Tag Archive for: VOE

Voice of Experience: Efrat Ravid, CMO, ContentSquare

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By Louise Magrathefrat

I’m a great believer that women have what it takes to be great engineers, says ContentSquare’s Efrat Ravid. “It’s imperative that more woman study engineering and technology to ensure that more women enter the field and become technology leaders. Women should be represented at least at a 50% ratio in engineering schools, in engineering companies, and in every aspect of the technology world.”

Encouraging Women to Enter the World of Technology

As an engineering student, Ravid was in a small class with 22 other students and only four of them were women. Many years later when she went for her MBA, she was in a class with 56 students, and still only six of them were women. Fifteen years later, and nothing had changed. Ravid was determined to play her part in changing this. “I wanted to make a difference, to encourage and support women in the world of technology to try and address this imbalance,” she says

She sees the demand in the market for engineers, and she knows that if women get their degree in engineering, they will be able to find great jobs and add value to their companies from day one.

Ravid began her career as an engineer, where she was sent to inland China to work directly with manufacturers and factories. Although a very young engineer at the time, she wanted to take the next step with her product and interact directly with customers to make better product versions. It was in doing this that she found her passion for the customer experience. She spent her time traveling around China and Korea and developed products that customers appreciated and got value from. “I was determined from the start to be successful, and through hard work, commitment and enthusiasm, I saw the business grow,” she comments.

Sponsorship and Mentoring of Women in Technology

Today, Ravid is the Chief Marketing Officer of an exciting SaaS company, and uses her position to mentor and sponsor other women. “I believe it is up to us as women to empower other women to become leaders in the technology industry,” she says

Ravid is passionate about hiring ambitious women who promise to do a fantastic job for ContentSquare. She believes that if women are capable and engaged that they will be successful no matter what their circumstances are (she employed the first female sales person for the US when she was six months pregnant) and comments, “When you are engaged, you are engaged. A woman can be amazing at many things at a time, and someone who is dedicated in one area can easily be dedicated in another.”

A week after this sales person was hired, she traveled with ContentSquare to a trade show in Las Vegas and she was amazing. She was the first one to show up, the last one to leave. This was a very successful woman who cared about her career, cared about her kids, and cared about her family. “I look for the value and talent in each person I hire, and take this mindset and apply it to everything that ContentSquare and I do,” she says.

Motivation for a Career in Technology Starts at Home

Ravid encourages her own children to enter in to a career in technology. Although she tells them that they can be whatever they want to be, she encourages them to study math and science.

Ravid’s daughter has accompanied her to work and was fascinated by all the successful women in the company (the head of product is a woman, many of the customer success managers are women and there are female operations managers as well). “She was so caught up with all the female role models she saw that she simply said at the end of the day ‘I’m in’,” she comments.

When Janine Tesori won her Tony Award in 2015 for Best Original Score, she told the crowd that as a young woman she didn’t realize she could have a career in music until she saw a woman act on Broadway. Holding up her Tony, she said, “For girls, you have to see it to be it. We stand on the shoulders of other women who have come before us.”

So to all the tech-women out there, Ravid thinks it’s time to bare our shoulders to the world, and give women a positive vision for success in technology.

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Voice of Experience: Kerone Vatel, Managing Director, Risk Division, Goldman Sachs

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KeroneBy Cathie Ericson

“When you have a seat at the table, use it,” advises Goldman Sachs’ Kerone Vatel. “In my 20s I often had an opportunity to interact with executives as part of strategic conversations, but I was reluctant to share my point of view. I know now that in each of those moments I missed an opportunity to influence the organization. I was more focused on my neuroses rather than on the value I could add, but recognizing this has helped to sharpen my focus and my approach in the workplace.”

Adventures in Careers: From Engineering to Business Success

Kerone studied chemical engineering at MIT, a field she pursued and was interested in as her father had been an engineer. While she was drawn to the way engineers are trained to review, evaluate and solve problems, she ultimately realized that rather than publishing research in academic journals – a career many of her classmates were pursuing – she was motivated to use her skills to disrupt existing processes.

She parlayed that interest into a career in business, initially seeking a private equity role. However, just three days before she was supposed to begin her new position, came “Career Stumbling Block Number One,” as the firm let go her entire analyst group.

Undaunted, Kerone sought the counsel of MIT’s career department, which directed her towards Capital One. The company was pioneering a novel approach to leveraging analytics and data, which interested her. Kerone joined as an analyst in the business development group, where she leveraged her math and coding skills to help grow the portfolio of low-risk credit card assets. She also attributes her six and a half years at Capital One with providing her the platform to understand strategy and analyze consumer needs.

Kerone soon relocated to New York, where her husband worked on Wall Street. They were starting a family, which made her commute to Virginia difficult. While on maternity leave, her husband was supportive and encouraged her to consider every option. She soon realized that she couldn’t leave her baby and commute up and down the East Coast, and subsequently made the difficult decision to leave Capital One.

Soon the time was right to investigate new options, and she applied for a role in Derivatives Operations Risk at Goldman Sachs, which she assumed would be a 9- to-5 type job. While her new position proved to be far more immersive, she enjoyed the challenge of a new role, and then decided to pivot her career even further, leveraging her experience in writing code. She found analytics projects to “tinker with,” as she describes it. Under the leadership of a female managing director, she helped to improve efficiencies and highlight high-risk issues in the Operations Division.

From there she moved into a new role, where her team partnered with the Strategist group, many of whom had quantum math and science backgrounds. She eventually transferred to the Operational Risk group in a firmwide role, where she was brought in to support strategy and help develop a more centralized construct when thinking about the full range of operational risk exposure, from technology issues to natural disasters. It’s a position she finds particularly fascinating as she has helped grow the team significantly and developed strong partnerships and collaborations as the firm reframed its approach to Operational Risk management.

Looking ahead, Kerone is excited about Goldman Sachs’ launch into the consumer market, and the opportunity to increase purchasing power and bring the firm’s best-in-class fiduciary services to Main Street.

Words of Wisdom Gleaned Along the Way – And Passed Along

Kerone has learned a number of valuable lessons during her journey; chief among them is to bring your whole self to work. “I felt relatively unsure of myself until I hit my mid-30s and always tried to morph myself into the styles of the people around me,” she says. “Today, I just focus on being my best self and no longer feel pressure to adapt a style that is foreign to me.”

For example, she recently had a colleague comment that she looked particularly serious one morning. “I’d had a tough morning with the kids, which I shared with my colleague. It’s ok to bring yourself to work and to show vulnerability, but it’s very important to provide team members with the context for what’s happening and why.”

In a similar vein, Kerone recommends that women never worry alone. She believes that it is important to leverage the collective ideas and history of the organization to ensure success. When she’s asked to take on a difficult new project, she will always say “yes,” but now realizes the importance of soliciting advice upfront to tease out pitfalls and key enablers and to collect diverse points of view to shape the solution. “Earlier in my career, I kept my head down and worked extremely long hours – in retrospect, I wish that I had harnessed the power of the broader group or advocated for more resources.”

And finally, her work at Goldman Sachs has cemented the important lesson of, “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, bring others with you.” Being named managing director was a defining moment as she reflected on the people who had mentored and sponsored her, in addition to junior colleagues from whom she’d learned along the way. “In that moment when I learned I was being named a managing director, it was so clear that everything is due to the effort of a group, all of us pushing things through together by working toward common goals.”

Kerone currently serves as the Risk Division sponsor for Goldman Sachs’ Women’s Career Strategies Initiative (WCSI), a group whose emphasis is on advocating for women who are on the cusp of being promoted to vice president. The purpose is to help women form connections throughout the firm and in their divisions, as well as learn the rules of the road from senior professionals.

“It’s important to me to help younger people get a head start as they begin their careers,” she says.

Taking Time For Herself and Her Family

Last year, Kerone committed to taking at least one short vacation each month to recharge, which she has enjoyed. She also recently took up snowboarding, a big step after a skiing accident early in her 20s.

But most importantly, Kerone savors the time she spends with her husband and her children, ages 11 and 7, gardening with others on their block in Bedford Stuyvesant. They have replanted trees that had been ravaged by storms and brightened the neighborhood with flowers, efforts that paid off after recently being named “The Greenest Block in Brooklyn.”

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Voice of Experience: Helen Cook, Counsel, Shearman & Sterling

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 By Cathie EricsonHelen Cook

Helen Cook describes her career as a jagged line veering all over the place. A native Australian, she first started at a law firm there, but took a job in Dubai sight unseen after being bit by the travel bug. Working on energy and infrastructure projects in the Middle East region, she developed a specialty in nuclear energy, which she took to Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman and then to Shearman & Sterling, where she is a counsel in the Washington, DC office. Today she focuses on international nuclear law, a field she never dreamed of entering, particularly given that Australia has no nuclear power plants.

Harnessing the Opportunities in Nuclear

“Had I known I would eventually enter this field, I might have combined my law degree with an engineering or science degree; because as a nuclear lawyer you have to understand the basic technicalities of nuclear energy, but I’ve done my best to learn on the job and from people in the industry,” she says.

In fact, along the way she even wrote a legal textbook, The Law of Nuclear Energy, not long after she had ventured into the nuclear sector. After complaining that there were few useful resources available for lawyers starting out in the area, a former mentor encouraged her to write the book she would have found useful. The resulting piece was published in 2013, and a second edition is currently in the works.

Since there are relatively few new nuclear new build projects in the world today, she considers herself extremely privileged to be working on the largest – a deal that is close to being finalized after a two-year investment of time in the Middle East. In addition, she is working on two in the UK and one in Turkey.

Nuclear is a complicated industry, but despite its challenges she believes that the focus on climate change in global energy policy should see enhanced recognition of the benefits of nuclear energy. “The nuclear industry also needs to more clearly and credibly articulate the potential of nuclear energy to help achieve global warming goals,” she says, adding that its emissions are comparable to those of wind power and hydroelectric power.

Challenges and Opportunities in Conquering the Industry as a Younger Woman

The generational imbalance in nuclear industry started around in the 1990s when people left the industry after Chernobyl, so she says there’s a lot of gray hair at most major nuclear conferences – and it’s mostly on men. “It’s probably hard to find a more male-dominated sector out there,” she says. And, a lot of her work is in the Middle East, where being a professional female can be more challenging.

Her hope is that more young women will be interested in a career in the sector, but she acknowledges they have to be willing to be bold and challenge themselves to do things that might seem out of step – citing the book she authored as an example. “If my boss hadn’t suggested I write it, it wouldn’t have occurred to me, but it helped establish my personal brand and reputation in the market,” she notes.

At Shearman & Sterling, she considers herself fortunate that there are many strong women leaders in the project development and finance practice and throughout the firm, as well as male mentors, who are willing to push you forward. “It’s crucial that men will put you in a room full of other men and not hesitate to give you the lead negotiating role. There have been a number of male partners who have been instrumental in pushing me into leadership roles, which have had tremendous impact on my success as a woman,” she says.

Since her work most often entails a weekly grueling international flight or two, she realizes more than most the value of coming home, where it feels like a vacation as soon as she walks in the door. Her ideal vacation at home? Going for a run around the Georgetown waterfront and cooking a meal with her partner in the evening.

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Voice of Experience: Sheridan Ash, Technology and Investments Director, PwC UK; Women in Technology Leader for PwC UK

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By Cathie Ericson

It can be intimidating to be faced with a male-dominated culture, notes PwC’s Sheridan Ash. While she has learned to be resilient, she stresses she didn’t always feel that way, struggling with worry that was disproportionate. While she has since become proactive about managing her career, she believes she could have reached her potential sooner if she’d done that earlier. “I help myself by helping others,” she says, adding that her drive comes from helping other people avoid some of the road blocks she encountered.

From Model to Tech Leader

Ash is proud of the winding road her career has taken, from school dropout to a catwalk model to her current post as technology and investments director.

Schoolwork was a challenge, as she suffered from undiagnosed dyslexia, so she left at age 15 and launched a modeling career in London, with a specialty of catwalk modeling that allowed her to travel from Milan to Paris. After having a son at a young age, she realised she needed a more stable career path and went back to school while her son was a baby to earn her degree, landing a position in the pharmaceutical business.

Although she knew she wanted to pursue additional studying, she approached it with trepidation, since schoolwork wasn’t easy given her dyslexia: Nevertheless Ash found a way to compensate and overcame the challenge to earn her MBA at Imperial College. That’s where she began looking at technology from a health perspective, working with the National Health Service and private health care providers. Winning an award for having the best dissertation gave her an excellent boost of confidence, further augmented by her work as a research assistant for some professors writing a book on technology and innovation.

“I was hooked,” she says, joining consulting firm Accenture in the health tech team and then moving to PwC first with the health team, but then ascending as she saw an opportunity to grow the business, ultimately working for the head of technology and investments across the entire firm.

Nurturing the Next Generation

Ash is particularly proud of the Women in Tech group she helped launch when she realized there was clearly a diversity issue in the technology team. Celebrating its fourth anniversary in November, it has been successful in attracting and retaining women as they address what she calls a societal problem with not enough young women choosing to pursue tech careers.

Her work with the group has also raised her own profile within the firm, in part leading to her current role where she is helping implement what she calls “massive change” within PwC. “We want to be the leading tech-enabled professional services firm, and while we already do a lot of great work in technology, I am proud to be leading the strategy work on developing our capabilities in technology innovation and how emerging technologies are converging to create new businesses utilising such advances as blockchain and drones.”

She sees the two goals intersecting, as they develop new businesses and ways of working while at the same time focusing on how to attract women into those types of jobs. One opportunity she sees is in demonstrating to women how tech has a positive impact on the world. “Women need to feel that what they do has a large impact,” she notes.

While there is considerable bias given the primarily male-dominated workplace, she says that 90 percent of the time it’s not intentional but inevitable that behaviors and cultures develop around specific types of people and what they like.

“Tackling that unconscious bias is one of the key challenges we need to overcome,” she says, and more role models is an important place to start.

On that note, she encourages women to be observant when they apply for a job about whether the company has a well-publicized and open program around diversity and gender. “Think about whether they put a female in front of you for an interview or had diversity represented at recruiting events,” she says, as that will tell you what their culture is truly like.

And women at her stage need to be actively involved in helping to develop the next generation, as more than mentors but as champions and proactive ambassadors for at least one person to help them develop and get promoted.

To that end, she has formed a group with some external partners and together they have developed a manifesto to work together as a group of companies to tackle the issue of women in technology.

Her passion for helping women has extended to small investments she has recently made to help women in developing countries become capable of running their own businesses, as part of a focus to help women in other countries become independent.

Even with her busy career and passion for supporting women, Ash takes time to travel. “Because I had my son young and didn’t get together with my partner until later in life, we have been making up for lost time over the past seven years,” she says.

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Voice of Experience: Elizabeth Byrnes, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs Engineering

Liz By Cathie Ericson

Elizabeth Byrnes knows that you have to find your voice to be successful in your career. “You can have a great idea but unless you share it by confidently speaking up in the workplace, you won’t be able to effectively influence people and shape outcomes. Engineering is an interactive process — every day teams come up with new ideas and brainstorm together to refine them. When you exhibit passion and enthusiasm for your work, others are excited to work alongside you.”

She says that it took her awhile to find a leadership style that worked well and was consistent with her personality and values. “When I was young, I thought I needed to mimic how others led, but over time I figured out that while I could incorporate qualities I admired in others, I needed to stay true to who I am and incorporate them into my own personal leadership style, which I continue to refine and improve to this day.”

Building a strong, diverse network of colleagues and friends has also been an essential ingredient in Byrnes’ success. “I am more effective when I have people to bounce ideas off and people who have perspectives and skills different than my own. Relationships across our firm and throughout the industry and community at large are super valuable. These are people I can call on to provide advice and help think through and solve hard problems.”

Artificial Intelligence Paves the Way to Wall Street

Byrnes knows first-hand that you’re not always going to be aware of all existing job possibilities initially upon entering the workforce. For example, when she was pursuing her PhD in psychology, she developed an expertise in artificial intelligence and expert systems after analyzing ways to have computers interpret and summarize psychological tests. At the time, most of her colleagues saw computers as number-crunching machines not well suited to the human sciences. But, Byrnes saw an opportunity for computers to help with patient care and speed diagnosis. Not everyone in the psychology industry agreed, she says, and resistance to change was high. “I learned that it’s not enough just to have a great idea, you have to understand how to drive adoption and influence change—a very important lesson!”

After completing her PhD, she joined her professor’s software start-up in the healthcare field before eventually joining Wall Street.

“Wall Street and the financial services industry are very open-minded to technological innovation, which is refreshing and exciting,” she says. “I realized this was an industry I could grow and thrive in, and I have. There is never a shortage of complicated problems to solve and super smart and motivated people to help solve them, which means I am never bored and love my work.”

Upon joining the financial services industry, she initially worked at Manufacturers Hanover and Bankers Trust before joining Merrill Lynch, where she spent 11 years in various technology and leadership roles. She moved to Goldman Sachs in 2007 and today leads the Global Investment Research Technology group.

“When I think about what’s important now in the industry, most roads lead to data. You can’t make decisions without good data, and there has been an increase in appreciation for data modelling, analytics, entitlements and governance,” Byrnes said. “A common thread is ensuring individuals have timely access to the information they need to make informed decisions, while at the same time protecting and safeguarding this data.”

Building a Pipeline by Reaching Girls Before They Opt Out

As co-head of the Americas Women in Technology Network (WIT), Byrnes is committed to growing diverse talent and reaching and inspiring the next generation of women computer engineers. She knows firsthand the importance of building a pipeline – women only comprise 17 percent of computer science graduates in the United States. “We have to build a foundation, and the numbers aren’t where we need them to be. We have to reach back into the junior high schools and high schools to encourage girls to learn to code and to pursue studies in computer science at university,” she says. Meeting this need spurred her to champion Goldman Sachs’ partnership with Girls who Code (GWC).

Goldman Sachs was the first financial services firm to partner with GWC in 2013. Since that initial partnership, Goldman Sachs hosts 40 high school girls each summer at the firm’s New York headquarters. Over 100 WIT volunteers serve as mentors, curriculum advisors, event coordinators and speakers over the summer. “It is a true team effort,” says Byrnes. But this engagement doesn’t stop once the summer program ends. “We can’t just teach them when they’re 16 and then step back, because there are too many opportunities for them to get discouraged along the way,” Byrnes points out.

With her WIT colleagues, she helped create an alumni program to host quarterly meet-ups so the girls have an opportunity to stay connected via a supportive community of friends and role models and continuously learn about technical topics and careers. Over the summer, 80 girls attended an alumni event that focused on cybersecurity.

“Having these students see other women in technical roles is a very powerful way to give young women confidence and introduce them to the community, which is good for the industry overall. We need to reach these girls before they opt out.” Once girls enter the engineering workforce, she encourages them to stay technical. Often, women join the workforce with communications and people skills, and then are routed into project management or business analyst roles too early, which can short circuit their technical learning.

She encourages her colleagues to mentor young women, which she believes is critically important to success and retention. “We have to link arms as a community and help the next generation,” she says. “I felt like I had to make a go of it on my own and it doesn’t have to be that way. We can change the industry by encouraging more young women to enter computer science and then offering the coaching and support system to retain them.”

Byrnes is also active with organizations such as Columbia Girls in STEM and Lesbians Who Tech. She recently attended the annual Grace Hopper conference, which convenes female engineers and students to discuss updates in the industry.

Outside of work, Byrnes enjoys horseback riding with her daughters, playing with her golden retrievers and cooking and entertaining with her husband. “Being with family and friends is the best,” she says.

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Voice of Experience: Vidya Lakshmi, Managing Director, Head of Human Capital Management, Goldman Sachs, Bengaluru

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Lakshmi

By Cathie Ericson

“A senior leader once asked me asked me about which seat I would choose when I enter a conference room and I promptly responded that I’d like to be seated in a quiet corner. The advice I received was to take a central position in the conference room to ensure that I was heard.” Vidya Lakshmi says she encourages women to be deliberate about their career by building technical expertise and firmly being rooted in one’s passion.

An Illustrious Career Spanning Functions and Locations

Born in India, Vidya spent a large part of her childhood in Kenya. She moved back to India and enrolled in college to complete her bachelor’s degree in economics.  She then earned her Chartered Accountancy degree (CPA equivalent), and began her journey in the corporate world.

In her first job as an auditor with PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Vidya gained exposure to clients across different industries, had the opportunity to travel and strengthened her technical skillset as an auditor.

Vidya joined Goldman Sachs in 2004 and with no background in banking, her foray into the world of investment banking was one of the risks she took early on in her career that paid healthy dividends. Looking back on this decision, she encourages women to step out of their comfort zone, learn to say an emphatic ‘yes’ to opportunities and be vocal about their ambitions.  

She spent her first five years at Goldman Sachs in banking, initially in India and then relocated to New York in 2007. Working in investment banking in the middle of the financial crisis in New York was a key learning moment in her career. “The New York stint taught me resilience, the need to make tough decisions and pushed me to strive for excellence in everything I do,” says Vidya.

Since then, Vidya has relocated back to India and has held multiple roles, including serving as the Chief of Staff to the CEO of Goldman Sachs Bengaluru, building the analytic and quantitative capabilities in the Securities Division and running a myriad of functions within Human Capital Management.

In 2016, Vidya assumed her current role as head of Human Capital Management in Bengaluru. Currently, she is excited about engaging and hiring top engineering talent from engineering campuses across India to address cutting-edge areas such as machine learning, process automation and workflow digitization. Another key aspect of her role is responding to the needs of a millennial talent pool, as 85 percent of the Bengaluru office is composed of millennials.

Helping Overcome Cultural Norms and Other Challenges for Women

 Vidya observes that Indian women typically step back from their careers in order to balance family life, and are likely to quit jobs mid-career due to the “double burden syndrome,” a culture in which both men and women feel family and household duties are primarily a woman’s responsibility. Due to these social norms, she says organizations play a critical role in fostering an environment that supports and retains women in the workforce.

“My husband is a CPA, and given the strong career trajectories we both have had, the traditional roles expected to be played by husband and wife have become blurred. We have supported each other through the highs and lows of our careers. For example, my children recently spent two years in Zurich with my husband while he was on assignment, while I stayed in Bengaluru to continue working at Goldman Sachs.”  She believes that one of the biggest decisions a woman makes in her life is the partner she chooses to spend her life with.

  In her career, Vidya has learned that women need to be wary of understating their own abilities and that one way to bolster their career is through sponsorship. “Unlike mentors, sponsors go beyond career advice and are invested in one’s career,” she notes. “Finding sponsors for women within an organization and investing in those relationships can help create a strong pipeline.”

Vidya is involved in a number of initiatives, including Women Emerging in Finance, which aims to dispel myths young Indian women may have about the financial services industry, particularly regarding work/life balance, that may keep them from pursuing a finance career. Every year, they aspire to speak with at least 1,000 young women across engineering and management campuses, to provide them with more information to make an informed decision and encourage them to join the financial services industry – and ideally — Goldman Sachs.

Vidya understands the challenges women face in the workplace throughout various life stages.  She has experienced the benefits of leveraging the infrastructure the firm provides to continue to pursue her career. An example that stands out is Goldman Sachs’ on-site Children’s center, which she is proud to oversee in her current role.

“Life throws us many curveballs. I have learned to stay the course, build resilience and in moments of doubt, to reflect on my own journey,” Vidya recommends.

A Full Life Outside of Work

Vidya loves learning new languages and is currently learning German on the weekends. “It was a passion I left behind when I got busy in the corporate world, and I am thrilled that I have intentionally carved out time to do something I enjoy,” she says.

She also loves spending time with her two boys, Harsh and Aditya, and enjoys traveling with them. In the last two years Vidya and her family have traveled extensively across Europe.

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Voice of Experience: Ximena Herrera-Bernal, Counsel in the International Arbitration Group; Shearman & Sterling, London

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Xinema

By Cathie Ericson

For counsel Ximena Herrera-Bernal, a multi-cultural background offers plenty of advantages including better emotional intelligence about how to adapt to different cultures and changing environments. Versatility and resilience also come as the result of operating in different legal cultures.  “Starting my career in Latin America, where barriers for women are perhaps more evident than in more developed countries, forced me to developed a thicker skin for the challenges of being a woman lawyer,” she says.

“Early on I found the professional world wasn’t as gender-neutral as might be hoped. You have to learn to deal with those barriers and not let it get to you. However, one can find one’s own strength actually developed because of such obstacles”, she says, adding that it is highly gratifying to see positive change over the years, particularly in Colombia where the number of women working in prominent positions is increasing.

Her multicultural background also ensures she can successfully relate to a diverse clientele, which has been beneficial throughout her journey.

Pivoting to The Ideal Law Specialty

While earning her JD in Colombia, Herrera-Bernal began working at a local law firm, finding it valuable to gain practical experience while completing her studies. She then clerked for two Justices of the Constitutional Court of Colombia. She found this to be an exciting experience, given the country’s historical moment, which involved constitutional reform and the transition of a guerrilla group to civil society. She felt that she was involved in making a difference.

After completing her LL.M. degree at Harvard, Herrera-Bernal practiced corporate law in New York. But she soon realized that she preferred the more “contentious side of law”. So when she was offered the opportunity to work on an arbitration, she discovered an appealing new career direction. “When you’re fresh out of law school and your choices are all open, it can be challenging to decide on your career path. Many people don’t take the time to decide what they really like. When you’re planning on a long career, it’s worth taking the time to explore the different areas that are available.”

And Herrera-Bernal has never looked back from her career trajectory. From there she interned in the Latin American team at the ICC International Court of Arbitration in Paris and then joined Shearman & Sterling’s Paris office. She practiced there for over eight years, until four years ago when she and some colleagues went to England to expand the firm’s London arbitration team.

While being named “of Counsel” last year was a significant achievement for Herrera-Bernal, she stresses that it’s also important to recognize the smaller achievements throughout your life and career that are less evident. “Every time you overcome a new challenge, realize that you can do it and do it right, even if you were initially unsure. That makes you become a better professional. Those moments are ultimately just as important and rewarding as the major milestones we tend to focus on.”

Herrera-Bernal’s current cases are wide-ranging, including two arbitrations that she describes as “David vs. Goliath” cases. She finds all her cases fascinating, including the many investment treaty arbitrations that she does. She enjoys them particularly because they combine international dispute resolution with public international law. She is also involved in a case with historical and legal implications.

Recognize Your Strengths as a Woman

Herrera-Bernal believes that women have many advantages in the world of dispute resolution, including their ability to appreciate different angles of a situation. However, she has noticed that women lawyers often hesitate to speak up in front of their colleagues.   “It is imperative to believe in your abilities and to make your views appropriately known,” Herrera-Bernal says.

This does not, in her view, mean becoming unnecessarily aggressive. She believes that women can be equally successful by staying true to themselves, without adopting an artificially aggressive shell. “When you’re doubting yourself, imagine that you are giving advice to a female friend who is experiencing the same issues. Then listen to your own advice,” she suggests.

Herrera-Bernal also notes the benefits she has received from being part of firm initiatives such as WISER (Women’s Initiative for Success, Excellence and Retention). “I have been fortunate to have wonderful woman partners at Shearman who are role models, and a head of practice who is supportive of women in the workplace.”

Even in her “off” time, she is devoted to the practice of law, conducting pro bono work in public international law. One highlight of that work was her secondment in 2012 to the UNCTR in Arusha. But despite the hectic pace of her professional life, most evenings Herrera-Bernal indulges herself in the luxury of pleasure reading, to disconnect from work and relax, along with her two dogs. She also ensures that she takes holidays in a new and exciting place every year.

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Voice of Experience: Patricia McCarthy, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs

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 By Cathie EricsonPatricia

It’s your responsibility to proactively guide and shape your career, recommends Goldman Sachs’ Patty McCarthy. “Being an active networker ensures that people think of you when opportunities arise, but it also allows you to be better at your current job,” she says. “Networking allows you to form relationships with people in your respective field, and provides avenues to solicit feedback and guidance from others.”

She also noted that finding strong mentors and nurturing such relationships is crucial to your career development, as you can solicit frank advice in order to constantly improve.

A Career Built on Seizing Opportunities

McCarthy credits her personal network with her career path, which she describes as “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride,” the loopy ride at Disney theme parks.

After earning a degree from Harvard Law School, she worked at a large corporate law firm for several years, supporting clients pursuing mergers and acquisitions, before joining the Spanish-language media company Univision, where she worked in business development. However, she soon discovered she missed working in the financial services sector, and began to explore other opportunities.

After connecting with a recruiter, to whom she expressed her interest in both private wealth management and real estate, she was excited when she was recommended to apply for a role on Goldman Sachs’ Private Wealth Management (PWM) legal team. She got the job, and following six years on the PWM legal team, she transitioned to the global management team. Commenting on her movement between different teams, McCarthy said: “Goldman Sachs prides itself on offering opportunities for internal mobility and I’m glad to have been able to take advantage of that.”

Throughout her time in PWM, she has built a reputation as a “go-to” person when key projects – big or small – need to be completed. “More than achieving a title or promotion, my biggest source of pride is establishing a personal brand as an individual who can improve a process,” she says. That’s why her current position is such a perfect fit, as she analyzes new technologies and procedures to constantly improve client service.

Lending Her Career Expertise To Others Across the Firm

McCarthy cautions women to combat their tendency to just put their head down and work hard. “In general, women usually are concerned about being perceived as too aggressive, but it can impact your career if you are afraid to speak up.” She frequently tells young women not to come to her after a meeting to share their great idea, but encourages them to speak up during a meeting.

“When you have good ideas, you need to voice them and add value. Remember that your job is to contribute to your team, and that entails being confident and pushing yourself beyond what your perceived role is,” she notes.

McCarthy acknowledges that confidence will come from building and relying on a strong network of peers with whom to discuss career transitions and work/life balance, and she cautions that the need for this type of support continues as your career progresses. “Sometimes, when you become more senior, you forget that you still need mentors and a sounding board, and often your peers step in to fill that role.”

As co-head of Goldman Sachs’ Hispanic Latino Network, McCarthy is proud to draw on her Cuban heritage to educate others about Hispanic culture, as well as further the development and retention of Hispanic and Latino professionals. She felt honored when she was recently asked to participate in a panel discussion on intersectionality, which focused on the potentially hidden aspects of diversity and the importance of bringing your whole self to work. The panel was co-sponsored by several Goldman Sachs affinity networks.

In addition, she is a member of the firm’s Women’s Network, which provides mentorship opportunities and hosts events to help guide women throughout their careers. McCarthy noted that she has benefitted from network sessions that provided information to aid in work/life balance, such as women’s health and education planning for children.

Outside of the office, McCarthy enjoys spending time with her husband and two daughters, ages 11 and 9, engaging in active outdoor water sports. In fact, she laughingly says that since she loves water in any form, she’s even embraced “frozen water” and taken up skiing, where she can enjoy the challenge of learning something new.

As a board member of the Thyroid Cancer Care Collaborative (TCCC), she also works to educate and support those affected by thyroid cancer. “Thyroid cancer often affects younger women, and it can be really scary when you initially receive a diagnosis. I appreciate the chance to help arm others with knowledge as they begin their journey towards a cancer-free life.”

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Voice of Experience: Priscila Palazzo, Legal Director, WEX Latin America

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By Cathie EricsonPriscilla

“While law might appear to be my main job, I also excel at understanding people and their behavior,” says WEX’s Priscila Palazzo. “It’s important to be open to new ideas and thoughts, but especially to feedback. If you seek it out and reflect on it, it can help show you areas where you can grow and improve. As women, we tend to follow our hearts and intuition, but we need to balance that with feedback.”

Law and Business Combine for Success

Palazzo’s “career” began at an early age when she worked with her dad as a child, making two pennies to start. But as she got older, he started including her in meetings which gave her a flavor for work situations. Although she had hoped to eventually work with him, she ended up pursuing a law degree. In her native country of Brazil, you can begin working as soon as you start law school, and so on her first day of class she started as a trainee in a law firm, experiencing the challenge of balancing work and school simultaneously.

With a specialty in labor and consumer law, Palazzo moved to the United States as soon as she graduated to take summer courses at Harvard, and on her return joined a firm specializing in business law. She became a partner at a young age, which gave her more exposure, and a larger law firm soon invited her to join the M & A team where she assisted the former company that became WEX.

She says that when WEX took over, she made what at the time was a joke that maybe they could actually sign her paycheck, but it wasn’t long before she realized that she was interested in leaving the law firm to go to the corporate environment. Though she had initially worried that she wouldn’t find it as inspiring to work for just one client, Palazzo has been there four years now and continues to appreciate the variety of work.

Recently she was invited to lead an exciting project that focuses on business, a fascinating intersection that keeps her connected to people all around the company. “Being a lawyer is amazing, but it’s also exciting to be able to reinvent yourself. I’ve had to learn how to communicate with different audiences, other than exclusively with lawyers,” she notes.

While she names her dad as her first sponsor, she also appreciates the foresight of the main partner at the boutique law firm who offered her a trainee job. As Palazzo says, since then she has been surrounded with good people who have been helpful in providing advice – and sometimes, most helpfully, sharing what not to do.

A Multi-Cultural Heritage Contributes to Success at the Global Company

Palazzo is delighted to be able to use her Latino heritage to make a difference; as WEX expands to multiple regions, the company has begun translating its internal communications into Spanish, and she has enjoyed sharing her knowledge.

That multi-cultural bent extends to her mentors, including José Roberto Kracochansky (CEO for WEX Latin America) and two colleagues, Hilary Rapkin and Keith Rodda, with whom she’s been working for four years. “Hilary is Canadian and Keith is from South Africa, so it’s not only language but behaviors and customs we have to integrate,” she says, adding that everyone has a different idea of the ideal model for practicing law.

                 Being attuned to different cultures is something that’s always been part of her makeup, with a big family who is half Spanish and half Italian. She speaks several languages and is an avid traveler, which began at an early age when she participated in exchange programs. Over the years, she has grown to appreciate the significant upsides that come from meeting new people and learning about their cultures. “The more you learn from other people, the more you can relate to others and learn cues to their behavior,” she says.

“I am also not a traditional lawyer; I laugh out loud and am not the buttoned-up stereotype you might imagine,” Palazzo says, to the point that she finds sometimes people are surprised to learn her occupation.

“I was always encouraged to live outside the box, and it has paid off in my ability to face different challenges,” she says.

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Voice of Experience: Kathleen Ziegler, Head of Distribution, AIG’s new technology-focused subsidiary

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By Cathie EricsonKathleen
As you move throughout your career, never underestimate the importance of your network, notes Kathleen Ziegler. “As an extrovert I have amassed a relatively robust network, but I don’t think it was until later in my career that I became strategic about it,” she says. “It’s never too early in your career to start thinking about how you should build relationships, taking care to create a balance of both women and men, as mentors and sponsors.”
 
A Global Career
 
In Ziegler’s case, her network has truly shaped her path. She says she never dreamed of a career in insurance, as an English/French major with parents who were both professors. After graduation, she wasn’t “quite ready for the real world,” so went overseas to teach English in the Czech Republic. At the end of her second year, she decided to market her other skills and started researching potential roles in advertising or public relations. After studying a hard copy of the American Chamber of Commerce’s listing of companies in Prague, she ended up working for a small PR agency that was run by an American woman. The position was perfect for her, opening up doors to meet local VIPs and see amazing venues and even travel.
 
After her time there, she decided to apply for graduate school and was considering a PhD in linguistics, but other opportunities came her way that led her to cut it short at the master level. A friend who was earning her MBA was distributing resumes at the campus job fair, so Ziegler went along to keep her company – and offer a few as well.
 
After receiving interest from entities as varied as the CIA and consulting firms, she accepted an offer from Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) where she spent five years primarily working with insurance clients which began her career trajectory. She left largely because of the grueling travel schedule and took a job with Zurich in underwriting; two years later she was approached by her manager to be considered for a position as chief of staff for the global CEO. She subsequently spent two years overseas in Switzerland, returning to New York to become COO of a relatively new business division they were launching. Her most recent post at Zurich came when she was asked to consider a P&L job, resulting in a positon running the northeast commercial markets business.
 
While she enjoyed the opportunity, she learned that a former mentor from Accenture had just taken on a global COO role at Marsh so she went there as head of operations and technology for the United States. Several years later, a mentor from Zurich persuaded her to join AIG which is where she is today.
 
After working on strategic initiatives in the company’s transformation office, Ziegler is currently managing distribution for AIG’s new technology-focused subsidiary. 
 
Helping Change the Company Face
 
While she acknowledges that the insurance industry doesn’t tend to be a trend setter, she sees the growing use of artificial intelligence as one that will provide more opportunities for women in the workplace as it supplants administrative tasks and encourages more strategic work and stakeholder engagement. “From what I’ve been reading, we will need more people with social networking, people development and coaching, and collaboration skills. There is a clear intersection between these soft skills, which generally play to women’s strengths in those areas,” she says.
 
Ziegler has been actively involved in advancing women throughout her career, a cultivation that became more pronounced in Switzerland when she noticed the dearth of women in executive roles. That motivated her to corral a number of smart women she knew to attend informal meetings, which progressively grew and ultimately became the women’s network group for Zurich which is still in place today and has expanded globally. “This group was a labor of love and genuinely borne out of a desire to create something that would help women,” she says.
 
The need was clear — pull up most insurance company websites and you will see their executive committee and boards don’t have the diversity they are aiming for. “While the pipeline is building, we are not progressing fast enough,” she says, adding that only 8 to 12 percent of the C-suite seats are currently held by women. That being said, AIG’s Executive Leadership Team of 12 now consists of six women which, according to Ziegler, “inspires employees about their opportunities at the firm.”
 
Ziegler is currently on the leadership committee for AIG’s women and allies employee resource group and believes strongly in progressing change to help elevate women into leadership roles. “I always want to play a role no matter what company I work for,” she says, noting that being involved helps you feel more connected to the company but also allows you to meet other people at all levels outside your department.
 
In her free time, she enjoys exploring with her husband, whom she met taking a Second City improv class in Chicago, and their eight-and-a-half-year-old son. “We are big on travel and the outdoors, and are currently making a point to visit as many national parks as we can.”
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