Tag Archive for: voice of experience

Voice of Experience: Edith Cooper, Executive Vice President and Global Head of Human Capital Management, Goldman Sachs

edith-cooper-193x193For the last six years, Edith Cooper has been the Global Head of Human Capital Management at Goldman Sachs. In other words, she is responsible for the well-being, development and promotion of Goldman’s 32,000 employees worldwide. While this is no small task, Cooper loves the people-centric aspect of her role. “Our people are our number one asset,” said Cooper.

She continued, “This is a dynamic business and our priorities evolve alongside the markets. As a result, there is an increased focus on managing people, leading people, and leveraging the diverse set of experiences that our people bring to the table.”

The Dynamic Space of Human Capital Management

Cooper’s role at Goldman Sachs has also evolved over the last 17 years as she has transitioned from sales and trading into managing clients and people. According to Cooper, the last five years have been especially challenging, however, new opportunities to serve clients continue to emerge. She noted, “as markets and organizations continue to expand and globalize, we now more than ever must pay attention to and respond to global trends.”

“Clients need us to have 24/7 awareness of market drivers and opportunities in order to facilitate growth, and part of my role is to ensure that our people are well positioned to add that value to our clients,” Cooper added. She explained how important it is to attract people to the organization who are not only individually excellent, but also embrace the fact that delivering client satisfaction is very much a collaborative effort.

According to Cooper, technology is changing the human capital management space in a number of ways including by enhancing and expanding recruiting efforts. “The connectivity is constant,” noted Cooper, “and our reach is global due to online tools and advancing technologies.” This is elevated by the fact that the Millennials who are beginning to fill the halls at Goldman Sachs have been raised around technology, and incorporate it into everything that they do.

“The challenge used to be in gathering information, but now that so much more information is easily accessible, the opportunity to add value is by connecting information and leveraging it strategically,” said Cooper.

Expanding the Dialogue of Women’s Career Advancement

Cooper acknowledged that there has been significant progress for women in the workplace, but that there is more work to be done. “In order to be successful, an organization must ensure that there is diversity at every level,” she explained. According to Cooper, the ongoing conversations around professional women encourage people to broaden their perspective and expand the dialogue.

For Cooper, a great source of pride comes from the fact that she has had the opportunity to grow her career at Goldman Sachs while also maintaining a great home life. She attributes this to the fact that her support system –both at work and at home –has been strong and steady. While this has worked for her, she encourages women to determine their own degree of work-life balance by recognizing that there are multiple paths to take and choices to make throughout the length of your career.

“Women who believe that they can go out and be excellent at every single thing on a daily basis are likely setting themselves up to fail. You must pick your spots and create your own definition of success,” added Cooper.

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Voice of Experience: Minal Patel, Managing Director, Managed Services Business Development, SunGard

Mina Patel 2Minal Patel, a Managing Director at SunGard, started her career in banking at Barclays Bank in the UK over twenty five years ago. At Barclays, she had the opportunity to participate in an accelerated training program that rapidly moved her through various areas of retail and wholesale banking. Although she had the chance to experience different aspects of the industry, Patel ultimately decided to explore career options outside of banking.

“I joined a technology startup that was looking for business expertise to build a treasury management system. I was able to apply my business background, which in turn exposed me to IT operations and the entire software development lifecycle,” said Patel.

She continued, “This experience led me to another tech startup focused on derivatives trading and risk management. I switched gears to focus on the sales and account management side of the business. We were a new operation in Europe, with a very small team, so I was involved in everything from pre-sales support, getting in front of prospects, contract review and working with customers. After a couple of years I decided to transfer to the New York operation to focus on that market. All of this was great experience for building my career.”

When the second startup was acquired by SunGard in 1998, Patel stayed on board and has been with SunGard ever since. She attributes her longevity at SunGard to the fact that she has been able to adapt and take on different roles within the company. “It has been exciting to have the opportunity to do a number of different things while remaining at the same company,” noted Patel.

Her Work at SunGard

During her tenure at SunGard, Patel’s responsibilities have spanned from running a global client and professional services team (around a set of trading and risk solutions) to taking on a horizontal role focusing on expanding SunGard’s global development and delivery capabilities.

Over the last 2 years, her role has been focused on further developing the managed services business within SunGard Financial Systems. Patel partners with each of the Financial Systems business groups to shape business and operational plans that will advance their managed services agenda – and grow the company’s overall managed services portfolio. “Figuring out the best ways that we can evolve as a company alongside the industry – and our clients – is one of the most exciting things about my job,” said Patel.

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Voice of Experience: Mary Beth Bosco, Partner, Patton Boggs LLP

stephanie_martin-222x300To Mary Beth Bosco, her former career as a graphic designer and her current as Partner at Patton Boggs LLP aren’t as diametrically opposed as some would assume.

“I was working in New York designing book covers, where you’re given limited space to get your message across. It’s the same thing when writing a brief or giving an oral argument,” Bosco said.

After growing tired of the “starving artist route”, Bosco went to law school and clerked at a D.C. law firm where her focus was government contracts, an experience she cites as invaluable.

“So much of law school is theoretical and for me, it was important to learn by doing,” the partner said.

As partner at Patton Boggs, where Bosco has been since 1985, she counsels new and experienced government contractors on matters involving contract compliance and opportunities in the federal marketplace, drawing on more than 25 years of experience with both regulatory and litigation matters.

“The federal government buys everything from paperclips to battleships, which keeps my work very interesting because you’re always learning about a new industry,” Bosco laughed. “I love solving problems as they come up. It’s not my job to say, ‘No, you can’t do that.’ It’s my job to say, ‘This is how you can do it.’”

Diversity Leader

Bosco was the first female member of her firm’s Executive Committee, as well as the firm’s first Chief Diversity Partner. As the Chief Diversity Partner, Bosco is committed to starting over from scratch if that is what it takes to move the firm’s diversity goals forward. The partner is interested in driving diversity at the firm in real, tangible ways. This, she says, requires new innovations; something she’s calling “Diversity 2.0.”

“We want to recruit the best talent and if that requires pulling everything apart and starting over, that’s what we’ll do,” Bosco said.

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Voice of Experience: Marie Chandoha, President and CEO, Charles Schwab Investment Management

Chandoha,_MarieLooking back, it’s clear to Marie Chandoha that finance was the field for her. As a little girl, Monopoly was her favorite game and she can still remember telling her aunt that she wanted to be a banker. The declaration came from her nine-year-old self and though it wasn’t exactly where she would end up, it was close enough, as Chandoha is currently president and CEO of Charles Schwab Investment Management where she manages $241 billion in assets.

“I was always good at math and although I had some other aspirations along the way, I wound up studying economics in college and a few years after graduating, I read an article about mortgage-backed securities, which seemed like a great way to apply my analytic and math skills,” Chandoha said. “I was able to land a job as a mortgage-backed securities analyst at Morgan Stanley in the mid-1980s and the rest is history.”

A Distinguished Path
Over the course of her career, Chandoha has worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, spending the first half of her career working on Wall Street. Afterwards, she would leave her mark at Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and Credit Suisse, where she eventually became the managing director in charge of Global Fixed Income and Economics Research at Credit Suisse. She eventually shifted her career to managing money, but instead of advising clients on how to invest, she found she preferred to put her ideas to work and do the investing herself. So Chandoha became the Senior Portfolio Manager at Montgomery Asset Management and later went on to lead Barclays Global Investments (BGI’S) Global Fixed Income business.

“There are a few things that I think distinguished my career path. First, I had a willingness to take risks and that has helped me take meaningful steps in my career. There were several roles I accepted where my manager or a new company was looking for significant change in a short period of time and in some cases, there had already been failed attempts to implement the change or a turnaround,” Chandoha said. “I remember being told at one firm, ‘I admire you for taking this job. It seems impossible.’ In some cases, I knew that if I didn’t succeed, I’d be out of a job. But I love a challenge. These situations aren’t always the most comfortable, but if you succeed, there’s nothing like it to demonstrate a track record of results.”

Chandoha says that when preparing for a senior-level role, it’s important to gain exposure to a variety of roles and functions in the field to evolve your skill set. At one time or another, she has been an analyst, computer programmer, securities analyst, trader, and a portfolio manager.

“I’ve managed everything from research departments and technology groups to a global asset management business. Taking on a global assignment is an invaluable learning experience in many ways, and can open up a range of opportunities,” Chandoha said.

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Voice of Experience: Eileen Madden, Head of Institutional Client Service and Relationship Management, ING U.S. Investment Management (ING U.S. IM)

women shaking handsMoving toward her senior year in college, Eileen Madden’s future was still very much undecided. She considered pursuing a career as an actuary, while also thinking about obtaining her PhD in economics – this, after being offered a fellowship at Penn State during her senior year. On the cusp of graduating, Madden had the opportunity to meet with and be advised by different people in the insurance and investment management industry and she learned about the career options available to her.

So intrigued by the options available to her, Madden pursued her MBA and achieved the CFA chart holder designation. She is now Head of Institutional Client Service and Relationship Management at ING U.S. IM. Clearly, this was the field for her.

“I was attracted to the opportunity to use my analytical skills to pursue a career where I would be working with people and gaining exposure to so many aspects of the business. I am thankful I took this path,” Madden said. “Once I obtained my CFA, I very briefly entertained the idea of moving over to be an investor or trader within the asset management part of the business, but was already well established in my role and enjoying the career path I was on, working directly with clients, consultants, and all constituents in our business.”

Learning On The Fly

Madden cites her first job at Aetna as a great learning experience. Soon after being hired and trained, there was a major restructure at the firm and over 100 people were laid off. Madden says those who remained were left to do the full spectrum of work, so she was handed a large caseload of clients in all different phases of the pension client lifecycle.

“I had to learn and work fast and I found it very interesting and challenging. I flourished in this environment and became an expert in various areas of pension administration and contracting,” Madden said. “I gained a strong sense of confidence in my abilities to learn and to work through complex and difficult situations on the fly. I apply those skills every day and I still really enjoy and learn so much from my own clients.”

Every Day Challenges

Madden says that managing teams while also taking on individual responsibilities is a challenge, but refuses to give up either because it is well worth it to find a way to navigate both worlds.

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Voice of Experience: Marie O’Connor, Partner, PwC Ireland

Women workingMarie O’Connor, a Partner at PwC Ireland, was always interested in mathematics. However, when she decided to pursue Accounting at the College of Commerce, Rathmines, she encountered a slight hurdle. At the time, this business school had not yet opened its doors to female students, but this would change when O’ Connor submitted her application.
“All it took was for someone to knock on the door, and then the barrier came down,” noted O’Connor.

While O’Connor was completing her Accounting degree in business school, she applied for a traineeship position at a PriceWaterhouseCoopers firm where she was one of six females accepted in a class of fifty total graduates. This program established the foundation for O’Connor’s career at PwC Ireland, where she would eventually become the first woman to be made a partner. “I have stayed at PwC for my entire career,” she said, “and I am quite fortunate to have had a variety of roles and experiences here in Ireland and internationally as well.”

A Rewarding Career at PwC Ireland

Becoming a partner at PwC is one of O’Connor’s proudest professional achievements. “Since becoming a partner, I take pride in representing PwC Ireland around the world and enabling Ireland to be a place where companies want to do business,” said O’Connor. She also looks back at the twelve years she spent successfully leading and growing the Investment Management team practice as a very rewarding period in her career.

O’Connor noted, “Today, locally we have 350 people in the Investment Management practice and 17 partners, of which half are women. Growing this practice and developing the networks was very important for me.”

According to O’Connor, the regulatory environment of the asset management industry is presenting many challenges for companies trying to remain competitive while continuing to forge strong client relationships. “There is so much regulation in Europe right now, and more in the pipeline. It is critical for asset managers to be involved in discussions around all these issues to ensure that we can make sense of the regulatory agenda and enable companies to do good business while building trust with investors,” said O’Connor.

She added, “At the end of the day we all want to grow sustainable business”, In addition to the diverse career path O’Connor has enjoyed at PwC, she has also benefited greatly from various non-executive director roles she has had the opportunity to participate in. “Being able to see business from a different angle has contributed to my own professional development and has given me a new range of ideas and experiences to share with others,” noted O’Connor.

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Voice of Experience: Natasha Granholm, Partner, PwC US

natashaNatasha Granholm began her career at PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP) as an intern and is now a partner and though she’s clearly a success in her field, she laughs when admitting that her interest in accounting was by happenstance. She was really only looking for an “easy” honors class in high school that would allow her to boost her GPA, but her teacher saw something in her and decided to enroll her in accounting competitions. “There is such a thing as an accounting competition, I promise,” Granholm laughed.

Once in college, she didn’t have an “absolute desire” to enter accounting, but knew it was worth exploring given her propensity for the field.

“The real appeal to me was that it wasn’t just about computing numbers. Accounting is theoretical; it’s not just about being good at math,” the partner said.

Early in her career, Granholm did a little of everything, from serving clients in the tax-exempt sector to M&A, an area she was particularly drawn to because of the dynamic and fast-paced nature of the work. She even did a “tour of duty” with PwC’s national M&A group in Washington, D.C. where she says she grew both personally and professionally.

“It opened up my point of view and gave me a more global perspective,” Granholm said.

Redirecting
Not too long after Granholm returned to Chicago from D.C., the economy began to decline and when the US economy fell into a recession in late 2008, the deal markets came to a halt. At this time, she was pregnant and decided to take some time off from work to focus on her family. When she returned in 2010, the economy hadn’t fully bounced back and Granholm wasn’t sure which direction to take her career in, though she did know she wanted to continue at PwC.

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Voice of Experience: Leslie Hale, CFO, RLJ Lodging Trust

Leslie HaleRLJ Lodging Trust’s CFO, Leslie Hale, grew up in an entrepreneurial family and from an early age she says she was in love with the concept of taking one dollar and turning it into two. She was a natural. Whether it was getting chosen out of college for GE’s world renowned, ultra-competitive Financial Management Program or becoming a CFO at the age of 35, time and time again it’s been proven that she was born to thrive in the financial services industry.

To Hale, one of the biggest appeals of the industry was that it went well beyond Wall Street, enabling you to apply your skills and learn new ones in areas as varied as real estate and healthcare.

This love of learning about new sectors was fostered at GE, where Hale was rotated to a different area every six-months. Hale has done just about everything the industry has to offer, from working on Wall Street to working in mergers and acquisitions (and everything in between), eventually deciding she liked real estate the best. She would spend five-years in this space before business school.

“The beauty of financial services is that while every industry is different, the actual finance aspect is the same. You can take your skills and apply them anywhere that interests you and you can be successful in that space,” Hale said.

A Career to Be Proud Of

There are very few women CFOs and even fewer African American women CFOs and as an African American woman serving as CFO of a publicly traded company, Hale is one of just a handful in the entire United States. Clearly, this is one of her proudest achievements.

“I’m fortunate to work for a great company with a visionary CEO who was willing to take a chance on me,” Hale said. “Success, as we know, is about being prepared, but it’s also about opportunity. When you’re prepared and an opportunity arises, it can be career changing.”

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Voice of Experience: Lisa Opoku, Chief Operating Officer for the Securities Division in Asia Pacific, Goldman Sachs

Lisa portraitIn 2003, Lisa Opoku came to Goldman Sachs for what was supposed to be a three-month assignment, but her stint became a stay. In 2009, she became Chief Operating Officer for the Securities Division of Goldman Sachs Asia-Pacific and in 2012, she was promoted to partner. She came to the multinational investment banking firm from Richards, Kibbe & Orbe and says that her background as a lawyer gave her an advantage, even becoming partner at the firm while still on assignment at Goldman.

“When I started my career I was all about hard work. My parents are from Ghana and I have inherited an immigrant’s work ethic. My parents taught me that if I put my head down and work hard, the rewards will come,” Opoku said. “The corporate world is much more complex than that. You can do an excellent job and it can sometimes be invisible if you are not careful. You have to be vocal about what you contribute, network with your colleagues and clients, and make sure that you are an advocate for your career.”

Team Work

Currently, Opoku’s favorite project is the team she is building in Bangalore, focused on system enhancements and improvements to global processes.

“I am most proud of the team that I have developed in Asia Pacific; you are only as good as your team. I trust my team with many difficult strategic projects and they always deliver the highest quality product,” the COO said. “It is not easy to learn to delegate when we are all ‘Type –A’ people but, it is the only way to truly gain leverage and be more strategic about your work. Every day we can see the impact. The talent in Bangalore is so impressive and the team there is adding a ton of value to our Global Management and Strategy priorities.”

Right now, Opoku is very focused on changes in technology, with Goldman’s trading desks partnering with its technology professionals to enhance performance and efficiency.

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Voice of Experience: Christina Minnis, Managing Director in Healthcare M&A Investment Banking, Goldman Sachs

Christina MinnisChristina Minnis says that upon graduating from Yale in 1987, she had no real experience in the financial services industry and absolutely no Wall Street experience. “I was an intern at a bank and that was the extent of it,” Minnis said.

She obtained her Master of Management degree from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in 1991 before forging her career with Goldman Sachs beginning in 1998, where she began as a vice president in the Investment Banking Division (IBD), focusing on leveraged finance deals primarily for the financial sponsors group. In 2001, Minnis joined the Fixed Income Division as part of Capital Markets and focused on industrials followed by healthcare. She was named managing director in 2004 and partner in 2008.

Today, Minnis is co-head of Goldman Sachs’ Healthcare Group in the Americas and head of the Healthcare Leveraged Finance Group and the Pension Strategies Group. She serves as a member of the IBD Operating Committee, and the Global Recruiting Council, while also co-heading global recruiting for IBD and serving as the chair of diversity for IBD.

Healthcare: A Thriving Industry

Of her many achievements, it is her work in the Healthcare Group that Minnis is most proud of.

“I’m incredibly proud of what we have built in our Leveraged Finance healthcare franchise. When we started, the healthcare leveraged finance revenue was less than $10 million and the team consisted of myself and an analyst,” Minnis said. “Now we’ve built our team up to seven people, and we’re fully integrated into banking. It’s been an amazing collaboration and a terrific accomplishment.”

It’s an interesting and exciting time to be working in healthcare from the perspective of the investment banking industry. The Affordable Care Act has created a great deal of change, and though Minnis says there are many challenges, there are also “great opportunities.”

“So many people choose the healthcare field because they want to add good to the world by developing useful technology and helping the quality of care. This is a dynamic time in history for this industry and though the role I play in investment banking is very different, it’s exciting to be a part of it,” Minnis said.

The People Part

Minnis says that many coming into the investment banking industry are unaware how crucial good client skills are.

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