Tag Archive for: movers and shakers

Movers and Shakers: Emily Griffen, Counsel, Shearman & Sterling

griffen_emily_webWelcome to Pride Week on The Glass Hammer — we’ll be profiling successful LGBT business women all week long!

As a litigator, Emily Griffen is accustomed to speaking out in court or in legal meetings on behalf of her clients. But, like most people and especially women, speaking out about her career didn’t come quite as easily.

That is why Griffen, a litigation Counsel in global law firm Shearman & Sterling’s Bay Area offices, advises other women to have confidence in their skills and knowledge.

“Be vocal about your career interests and find people who will give you the opportunity to share your opinion,” she says. “This is how you will learn and grow.”

Career in Litigation

To date, that approach has taken her far, even though she didn’t really have a definitive career plan set in stone after college. According to Griffen, she was drawn to law school and especially litigation because of the complexity of the subject matter and the enjoyment she found in grappling with challenging legal concepts. She honed her strengths, identified her interests and aligned her passion for legal research, analysis and brief writing with her ultimate professional goal: to join a global law firm with a strong litigation group.

When Griffen started at Shearman & Sterling’s San Francisco office, she was involved in a number of securities class action and shareholder derivative cases, but as the scope of the litigation group has expanded, so have Griffen’s role and responsibilities. In recent years, her work has grown to include white collar crime and consumer class action suits, as well as securities and corporate governance litigation, for major clients like LG Electronics Inc. and Toyota Motor Corporation – and that variety is something Griffen is excited about. She works regularly with Shearman & Sterling’s litigation partners in the Bay Area – Patrick Robbins, Jeffrey Facter and Stephen Hibbard – as well as with the firm’s other litigation partners and senior lawyers around the world. Griffen also spent a one-year rotation in Shearman’s international arbitration group in the firm’s Paris office, and continues to work with that group from time to time as well.

In Griffen’s field, it is somewhat rare for a case to go to trial – most disputes are settled well before a jury is empaneled. Yet in only her fourth year as a lawyer, Griffen found herself immersed in a three-week-long jury trial in San Jose in a securities-related employment dispute. “This was an incredible and unique experience for me so early in my career,” said Griffen, who argued complicated pre-trial motions in front of the judge and questioned witnesses at trial. “We won the case, obtaining a complete defense verdict, and I feel so fortunate to have had such a rewarding experience, which is rare for a securities litigator.”

More recently, Griffen found herself on the eve of trial again when she was part of the defense team representing the former CFO of a Silicon Valley software company in a civil enforcement action by the Securities and Exchange Commission. “We obtained a favorable settlement for our client at the last minute after years of litigation, but we had to prepare our case as if we were going to trial. It was a very exciting case to be involved in,” said Griffen. As part of the settlement avoiding trial, the SEC agreed to drop all of its fraud claims against Griffen’s client.

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Movers and Shakers: Lei Chen, Vice President and Head of Enterprise Growth Risk and Information Management, American Express

Lei Chen Lei Chen, Vice President and Head of Enterprise Growth Risk and Information Management for American Express, is very passionate about talent development. This is why she makes it a priority to be actively involved in many of the mentoring, leadership training, and networking programs available to executives at American Express.

“One of the things I am most proud of in my career at American Express is my involvement with the Executive Women’s Interest Network,” said Chen, who led the employee network, and has been instrumental in building it up as a critical platform to help advance and retain women talent through various activities including workshops, guest speaker series, roundtable discussions, mentoring programs and networking events.

“I think it is so important to reach out and help others develop their potential,” added Chen, “and one of the most effective ways to do this is by gathering together, sharing our experiences, learning best practices, and paying it forward.”

Career at American Express
After graduating from Michigan State University with a Ph.D. in Statistics, Chen joined the Risk and Information Management group at American Express where she had the opportunity to develop expertise in almost all areas of Risk Management and across multiple business units.

Currently, Chen serves as Vice President and Head of Enterprise Growth Risk and Information Management where her primary role is to develop risk management strategies and drive growth in the area of non-traditional payment products.

“One of the most rewarding aspects of my job is that I am directly involved in redefining our company’s brand by making our products more accessible and inclusive,” said Chen. “Enterprise Growth group is like a start up inside of American Express. With the launch of Bluebird, a checking & debit alternative, we use emerging technologies to expand our customer segment beyond our premium base, and to enable “financial inclusion” for the underserved population by traditional financial services.”

One of the challenges Chen acknowledged is delivering the brand’s promise for world class customer experience, trust, and security while achieving industry best risk performance.

According to Chen, the leadership support she has received from American Express has played a key role in her personal career development. One of the most notable programs Chen was selected to participate in was the Compass 45 Leadership Program, of which she was a participant in 2006. This was a twelve month program designed to help high potential and high performing leaders further develop their leadership skills through focused training and working on real projects that solve real business problems within the company.

“In addition to strengthening my leadership skills, I built strong connections and network among my peers,” explained Chen. She continued, “Before the program, I used to be a workaholic. Hearing and observing how my peers balanced their work and life, I had my ‘aha moment.’ I was inspired and realized that I can also have it all.”

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Movers and Shakers: May Tong, Vice President, Portfolio Management, Multi-Asset Strategies and Solutions, Voya Investment Management (formerly known as ING U.S. Investment Management)

women salesWelcome 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.

“Seek broad experiences,” advised May Tong. “Use these experiences to establish what your passions are and which path you want to take in your career. Then, go for it full steam ahead,” added Tong.

Capitalizing on Career Opportunities

Tong graduated from Boston College where she studied Accounting and Finance. Upon graduating, she accepted a position in the Quantitative Advisors group at Merrill Lynch Investment Management, where she would be responsible for managing index funds and enhanced index funds. “This was such a valuable experience for me, both professionally and personally,” said Tong, “because I learned every detail about how to manage a fund and I was fortunate enough to work with really great managers who ultimately became mentors to me in my career.”

Three months prior to the Merrill Lynch and BlackRock merger, one of Tong’s most influential managers at Merrill had moved on to Voya Investment Management to start up the Quant Portfolio Management team and brought her aboard to join his team shortly after. “He took me under his wing, guided me, and gave me the autonomy to help him build out the quantitative portfolio management group,” said Tong.

The financial crisis of 2008 resulted in some internal restructuring at Voya Investment Management, which ultimately opened more doors for Tong and led to career-changing opportunities. “I was forced to think about my future career path and the direction I wanted to take,” Tong noted. “This made me realize that while having skill and expertise in one particular area is a good thing, I wanted to gain a broader perspective of the industry.”

At this juncture, Tong decided to earn her Executive MBA from Columbia and was sponsored by Voya Investment Management. “It helped me grow and increased my value to my company,” remarked Tong.

In 2010, an opportunity presented itself within the Multi Asset Strategies & Solutions (MASS) group and Tong took advantage of the chance to expand her depth and breadth by managing asset classes as opposed to funds. “It was a steep learning curve, but also an incredible learning opportunity, “said Tong, “and now I have been working with the MASS team for almost three years.”

According to Tong, her ability to make this career move, and thrive in a different environment, was made possible by the strong leadership and support she experienced from her managers. “I cannot express enough how valuable it is to have good managers who give you the space and support to grow professionally,” stated Tong.

She also credits her success to the fact that she stepped outside her comfort zone and took her career in a different direction. “There are days I miss the black and white aspect of fund management, but I love the fast-paced and dynamic environment of the multi asset strategy team,” explained Tong.

Maintaining Equilibrium

According to Tong, maintaining a healthy balance between personal and professional endeavors throughout her career is something that she is proud of. “Finding that happy medium is certainly different for everyone,” said Tong, “but I have found what works for me and in turn I find that I am extremely satisfied in both my work and home life.”

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Movers and Shakers: Triinu Magi, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Neura

happy man with womenTriinu Magi, Co-Founder and CTO of Neura, a company leading the trend on the Internet of Things, has always believed in paving her own path. Growing up in Estonia, Magi was instilled early on with the idea that everyone had the opportunity to create their own successful future. This mentality and entrepreneurial work ethic has shaped Magi throughout her professional development.

“This established the foundation that made me the leader I am today,” said Magi.

Drawn to Innovation
Magi entered the workforce at the young age of nineteen and she noted that in every role she held, innovation and technology were always two key focal points. Before she branched out on her own to create Neura, Magi spent over fifteen years working in various computer and network security related positions.

During the period when Estonia was establishing their independence from Russia, Magi played a key role in developing the Estonian e-government services and she was instrumental in creating an independent security analysis for Estonia’s e-voting system. Later in her career, Magi worked in research and innovation for Israel’s RSA Security.

“Without these experiences, I would not be able to hold the role I do at Neura. I consider each of these roles to have been stepping stones that have led me to where I am today,” said Magi. “I definitely feel like I was in the right place at the right time,” added Magi.

While Magi acknowledges the part that her previous roles have played in her success, she is proud of the fact that she had the courage to follow her passion and her heart by forming her own company. “I encourage every woman to follow their passions by doing what they love,” said Magi, “and this will involve a lot of hard work, but in the end it will be extremely rewarding.”

Magi has always gravitated toward innovation throughout her career, which is why it is no surprise that she started Neura one year ago. “We are excited about the work we are doing with the Internet of Things and exploring the interconnectivity of technology that will ultimately make our digital experiences more personalized and more human,” Magi explained.

She continued, “I believe that Neura will be the solution that enables the Internet of Things movement to provide trustful, intelligent and adaptive services to connected devices’ users. This is the future of technology, bringing intelligence to connected ecosystems, and we’re very excited to be a part of it.”

Women in Technology
“Do whatever it is you love to do,” advised Magi. According to Magi, women need to be careful not to create their own barriers by self-selecting out of opportunities. “By doubting our abilities and lacking confidence, we enable the negative stereotypes that surround women in technology,” said Magi.

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Movers and Shakers: Mary Ruane, Senior Manager, Assurance, PwC Ireland

Women workingOne of the most important lessons that Mary Ruane, Senior Manager of Assurance at PwC Ireland, has learned throughout her career is that if you do not take the initiative and express your interest in new opportunities, they might pass you by. “If you want to try something new or different, just speak up,” advised Ruane. She continued, “There are endless opportunities and you will find that taking initiative and displaying an eagerness to learn can go a long way.”

With this attitude, Ruane has been able to enjoy a variety of different roles and experiences at PwC, where she is currently responsible for establishing and building strong relationships with clients, internally and externally. “It is an interesting time in asset management right now, partnering with our Clients who have weathered the storm of the credit crisis and are now dealing with the wave of regulation that followed,” said Ruane.

Career Path at PwC

Ruane graduated from Dublin City University in 2001 with a degree in Accounting and Finance. Shortly after, she joined PwC and planned to complete her auditing qualifications while working full-time. “I joined Assurance and was assigned to the asset management department, which was more by accident than design at the time. However, I quickly recognized that asset management was a growth industry that held a lot of different opportunities and that a chartered accounting qualification would provide a great basis for any professional career in Ireland or internationally” she recalled.

Ruane had a lot on her plate as she was learning the asset management industry, assisting clients with their audits, and studying for her professional qualifications exams, but after she passed her exams Ruane expressed her interest in supporting the development of young PwC professionals facing the journey she had just completed. . “Every year, we receive training on both technical skills and soft skills, and when the opportunity to get involved in the learning and education department presented itself, I took advantage of it,” said Ruane.

She trained and worked as a tutor in the learning and education department for about two months where her role involved teaching the intensive training course to new associates. Ruane enjoyed training so much that she continued to teach courses for the next four years. “At one point, I had trained the same group of people for three years in a row at different career levels, which was an extremely rewarding thing to do,” Ruane noted.

As a result of her commitment to training and on the job coaching, Ruane recently received a coaching award to recognize her developmental impact. “I benefitted greatly from coaching, and it is something that I have always believed strongly in from my first day at PwC,” she noted.

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Movers and Shakers: Nicole Douillet, Vice President, Credit Suisse

 

women smilingAccording to Nicole Douillet, Vice President, Credit Suisse, when you are young and high achieving coming out of college, entering the workforce can be a difficult transition, especially in an environment like Wall St. “It can seem disappointing if your career trajectory is not progressing as quickly as you imagined, but it is important to remember that a career path is very rarely a straight line,” advised Douillet.

“Take a breath, have patience, and look at the bigger picture,” she added.

Douillet was the first woman hired on the block trading desk at UBS in 2000. “My career in trading has been pretty tumultuous since I started in 2000,” said Douillet. “In fact, my very first day on the UBS desk was the last day the NASDAQ 100 closed above 4,000,” she continued. Douillet left UBS to pursue a job in quantitative trading at Credit Suisse where she eventually moved to the systematic market making group. She said, “I have been able to see a lot of different cycles in the markets from the beginning of 2000 through today.”

In 2007, Douillet was promoted to VP a year ahead of everyone in her class and was selected to be a part of the inaugural class of Credit Suisse Emerging Leaders program. Through this program, Credit Suisse identifies high potential associates and vice presidents and tasks them with creating solutions for problems the executive board is struggling with.

“My group was given the question, ‘how does an investment bank push innovation?’” said Douillet, “which is difficult considering the regulatory environment in which investments banks operate.” The challenge was to figure out how to inspire innovation among employees while staying within the regulatory framework. Douillet explained, “We devised a system of encouraging and rewarding innovation and presented our idea to the senior leaders running the program. The idea was rolled out as a pilot program in the IT division and later became a bank wide initiative due to the success of the pilot.”

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Movers and Shakers: Maya Venkatraman, Vice President, Senior Research Analyst of ING U.S. Investment Management

women on boardsWhen Maya Venkatraman, Vice President and Senior Research Analyst at ING U.S. Investment Management graduated from college with a degree in Painting & Fine Arts, she never envisioned a career path that would lead her toward financial services. “There is no road map in the arts the way there is in many other fields,” she said “and I was fortunate enough to recognize this as I was finishing up my undergraduate degree.”

Being raised in a family of entrepreneurs, Maya developed an interest in how businesses run very early on. When she realized a career in the Arts was not her calling, Maya decided to attend business school at Cornell where earned her MBA with a concentration in finance. She explained, “Finance seemed like a really natural fit for me since I love numbers, the story they tell, and the picture they paint about a business.”

Career Path

Although she was ready to begin her career in finance, Maya realized that securing a job in the industry might be more difficult because she lacked the job experience that many other MBA graduates have. She persevered, however, and continued to network until she found the perfect opportunity to get her foot in the door. “I was lucky enough to meet some senior executives from ABN Amro during a trip to Holland in my first year of business school and I was offered a summer internship,” said Maya.

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Movers and Shakers: Karen Catlin, Developing powerful women leaders in the tech industry

working on a computerIn college, Karen Catlin chose to major in computer science at Brown University, despite the fact that she was not extremely familiar with computers. But as it turned out, Catlin discovered early on that she enjoyed the challenge presented to her through her computer science studies. “I enjoyed solving problems and I loved math, so it was a nice combination that allowed me to explore problem solving techniques based on mathematics,” said Catlin.

After a successful career working as a senior executive in the technology industry, Catlin is now focused on making sure women working in tech today have the resources to be successful. “I want to make sure women in tech are not opting out of the industry for the wrong reasons,” explained Catlin. “I want women to feel empowered, educated, and encouraged to have the career that they aspire to.”

Highlights in Catlin’s Career

After graduating, Catlin accepted a job at Brown researching hypertext, which was an innovative function at the time. “This was a great opportunity for me get involved with this research that was growing at the time,” explained Catlin.

Catlin moved to London with her husband, who is originally from England. Here she had the opportunity to work at a Hitachi Research Lab that was based in the UK. “It was a great experience not only working in the UK, but also working for a Japanese firm,” Catlin said. “I highly recommend that everyone gains some international experience if they can. It teaches you the skills that you need in order to be effective in different environments and different cultures.”

Although her experience working abroad allowed Catlin to gain valuable knowledge and add essential skills to her toolkit, she and her husband, who is a software developer, both felt like if they were going to work seriously in the technology industry, there was only one place for them to be. So, they packed their bags and headed back to the US with their sights set on Silicon Valley.

Catlin immediately found a job working for Go Corporation, a company that was working on tablet technology long before anyone else. She recalled being intimidated at the time even though she had a great technical background and education in technology. “If I knew the term ‘Impostor Syndrome’ at the time, I would have definitely said that I had it,” said Catlin. “I wasn’t sure I was up to getting an engineering job, so instead I got a job writing software and documentation that would teach other engineers how to write code.”

While she loved teaching other engineers, Catlin also discovered that she also enjoyed the challenge of getting things organized. She explained, “At the time Go was experiencing a lot of changes to their software specs, and they needed someone to guide the development team through this process. So I become involved in technical project management. I transitioned from being a software engineer to a manager at that point.”

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Movers and Shakers: Karyn Twaronite, the EY Americas Inclusiveness Officer

women working mentoring “Differences do matter,” began Karyn Twaronite, the EY Americas Inclusiveness Officer and a partner of Ernst & Young LLP. “I’m excited about expanding the definition of diversity as it applies to all men and women.”

She explained, “Many years ago, diversity work was about compliance, looking at numbers and representation. This is important, but there’s more to it than that. I like to think of the evolution as the three Cs. The first C is compliance and was focused on following the rules. The second C is character — diversity was seen as the right thing to do and something that your company needed to do to be viewed as modern. Today, we’re at the third C, which stands for commerce. It also focuses on making a difference to top and bottom lines in business.”

Twaronite continued, “Today we see diversity and inclusiveness, or D&I, as a way to further deliver quality service, innovate, and solve problems. For so many companies this is a competitiveness issue, not only to be seen as employers of choice, but also to enhance the quality of work. Diverse and inclusive teams provide better service to clients, and our high-quality service to our clients is key to our brand.”

She added, “I’m fortunate that I work at a company where D&I are embedded in our culture, and where D&I get a seat at the leadership table.”

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Movers and Shakers: Natalie Runyon, Director, Global Security, Thomson Reuters

Natalie RunyonNatalie Runyon, Director of Global Security at Thomson Reuters, wishes she had known just how important it was to seek out leadership training and development early on in her career. Since she cannot go back in time, Runyon is doing the next best thing. She is developing female leaders through the “How to be the CEO of Your Career” program that she created and launched through the New York City Chapter of the women’s network at Thomson Reuters. Supporting the advancement of women through this program has certainly been one of the most rewarding aspects of Runyon’s career because she gets to combine her passions of leadership training and providing a resource for professional women.

Career Path

One might say that Natalie Runyon’s career path was anything but linear. Yet all of her experiences have contributed to her becoming an influential leadership strategist for women who want to change the world, in her own words. Runyon was born and raised in Louisiana, and after graduating from Louisiana State University with a degree in International Trade and Finance, she was ready to explore life outside the Pelican State. Runyon headed to Washington, D.C. to work for the CIA, an opportunity she secured the year before when working as an intern the summer before her senior year of college. Determined to find her way to Wall St. to work in the financial services industry, Runyon attended The George Washington University part-time, while working for the CIA, eventually earning her MBA.

In 2003, Runyon packed her bags for New York City to begin her career in the Global Security group at Goldman Sachs. “This was shortly after 9/11, and I had the opportunity to get in on the ground floor of the crisis management program,” said Runyon. She continued, “It was in this role that I discovered my love for training at all organizational and operational levels.” Runyon excelled at crisis management, but after a few years she began to feel the symptoms of burnout set in. “Crisis management is 24/7, and when you are working in global security, the work never stops,” she said.

Recognizing the signs of burnout, Runyon took advantage of a unique opportunity in 2008 to work on rebuilding the go to the Gulf Coast and help victims of Hurricane Katrina recover and begin to rebuild from the disaster that hit the area in 2005. “I had a personal stake in this cause,” said Runyon, “since my grandmother lost her home in the hurricane. Helping with the relief efforts also gave me the opportunity to connect with people outside of the office, which was so rewarding.”

During this time, Runyon received her Leadership Coaching Certification, which was a skill she would be able to apply effectively during her time helping the coastal communities of Louisiana get back on track and in her next endeavor. That same year, Runyon had the opportunity to visit Ghana to do humanitarian work with impoverished children. Speaking about her experience working in Africa, Runyon said, “For the first time, I understood on a much deeper level what it meant to be part of the non-dominant group.” She continued, “It was through these experiences that I learned how important it was to give people the confidence to speak up.”

With a renewed sense of purpose and an interest in how to pursue equality in the workplace through leadership development, Runyon returned to her position at Goldman Sachs. By 2011, Goldman Sachs had undergone major restructuring and Runyon’s position was eliminated after several rounds of layoffs. However, like all of the events in Runyon’s career, this bump in the road had a silver lining.

In 2012, Runyon accepted a job at Thomson Reuters in the security team. Following a series of events, Runyon quickly rose to become the most senior person in her region after 5 months on the job. Runyon was able to apply her experience in crisis management and leadership training and development to take charge.

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