Tag Archive for: voice of experience

Joanne Pic (1)“I wanted to be a criminal lawyer until I worked at the Northwestern law school clinic where, as a law student, I assisted in defending alleged murderers,” said Joanne Moffic-Silver, the Chicago Board Options Exchange’s (CBOE) Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. Moffic-Silver ultimately decided that career wasn’t for her after attending a graphic crime scene.

Moffic-Silver graduated from the Northwestern University’s School of Law with a J.D. degree with honors in 1977. Inspired by one of her employment law professors, her first job out of school was at a labor and employment law firm.

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

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

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

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

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

Helping Shape the Law

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Soccer Mom at Heart

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

By Cathie Ericson

rsz_jessica-headshot_whitebkg-159x240Fresh out of college with a dual degree — a BS in Economics from the Wharton School and a BA in History from the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania – Jessica Lieberman Quinn’s first position was an ideal avenue into the business world. Working at a small investment banking firm, she was privy to a wide variety of deals, from M&A to IPOs across a variety of industries.

“Even as a more junior person, I was fortunate to spend time with clients who were CEOs. They were running small to mid-sized businesses, and I was able to have a look through their eyes at what was important in running and growing a business. These early experiences taught me to view business in a big-picture framework.”

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women in technology“Focus on achieving your passion, not a job title” to achieve career success and happiness according to Lisa O’Donnell, Managing Director at Citi. O’Donnell knows this trick from experience. If she had defined her career by a particular job title, she would most likely still be wearing dark suits and selling mainframe computers – albeit with a bigger title. Instead, she has leveraged her skills as a builder and someone who “connects the dots” and created a career where she works to engage Citi’s retail banking customers all while reducing risk.

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Kelly Driscoll knew she was in the right place to take on more responsibilities at State Street Global Advisors. She just didn’t know that her next step would involve moving to Asia; Hong Kong to be precise, to head up the broad Asset Management business for all of Asia ex Japan.

“I literally went there, sight unseen and I had never been to Asia before. It was such an exciting adventure to accept a great job and have the opportunity to experience the multiple cultures of the region.”

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Christina Mohr describes herself as “solidly an M&A person,” a statement reflected by her 34-year career on the Street. One of the first analysts on Wall Street in 1978, she became the first female partner in Mergers and Acquisitions at Lazard Freres, prior to joining Salomon Brothers (which became part of Citi), where she has built her career ever since.

Though she has run different coverage groups – including retail, consumer and media – M&A is what she most enjoys and where she excels.

“The M&A business is focused squarely on our clients,” says Mohr. “I am proud of the fact that after 34 years, I still have clients who seek out my counsel. I consider it an honor and a privilege, and it’s what keeps the business interesting and fresh to me.”

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“Explore and learn about all the things you can achieve and then ask for what you want.” That’s the advice Priscilla Hughes of Thomson Reuters gives to women, whether they are novices or seasoned professionals—a lesson she had to learn the hard way.

Growing up in Brooklyn, Hughes didn’t know how many career opportunities were out there for women. “I thought that my dream job would be working for the telephone company,” she says. But thanks to hard work, good mentors, and a willingness to take risks and try new things, her dreams have been dwarfed by reality. Never did she imagine she would find herself as a leader in the legal field — as General Counsel Europe & Asia and Chief Counsel for M&A in Financial & Risk at Thomson Reuters.

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Mass alison“Clients want to do business with people they like and trust, and you can only build trust over a long period of time,” says Goldman Sachs’ Alison Mass.

Mass began her career in the fast-paced industry at Drexel Burnham after earning her MBA in 1981 from New York University. Then in 1990, Mass went to a competitor before joining Goldman Sachs in 2001 as a partner.

“I’ve been fortunate to have had the same client base for most of my career, and have seen the private equity industry grow almost from inception,” she says, recalling that when she started in the 1980s, there were few funds over $1 billion. “I’ve been able to grow with my clients and invest in relationships that span decades. It’s been a privilege to watch private equity firms evolve over that period of time. Most professionals don’t ever get that kind of an opportunity.”

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Lisa Carnoy, Division Executive for Northeast and Metro New York U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management, is a persistent and self-described optimist. Carnoy is pleased to have both “survived and thrived in” the multiple market and corporate changes over the years, including the end of junk bonds, the tech crunch, and the 2007 crisis.

This summer marks her twenty-fifth year in the financial industry and also marks another career milestone as she advances her career from Global Capital Markets to the company’s wealth-management unit. Carnoy, who started at Merrill in 1994, has emerged as one of the top strategists in the company and was recognized by American Banker as one of the 25 most powerful women in finance.

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Fresh out of college, Amanda Tepper, currently a financial industry leader as founder and CEO of Chestnut Advisory Group, set her sights on a career in the radio industry. “And then one night, as I stood on stage introducing Ozzy Osbourne, I realized it was not for me. Time to get off the ‘Crazy Train’,” she says.

That wakeup call sent Tepper to the career networking office at her alma mater, Brown University, where she found a job on Wall Street at Mabon, Nugent & Co — and she has never looked back.

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