Tag Archive for: voice of experience

Voice of Experience: Sarita Mohapatra, Partner, PwC US

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Sarita Mohapatra“Even though I was committed to continuing my career after my maternity leave, the first few months were still challenging. So now I proactively connect with other returning women to provide support and encourage retention because I know women can successfully juggle work and a family.”

Sarita Mohapatra, a tax principal with PwC, talks often about how to balance family life and her busy client schedule.

She’s been with PwC since 2001, becoming a partner in 2010. She initially studied economics in India and after earning her MBA came to the United States. A PhD in Economics followed, and she realized she had a love for teaching and spent four years as a faculty member at Utah State University. She decided she wanted to get back to the corporate world and subsequently moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, seeking a position in professional services that incorporated her background in applied economics. After briefly working at another firm, she joined PwC.

Her work remains constantly fascinating to her, particularly the technological advancements that seem to occur on a daily basis. With changes occurring globally related to transfer pricing and the intersection of economics and tax, she finds herself delving into new areas to identify solutions for her clients who are under lots of pressure to deal with regulatory compliance issues.

Don’t Make a Decision for Your Whole Life Based on Today

She worries that young women walk away from opportunities because they sometimes anticipate difficult situations than may never happen. She says that when she started, there weren’t many structured programs to help working moms. Even though she had no idea how to make it work, she knew she wanted to. She saw her male colleagues who have kids and still work, and she figured there was no reason why she couldn’t do the same.

“I learned that you can’t make a life decision based on the one problem ahead of you that day,” she says, citing child care coverage as an example of an issue that is transient in the big picture of your whole career.

“It’s a blip in your career. In a span of 35 years, it’s not much, but too many women think ‘I can’t be here tomorrow,’ so they walk away from everything today.”

Mohapatra says she took her clients into confidence early on, and set boundaries — for example, that two days of the week she had pick-up duties.

“I was fortunate that I had a lot of support and my colleagues and clients, both male and female, always supported me. Women wonder if it’s possible to have it all, so I try to talk to as many as I can to say, yes, it is possible. Even though everyone’s story will be different, this is how I did it. I really try to be a good role model for working moms because even though I had great support from my mentors, I wish I had more working moms as my role models when I was making those decisions.”

Speak Up To Get the Opportunities You Need

Mohapatra advises women to be outspoken and open about their aspirations. She says that while male candidates will routinely ask how long until they make partner, she’s found very few women will start a discussion to find out their prospects for career advancement potential.

“It’s not that they’re not ambitious — I see that drive and hunger — but they hold back,” she says. “I think they are concerned that I might think they are getting ahead of themselves. I coach my managers and staff constantly that if they want to advance, then they need to tell someone, because speaking up allows managers to give interested people the opportunity to acquire the skills and expertise they need.”

She says she focuses on this through her own experience – she had assumed everyone knew she wanted to make partner, so was surprised when she found out they didn’t. Someone asked if others knew, and she said “I think so! This is why I’m working this hard.” But she found out you can’t assume and went back to amend her career plan with long-term and short-term goals.

And the advice can translate for women she would consider her peers. She says that sometimes even at the higher levels, she still sees women will hold back in meetings and discussions.

She credits her viewpoints with her upbringing in India, when her parents would tell her that to succeed in the corporate sector in India without losing her identity she needed to be proud of who she is and what she brought to the table. “They would say, ‘We don’t want you to emulate men to be successful! Be yourself.’” Those words stick with her as she maintains her authenticity in her career.

Networking for Success

Mohapatra says that when she began in public accounting, there weren’t too many learning and development programs so she tried to build up her network naturally by participating in firm-sponsored events or organizing informal lunches or drinks.

“If I could, I would go back and cast my net a lot wider,” she says. “I tell my team to step outside their comfort zone from immediate coworkers and be more strategic about networking beyond those you meet organically.”
Mohapatra is very engaged in PwC’s Office of Diversity initiatives and recently gave the keynote address on the power of networking at the national convention of Ascend, a Pan-Asian organization with which she is involved locally and nationally.

“I tell my team to step outside their comfort zone from immediate coworkers and be more strategic about networking beyond those you meet organically.”

Family Focus

Mohapatra remembers that one of her partners had suggested she network more outside of business hours, which seemed challenging in light of the many long hours she already put in. But she realized that many of her clients also had kids around the same age so she started planning events that included families. “I realized I had to incorporate both my life and work to make better use of the time I had.”

She carries that double-duty ethos into her community service outreach as well, helping in her son’s school and working with Habitat for Humanity, which she combines into a team-building activity with her staff.

When she’s not working, she enjoys gardening, a hobby that she and her family can do together.

Her family loves to travel, looking for areas off the beaten path to get a true flavor of the culture. Her son, who is 12, has already been to 13 countries. “When people ask him to tell a fun fact about himself he loves to say that he’s been to more countries than he is years old.”

By Cathie Ericson

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Voice of Experience: Stephanie Holt, Chief Financial Officer, North Capital Inc.

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Stephanie Holt HeadshotAt one time she moved her young family to Singapore for work, traveled frequently from the United States to Latin America on business and left a high profile job to raise two daughters. A few years later, Stephanie Holt returned to the workforce and successfully reinvented herself at an investor focused start-up firm. As a woman with a degree in business economics and a background in technology, Holt proves there is no such thing as a straight line when it comes to your career path.

Creating an International Career

Born and raised in California, Holt met her husband as an undergrad at University of California – Riverside. After a short sabbatical to have her first daughter, she graduated and started working at a small medical technology firm. Soon after, she had her second daughter and then embarked on graduate school at the University of Redlands.

When her husband’s job moved them to the Bay area, in January 2000 Holt started working in finance at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), a semiconductor company that develops computer processors and related technologies for business and consumer markets. She started in Sub-Micron Development working with research and development Engineers buying equipment to design microchips that wouldn’t be produced for 10 years.

“About a year and a half later, the CFO asked me if I wanted to manage the manufacturing plant in Singapore,” she said. “My husband and I had a brief discussion about it and five weeks later we were on our way to Asia.”

That was July 2001 and Holt admits that if she knew the challenges that were ahead for a 5’10’’ blonde woman in Singapore, she may not have gone.

“Some of the things I saw were shocking. For example, when you apply for job in Singapore, you have to include a picture with the application,” she said. “Questions about your personal life and when you want to have kids are part of the interview process.”

At one point, Holt was pulled aside and advised to try and acclimate to the culture around her instead of trying to have them acclimate to what she was used to.

“I might have been cavalier when I first got there but I learned some great life lessons, such as not everything is black and white,” she said. “If I am passionate in my beliefs about something, someone else is just as passionate but on the other side of the table.”

Even though AMD wanted to extend her stay in Singapore another four years, Holt and her family moved back to the States after two years in Asia. They moved her into a financial sales role where she spent a lot of time traveling to Latin America.

Three years later, when her oldest daughter was in high school, Holt decided she wanted to take some time off to be a stay at home mom.

“It was then that I realized just how important my job title had become to me and it took me six months to reconcile that,” she said. “I didn’t know any women who had left a high profile corporate job to be a mom, and then come back after some time to another senior level position. I learned that if you are confident, you can do it.”

Joining an Investment Advisory Start-Up

After her second daughter went to college, Holt wanted to go back to work as a consultant. She called Jim Dowd, managing director of North Capital and a man she has known since high school.

“One of the reasons I was interested in the North Capital companies was because of the JOBS Act passing in 2012. This was designed to give individual investors better access to private investment deals. I remembered when I was at AMD, we had a sales rep who told us about an amazing company that was pre-IPO but past the start-up phase,” said Holt. “That company was Google and everyone was trying to figure out a way get money in but only the big investors had access to it. The JOBS Act is supposed to make it easier for people to invest in these private placement deals.”

Holt was excited about the new product availabilities and started thinking about all of the people in her life that could take advantage of this new landscape.

“We get a lot of referrals from our current clients’ children who don’t have a lot of money themselves but want advice on how to invest. Each client is deserving of your time and attention. That’s what I learned working with Jim Dowd and appreciate about him,” said Holt. “North Capital is a business but it’s also a friendship that has been 37 years in the making.”

In three years, Holt and Dowd have been able to build the company from 3 to 15 employees with over 20 registered representatives. Holt believes the time is right for the company to give back and launched an initiative aimed at educating women, in various stages of their life, to start the conversation about money.

“I really feel that money is still a taboo topic for women,” she said. “Since money is such an important aspect of your career and personal life, we need to be comfortable with talking about the topic.”

Lessons Learned

Holt has also recognized throughout her career that it is okay to say no.

“When I would make requests to colleagues and they would say no, I would figure out how to make it work and yet I was always reluctant to say no myself,” she said. “I would never think less of that person, I would just think that they had other work to do. I finally realized that no one thought less of me as an employee, or a person, if I said no.”

She said that this also makes you a better worker.

“When you say no, you are also able to avoid over extending yourself,” she said.

Holt also advises to be open and honest about what you don’t know at your job.

“I am the type of person that is always upfront about what I don’t know because I have always been surrounded by great people who could fill in the gaps,” she said. “In Singapore, I knew my role but I didn’t know the way people did business in Asia. I learned that if you ask for help, people are willing to work with you.”

A Career of Breaking Misconceptions

Just like Holt transitioned from Asia to Latin America and from accounting to technology; Holt has also been able to transition from a high profile, career focused women to a stay at home mom and back again. By learning to talk about money, by avoiding over-extending herself and by having the confidence to put her family first when she felt it was needed, Holt has become a role model for women with young families.

She believes it is a misconception to think women can’t take a break and then come back. She points to a change she has seen in the past 15 years.

“When I started, there weren’t a lot of women in senior management positions in technology. We were taught to wear pantsuits and act like a man because that was what it took to succeed. Now that women have become more visible as role models, females in finance and technology are better able to envision a path for themselves,” she said. “Just remember, you don’t need to take the point A to point B path to get to the right place.”

By Jessica Titlebaum

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Voice of Experience: Kelli P. Washington, Managing Director at Cambridge Associates

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Kelli P. WashingtonKelli Washington knows the value of understanding an organization inside and out.

She began her post-undergraduate career in the financial services industry, where she spent 10 years at Edward Jones as a due diligence analyst and portfolio manager. She began in a rotational program that gave her an inside view of departments like operations or marketing, and she knows that background knowledge increased her value to the firm. “I would attend meetings where people wouldn’t know where to find answers, but I became a go-to source since I knew different parts of the organization that others didn’t.”

She knew she wanted to stay in the industry but she also wanted to pursue a career path that was more meaningful, and for her that was the field of education.

“I had been fortunate to receive a college scholarship, but at the time I didn’t understand why I still had to take out loans if the college had such an ample endowment,” she says. “As I learned more about the responsibility of the endowment, I realized that I wanted to put my skills to work as an endowment investment manager.”

The Intersection of Finance and Non-Profits

She pursued her MBA at Yale to move into endowment management and has now been at Cambridge Associates for more than seven years.

When she reflects on her career, she is proud of the dedication it took to earn the designations of both CFA and MBA.

She says earning the CFA was not just challenging, but “often heartbreaking.” When she returned to school for her MBA, she already had a decade of experience, making her relatively older, which she says allowed her to focus on taking not only the classes she needed, but also those that were interesting to her. Her younger classmates who were in school for a career switch had a large number of classes they were obligated to take, where she took advantage of her unique opportunity to take more classes related to non-profits than business.

She has parlayed that expertise into her current role, helping non-profits manage their endowment assets. She’s particularly excited about one client she’s recently started working with, in which the nature of their relationship has allowed her to learn more about their mission.

“I talk with them about investment strategies, but the way they work on an integrated model has allowed me to have more interaction with their board members and their non-investment staff where I can learn more about their great work and programming at a deeper level.”

Her work is a perfect combination of exposure to both traditional finance and the non-profit space.

On the finance front, she says that everyone is acutely aware that many of the changes in the regulatory environment will have unintended consequences, even though many were necessary because of the financial crisis. She cites how the new regulatory environment has changed the landscape of the trading markets. The full impact may not be known until the next market correction.

“When the next bear market occurs, how will the markets behave and will we be in a position where we can create liquidity for our clients?” she asks.

And, on the other side of the coin, she draws from her unique space in the non-profit world to wonder how they can make sufficient money to be able to continue to serve their constituents.

She works with many organizations with deep pockets, but knows there are lots of smaller ones that won’t exist in 10 years because their endowments can’t support their missions and they can’t fundraise sufficiently.

“People can’t donate to all the wonderful groups out there, of course, so they have to choose those most closely aligned with their values. However, it’s a little scary to know that there will be people who will fall through some cracks. For example from a personal viewpoint, I fear that someone might not get the education that I am blessed to have because someone gave money to Washington University.”

Paying Attention

Washington has one lament about her earlier years – she wishes she had paid more attention. “It’s often hard to focus in the moment, but there are times I have an epiphany that I know something — but I didn’t know I knew it. It has helped me become more aware of what I’m working on and how it can help either myself or others down the road.” She advises women starting their careers to learn as much as they can and take advantage of opportunities that present themselves.

During her tenure at Cambridge, Washington has spent time in two of the eight offices, and admires its focus on establishing mentoring programs. When she first started, she had several mentors from whom she could ask questions outside of her immediate team. The firm also matches investment directors and analysts.

“I personally try to informally mentor as many of my analyst partners as I can and spend time with them to ensure they are growing and developing as they need to. Of course, I have a special place for the women since I’ve been there and know what it’s like to be one of the few.”

She believes that the lack of women in the industry is a self-fulfilling process — there aren’t enough women or African Americans to act as mentors and role models. “Young women don’t see other women so they don’t see themselves,” she says, adding that for the past 20 years she has actively been involved in recruiting.

She notes that ample numbers of women will attend an informational session, but the numbers dwindle as they matriculate through the interview process. “I don’t have the solution but I know we all need to do as much as we can to encourage diversity.”

Seeing the World

Outside of the office, Washington loves to travel internationally and and recently completed a 10-day European tour with her parents. She has also earned her scuba diving certification and looks forward to planning a dive trip this year.

By Cathie Ericson

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Voice of Experience: Esther Jansen, Finance Partner, Frankfurt, Shearman & Sterling LLP

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jansen_e_hiresDon’t opt out before you ever get a chance to start your career.

That’s the advice from Esther Jansen, a Shearman & Sterling partner in Frankfurt who took opportunities as they were presented to grow her career.

Today a well-known and highly-regarded lawyer who advises on German and cross-border finance transactions, Jansen began her legal career the way most professionals begin theirs: with a general direction but lacking any real focus. In fact, thinking back to her time as a law student at University of Heidelberg, Jansen admits she had no specific career path in mind; there were no lawyers in her family but she had always been interested in the field and knew that a general plan of study could open doors to various avenues.

Her career path started rather randomly with her oral examination at the conclusion of her studies. That is when a corporate law professor, from whom she had never even taken a class, complimented her performance and offered her a job.

“I was able to travel and make a lot of connections, and I realized that this area of law was something I wanted to pursue,”

Thus she embarked on a career in corporate law. Jansen recalls finding the field “inspiring” due to a wide variety of projects that encompassed different areas of law, including international projects with professors from other universities. “I was able to travel and make a lot of connections, and I realized that this area of law was something I wanted to pursue,” Jansen says.

For three years she supported the professor on research projects and student training. She was then offered a position at a law firm through another professor with whom she had interfaced while working at the university.

For three years, Jansen concentrated on venture capital, corporate and M&A, and then new doors opened as her German firm merged with one in New York. She was offered the chance to work in New York to get a different perspective and meet people with whom she had worked from Germany.

“I was astounded at how different the environment was,” she says. “German law firms had hierarchy but nowhere near that of a US firm in New York. One day I went to a partner’s office, only to run into a mid-level associate who asked me what I was doing. I quickly found out that there you don’t just go to the partner.”

Soon after returning to Germany she left – along with the partner with whom she had been working — and began her career with Shearman & Sterling in 2001.

“Becoming partner was a defining moment for me because I’m so proud to be part of this inspiring environment,”

A Rewarding, Fascinating Change

Jansen found Shearman & Sterling to be a great fit right from the start, with a team spirit, lots of young partners and a supportive environment. Jansen became a partner in 2005 and had the opportunity to work with many different partners during her time as an associate, which she credits for her rapid development. “The more personalities you work with, the more you can choose the patterns that work best for you to develop your own professional personality,” she says.

“Becoming partner was a defining moment for me because I’m so proud to be part of this inspiring environment,” she adds. “The ability to transition from one area of law to another, and work with so many smart people and become part of the market and a community on a bigger scale, has really been an achievement for me.”

Jansen finds her work challenging and fascinating because of its ever-changing structure. Over the past year she has not only found a rewarding opportunity to retain new relationships with private equity houses in the higher and midmarket segments, but also worked with banks and corporates on financing transactions, insolvency issues and high yield bonds.

Making a Career Choice for the Right Stage of Your Life

Jansen believes that it is also a woman’s responsibility to take charge of her own career. “I have never encountered a barrier from clients or the firm, nor experienced any pushback from anyone in or outside of the firm,” she says.

It’s still an issue she understands well: the year before her partnership process began she became pregnant and endured the ensuing questions from women about whether she could balance her work and family. But there was no issue with the firm; being a mother did not impair her partnership opportunity. She stayed home for five months and there was no delay to her partnership track when she returned.

However, this perceived barrier presents a problem for hiring and retaining women. Jansen says that when she started at Shearman & Sterling, about 50 percent of her fellow associates were women but, as is the case throughout the legal industry, there was a drop-off by the time associates become ready for the partnership.

Jansen encourages young woman to start networking early, both internally and externally

Over and over she hears from young women that their main obstacle is whether this is the right career for the next 20 years.

“Maybe it is, maybe it’s not, but you don’t have to overthink it. Take a small step and see if it’s right for you,” she says, adding that women often don’t take the big leap and therefore get stuck in a less ambitious job before they even start. “Gaining experience at a firm like Shearman & Sterling means that all the doors are open. Even when women leave, they have a strong foundation to launch the next phase of their career that they wouldn’t have had if they hadn’t pushed themselves.”

Women Helping Women

Although Shearman & Sterling is known for its comprehensive women’s networking groups, German culture as a whole isn’t as developed in gender diversity initiatives. Jansen says the German market is starting to adapt, and the firm has introduced its Women’s Initiative for Success, Excellence and Retention (WISER) inclusion network locally. The firm has also expanded its annual global partner meeting an extra day for anyone, male or female, who wants to participate in Women’s Initiative programming. That programming typically includes female speakers and networking with other female partners to mine connections that could help each other.

In addition, the women partners have taken the initiative to become part of smaller personal circles of four to five women who report to each other once or twice a month, offering encouragement and a high degree of accountability. “Since it’s a more intimate group, you’ll be missed if you’re not part of it,” she says.

Jansen encourages young woman to start networking early, both internally and externally, to get to know the peers they’ll grow their careers with. In fact, she says that one of the foundations of Shearman & Sterling’s Women’s Initiative is that, within the business and legal communities, women are increasingly making the legal buy decisions, in their role as general counsel or assistant general counsel, so it’s important to understand their contacts’ business and what they are looking for and to foster relationships with senior women in those organizations.

Through it all, and with a very challenging career, Jansen is aware that she has been fortunate to have the support from her husband and her extended family. With two kids, ages 11 and 8, Jansen says, “On the weekends, family is my hobby.”

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Voice of Experience: Kiran Kaur, Managing Director- Technology, TIAA-CREF

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KiranKiran Kaur has seen the powerful effect that strong women mentors and sponsors have had on advancing her career. “Together we need to help other women be promoted to leadership roles. We grow the chain by passing it on.”

Kaur came to the United States from Sydney, parlaying her master’s degree in computer science into a position at a small Wall Street consulting firm. As the only women in the IT department, she found herself rolling up her sleeves to install big machines – doing everything her male counterparts were doing.

That can-do attitude caught the eye and impressed one of her clients, a hedge fund company, whose CTO paid a finder’s fee to her consulting company and offered her a job. It was a critical milestone in her career progression, giving her entrée into the financial industry.

Two years later, when the fund manager decided to retire and downsize, he invited two major Wall Street firms in to interview and place the remaining employees. Kaur decided that Morgan Stanley was most suited to her career progression at the time and joined the firm. For 13 years, she held a wide variety of roles, becoming a vice president and then an executive director and overseeing a global team of more than 100 in Asia, Hong Kong, London, Australia and India.

In 2012, a former boss who had gone to TIAA-CREF reached out, inviting her to visit the Charlotte, N.C., headquarters, assuring Kaur she would be well-suited to the culture and there were plenty of opportunities to leverage her experience.

Kaur eventually joined TIAA-CREF in 2013 and was recently promoted to managing director, overseeing technology. She says she is looking forward to being part of some upcoming transitions in the company and industry. TIAA-CREF’s current CIO has advanced to become COO, opening up the position for someone from the outside. “It will be interesting to see their perspective and how we will adapt and deliver on any directional changes they make,” Kaur said. In addition her team has been actively pursuing an initiative designed to drive accountability and shine light on enhancing the exchange management process.

Brand Presence as a Driver of Success

Through her transition to TIAA-CREF, Kaur became acutely aware of the differences in company culture and the importance of adapting. “Morgan Stanley was a very aggressive environment, very competitive, where you had to prove yourself to even be considered to have a seat at the table,” she says. “When I first started at TIAA-CREF I would march in with a solution to a problem, but it wasn’t long before I realized that I needed to tweak my style – they weren’t just about speed but execution.”

That’s when she began to focus on the importance of personal brand. “You have to be constantly conscious of what people are saying about you and how you are being perceived by those around you because it sets the tone for what others think about you, even if they might not have worked directly with you,” she says, adding that brand encompasses everything from how you walk into the room to what you have to deliver.

Even though she acknowledges that her brand spoke for itself when she was first tapped by the hedge fund firm, she says that had she been more consciously aware of its importance, she would have been more intentional about using it to build stronger relationships.

“Had I gotten a career sponsor earlier on, perhaps I would have had quicker ascensions. Finding career sponsors and mentors, people who will recognize and champion your talent, will push your career forward,” Kaur said. “You can be the best person, but if no one knows about it, especially as you get more senior, you won’t get the opportunities you want. Success is reliant on negotiating and influencing skills.”

Although the industry has advanced in gender diversity, Kaur still sees that there is a long way to go to achieve parity. Not only is the financial services industry still largely male dominated, but it is even more pronounced when you layer the technology function on top, which can cause challenges for networking opportunities.

For example, men frequently participate in golf or sports outings, and that can seem alienating to women. “Women know the importance of gaining insights by participating in events outside of work for relationship building, but it can be harder for women to insert themselves into these scenarios. We typically have to go home to our families, where men don’t have to adapt their schedules as much.”

Additionally, some traits that are acceptable coming from a man are still perceived as overly aggressive in women leaders. One area where Kaur urges women to take control is in speaking up for themselves. She points out that men have no qualms about asking for a raise or promotion and women need to do the same.

Despite the gender differences Kaur believes women shouldn’t alter themselves to try to fit in. “Some women try to act like men, which is fine if that’s your choice, but we should be proud of our femininity and stop pretending. Women can drive the agenda just as effectively.”

And that extends to emulating managers too. “Sometimes we get into the shadow of our leaders and start imitating their behaviors which can be positive, but it also means you can lose your individual personality. It’s important to stay true to your own brand.”

Kaur personally stays involved in a number of women-oriented councils and encourages other women in the industry to help increase the percentage of women in IT. “I am an example of someone who got chosen by a woman leader, who put me in a position where I was exposed so that my talent was recognized.”

World Traveler

A multi-national citizen — born in Africa, and then moving to Sydney and ultimately the United States — Kaur has been traveling since birth, and she has passed that love on to her family, which includes her husband and four- and 11-year old children. On a regular basis, she counts fitness, especially yoga, and cooking as her stress busters. For her it’s about being with her family doing something they all love, together.

By Cathie Ericson

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Voice of Experience: Anne Ozimek, SVP Securities Operations, of Voya Investment

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Ozimek_Anne_ copy“Through every step of my career, I have focused on learning a set of skills and doing everything possible to meet the needs of my clients, so that when an opportunity came up, I was ready,” says Anne Ozimek, senior vice president at Voya Investment Management. “Each job will offer a different set of challenges and every one of them will prepare you for your next step.”

Ozimek’s career in the insurance and investment business has spanned many years and a wide variety of positions. As she has taken on different roles, she has always preferred those that were fast paced and required ongoing problem solving.

Her first job out of college was at The Hartford Insurance Group, where she traveled to regional offices to offer the production teams solutions to improve workflow and reduce backlogs. She became part of their management training program and held several positions before moving to Aetna. She started as a business analyst on an investment accounting system, handling the production functions, and then worked her way up to supervisor of the unit and ultimately manager – all while obtaining her MBA.

As a result of the business knowledge she acquired supporting those functions, Ozimek left that daily production role to manage a small unit of business analysts working on a large accounting system replacement project. Completing that project allowed her to enhance her project management skills, working closely with IT and the business to develop specifications, test plans, identify, document and resolve issues and then ultimately implement the new system.

Based on that work and connections she had formed, she was offered a new role putting together an institutional shareholder recordkeeping unit for what was then Aeltus Investment Management (and became ING and now Voya).

This entailed learning the functions, hiring the team and then working with IT and Client Services to develop a proprietary recordkeeping system to handle the client level transactions for the funds the firm managed. The system was in place for more than 15 years, since replaced with a new operating model where an external service provider does the recordkeeping work and other back office functions and the Voya Business Support and Operations team oversees the work. Her team’s role has thus shifted from processing to oversight, analysis and problem solving.

Having been a member of an operational team for most of her career, Ozimek relishes her collaborative role – performing the day-to-day jobs to meet client needs but also supporting huge projects. “It’s fast paced, but what I love the most is the mentality of operations. The team always displays a can-do attitude. We know that no matter what the obstacle, we can figure out a way to get it done.”

She sees the industry as being a vibrant one for years to come, as baby boomers hit retirement age and need new products and advice as they segue from the asset accumulation phase to the spending phase.

Advice for Rising Stars

Ozimek had an excellent role model of a career woman in her mom, who worked at a time when many women didn’t. That gave her a good grasp on what the corporate world was like and how to mesh home organization, occasional late working hours and family needs, all while performing at her job.

Early in her career, she recognized that you may come into situations where you work hard and yet you still don’t get the acknowledgment you want or the job you want. At that point you have to assess what happened, determine if there was anything else you could have done differently, and then move on, making sure that you are getting the skills you need and connecting with the managers and mentors who are interested in making sure you succeed. She has had some great mentors over the years.

“If you’re not in a good situation for your skill set, recognize it and make a change,” she says. “Defining your world too narrowly is not a barrier in the business but in your mindset.”

Ozimek’s own personal philosophy on getting ahead is to work hard, and make sure you’re not getting caught up in an “it’s not my job” mentality. “If you go out of your way to help other people with their issues, you become a ‘go to’ person. Then the next time you need help, others around you are more likely to reciprocate. Every time you go the extra mile, you’re building those relationships and creating a situation where people are looking out for you.”

Saying yes is another crucial factor in a successful career ascension. “So many times, when someone approaches us to do something, we find reasons to say no. Instead, we should determine if there are good reasons to say yes,” she says, adding that it’s important to try to figure out why you were asked to do something. “Don’t discount that you just might be the perfect person..”

As the industry has evolved, Ozimek is no longer the only woman in most meetings and appreciates that change. She sees the benefit of having been involved in both formal and informal mentoring programs over the years and actively works with younger associates to provide that perspective. She knows that having a mentor offers a comfort level in talking through an issue or a problem and getting advice from someone who’s been there. She urges people to speak up if they want a manager to act as their mentor or coach. “Don’t be shy about what you want.”

Away From the Office

Ozimek has been married for 37 years and has two grown sons and two daughters-in-law. On the weekends she and her husband spend as much time as they can at their second home in Vermont, joined by family and friends. “This stage is a blast,” she says, “watching the ‘kids’ make their way in their lives and careers.”

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Voice of Experience: Natasha Moffitt, Partner, King & Spalding

moffitt-natasha-4938-176x240Sometimes dad knows best. That’s what Natasha Moffitt, Partner at King & Spalding, learned when following her father’s suggestions for her career path.

Raised in Germany by a German mother and American father, Moffitt decided in high school that she wanted to be a lawyer, but her father urged her to leverage her skills in math and science. He counseled her to first pursue a computer engineering degree (an emerging field of study at the time), and then a career in patent law; and that’s when her career path was born.

Moffitt graduated with a computer engineering degree and a minor in German, and then worked as an engineer for several years before pursuing her law degree, focused all the while on becoming a patent attorney.

“Many engineers don’t consider patent law as a career path until later in their careers; I decided to pursue patent law from the get go.” She became a summer associate at King & Spalding in 2000, joined the firm full time in 2001 and was elected to the partnership in 2008.

Meaningful Wins Are Key to Satisfaction
While she is naturally pleased about all the wins she achieves for clients, one win in particular stands out. She defended a client in patent litigation brought by a competitor, with enormous stakes that were “do or die” for both sides.

For more than a month the case was tried, and she was delighted to score an outright win, which was later affirmed on appeal.

“Unfortunately, patent litigation has become a routine ‘cost of doing business’ for many companies, but in this case, the suit was directed toward an important part of the client’s business, and it was critical that we win. I always play to win, but this win was especially sweet.”

Moffitt currently is excited about the business development work she’s doing in Germany and other German-speaking countries. “It’s a good fit, given my language fluency and heritage. German tech companies are frequently sued in the United States for patent infringement. I am fortunate to be collaborating with a group of partners who also have German ties and an interest in expanding our footprint to the German market.” She describes it as a “coming home of sorts,” allowing her to marry her personal history with her profession in a way she never dreamed possible when she started her career.

She also views the recent changes in patent law as an area of ongoing fascination – with the increased interest by the Supreme Court, the media, legislators and company executives. “There is ongoing spirited debate involving patents and what should be patentable,” she says. “Different industries have differing views – there’s a lot of discussion but no clear answers. As the entire industry changes in an unprecedented way, we will be tracking the developments and counseling our clients on what these changes mean for their patent portfolios and litigation strategies.”

More to a Law Career than the Law
As Moffitt has ascended the ladder, she’s learned that law partners must wear multiple hats – as mentors, teachers, managers, recruiters, marketing professionals and accountants.

“When I started my legal career, I expected that lawyers would spend most of their day practicing law; I didn’t appreciate how many roles we would have to play,” she says. “Law school gives you the skills you need to become a great lawyer. It does not train you how to do the rest. Over time, I have learned the business side of law and how to build a practice, but had I realized then what I know now, I would have focused the early part of my career on not only doing excellent work, but also on learning the business of building a practice.”

Changing Perceptions
One challenge she believes women may face in the industry is one of perception. “For high stakes patent litigation, more senior, male litigators may be perceived to be a safer hiring choice than female litigators,” Moffitt says. “Women litigators simply need to demonstrate that this perception is unwarranted. With time we can change these biases, but it takes women stepping up and showing they are as good as, if not better than, their male counterparts.”

She sees the industry becoming more accessible as more women enter into math, science and engineering-related disciplines in college, which may translate into more women practicing in the area of intellectual property, but there is still room for improvement.

She believes it’s important for those already working in the technology industry to educate the women who are following them about what the opportunities are – that they can become engineers, scientists and researchers, but there’s also an alternative path in the law.

And for women who are getting started, she advises them to invest in their career by taking advantage of every opportunity and experience – and if you’re not getting the opportunities you seek, then go find them.

“People will be impressed by the initiative. It’s vital to create opportunities for yourself if they’re not coming to you for one reason or another.”

And she says that while women should be the best they can be at any given moment, they should cut themselves some slack.

“Women can be unnecessarily hard on themselves – we want to be perfect in all areas – as a mom, spouse, and employee – and then we give ourselves a hard time when we feel we’re not meeting our own expectations.”

For women at her level, Moffitt recommends building a practice by focusing on one particular area for business development. “Sometimes lawyers want to appear as a jack of all trades, but that can dilute the expertise you do have,” she says. “Clients are looking for subject matter experts, so you don’t want to spread your expertise too thin.” She sees this as particularly important for women who are balancing family, work and other time commitments, that in order to make your limited time count, you have to identify your strengths and focus your efforts there.

Committed to Diversity
Moffitt says her firm is very committed to diversity with committees, initiatives and events, and she has been active in both informal and formal diversity programs. She feels fortunate that she has had lots of mentors at the firm over the course of her career, and in return she has mentored others in a variety of capacities – always finding the informal relationships to be invaluable.

Currently, she is co-leader of the Atlanta office’s Women’s Initiative, which creates networking and mentoring opportunities for the firm’s Atlanta women lawyers, but also provides tools to help women attorneys expand their profile internally and externally. Recently she hosted a guest speaker to talk to the women attorneys about how to maximize the impact and visibility of their LinkedIn profile, for example.

Sharing Love of Horses and Heritage
A busy mom with three kids ages three, six and nine, Moffitt sees weekend time as family time. One hobby she’s been able to share with them is her love of riding dressage competitively– she recently competed in the U.S. national and regional championships. Her oldest daughter has started riding, and all of them enjoy spending time at the barn.

In addition she is sharing her German heritage, raising them to be bilingual by attending an international school where they learn in German and English.

“It’s a challenge to make time for everything, but it’s worth it. I’ve gotten really good at time management!”

By Cathie Ericson

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Voice of Experience: Mylan Denerstein, Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher

rsz_mdenerstein-press_1-171x240Mylan Denerstein, partner in the New York office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, is a woman driven to leave a positive impression on the world. Her career is best characterized as one that takes ahold of opportunities to grow and empower those she serves.

Public Service

As a 1993 graduate of Columbia Law School and Skadden Fellow, Denerstein began her professional life working for the Children’s Defense Fund in Washington, D.C. This opportunity led to a position with the Department of Justice as a special assistant to the Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division. According to Denerstein, the experience “was a great introduction to Washington and how things worked there.” But DC couldn’t hold her for very long.

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Voice of Experience: Pamela Click, Director and Senior Development Manager, TIAA-CREF

Pamela Click“You will work hard, but it will be rewarding,” says Pam Click of a career in technology. Now a senior manager and respected technologist at TIAA-CREF, Click’s hard work has finally paid off.

Her path to her current position at TIAA-CREF was somewhat circuitous: After earning a degree in accounting, Click started her career as a management consultant with Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), working with various clients in industries as diverse as consumer products, utilities and oil and gas.

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Kathryn Kaminsky, Partner, PwC

Kathryn KaminskyKathryn Kaminsky will be a panelist at theglasshammer.com’s 4th Annual Navigating, Negotiating, & Building Your Strategic Network Event on February 26th.

“There is a lot we can learn from men in the workforce,” says Kathryn Kaminsky, a Partner at PwC. “When they leave early to attend one of their kid’s sporting event, they do it with pride. They don’t slink out of the office — they’re excited, and women should behave that way too.”

Kaminsky, who started her career with PwC in Canada before moving to the firm’s New York office, has always been cognizant of the fact that she works in an organization where only 19 percent of the partners are women. “Male relationships are critical so I have always tried to build my relationships to be gender neutral,” she says.

Going on her tenth year as a Partner, Kaminsky has appreciated that during her 20-year tenure at PwC, she has been constantly challenged, noting the opportunity to be in a career where she can do different jobs at the same place. She’s moved from the asset management space to banking and capital markets.

“Being admitted to the partnership is definitely the professional achievement I am proudest of,” she says, adding that she is always looking forward to the new experiences and new engagements that she will undertake as she moves up the partnership ranks.

The industry is constantly changing and she is fascinated by where it might go. “Ten years from now, will we all bank via cell phone??” she muses. She sees huge potential for disruption in the financial services industry, especially with tech companies that can stay nimble and entrepreneurial since they are not hampered by the regulations that banks have to grapple with.

Confidence Builds Careers

Kaminsky sees confidence as a trait that women need to learn to develop as they progress in their careers. “It can be hard to be in a room where you are the minority but you have to speak up – you can’t be in a meeting and not talk.”

That confidence translates into knowing how to discern among competing priorities. “You have to evaluate internal versus external focus,” she says, noting that in a client-based business, you often need to choose the client side.

One thing that Kaminsky has learned over the course of her career is that “this too shall pass.” She says there are times that she wishes she’d had a thicker skin and realized that what seemed like a big deal at the time wouldn’t be in the long run. “I wish I hadn’t taken things so seriously and lost sleep over things that I shouldn’t have cared about,” she says.

She knows from experience that you have to have a stellar work performance, but success is based on more than that. “Aim high – don’t just put your head down. Get out and meet people – growth comes from experiences and relationship building, both internally and with clients. Business books alone won’t tell you what’s going on in the world, you have to get out there.”

And while you’re out there, she advises having some fun. “In the 20 years that I’ve been at the firm, I definitely could have had a little more fun!”

Lessons to Be Learned from Men

“Many people don’t like to hear it, but there are lots of things men do very well that we could emulate,” she says. For example, she appreciates that men are more open in how they talk about things. She says they’re more apt to admit they’re having a bad day, or discuss something they’re struggling with rather than sit behind a closed office door by themselves.

They also are more likely to own the career decisions they make. Currently, she works in the New York office while her family has relocated to the west coast for her husband’s job. “Men commute all the time, and don’t have any problems with it. I have found that my schedule allows me to focus on work during the week and home on the weekend, which is a benefit for everyone, but somehow that is not as accepted with women as with men.”

As part of her desire to create a gender-neutral network, Kaminsky has worked within the wide range of programs PwC offers – some specific to women, and some geared toward general career development. In particular, she has benefitted from an Advocacy and Sponsorship group which matches professionals with more senior partners. Over the years, her male match became a friend, sponsor and advocate, someone she confides in on a regular basis. Kaminsky says that women don’t necessarily need to be sponsored by women – it’s more important to just make sure it’s the right person.

And she finds that at PwC mentorship is inherent in a wide variety of day-to-day activities even aside from dedicated programs.

Still, she says that there is competition even as you climb the ranks, and she feels fortunate that even though she has great male friends and sponsors, she has a network of four to five women who are the ones she calls upon for the closer friendship that everyone needs. “It’s important to remember that not everyone is a competitor.”

Weekends Are For Family

Mom to three boys – an eight year old and seven year old twins, Kaminsky in many ways feels her dual life allows her more focus than if she was home every night. Throughout the week, they FaceTime and talk, and she is able to have “me time” on the plane each way. That allows her to focus exclusively on her kids when she is home. This fall she was the association treasurer and team mom for her twins’ Pop Warner football team. “Our weekend is extremely active with family time with the kids,” she says, always ending with Sunday night dinner. “That’s what weekends are for me – 100 percent focus on my family. They know all about my work life and are very involved with it. But when I’m home, I’m home.”

By Cathie Ericson

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