media & Telecom Group, Americas, UBS Investment Bank

Janine Shelffo“When I started my career, I didn’t appreciate the extent to which different is good in our business,” says UBS’s Janine Shelffo. “Thinking differently and approaching problems from different angles is critical in coming up with great ideas for clients. Being authentic is more important than fitting the stereotype of an investment banker and is a stronger foundation for building long-lasting client relationships. As I look back on my career, I believe that being a little different became one of my biggest strengths.”
Shelffo, who describes her career path as “surprisingly linear,” recently celebrated her 26th anniversary of working on Wall Street. After graduating from Georgetown, she started as an investment banking analyst in mergers and acquisitions, then focused on high-yield and distressed investments before earning her MBA from Columbia Business School. She returned to investment banking at DLJ, where she joined the sector coverage team focused on tech, media and telecom and has subsequently maintained that focus for almost 20 years, working for Credit Suisse and Lehman Brothers prior to joining UBS seven years ago. Shelffo currently co-heads the firm’s Technology, Media and Telecom investment banking effort for the Americas.

When asked to describe the professional achievement she is most proud of, Shelffo laughs and points to her resilience, having survived two bankruptcies and three sale transactions of her employers during her investment banking career. “You have to learn to replant, reposition and roll with the punches, and commit to earning the respect of new colleagues along the way,” she says. “Hopefully the volatility of the financial services industry won’t be quite as dramatic going forward, but the fact remains that the ability to adapt and reinvent yourself is a key skill set in our dynamic industry.”

Unprecedented TMT Industry Shifts

Right now Shelffo is immersed in the significant impacts of disruptive technology across the sectors she covers.This includes significant changes in consumer content consumption, communication and purchasing habits, including mobile adoption that has been faster than predicted. As a result, the economic models in the industry are changing dramatically as advertising dollars shift away from historical categories with incredible speed, content bundles unbundle, consumer appetite for subscriptions is tested, and the line between content and commerce blurs. In addition, the sheer amount of data and information available on customers and their purchasing and consumption habits has increased exponentially.

Not only are her clients trying to adjust their businesses to prosper in the changing landscape, many of them are also suddenly facing new competitors as some of the historical distinctions between technology, media and telecom companies fade. Shelffo says all this disruption is incredibly intellectually stimulating, and adds that the best part of her job is waking up every day confident that she will learn something new.

Overcoming Stereotypes

As co-chair of the Diversity Council for UBS Investment Bank in the Americas, Shelffo feels good about the cultural transition that has taken place during her years in investment banking. “I believe the business case for greater diversity and inclusion in our business has been proven and that the large Wall Street firms are intensely focused on it,” she says. Yet negative stereotypes of a male-dominated investment banking environment persist, and she admits to being frustrated when some young women on college campuses shun the industry without thoroughly investigating it. In fact, she says UBS and other banks have started reaching out to women on campus earlier, specifically to get to them before they form false impressions and make up their minds that the industry is not for them. To that end, Shelffo took matters into her own hands and conducted a speaking tour on college campuses last year entitled “Navigating Wall Street in Heels.” She also created a webcast on “Women on Wall Street” for the bank’s inaugural sophomore program that was distributed through social media and is available on UBS’s website.

What she does see as a potential impediment to increased diversity is a lack of senior female role models. This makes it harder for women to see themselves as the primary client interface and can undermine the self-confidence necessary to bring their whole selves to work as they move along the career path. “Being a trusted advisor to clients actually requires a lot of skills that are more stereotypically female, such as gently building consensus, fostering collaboration, active listening and navigating emotionally charged situations. Our role is often to help other people look smart and, for better or worse, that’s something that women generally do well.” In addition, Shelffo points out the significant increase in gender diversity among clients in her coverage sector and notes, “Our female clients are delighted to see gender diversity on our side of the table too.”

Supporting Women

Shelffo urges younger women to resist what she sees as a growing trend to try to plan their whole lives before leaving college. “These days I find that many young women are calculating how the job will accommodate a family and evaluating the merits of finding a career path that’s less demanding before they’ve even started out,” she says. “If I’d had that mindset, I might have talked myself out of investment banking and never discovered what an amazing career it can be. In truth, it would have been entirely speculation since I had no idea then what it would be like to be a mother or how supportive my future husband would be of my career.” She advises young women to focus on how to maximize their learning and build a strong foundation to create career optionality, rather than trying to be clairvoyant about how their lives could unfold a decade or two down the road in a particular job.

These days, Shelffo views diversity among new hires on Wall Street as less of an issue than retention of women over the long term. “Our incoming class was 40% female last year and I feel very good about that,” she says, “but data shows that across Wall Street there is an acceleration in female attrition starting at the director or vice president level,” which is typically the point when women are stepping up to be a primary client interface and are also often simultaneously starting their families. Transitioning from subject matter expert to new business originator can be very intimidating for women and men, and it often happens at the same time they are dealing with meaningful transition in their home lives.

She sees some women opting out at that juncture because of the pressure they put on themselves. “We hire women who are Type A and used to being the best of the best.When you’re balancing a family with a banking track, you are often out of your comfort zone on all fronts and it becomes harder to feel like you’re doing an A+ job in everything,” she says, adding that many conclude they’d rather find a less-demanding career path to get back to feeling “best” in all areas of their lives.She points out that raising preschool-aged kids, while working in a demanding occupation, is a really challenging life stage for both men and women, and that it is difficult to maintain perspective and appreciate that it’s a relatively short period in the arc of a long career. Shelffo commends financial services firms for doing what they can to support young families and applauds UBS’s recent increase in paid primary and secondary caregiver leaves by 33% and 50%, respectively, in the United States.[C1]

Shelffo says her diversity council is intensely focused on the issues of female retention at this mid-level and is launching multiple initiatives aimed at that population. For example, Advance, a year-long UBS program for Directors that was launched in 2015, combines networking between women to encourage peer support, individualized coaching to increase skills and confidence and a sponsorship program that encourages senior executives across the bank to champion these women. “We have incredible rising female talent in our investment bank and these women are poised to become the next generation of amazing role models, so we want to support them in every way we can,” she says.

She is sympathetic to the challenges the managers of these women face in their efforts to be supportive. “They want to make sure that their promising women know that there are opportunities to downshift if they want or need to, but don’t want to be patronizing or suggest that their ambition levels have suddenly changed because they are starting families,” Shelffo says, acknowledging that it’s a difficult balance to strike and that managers are understandably worried about saying the wrong thing. Her diversity council is also launching a Fostering Diversity & Inclusion training program for senior managers in the investment bank to provide them with the right support and tools to feel better equipped for those conversations.

Finding the Right Balance to Thrive

“A career on Wall Street is a marathon not a sprint. It’s critical to recharge in order to foster creativity and original thinking,” Shelffo says. She claims that her best ideas for clients rarely come to her while she’s in the office and that clients don’t enjoy spending time with people who do nothing but work. Shelffo says that while she and her generation might not have thought twice about devoting every waking minute of their lives to their jobs when they were starting out, she commends today’s graduates for generally having more well-rounded definitions of success, which are more sustainable over the long term. New UBS initiatives like “Wickedly Smart Working” solicit and implement the best crowdsourced ideas from junior bankers to reshape current work practices in order to encourage employees to be successful in every dimension of their lives. [C2]

Shelffo is passionate about extracurricular activities which quiet the mind, and credits painting, yoga and meditation with being important to sustaining her own personal balance.A part-time student at the Woodstock School of Art, she now enjoys taking weekend painting workshops with her 13-year-old daughter, whom she proudly describes as an amazing artist.She is also a trustee of the Kripalu Center in the Berkshires, the largest yoga and meditation retreat center in the country, and executive sponsor of the first UBS mindfulness program pilot in development for later this year.

“There is no one-size-fits-all blueprint for balance in a demanding career path,” she says.“It is a deeply personal thing.It’s an issue for men just as it is for women, and it’s not just about family time.You must have the self-awareness to figure out what you need for renewal and the self-confidence to create space for it.”

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Voice of Experience: Amanda Hindlian, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs

Amanda Hindlian“The best careers sit at the intersection of what you’re passionate about and what you’re naturally good at – fortunately, those two things tend to go hand in hand.” That’s advice that Goldman Sachs Managing Director Amanda Hindlian has for those thinking about where to start their careers.

“I also wish that at the outset of major career transitions I’d had the hindsight to enjoy the ride a little more – but then hindsight is always 20/20,” she says. “You might feel uncomfortable any time you make a significant change in your career, but try to enjoy that phase because it’s when you’re growing, where you’re adding to your skills and building new relationships.”

Hindlian began her career as a semiconductor equity analyst in the Global Investment Research (GIR) Division at Goldman Sachs where over the course of six years she assumed incremental coverage responsibility. She then accepted an opportunity to work as chief of staff for the global head of Research, and for several years she worked in different capacities with him and other senior divisional leaders, including as chief operating officer of GIR and senior director of the Global Markets Institute.

In mid-2015, Hindlian joined the Executive Office, working with the president and chief operating officer of the firm to develop and implement key strategic initiatives. Later in the year she assumed broader responsibilities in the Executive Office, working with the chairman and chief executive officer of the firm and overseeing the Client Strategy Group, as well as serving as secretary to the Management Committee.

Hindlian is proud of the relationships she’s developed over the years both inside and outside the firm. “The partnerships I’ve formed and mentoring I’ve received from colleagues has been crucial to my success. It’s difficult to describe the accumulation of knowledge that comes from interacting with and being surrounded by so many incredibly smart and talented people.”

Immersed in Content and People

One project Hindlian is working on now that she particularly enjoys is developing content for executives that facilitates their interactions with clients, regulators, the media or policy makers. “I love thinking about what is top of mind in the world and assessing how we can be helpful to our clients by providing them with our institutional insights on major issues.”

She interacts with different divisions within the firm to identify their specific goals and also meets with clients to understand what’s important to them. She then supplements her advice with research to strengthen that perspective.

Another project Hindlian recently undertook was organizing a dinner for more than 20 ministers of finance and central bankers to discuss what they could do to stimulate global economic growth. Hindlian participated in the two-and-a-half hour family style dinner, where participants discussed key issues from political and economic perspectives.

She is also immersed in people-related initiatives and strongly supports the firm’s efforts to hire, retain and promote the best and most diverse people. “I believe our people are our number one asset and we must remain focused on diversity so that our people reflect the world in which we and our clients live.” Hindlian has found value in being involved in the firm’s Women’s Network over the years and is an advocate for programs and initiatives that support an inclusive work environment.

Mastering the Balancing Act

While Hindlian acknowledges that everyone faces challenges balancing work and their personal life, she notes the unique challenges shared by most working moms – particularly surrounding the notion that there aren’t enough hours in the week. She cites a conversation she had with a group of accomplished women at a recent Next Generation Most Powerful Women event hosted by Fortune: “We each had our own journey, but the one commonality we had was that it’s really hard to balance it all on a daily basis. You have to hope that even if you can’t achieve balance every day that you can find it when you look back over a longer stretch of time, and if you don’t feel that way it’s time to reassess. Parenting and working can be challenging, but for me it’s been such an incredibly rewarding combination.”

A Different View of Mentoring and Networking

Hindlian finds that mentoring should happen organically and believes it’s easier to form a mentoring relationship once you have worked with someone on a project or shared a goal, vision or challenge. Otherwise, she says, the mentor doesn’t have any context to provide advice and advocacy. “You will naturally provide the foundation for mentoring relationships if you are a team player and do good work.”

A Yearning To Travel

Before she had a child, Hindlian says she would travel often, hopping on a plane with her husband for a short trip without hesitation. Now, with a 21-month-old she is enjoying her time with him closer to home, although she can’t wait until he’s old enough to join in their family adventures.

By Cathie Ericson

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Whitney Johnson, Managing Director, Springboard Ventures, LP, Intrepid Woman

By Nicki Gilmour

Whitney Johnson believes in disruptive innovation. As co-founder of Professor Christensen’s Boston-based investment firm Rose Park Advisors, Whitney Johnson applied the frameworks of disruptive innovation to identify and invest in disruptive companies.

“I connected with Clayton Christensen in 2003-2004, and I was privileged to have him ask me to co-found an investment firm with him in 2007. I realized in parallel that these theories of disruption not only applied to picking stocks but also to individuals. Disrupting your own status quo before you change anything else is the place to start.”

Whitney is in now in the process of launching Springboard Ventures, LP, a fund investing in women in high growth businesses that can scale in tech and life sciences from the initial pool of candidates that are the alumni of Springboard Enterprises, a non-profit accelerator.

She is inspired to help others and claims that her job is many jobs as with so many people these days. “I have a portfolio professional life of coaching, speaking, writing and investing. When I talk to women and they ask me for a single piece of advice – I say get a coach. Regardless of your talent and hard work, it is hard to navigate and a coach can help you understand the landmarks when you are in the ocean of your career.”

Walking the Talk
Whitney moved to NYC in 1989 with her husband who was getting his PhD at Columbia University. She recounts how it was a scary time in New York at that point and she realized that as a couple they had no money and she needed to get a job. She decided that Wall Street was for her, and truth be told, was motivated by Liar’s Poker, Bonfire of the Vanities, Wall Street – and, of course, Working Girl.

At Smith Barney, I looked at the bullpen of up-and-coming stockbrokers, and I thought to myself, ‘I am just as smart as they are’ and I wanted it badly so I took classes at night, accounting and finance.” She comments that having a sponsor was critical to her moving up the Wall Street food chain. “I had a boss who let me jump from being secretary to an analyst in investment banking.

Whitney talks of her career climb from music major to one of the top ranked equity research analysts, being ranked 8 consecutive years (1996- 2005) according to Institutional Investor, with her last 4 years being double ranked, her area being Emerging Markets – Latin America – Telecom and Media.

In 2005, “I disrupted myself – I didn’t even wait for another bonus – left in June that year. I was at the top of my game — number one in Media / #2 in Telecom.

In our conversation, Whitney explained why she wrote the book Dare, Dream, Do. She believe her mission is to help individuals (women, in particular) believe that we need to learn to be harbors and ships, to develop our feminine, the capacity for relatedness and love, and masculine (ability to wield power and control situations) to truly succeed.

“I feel that women have to work through the tensions of how do I tend to my dreams as well as the dreams of others who we love?

Why ‘Disruptive Innovation’ is about moving forward.
When I suggested that we do this interview for the Intrepid Women column she candidly admitted that being fearless is definitely a learned trait.

“I feel scared a lot of the time, but I think about innovation going from stuck to unstuck, about finding the problem (or a problem finding you) and solving it.”

When asked about factors that can hold women back in their careers, she states that confidence to disrupt is definitely top of the list. There are many career ‘derailers’ that can stop people from getting ahead.

Whitney talked at length about the dangers of entitlement and how we can overcome this to succeed.

“Entitlement comes in many forms, not just at the beginning of our career. Entitlement can surface as we rise through the ranks, and are literally en-titled. Regardless of rank, you battle entitlement by being willing to do the work to socialize our ideas, to not just expect that people will buy in.”

She advises people to figure out who are their stakeholders are at work stating that they can range from your boss, your peers, your coworkers to your boss’s assistant. Figure out what language your stakeholders speak, she advises and adds,

“If you are in marketing and your boss or sponsor is in finance then you have to communicate in a way with that person that will help you move up the curve to succeed.”

Not being heard? She suggests that it is possible that you need to socialize ideas more, but recognizes that it is also possible you are just not being heard. Research suggests that women needs to be two and a half times more effective than men. Whitney gives insight to what this means in real terms stating,

This shows that it may take longer for women to be successful. Be aware of this so you don’t internalize this. There is nothing wrong with you! But know that you have to have 100% domain expertise, especially because your soft skills are taken for granted as a woman.”

Finally, on the topic of being heard and gaining credibility she shares some sage wisdom,

“People can discover how smart you are by the quality of the questions you ask.”

Check out Whitney at HBR or on her website.

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Voice of Experience: Stephanie Smith, Managing Director, Global Head Credit Operations, Goldman Sachs

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Stephanie SmithCuriosity and a willingness to say “yes” have been the driving forces behind Stephanie Smith’s successful career in the hypercompetitive Wall Street environment.

Smith joined Goldman Sachs in July 1999 at the height of the dot-com boom. Though her background was in marketing, she was drawn in by the interesting work that Goldman was doing in e-commerce and spent five years developing strategy for the business. Then, in 2004, she leveraged the many internal relationships she had formed through networking to pursue a new opportunity in the firm’s Operations Division.

While Operations was not necessarily an expected career change, she was immensely curious about the space. Smith was offered an opportunity to join the Client Onboarding team, which is responsible for creating new accounts for clients across all products traded by the firm. “I was quickly catapulted from being a team member working on projects to leading a team of 20,” she recalls. “I was out of my comfort zone, but loving every minute of it!”

Her next “yes” was to the Credit Operations group. “Again, I had no background in this specific industry but was curious about the product and the business. I realized that even if I didn’t have direct experience, I was highly motivated to learn and excited to dive into the opportunity to try something new,” Smith says. “Ultimately I felt supported by the firm that if it didn’t work out, they would redeploy me. Trying something new was 50% fun and 50% challenge.” She soon rose from her initial regional oversight to managing the global team of over 400 people.

In her current role, Smith is excited to be constantly challenged to learn new regulatory rules, partner with her peers and team to develop implementation strategies and develop ideas that will build operational efficiency in the support of fixed income and derivative products.

She relishes a role that enables her to think strategically about issues such as how the firm should build its technological architecture, what consortiums it should join, and what its response should be to proposed rule changes. “We are working with industry partners and leaders internally on how to scale this business and what technological infrastructures we should put in place to help us in the future.”

She says that many of the current changes are driven by the changing regulatory environment and also because of client demand. “Our clients are looking for more creative ways of generating and preserving revenue, and at Goldman Sachs we continually challenge ourselves to develop solutions that meet their needs.”

Just Say Yes

Smith’s advice, especially for women, is simple. “You have to take a chance and speak up, ask questions and expand your network.” Smith says women have a tendency to opt themselves out – after achieving academic success in school, they tend to withdraw when surrounded by a team of smart people. This manifests itself in staying quiet if you don’t have the perfect answer or know 100 percent about a product or solution.

“I was guilty of opting out early in my career, but by working with mentors over the years I’ve learned that we’re all just trying to figure it out,” Smith says. “The beauty of success is harnessing the power of the team — I bring something to the table, you bring something and collectively we develop an answer.”

And that is the advice she believes young women need to hear as they start their career: to jump in with both feet; take risks; and say yes.

“Even when I didn’t know all the details of what I was asked to do, I trusted my managers and said yes, in spite of the butterflies in my stomach. It wasn’t always easy, but it was always worth it.”

This “yes” mentality, combined with her curiosity, is what has led Smith up the ladder.

Along the way, she has learned valuable lessons about perspective and pivoting. Each success and setback is part of a broader journey and should not be evaluated in isolation.
Smith acknowledges she had roles in which she performed well but didn’t feel sufficiently motivated. However, she notes, “I learned something through every experience that led me to my next step, whether it was because I met new and interesting people or learned about a new line of business.”

She says she is most proud of her opportunity and ability to change course in her career. Smith remarks, “I joined the firm in the Securities Division headed in one path, then pivoted to Operations where I was heading down the path of being a strategic individual contributor, and then I pivoted again to management. That’s the beauty of Goldman Sachs — it doesn’t matter where you start, you have the ability to remake yourself multiple times throughout your career.”

Mentoring Emerging Leaders

Smith is active in the firm’s Emerging Leaders Program, which identifies up-and-coming diverse leaders within the firm and offers a network where they can receive coaching and establish informal and formal mentoring relationships.

While she is now able to speak about successfully navigating the firm, she didn’t arrive understanding the rules of the road, some of which she attributes to her background as a first generation immigrant.

“I didn’t know what to expect or how to navigate Wall Street,” she says, adding that although she worked extremely hard during her first couple of years and achieved success, her exposure and impact were limited because she kept her head down. “I assumed that if I worked hard, someone would recognize me, but it wasn’t until one of my managers challenged me to be more vocal and develop my network that my career took off.”

Smith is sure to share her advice across the spectrum of diversity found at Goldman Sachs, be it racial, gender, sexual orientation or cultural. “By celebrating our diversity, we create a more cohesive firm that makes us more effective in our day jobs.”

Goldman Sachs also values diversity outside of work. The firm sponsors and partners with several successful organizations that promote the development of diverse talent. Smith currently serves on the board of one such organization, Council of Urban Professionals (CUP). Founded in 2007, this non-profit’s mission is to connect, empower and mobilize the next generation of diverse business and civic leaders in financial services, legal, media, entertainment and both non-profit and public sectors.

“I love CUP because it allows us to supplement our leadership development as a firm. We can create networks and informal connections between Goldman Sachs professionals and our peers in the industry.”

Outside of work, Smith spends time with her husband and two sons, whom she says keep her grounded and focused.

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