Tag Archive for: Voices of Experience

2023: Words of Wisdom from Women In Leadership (Part 1)

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women in leadershipThis year, we’ve interviewed impact leaders, change makers and women who are shaking up senior leadership and creating new roles. Once again, it’s our honor to amplify the voices of the women who are becoming the change they want to see – whether that’s recalibrating leadership approaches to shift the paradigm, birthing their own vision tangibly into the world, or elevating the voices that remain underrepresented.

Looking across our leader profiles in 2023, we share words of wisdom and inspiration from each woman we’ve talked to this year (look out for Part 2 next week). Thank you for the gift of your energy, time and insight!

“Get in there early with a contribution to the discussion. Other people feel relieved and appreciate it when somebody says something first and are likely to even build on it. And I learned that contributing early liberates you to relax and enjoy the discussion, because you’re not beating yourself up about not having said anything yet. You may find you are building up to something even bigger to say, but at least you feel good because you’ve contributed.” – Ruth Harper: SVP, Chief Communications & Sustainability Officer, ManpowerGroup

“We’re all drops in the ocean, but together we can move the moon. Small things matter. Because if we all do one small act, together, collectively and as a community, we can move mountains, and that’s always been the case. I think we each create a ripple in the water from just a drop, and that if we all work together, this change can really occur. It’s not just one thing that’s going to be the answer to our issues, it’s going to be an ecosystem of many things working together to create resilience.” – Alice Chun: Female Inventor, Founder and CEO of Solight Design, Inc.

“We are all humans having a human experience and so you ought to be able to connect with anybody on some level. Different perspectives are something to embrace, not something to close yourself off to, because they help you to think and see things from different perspectives.” – Loretta Pearce: Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Shearman & Sterling LLP

“I have walked into several rooms where I wasn’t invited, but I acted like I belonged. Then what are they going to do except welcome me? You walk into a room, and you act like you belong. Take a seat at the table. Not in a chair along the wall, but at the table. And then raise your voice when you speak so you can be heard.” – Avis Yates Rivers: CEO at Technology Concepts Group Int’l., LLC

“I walk into every new thing I do with an understanding of ‘I know what I know’ but ‘I know what I don’t know,’ too. I’m comfortable about being vulnerable enough to ask people to help me. Women put too much pressure on themselves by thinking they have to walk into a role fully capable and qualified, when the reality is that long as you have the core of what you need to do the job, you can build and learn. As long as you’re willing to be vulnerable enough to admit that you’re going to need help or to learn new skills as you navigate, you can take on those bigger jobs.” – Judith Barry: Co-Head of Global Equities, Wells Fargo

“Somewhere along the way of observing women progress in their careers, I realized that no one ever got very far if they cared too much about: What do others think? How did I come across? Was I likeable? And so on. You get to a certain place because you channeled that energy not on worrying about whether people like you or your answer, but on asking how do I get the job at hand done?” – Marcella Sivilotti: Chief Strategy Officer, PGIM

“Confidence is so important, yet sometimes ‘confidence’ can be felt by women as a negative because we don’t want to come across arrogant or as a know-it-all. We need to take these words that have negative associations and switch them into positives. There is also a huge amount of negative connotation around the phrase ‘being selfish.’ But it is so important that at times you put yourself first. Prioritize your own development, personal learning journey, self-care, and look to make choices that help you, not just other people all the time. I think it’s breaking those associations in our head that suggest ‘If I’m confident…I’m perceived as arrogant’ or ‘If I’m selfish… I’m a mean person.’ It can feel very uncomfortable, but it is these simple things that can make a massive difference and it is not about changing your values, just your priorities.” – Loretta Franks: VP, Chief Data & Analytics Officer at Kellogg Company

“I’ve had many experiences where I felt uncomfortable raising a topic but I did it anyway, because there was merit in it. If we’re going to have diversity of thought, then as leaders and as professionals, we have to evaluate the things that make us uncomfortable and really decipher, what is this individual trying to say? What is the goal here? Because if you believe intentions are good, you might want to tune your ear and try to better understand what is being said, versus dismissing or disqualifying it.” – Melinda Cora: Principal, Head of Product Implementation and Project Management at PGIM Quantitative Solutions

“Many people have idea ‘sparks,’ small or large, and too many people squash their sparks. But it’s with those sparks that you can improve organizations and improve yourself. It could be as small as a change in process or as massive as complete transformation. Being able to embrace the spark is the essence of organizational and personal development.” – Geneviève Piché: Head of Sustainable Finance and Advisory, Corporate & Investment Banking, Wells Fargo

“Part of a leadership vision includes incorporating a learning curve in how you get there. None of us are always right and we’re all going to make mistakes as we go along. But the objective is still the right objective. You’ve got to move and learn along the way how to best make it where you want to go.” – Kelley Conway: Head of Corporate & Digital Strategy, Northern Trust

“I think that we have to fight. I think that we need to ask for what we need. I think we need to stop apologizing. I think we need to not think something is wrong with us and instead see the system as broken and demand for it to change.” – Reshma Saujani: Founder and CEO of Moms First

“Many women in leadership roles still don’t give themselves enough credit that we are, indeed, leaders. We feel like we never get ‘there.’ The first time someone reached out to ask for time on my calendar, I had to take a step back and realize I have gone through this 25+ year career path and people are interested in connecting with me as a leader. But I also know it’s a two-way street. There is always something we can learn from each other, no matter what your level is within an organization.” – Tiara Henderson: Corporate and Investment Banking Head of Women’s Segment and Commercial Real Estate Head of Diverse Segments, Wells Fargo

“By focusing on internal gratification, I’ve naturally been given more opportunities without necessarily focusing on what I have to do to get to the next step or to get promoted, because those are external focuses. By doing what I want to do – to grow and to learn and to do it for myself – I’ve just had those opportunities come to me…Everyone’s way towards internal gratification is different, but I feel that when you do things for yourself, you exude different energy and attract more of what you want.” – Mikaylee O’Connor: Principal, Senior Defined Contribution Strategist, PGIM DC Solutions

“In my team, we’re all scientists and we want to get things done and we want them to be perfect, so we give our best and go above and beyond. But I always like to remind my team that the job is important, but so are your health and family. While there are times when you may have to work extra hours to meet your objectives, doing so is never sustainable in the long run.” – Fabiola Gutierrez-Orozco: R&D Director, Global Nutrition Science, Reckitt

“The more I go through life, the more I realize we do not know what challenges people have every day. So above all, we need to practice kindness towards ourselves and others.” – Graciella Dominguez: Vice President of Investment Operations, Operations and Innovations, PGIM

Interviewed by Aimee Hansen

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Renee Connolly: Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany

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Renee Connolly“I am retrospectively conscious, but not retrospectively critical. I learn from the past, to move me forward,” says Renee Connolly, based in Massachusetts. “I am prospectively thoughtful that the decisions I make today have consequences: so do I have the right facts to make those decisions?”

Connolly talks to why language matters, going for greatness, learning from the past and having the right resources.

From Communications to DEI

Connolly spent her career facilitating understanding in healthcare-related communications, until last August: “For 25 years of my life, I helped to make complex science and life sciences simple and understandable, so people could better support their lives, families and needs.”

As a college senior, Connolly lost her mother (lifelong non- smoker) to lung cancer and was compelled to enter communications in the burgeoning pharmaceutical biotech and life science field.

“I thought to myself, if I could help people on a journey, similar to ours, to better navigate that maze of specialist talk and treatments, then that’s making a difference.”

In taking on her evolved executive role, she agreed to turn her part-time advocacy of DEI into a full-time opportunity to transfer her skills.

There’s still so much to understand in the deep rootedness of what it really means to help people feel they are heard, included, and really belong,” says Connolly. “Language matters and impacts people in different ways, and DEI is a lot about language and the use of words.”

Listening and Language Matters

Now in her DEI remit, Connolly is facilitating how people better understand each other. She collaborates with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany’s many stakeholders including advising senior leadership, partnering with recruiters, engaging with employees at all levels of the organization and importantly partnering with Employee Resource Groups (ERG’s), to tell their stories and amplify their voices. Working in this space internationally requires her to keep her “ears wide open.”

“It creates constant awareness to be truly open-minded and to not put on blinders, to not put defenders up, and to really listen, wholeheartedly,” she says. “We’re creating an environment where people feel they belong and are nurtured and where we are nourishing our business for top-line growth.”

Connolly notes that her role requires emotional, mental and physical muscles every day – leading with empathy. She feels like the right person in this critical moment for our company and communities, with the right balance of skills and experience to take DEI to the next level for her organization.

Going For Greatness

“The world could be imploding around me, and I have a mantra of ‘It will be great’ or ‘I stand in a place of believing in an outcome filled with ‘greatness’,” says Connolly. “It’s not just positive mindset. I actually believe that even if the journey to get there is full of hard lessons, I’m always looking for greatness.”

When told something is impossible, a discerning question she asks is: “It couldn’t be done? It shouldn’t be done? Or it wouldn’t be done?” And depending on the answer, she may turn to how to make it possible.

The loss of her mom left Connolly with resilience. While she feels every scale of her emotions, she still tends to be a “glass half-full” person who considers herself fortunate and brings positive energy to those around her. She does what she says and says what she does, rallying her team when she commits to a vision.

“I’m a big believer that it’s the team, not the individual, that drives success. It is the collective good of many,” she says. “I love DEI because it drives progress when we realize – in some way, shape, or form – that we’re more alike than we are different.”

That emphasis on “team” has been instilled throughout her life from playing many organized sports. Connolly was a college athlete, and her entire family (including her three teenage sons and her 8 year old daughter) is athletic. She loves observing the parallels between business and individual and team sports. That spirit of healthy competition has gifted her great skillsets as well as a deep appreciation for excelling and accelerating her own growth.

There are many “dominoes” in teamwork that make you have a successful win or loss. In business, Connolly applies this and has come to find that “there’s a wisdom in knowing what you don’t know” and you don’t have to be the smartest person in the room.

“Earlier in my career, I thought I had to be the one with the voice. Now, I realize what I have to do is give or encourage or support the voices that have the information required, not always be the voice,” she says. “That’s the muscle you develop with maturity and by realizing the amazing contributions that many voices bring to a conversation. That’s the muscle you develop when you embrace the diversity of thinking in a team to drive forward.“

Retrospectively Conscious, Not Retrospectively Critical

Cultivating patience for herself and others is perhaps a skill Connolly built up by raising four children, as this year she has one in elementary, one in middle, one in high school and one in college. Talk about patience. Each age, experience and interaction requires you to be patient and that has mattered for Connolly as a leader.

“In a field like DEI, you see so much potential right away. But it’s necessary to have the patience to realize there are steps to get there, and you have to do those steps well. You can’t run before you walk,” she says. “Patience is not weakness, as I may have seen it before. It’s a virtue of understanding that you must work towards goals in a methodical way to make sure that you’re iterative enough to get the best possible outcome.”

Aware that she makes her own decision based on current knowledge—and that there will always be more to learn, Connolly tends to not focus on criticizing how past decisions were made, hers or others: “I try to learn from the past, but focus forward. Especially now, every day brings new circumstances and we use our best judgement, and most of us have positive intent.”

This makes her retrospectively conscious, not retrospectively critical, as she puts it – focusing on her responsibility today.

Why You Don’t Need “More”

When Connolly was leveling up from doing to managing others, she used to say she needed “more” to get it all done, but one of her mentors changed her entire frame of thinking: “Your problem is not getting more people or more money or more resources,” he told her. “It’s getting the right people, the right money, the right resources.”

Other words she lives by as a communications professional is to treat every opportunity like opening night: “It doesn’t matter how little or big the engagement is, respect and know your audience. Realize that people are spending time to listen or talk to you so make sure your message lands.”

She values the advice to be true to your purpose: “When you’re often counseling senior leaders, do you want to tell them what they want to hear? Or do you want to be true to yourself?” While a job may require different approaches at different times, it’s important to keep a purposeful essence in how one approaches everything (for her, a spirit of greatness and creativity).

Guiding Others and Serving a Mission

Mentoring young talent fulfills her soul. It reminds her of her younger self, looking for guidance after losing her mother. She loves instilling in young women to have the confidence that they can do more than they thought possible. As a mission-centered person, she sits on several boards, from the Massachusetts Conference for Women to the Home for Little Wanderers (child welfare to American Cancer Society (New England). One of her most prized awards was entitled: “Service above Self”—it is this she uses to guide her commitment to share her talents, treasure and time to help those who are in most need.

She emphasizes the importance of having fun. At her best moments in her journey, she was enjoying the work, serving a mission, or making something better.

By Aimee Hansen

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Sara Coelho: Partner, Financial Restructuring & Insolvency, Shearman & Sterling LLP

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Sara Coelho“I’m open to things going in a lot of different directions and to seeing things in a different way than people expect,” says Sara Coelho. “I really try to foster that approach, because novel solutions bubble up.”

Coelho talks about why her practice is a jack-of-all-trades art, standing her ground as a woman and the creativity of receptivity within law.

The “Liberal Arts Area of Law”

With Shearman & Sterling since 2016, and promoted to partner this past July, Coelho has been in the insolvency practice for fifteen years.

“Any time you have an insolvency situation, by definition people can’t follow the law. When something isn’t working, you get to take a deep dive into why and have to figure out a way to make something of that, and the tools really vary depending on the business,” she says. “Every situation has its own dimensions, so you constantly get to learn something new. If you are a liberal arts major, you would like what I do.”

Coelho continues, “I’m often doing things I have no prior expertise in, for example, negotiating tax debt and tax statutes, because of the underlying needs of the situation,” she further explains. “Sometimes we litigate to get to a resolution of a dispute. Sometimes we create deals. We’ll use any field of law to construct a deal that takes the situation to a better place.”

Her area is so flexible that when students ask her about a typical day, Coelho tells them to give her a year and she’ll say what she was doing in that period of time. Collaboration with other lawyers and financial advisors is critical to her work: often part of the solution is bringing in the expert who knows the tried-and-true approach, and another is confronting an issue alien to anything she’s ever done. Hence, the sophistication of problems, quality of people and intellectual challenges have held her attention in this field.

The Creativity of Receptivity

Coelho feels persistence has served her. She has always been able to put her head down and commit to a project she’s taken on. She’s been called a “lawyer’s lawyer” in that she has an analytical curiosity and loves to go deep into a problem, which means encouraging a spaciousness for unexpected solutions.

“There’s often a real reluctance to bring forward something that is a little off the wall,” she observes, “but you could miss an opportunity that way.”

In law, creativity is often less conceiving of something new and bringing it into existence, but rather an artful receptivity to the hidden key that already exists that you’re not yet seeing.

“So much of law is a very set underlying body of concepts, and people lose track of a big percentage of it. So often there is just something lurking there, that’s pretty direct and obvious, but actually very hard to see if you don’t come at it with an open mindset,” she explains. “It’s a receptivity, an orientation of faith that there’s going to be useful things that emerge. It’s a melding of a creative mindset with the orthodox.”

Staking Her Ground As A Woman

While Coelho admits her field has an inadequate representation of women, especially senior partners, she also often finds there are more women than she realized. She also feels the reputation of being male-dominated deters women from considering a field they might thrive in: “There are women who are thriving in all of the difficult roles and more than you would think.”

At the same time, Coelho acknowledges that she does feels some pressure to be beyond perfect and tends to speak concisely, getting to her point quickly while she has the moment, whereas she witnesses men talk at length without the social pressure to be precise.

“I’m working on trying to take up more time and space, and defending the perimeter to be able to do that,” she notes, “because sometimes you can’t appropriately advocate otherwise.”

Coelho acknowledges that being a woman distinguishes you, but that advantage can backfire if you’re perceived as the woman lawyer and especially if there’s a general assumption of irrelevance.

For example, on a conference call for a major deal where both Coelho and another female counterpart lawyer represented different clients with predictably different perspectives, the opposing side confused their two arguments, because, she suspects, the woman lawyers’ voices were understood as interchangeable. Coelho finds it hard to imagine that same bewildering lack of differentiation occurring for a man.

“Things still go on, but at the same time, you’re just focused on the problem and the work,” says Coelho. She notes that self-validating verbal feedback from highly respected top lawyers has been a touchstone to measure her lawyering and has kept her from falling into an unproductive level of self-questioning, especially when she’s confronted with aggression or doubt.

Clarifying The “Stupid Questions“

In addition to helping associates become familiar with the essential craft of her “renaissance profession,” Coelho seeks to demystify some of the basics that challenged her. When she first began, she felt one of the hardest parts was just figuring out how things got done – down to how you frame an e-mail and how long you wait to chase up on it.

Coelho volunteers information and invites the conversation around questions she found perplexing when starting out, especially if the response she had was reactive or dismissive: “I try to ask, what would have been the most constructive response for me?”

“For example, as a lawyer, to say how much time should I spend on something is a very loaded question because obviously you should do the best job possible for the client. Well, the best job possible might mean thousands of hours or significant expense, and maybe the client doesn’t want that,” she notes. “So there’s always this judgment about how exactly to approach the problem, how much depth to go in and what are the optimal things to focus on. These are complex judgements people have to make, so I like to be transparent about that kind of process.”

Boiling down why inviting questions as a senior lawyer is important, Coelho says: “The stupid question is the most important one to ask because you definitely don’t want to make a stupid mistake.”

For women in particular, Coelho also emphasizes the importance of really stepping back to ask what you personally want, rather than letting the ongoing demands of your external environment, including simply keeping up with the work, dictate where you end up.

An Unforgettable Mentor

Coelho considers her grandmother the most mindful person she has ever met. As a child, Coelho would join her in hanging laundry, picking fruit or doing some other form of tending to ordinary things.

The most unforgettable moment that affected her was listening to her grandmother talk about one single lemon with such elaborate understanding and appreciation that it underlined a whole wisdom of her Grandmother’s way of living in the world: “Listening to her talk about this lemon and what it was, exactly why it had a different flavor than others and how you would use it, in such depth, crystallized for me her way of being and how wonderful that is. And how much better life is, if you can bring that sort of appreciation and experience to whatever it is you’re doing.”

Coelho adores her three and a half year old son, Caleb, and, in addition to being a prolific reader of social sciences “light” and economics, loves to garden – and as her grandmother, tend attentively to the small and sacred matters of the home.

By Aimee Hansen

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15 Tips For Elevating Your Leadership Mindset

We’ve rounded up some of the most acute advice on elevating yourself to a leadership mindset, from the women leaders we’ve interviewed in our Voices of Experience leadership series this year.

1. Don’t Shy Away From Hard Truths

“To be a good leader, you need to be able to cheer your team on with all the good stuff. But to make changes and keep progressing, you also need to be willing to address the challenges and difficult matters,” notes Marcia Diaz of PGIM Real Estate. “I think people appreciate direct and honest feedback and ‘knowing where they stand.’”

2. Let Go of Certainty

“Women have a tendency to be very certainty driven, and they end up not taking as many risks and opportunities. It’s like that quote ‘doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will’,” says Monica Marquez of Beyond Barriers. “Women need to be much more open to taking the opportunity and embracing just-in-time learning, so they don’t rob themselves before they try.”

3. Keep Personal Fulfillment As a Priority

“Someone once told me that when your career takes off, something else is going to suffer. For a long time, I was convinced that you have to work very hard while other things would have to take a backseat,” says Anna de Jong of PGIM Fixed Income. “You are actually more successful when you understand what is really important to you and cultivate personal satisfaction, as well.”

4. Set Your Vision Ahead

“The more senior you get, the more you are responsible for steering and being able to see around the corner and anticipating the different challenges that you’ll face along the way,” says Katherine Stoller of Shearman & Sterling. “You get more experienced at identifying the problems you may be seeing tomorrow.”

5. Broaden Your Circle of Concern

“When I was subsequently promoted…I remember asking myself: am I willing to fight for my team, even to the extent that I may compromise my job? Am I willing to fight for my team for what is right?” say Geklang Lee of PGIM Real Estate, Asia-Pacific. “Only when I was prepared to do that, did I accept the role.”

6. Lead With the Space For Growth

“When you are hands on, you do things a certain way and tend to believe others should do it the same way. But people have different approaches, and it takes time to admit to yourself those approaches are fine, and so are the consequences,” says Silke Soennecken of Commerzbank New York. “You are supporting the growth of people by allowing them to also make mistakes. You’re going to support and guide them, but there’s purpose in delegating and giving others the opportunity to grow and shine in their own way.”

7. Don’t Just Manage, Inspire

“I would rather be a leader than manager. To be a good leader, you really do have to have a vision, a mission. I want people to feel inspired to get on board with what we’re doing and feel purpose and connection,” says Erika Karp of Pathstone. “Management is structural and systems and measures and accountability are critical. But I don’t love management as much as I love leadership.”

8. Model A Leadership that Gives Power Away

“One thing I learned through my community organizing training with Midwest Academy is this idea of leadership: that giving power away is how you grow a powerful movement,” says Caroline Samponaro of Lyft. “I focus on imparting that message to those I manage: how are we giving away power to build a strength of team and community that can be that much more successful?”

9. Know Your Network of Influence

“People often want to go directly to the key decision maker and say ‘get to know me’, but if you get to know the influencers of the key decision makers, you become an influencer in the organization as well,” says Natalie Tucker of Radioligand Therapy. “When joining an organization, this is a good first step for those who are more introverted and looking to quickly create positive impact on the business because you’re able to have honest dialogues on key matters. It’s about reading the organization, and learning about its people – not their title, but who they are, and their communication networks. Once you understand the communication network of an organization, you can navigate it well.”

10. Invite Being Challenged

“I’m completely open to, and actually encourage, my team telling me when I’m wrong. I invite them to convince me that I’m wrong. I love that!” says Grace Lee of S&P Global. “I want us to have the best ideas, and that’s only possible when we are all contributing, debating and challenging each other.”

11. Stay Grounded In Yourself

“Some people would say you shouldn’t necessarily point out or emphasize the difference,” reflects Nneka Orji of Morrinson Wealth Management UK,“but I think it was so helpful in terms of me knowing who I was and who I am, and being true to myself. Of course I wasn’t always as confident in this respect and I’ve grown a lot since, but being comfortable in your own skin, in terms of your own history and culture, is critical. As long as you know who you are, you know your motivations, your boundaries and you make decisions in line with these.”

12. Diversify Your Personal Board of Directors

“I realized the people I go to often are very similar to me, so when I go to them for advice, they’re probably going to give me what I want to hear,” says Leah Meehan of State Street. “So I have one person on my board who has been a friend for a long time, and he tells me ‘how it is’. He does not hold anything back, to the point it sometimes upsets me, but he’s helping me to move ahead; I need more of those people, to diversify my board.”

13. Stand Tall in Your Value

“The biggest thing I think I took away from mentors and coaches over the years was to learn to give a value to myself,” says Beverly Jo Slaughter of Wells Fargo Advisers. “External recognition is a wonderful thing, but we all have to learn to give recognition to ourselves, to recognize when we have done well, to celebrate our value and feel confident that we bring it to the table.”

14. Come From an Intrapreneurial Mindset

“So as I think of being an ‘intrapreneurial executive,’ I bring that same sense of acting like an owner to the organization I work for. I’m going to be constantly thinking about ways of improving the business,” says Linda Descano of Red Havas. “I act like I own it, as if it’s my investment. It’s working with that same sense of responsibility and drive to make it grow.”

15. Foster a Longterm Perspective

“It’s a long career and so easy to get wrapped up in the here and the now, especially when you start out,” says Emily Leitch of Shearman & Sterling. “But you really have to remember — when you feel overwhelmed, when you’re in a transaction and it’s all-consuming — you have to be able to ride those waves and think from a long-term perspective.”

By Aimee Hansen

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Emily Leitch: Capital Markets Partner, Shearman & Sterling

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Emily Leitch “Early in my law career, I felt like there was an established hierarchy and I was hesitant to speak out of turn. I wish I’d broken that notion sooner and had more confidence in my own voice,” reflects Emily Leitch. For sure, respect is earned along the way, but I love seeing the confidence of the incoming female associates today and value their insights. I hope I had a small hand in creating more open dialogue for future generations.”

Leitch speaks to staying focused on your path, leveraging your unique presence and sustaining yourself through the long Big Law journey.

Gravitating Towards Capital Markets

Leitch began in investment banking out of college before deciding to attend University of Texas School of Law after two years. Exploring both securities and mergers and acquisitions (M&A), she felt more magnetized to becoming an expert in capital markets.

“I love that we get to interact with the heart of leadership of the company, and to hear not only about the transaction, but also their strategies and their business,” she says. “You come to know and understand the company’s business, so that you can describe it properly to investors, and ascertain the potential risks and opportunities.”

Not only does Leitch enjoy the high profile client interaction and broad business exposure, but because the intense transactional periods are often accorded in timing to SEC deadlines, she also feels the overall flow is less volatile than the peaks and valleys of M&A law.

Reflecting back, she was probably most surprised to realize how rules-based and regulatory in nature the practice is, which means constantly keeping up with changes in laws and regulations that come with different administrations and different agendas.

Joining Shearman in February, she loves that there’s always more growth and a new challenge: “This is not a career where you’re learning curve ever really flattens. It’s always on an upward trajectory and constantly being engaged intellectually has been something I really enjoy. And the people that I get to work with and am surrounded by — the associates, partners, clients — are all smart, motivated, wonderful, and well-rounded people.”

Staying Attuned To Your Own Development

“As a young associate, you hear ‘so and so billed this many hours’, ‘so and so got to work on that transaction’, and people can get really wrapped up in the competitive nature of it. But from the start of my career, I was pretty good at tuning out that noise,” reflects Leitch on what has contributed to her personal success: “I was good at keeping my head down, doing good work that I was proud of, and walking into the office every day thinking, ‘I’m going to do the very best I can do’.”

Making partner at just eight years and named by Law360 in 2017 as one of the top five lawyers nationally under 40 in the area of capital markets, her focus on her own work has served her well.

“I’m a good team player, so people generally like working with me. I think being naturally social has also helped a lot, as my network is really wide. I enjoy taking part in organizations and leadership teams and committees — from the legal profession to church to school — which also helps me keep some context in this industry,” notes Leitch. “As you grow in this business, it becomes so relationship-driven.”

She’s often heard the reflection that she is high energy, confident and strong, even when she hasn’t exactly felt that way — especially when she was juggling young children with returning to work.

A highly memorable moment of her journey was when, with two babies at home, she had reached a breaking point and was ready to side-shift to any kind of less demanding peripheral position. While informing Leitch that she just short of making partner, a head of her department encouraged her to hold on through the difficult phase and keep the course, and the team just needed to give her the support she needed.

“I’m so glad I held on, because when you make partner in this industry, it opens a lot more doors. If I had gone all that way to stop right before that finish line, my career would be totally different, and I wouldn’t be where I am today,” reflects Leitch. “But sometimes, as women you just you need that support. You need to vent to somebody or say I can’t do this. She was able to really help me through that, and I remember because it was absolutely career-defining.”

Leveraging Your Presence in The Room

While there have been many female associates across firms she’s worked in, Leitch has often been the only female partner in the room or even only woman at all, considering she works a lot with investment bankers, but notes that she didn’t use to notice it and has rarely focused on it — somehow seeing mostly male faces on Zoom has made it more salient.

“It’s not something that I’ve considered a bad thing, and frankly, I’ve probably considered it an asset and used that as an opportunity to stand out,” says Leitch. “I’ve been fortunate along my career to work with very supportive men, who are supportive of women and have helped me develop my career tremendously.”

While it might not be at a conscious level, Leitch is aware that even her presence in the room commands noticing, and feels perhaps that has empowered her to value and use her voice and her ability to influence.

“People see me as a female leader, and I think younger female associates have always looked up to me as a trailblazer in a sense,” she observes. “I’ve never really thought of myself that way: I just did my best work along the way and didn’t care if I was a man or a woman or who I was working with, but it’s nice to help bring other women up behind me.”

Remember It’s a Long Career Journey

“If I could go back and change one thing, it would be to ask more questions and to have more confidence approaching senior people,” says Leitch. “When I was the junior associate, I’d try to figure it out on my own or go to another associate.”

With the value of hindsight, she intentionally tries to be approachable and open.

Leitch has also learned through experience, and impresses upon associates, that while every transaction may feel like a dead sprint, it’s important to remember you’re in it for the marathon.

“It’s a long career and so easy to get wrapped up in the here and the now, especially when you start out,” she notes. “But you really have to remember — when you feel overwhelmed, when you’re in a transaction and it’s all-consuming — you have to be able to ride those waves and think from a long-term perspective.”

With time, she’s learned where to give it her all, which she often has, and where to put her boundaries up and give focus where it’s needed now, to make work-life integration work for her.

“Some days work has to come first. Some days, children have to come first. Some days my husband has to come first,” says Leitch. “We’re all balancing things in our lives, and the longer you do it, the more you instinctively know where the ball cannot be dropped that day.”

Leitch has enjoyed the opportunity to pick her nine year old son and seven year old daughter up from school everyday, as a result of the remote workplace. Much of her personal time is spent engaging in what excites them — from Astros’ baseball games to Tik Tok dance videos.

She’s all about her Peloton at the moment (a pandemic purchase) and as a creative outlet to her highly mental vocation, she feeds her life-long affection for theatre, finding pocketed opportunities to perform, including playful covers of Lady Gaga, Whitney Houston, Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer at Teacher Appreciation Days at her kids’ schools. With a mix of fun, family and a successful legal career, ‘you can’t touch her’.

By: Aimee Hansen

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14 Career Insights and Tips From Women Leaders in Asia (Part 2)

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women leaders in asiaDuring our Spotlight on Asia this month, The Glass Hammer has curated the best of career insights and tips from inspiring female executives and women leaders in Asia.

In the first part of this series, we shared seven top tips. This week, we continue with seven more experience-based insights from Asian female executives.

1. Get out of your own way.

“The barriers to success for women in our profession are sometimes ourselves,” said Quek Bin Hwee, previously as the Vice-Chairman of PwC Singapore and the Markets Leader of PwC Asia. “We sometimes believe we cannot reach the pinnacle of our career. This is not always true. It is possible for those who desire it. These women tend to embrace change and always keep an open mind.”

Update: After 25 years of global and regional positions with PwC Singapore until 2017, Quek Bin Hwee sits as director across several boards and member on others.

2. Define your own possibilities for yourself.

“You need to determine your own path and carve out your own unique identity,” advised Paloma Wang, previously as a Partner, Capital Markets Group at Shearman & Sterling in Hong Kong, when reflecting on her trajectory. “Don’t let anyone else dictate who you are as a professional or as a person.”

Having ascended to partnership by 37 years old, Wang shared, “By establishing your own priorities and doing the things that truly make you happy, you will drive your career path in the right direction. Don’t make concessions because you are junior or because you are a woman. Plant your feet firmly and set your sights on achieving everything you want.”

Update: Paloma Wang is presently a Partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates.

3. Take the risk of influencing outcomes.

“Earlier in my career, I was more reserved about expressing my views,” said Stephanie Hui, as Head of the Merchant Banking Division in Asia Pacific Ex-Japan at Goldman Sachs, who grew up as a Chinese woman in a conservative family in Hong Kong.

“But over time, I realized we are in the business of taking calculated risks and just keeping my head down to produce top quality work while hoping others would notice would not make me a leader,” Hui noted. “Instead, I would have to effectively and respectfully influence outcome. I learned that being vocal in the right context is important.”

Update: Stephanie Hui is an MD responsible for the private equity investing business of Goldman Sachs in Asia and has been with the firm for 26 years.

4. Do not contort yourself to conform.

“When I was first starting to practice law, I tried to mimic my male colleagues by dressing how they dressed and talking like them,” said Jun Wei, Managing Partner at Hogan Lovells in Beijing. “One day, a client of mine who was a very successful business woman told me that no matter how much I tried to act like a man, I would always be a woman. She urged me to be proud of my identity.”

Wei emphasized the importance of junior women lawyers to be themselves and resist conforming to male-dominated work environments just to fit in.

Update: Jun Wei remains a Managing Partner at Hogan Lovells, now over 19 years with the firm across mergers.

5. Manage your boss.

“It is important to know how to manage your boss,” said Siew Choo Ng, Senior Vice President, Head of Global Network Partnerships in Asia at American Express. “He or she is the one who can be your sponsor and help you with your career. Often times you are competing for their time and sponsorship with your other team members, so it helps to distinguish yourself from the pack.”

If she could have learned anything sooner to help her navigate, Ng said that would be the golden piece of advice.

Update: Siew Choo Ng still holds this position on her LinkedIn Profile.

6. Leap before you have all the answers.

“I think women have the tendency to be a bit conservative at work. What I mean is that we like to gather all of the information we can before providing an answer, for example. While that is important, I think women need to try to be a little more daring, take more risks and be confident,” said Wei Hopeman, previously as Managing Director and Head of Asia for Citi Ventures in Shanghai. “You have to start down a new path long before you have all of the answers because by the time you get all the answers, the original opportunity will be gone. This is something I have learned from my own career.”

“If you never take on new challenges and new experiences, then you are never really allowing yourself to learn and grow,” said Hopeman. “You learn every day. No matter how senior or junior you are, part of making yourself better is learning from your mistakes and your successes.”

Update: Wei Hopeman has been the Co-founder and Managing Partner of Arbor Ventures for the past seven years and sits on several boards.

7. Seek to align with your purpose.

“To begin finding out what your purpose in life is, imagine looking back forty years from now and asking yourself what would make you proud, or if you would be able to admit to having lived a full and meaningful life,” suggested Nora Wu, formerly the PwC Global Vice Chairwoman and PwC Global Human Capital Leader out of China. “The answers will give you a good indication of what you want, or should, aim for in life.”

Wu then advised to not hold back: “You never know where one opportunity or interaction will lead you and you only can find out if you give it your best shot. You should never be afraid to work hard or put in the long hours. Work-life balance is indeed possible, especially if you do not separate your work and your life. By aligning your purpose, personality, and aspirations, it will be easier to create a balance.”

Update: Nora Wu is now an independent board member at JD Logistics and sits on a few boards.

We hope you enjoyed this two-part retrospective! Click here to see part one.

By: Aimee Hansen

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Thought Leader: Barbara Reinhard, Head of Asset Allocation and Senior Portfolio Manager for Voya Investment Management’s Multi Asset Strategy and Solutions team

Barbara Reinhard“Every individual in America — from a Rockefeller to a Jones — will face retirement,” says Barbara Reinhard. “At Voya, we can touch every American’s life, and it’s a powerful investment mission when you realize that the decisions we make will help someone realize their lifelong goals.”

This is the philosophy that weaves its way through Barbara’s work, in both the day-to-day and long-term activities of focus. Currently enmeshed in the firm’s annual update to its strategic asset portfolios, Barbara appreciates her work at Voya because the firm is not a “traditional” asset manager. “Very few asset managers focus exclusively on retirement investing,” she notes. “Most want to be everything to everybody.”

Voya’s work with retirement plans means that the long-term demographic trend for the investment business is very positive. “The need for adequate retirement savings affects all Americans” notes Barbara.

One challenge in today’s environment is the uncertainty surrounding business regulation, but there are endless opportunities as investors seek value-added advice.

Analytics will continue to be one of the biggest tools Voya has at its disposal, which helps drive innovation. “We are increasingly mining big data to help inform our investment analysis and further our understanding of trends,” says Barbara. “This information is exceedingly valuable as we strive to meet our clients’ needs.”

The best advice she can offer other women in the industry? “Early on, identify a good mentor who can give you sage advice throughout your career.”

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Voice of Experience, Hila Goldenberg, Head of Ultra – High Net Worth Clients in Israel, UBS Wealth Management

Hila GoldenbergBy Cathie Ericson

“Ask for more,” advises UBS’ Hila Goldenberg. “Women often expect to be promoted or be included on a high-profile project, but are too shy to speak up and ask for what they want. It won’t just happen; they need to ask for professional development and define their career goals, then express these plans to their superiors as they strive for more.”

Throughout her career, Goldenberg has seen the benefits of being open about a desire for increased responsibility. She began her career at a law firm in Israel and then went to work as an assistant to the General Director for the Israel Antitrust Authority, a unique experience that allowed her to meet a wide variety of business, parliamentary and government leaders.

Realizing she had an interest and aptitude in business, she went back to school and earned her MBA at INSEAD in Fontainebleau and Singapore, ranked as the best global MBA program in the world. After graduating, she joined Citi Private Bank in London as part of the team that covered Israel, later moving back to Israel when they opened an office there. She stayed there until 2014 when she was invited to UBS to form and lead its ultra-high net worth team in Israel.

Helping Her Clients Make a Difference

This decision to join UBS to start a new venture and create a new coverage team is a professional achievement of which she is particularly proud. In her role, she is able to help wealthy individuals with a full array of services far beyond asset management, everything from philanthropic endeavors and impact investments to next generation wealth transfer and art selection. “We are partners in their endeavors and work with them to help develop the legacy they want to leave, such as creating a tangible impact on society or helping disadvantaged socioeconomic groups,” she says. “Many have concerns that the next generation must not rely solely on the great wealth they are inheriting. We advise them on best practices for setting personal and professional milestones and provide assistance on structuring their wealth for the generations to come.”

The other part of her role that is meaningful to her is overseeing the Social Impact Bond UBS has launched in Israel to help fight diabetes. The funds will be used to identify and work with high-risk populations on lifestyle changes they can implement to help prevent diabetes, work that she says will make dramatic differences. “Impact investing provides a vehicle that has a social effect and also offers solid financial benefits for investors,” she says. “We have seen much interest from clients in this theme.”

Diversity Creates Success

Goldenberg has been involved in an annual Women in Wealth networking forum at UBS that allows participants to learn about other cultures and best practices. She appreciates that UBS has a focused emphasis on diversity and inclusion and views it as an asset in the organization’s recruiting endeavors. “Whether it’s diversity of gender, culture or even just a different educational expertise, such as arts and sciences, we look to hire people from various backgrounds,” she says, adding that the goal is always to look at the individual to find the best talent.

“We benefit from these different viewpoints because they lead to more quality decision making as we consider perspectives of people who can share a broader variety of input,” she says.

Travel as an Integral Part of Work and Family

With a partner and two boys, ages three and four-and-a half, Goldenberg strives to balance the challenge of a successful, fulfilling career with the needs of her family. Her position requires extensive travel, so while she finds it hard to leave, she is proud to articulate to her family that she loves what she does, even though she misses them.

And they are able to share in adventures with frequent travel as a family, both around Israel and abroad. They take a trip to Asia every year and are currently preparing for a trip to Thailand. “We love discovering different cultures and history and immersing ourselves in the entire experience,” she says.

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Voice of Experience: Meredith Addy, National Chair Patent Litigation, Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP

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Meredith AddyMimi Addy is probably the only artist/electrical engineer/lawyer/MBA you will ever meet. And each part of that description represents an interesting facet that has contributed to her successful and varied career.

Addy initially earned a degree in electrical engineering for one important reason: she recognized the value of being financially independent, and when researching which careers were the most lucrative, engineering came out on top. To maintain a balance, she combined it with a double major in something about which she is passionate — art.

After graduation, she decided to parlay her technical education into a career that was more “people-facing” than a typical engineering career and pursued law school to become a patent lawyer.

New Degrees, New Opportunities

With the ‘90s recession in full swing, Addy’s background as an electrical engineer lawyer gave her an advantage, and she joined Willian Brinks Olds Hofer Gilson & Lione (“Brinks”). She remembers how privileged she felt to be an associate at the large, established intellectual property firm and worked there for 17 years.

While an associate at Brinks, she returned to school at John Marshall Law School to earn her LLM in intellectual property, which introduced her to new areas of law, but one of the biggest benefits was the networking opportunities the school offered. Her teachers were federal judges and top practitioners, and she also forged meaningful relationships with her peers that have paid off as they have risen in the industry.

One important connection she made was with the Honorable Paul Michel, a federal appellate judge specializing in patent cases. She told him that if he ever needed a law clerk, she would love to be considered, and a year later, his office contacted her about an opening, which she applied for and earned.

“That clerkship really focused my career,” she recalls, adding that it was a bold move that put her on a new path.

After a year in Washington, D.C., she returned to private practice at Brinks where she focused on federal appeals in patent cases. She was named a partner in 2000 and stayed there until 2011 when it appeared the firm was going in a divergent direction. “Because of the great people, I would have loved to have stayed at Brinks for my entire career, but I got to a point where I needed something different than the firm was able to offer.”

She had learned that she enjoyed the process of managing, building and growing teams so turned her attention to finding an opportunity where she could run a practice. She moved to Steptoe & Johnson’s Chicago office as managing partner and head of their office, which she doubled in size during her tenure.

“It was fun to be collaborating with the people whom you respect in the community and whose company you also enjoy,” she says.

While there, she started to note that the practice of law was changing and that individual skills were no longer enough to gain an advantage so she returned to school and earned her MBA at the University of Chicago. “At various points in my career, different accomplishments appear to be my biggest achievement, but right now it’s earning that MBA because it reinvigorated my interest in my career and in new ways that I could succeed.”

She then landed at Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, which was looking for someone to chair and grow the patent litigation group, and she was eager to apply her managerial skills to running the practice and large litigation teams.

Along with her legal work, Addy is currently focused on trying to develop a new model for reviewing and billing legal services. “Most clients are looking for a better way to forecast to management what the legal costs should be,” she says.

Women in the Legal Field

Addy believes that there are issues that will always make it harder for professional women than men. “If I’m the one having the child, I have to take time to be with the child, and that will affect my career path. Life is about choices: You can’t have it all, all of the time, but if you plan well, you can do a lot,” she says. “Even in today’s legal practice, however, there are subliminal biases you can’t get rid of, and no matter how hard we try to level the playing field, women will always be working harder.”

As a lawyer and former engineer, she understands firsthand the importance of encouraging more women to pursue careers in male-dominated industries. She sees a need for more networking-based women’s groups for mentoring and business development opportunities. “We can be successful in the system as it is, but women need to help women,” she says, adding “We network differently than men do, and that’s a fact.”

Addy, who wishes she had had the confidence and assertiveness when starting out that she developed later on, feels passionately that women need to be taught to be assertive because you will never get what you want unless you ask for it, even pursue it. “People will notice your good work, but that’s not enough. You have to ask for assignments and opportunities and put yourself out there. If you don’t ask, the answer is always no.”

On the Home Front

Addy still embraces the creative side of her nature, saying that creating and collecting art relaxes her mind and enhances her legal career. But her best stress relief? Her daughters, Jackie, age 14, and Meaghan, age 12: “fantastic athletes, outgoing girls and my buds.”

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Voice of Experience: Susanne V. Clark, General Counsel, Senior Managing Director; Centerbridge Partners, L.P.

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Susanne V. Clark“Be brave. Take smart risks. Recognize that you belong at the table.” For Susanne Clark of Centerbridge Partners, those are three key elements for women who aspire to success in the professional world.

Clark has lived the philosophy of “smart risks,” with a career path that has involved a series of decisions to step outside of her comfort zone, each of which added a new layer of experience.

She began her career as a capital markets lawyer at Shearman & Sterling and after a few years joined Goldman Sachs in its Investment Banking Division, which expanded her responsibilities and skills to the broad range of investment banking services. She later joined a team working for Goldman’s public parent company, which extended her responsibilities and had the benefit of allowing her to see the business through an even broader lens, interacting with all of Goldman’s divisions including sales and trading, prime brokerage, research and asset management.

She became increasingly curious about asset management from Goldman’s dealings with fund clients, took a leap and reached beyond her historical skill set to join Amaranth Group, her first experience working directly for an investment adviser. From there, she took her first general counsel role at Basso Capital Management, which she found was a perfect place to learn how to hold her own as a general counsel. From there, she joined Centerbridge Partners, a private investment firm that manages capital for the world’s most prominent pensions, endowments and foundations, where she is a Senior Managing Director and the firm’s chief legal officer. In each case, she let the excitement of a new challenge overtake the fear of failure.

At Centerbridge, she has designed and developed its Legal & Compliance department, which she credits as the professional achievement she is most proud of so far, having built the department from the ground up, but with ample credit to her team for their role in the department’s success. “We have a diverse team of professionals who are dedicated to each other and their work. It is a pleasure to step back and observe how capable they are,” Clark said.

Confidence Counts

Clark knows that it’s good to be humble, but cautions women not to confuse humility with unhelpful and unnecessary self-deprecation. She says that early in her career, she wrote in a self-evaluation that she needed to “gain confidence in her new role.” Although her intent was just to set personal goals, that comment found its way into the next year’s review – “Be more confident.” Clark recalls. “Seeking to convey that I was eager to learn, I unwittingly created a false impression that I was unsure of myself. It was a good lesson to have learned early on.”

An Ideal Industry for Women

Clark finds there is an inaccurate presumption that the asset management industry is a man’s world. “In fact, investment firms are a great place for women because there is no glass ceiling. In general most asset management firms are meritocracies where success is defined and driven by one’s work product and results,” she says. “It’s a dynamic industry that offers great career mobility for motivated professionals who do excellent work.”

Making an Impact

She has been following recent studies on board composition, which show that better decision making occurs on boards of directors that include women. And she has started to see more and more women in the GC seat within the fund industry. “It excites me to see these high-impact women at complex firms who are doing a great job for their firms.”

During her early years in large organizations, she participated in and benefitted from programs that focused on career development. At other firms, she finds the approach may be more organic, but equally powerful provided that the organization is focused on the growth of its professionals, as is the case at Centerbridge. Whether large or small, she believes that firms benefit from good managers who prioritize the career development of others.

Outside of the firm, Clark participates in various mentoring platforms and professional peer groups – including a few for C-suite women – where she has “made many long-standing friendships.” She notes that “These groups provide a context for exchanging professional insights, sharing pitfalls and triumphs, establishing connections and collecting wisdom that covers the full career arc.” Among Clark’s favorite mentoring moments was the fast-paced award-winning Minute Mentoring® program, which she describes as speed dating for career success.

Clark’s philanthropic activities are largely focused on education, including sitting on the board of an independent school in Connecticut. She also participates in a foundation that focuses on education. Though it’s not limited to girls, the group benefits girls as well as boys by helping them develop their confidence and a wide range of life skills.

By Cathie Ericson

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