Tag Archive for: Nancy Stern

Is it good or bad for your career to change your name?

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wedding-322034_640Congrats! You just got married, now what? Back to work and you have a choice to carry on with your maiden name at work and in life or you can embark upon the admin that comes with changing your last name after getting married . It is an arduous one from standing in line at the DMV, calling the bank and credit card companies and changing email addresses but then there is all that personal branding work to think about. What are you going to do on social media and professional branding sites like LinkedIn?
 
There are more than just the formalities when someone who has already established a career changes their name. There is the story behind the name change and the conversation that is prompted when you first introduce yourself with your new name. An opportunity is created to talk about your personal life and recent marriage and this can serve to deepen your relationships with your co-workers and clients. Being authentic has been written about as a positive factor for building trust at work so perhaps it is a great way to get to know people better but also could reduce your visibility as people don’t recognize your name immediately.
 
Below three women share their experiences and advice on changing your name after already establishing a career.
Keeping it private
Cynthia Zeltwanger, Executive Director at the Paulson Institute, chose not to change her name when she got married in 1992.  
As a private person, she believes the topic can quickly spawn a personal conversation.
“I am a private person and I did not want to get into my personal life with professional relationships,” she said. “If you got married, it’s fine but if you are getting divorced, people could assume you got married and it creates a personal conversation with people in business that you might want to avoid.”
Zeltwanger got married when she was climbing the corporate ladder at a subsidiary of Société Générale. She remembers getting heat from her French colleagues for not taking her husband’s name but she was at pivotal point in her career and wanted to be taken seriously.
“Not so much anymore but when a woman gets married she can be seen as not as serious about her job,” said Zeltwanger. “While men are seen as more reliable when they have kids, women are seen as less committed.”
She believes that women need to be more cautious about clarifying their career intentions when making a name change.
“Be clear about your goals and aspirations and make sure the people in charge of your career progression know your goals have not changed just because you got married,” she said.“Some people will question your commitment.”
Hyphenating it
Patty Kevin followed family members into the derivatives business and worked 10 years in the industry before getting married. Afraid she would lose her identity but at the same time excited to embark on this new chapter in her life, she decided to hyphenate her name to Kevin-Schuler.
 
She said that the hyphenation was a way to make her colleagues aware of the name change.
 
“The colleagues you are close to know what’s going on in your life,” she said. “However, it’s the people on the peripheral that you need to educate.”
 
As Schuler’s career took her to the Chicago Board Options Exchange and then to her current role as Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Business Development at the Boston Options Exchange, she felt more comfortable with her new identity.
 
Schuler finally dropped her maiden name when she got divorced because she wanted to have the same last name as her kids.
 
With the advent of email and social media, Schuler believes it is easy to notify people of a name change. She recommends adding a hyphen in your name or a note in your email signature about the transition.
 
However, Schuler says there are times when it is okay to go back and forth between identities.
 
“I still get asked if I am related to this relative or that one,” she said. “If I am talking to someone who knows my family, I will introduce myself as Patty Kevin. I admit my transition has been a fluid one.”
Embracing it
While Zeltwanger wanted to keep her personal life private and Schuler has kept her identity flexible, others have embraced their new names without looking back.
 
Nancy Stern, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary at Allston Trading, remembers getting married and swiftly changing her last name. 
 
“I remember changing my name, address and phone number all at the same time,” she said. “This was before Facebook and Linked In.”
 
Starting out as a lawyer at Gardner, Carton & Douglas, Stern was worried she would lose her connections in the process and have to build up her network again.Similar to Schuler, Stern also felt like she was losing a part of her identity. However, looking back, she is glad that she made the change and believes women should embrace this right to choose.
 
“I didn’t really see this as a compromise of my feminism because I chose my husband and chose to take his name. The alternative would be my father’s name and while I had a wonderful father whom I loved very much, we cannot choose our fathers,” she said.
 
Changing your name is usually associated with a significant life event and If you are good at self-promotion and marketing yourself, a name change is an exciting reason to reinvent yourself. Have fun with your new personal branding campaign.
By Jessica Darmoni
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Voice of Experience: Nancy Laethem Stern, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary, Allston Holdings LLC

stern nancy“Industries are always evolving, and adapting to the changes is a key part of your career,” says Nancy Laethem Stern, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary for Allston Holdings. “You can’t view the world as static; instead you have to be prepared to adapt and anticipate ways in which things are going to change.”

Wise advice from Stern, who has seen many of those changes throughout her career. After graduating from law school at the University of Michigan, she clerked for a federal judge for two years and then joined a large law firm as a litigation associate. She subsequently transferred to the corporate department, where she worked on M&A and securities matters. She was elected partner and named vice chair of the corporate department. After 10 years she moved to another large law firm, where she focused on M&A and corporate governance.

Stern joined Allston in July 2013, where she says she is excited to be in a role where she can have a strategic voice, helping the CEO make business decisions and cope with today’s evolving regulatory environment.

In fact, she cites that as the professional achievement she is most proud of so far: developing her judgment to help guide others in decision making. “I’m always working to refine and strengthen that skill set, but the opportunity I’ve had to tackle a variety of different challenging assignments throughout my career has been instrumental in developing strong judgment.”

As part of that strategic counsel role, she is excited about the opportunity her position offers to delve into the nuances of the business. Currently she’s learning about new tools to analyze risk and help inform business decisions, which she finds fascinating from a more quantitative perspective.

Helping Shape the Law

Echoing her assessment of the industry as one of rapid change, Stern has found that the pace of change has accelerated over her career. In the wake of Michael Lewis’ book Flash Boys about high-speed trading, there has been a lot of debate about market structure and how trading should be regulated. She has found that regulators, legislators and reporters alike are very interested in speaking with industry participants who are knowledgeable.

“It’s been a wonderful opportunity to help shape the law,” she says, adding that she recently had an opportunity to meet with senior staffers at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, along with congressional representatives who wanted to learn more from people who are immersed in the business.

“They want to know what the issues are and how they can impose regulations that will have the intended effect, while avoiding unintended consequences as much as possible. In such a complex industry, it’s challenging to develop the regulatory schemes that accomplish that.”

The Best Kept Secret on the Industry’s Opportunities for Women

Stern says that since many of the jobs in the trading industry require deep knowledge of math and computer science, women tend to be underrepresented, which in turn can make them feel unwelcome in the culture. But she sees immense opportunities for women who have these skills; and in fact, she says that the transition of trading from a physical interaction in a pit to an electronic interaction has contributed to the field becoming more of a meritocracy, which can benefit women.

“It involves anonymous trading on a screen, and that’s an area where women who have the skills can do very well,” she says, as it removes the physical nature of the business. “Unfortunately I don’t know how many women are aware of that. Trading is not a common career aspiration for a lot of women, but I believe that many would be well suited to it if they knew more about it and the skills needed.”

Stern says that the best advice she can give women beginning their careers is to not only become very competent at their jobs, but to couple that with being helpful. “This will encourage others to want you on their team, and mentors will appear. However, it’s vital that you start with the substantive work because people want to invest in people who have potential and have demonstrated aptitude. Start there and dig in and you will reap the benefits.”

Though there aren’t formal programs at her firm to advance women, she says that having a diverse group of people is very much part of the culture. “If you have the combination of a meritocracy that rewards hard and good work, with the core value of diversity as part of the fabric of the firm’s culture, it’s going to have more of an impact than a program. Here, we are driven by the desire to attract and retain the best people, whomever they are.”

Stern also mentors women both formally and informally. She participates as a mentor through WILD (Women in Listed Derivatives) and then supplements that with informal mentoring of women she meets through other paths, such as friends of friends.

For example, she recently met with a student from DePaul University whose mentor, a former law partner colleague, knew of Stern’s background. He connected them because of the student’s interest in M&A law and Stern’s willingness to give advice to others interested in traveling that path.

Stern is willing to invest the time in her mentoring role because she knows the benefits are double-sided. “I learn from those interactions as well,” she says. “Over the course of my career I’ve enjoyed connecting on a personal level with people I interact with professionally no matter where they are in their professional lives,” she said, and encourages her peers to realize the importance of successful women making the effort to connect with those beginning their journeys.

A Soccer Mom at Heart

Outside the office, Stern is devoted to her family and enjoys their life participating in activities, such as travel soccer, with her kids who are 11, 9 and 6. “I have a wonderful and supportive husband, and being with him and the kids is what I look forward to after a busy day at the office.”

By Cathie Ericson

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