Anika Khan, Vice President and Economist at Wells Fargo, said one key to advancing your career is cultivating a broad knowledge base – but also developing an expertise in a field you are passionate about.

She explained, “If I was to think of one thing I wish I knew when I was starting out it would be to be an expert in something, but know a little bit about everything.”

“When you begin your career, you’re trying to get a sense of everything. But when I became a subject matter expert my career really gained upward momentum.”

Career in Economics

Khan began her career at legacy First Union and then moved to legacy Wachovia in the late ’90s. “I spent a good part of my career on the deal side,” she said. “I wanted to learn about sales and trading, so I moved to the trading floor.”

Then, she said, “I went back to my love: economics. I’ve been an economist for five years. I made a series of lateral moves, which ended up being wonderful opportunities for me.”

Khan said one of the proudest achievements of her career so far has been being invited to the White House as part of a special delegation on the economy. “I was the only economist to update the President’s economic advisors and staff. It was also a great opportunity for Wells Fargo,” she explained.

She continued, “And I’m even more proud of a paper on state economic activity which we presented at the 2012 American Economics Association Annual Meeting. They have a very high threshold and we got accepted. It’s always a goal for economists.”

Advice for Professional Women

Khan said she’d like to see more women at the top. “Getting women into the C-suite in general is a challenge – we need to have more of a presence there. And specifically for African American women, there just aren’t enough of us.”

She continued, “The next generation of women coming out of school is outpacing males in undergrad and grad school. Many are not choosing banking as a career. One reason is that they are looking for what they perceive as work life balance. This can be a challenge for any individual.”

“I mentor a number of young women who are just as smart as males, but sometimes they don’t actually know it. The advice I always give is to know your worth,” she continued.

When it comes to senior women, she said, “It’s very important at that level to be a sponsor, mentor, advocate, for some of the young women trying to navigate or enter the industry.”

Diversity at Wells Fargo

As a member of Wells Fargo’s Diversity and Engagement Council in her area of the bank, Khan believes that individuals should see diversity as an advantage. “Diversity can be an asset – in many cases, I’ve definitely felt that instead of holding me back, it’s propelled me forward.”

She continued, “At Wells Fargo, diversity is part of our key goals. It’s not only something I value, but the bank values. “

“One of the things we continue to do in this organization is to have a number of diversity initiatives. Through diversity initiatives you get exposure to senior management on a pretty consistent basis though diversity networks and events,” she said.

“You have the mechanisms to get in front of senior managers and for them to see how capable you are outside your area of expertise.”

In Her Personal Time

Khan, who is married and has a nine-year-old son, says she believes in spending quality time with her family when she’s outside work. “I take time so my son knows he’s number one,” she explained.

She also enjoys photography and, she added, “I don’t go a week without doing zumba!”

“Be proud of your accomplishments,” advised Lisa Sawicki, an assurance partner in PwC’s Charlotte office, and national diversity leader of the firm’s assurance practice.

“I still think we have a dynamic, even among successful women, to be less forthcoming with their accomplishments. Be confident and willing to talk about them!”

Career Path

Sawicki has been with PwC for her entire career – since she joined the firm’s New York office in 1989, straight out of college. Four years later, she transferred to the Dallas office, where she spent the next fourteen years, becoming partner in 2003.

“I think what’s interesting is that I had a flexible work arrangement from 1996 to 2003, and still made partner. A lot of women are concerned with how to balance everything,” she said.

She continued, “What I wish I had known when I started my career is that there is no one right path to take. There are many paths to success in this firm. You have to be flexible, you have to be agile, and you have to take advantage of opportunities as they arise.”

In 2006, Sawicki transferred to PwC’s Charlotte office, working in the firm’s assurance line of service, specializing in the financial services industry. She is currently the market team leader for the financial services practice for the Carolinas.

“This is an interesting and challenging time in banking and the capital markets,” she said. “There’s an unprecedented pace of regulatory activity with fairly pervasive impacts to client activities. It presents challenges and opportunities.”

Sawicki is a member of the assurance national leadership team, and she recently was named the assurance practice diversity leader.

“It’s very different from what I do on a day-to-day basis. Diversity is a topic I’ve always been personally passionate about. And now, going from a local role to the national level is really exciting. I’m working on more strategic things for the firm overall, as opposed to the direct client service I do on a daily basis.”

Advice for Professional Women

As for women new to the workforce, Sawicki advised, “Take advantage of every opportunity that you get, and learn everything possible with the opportunities that you are given.”

She added, “Public accounting can be a phenomenal career, and it’s also a phenomenal place to launch a career. There is a myriad of things you can do going forward.”

She feels that PwC works hard to accommodate the needs of its female workforce. “I honestly believe that the only barrier to being successful in this firm is women themselves. We have every structural support for women to be successful here,” she said. “Nevertheless, the reality is that the client service business can be demanding at times. We have all sorts of programs to be successful – but it doesn’t mean they make it easy.”

She explained, “Flex enabled me to be successful, but it was still challenging to balance my career and feel like I was operating at the highest level at work and at home. You have to set your priorities.”

She praised the firm’s flexible programs, explaining that even the programs themselves are flexible. “They’re not one-size-fits-all. They’re geared toward being adapted to particular circumstances and needs. For example, I used a flexible work arrangement, but there’s no one type of flexible work arrangement. They’re tailored to an individual’s needs and work obligations.”

“It was invaluable to me,” she continued. “Flex enabled me to meet my home and client needs. For others, a reduced time schedule might be better, or a condensed work week, or the ability to work from home.”

In Her Personal Time

“I have a husband and two boys, thirteen and fifteen,” she said. “They’re both very active in sports, so my main hobby is sitting on the sidelines and watching them play. I’m very passionate about that!”

Having recently visited South Africa, she added, “I also absolutely love to travel – any chance I get.”

“As a woman in a challenging industry, making principal is something I’m extremely proud of. But working on a flex schedule while I did it is even more of an achievement for me,” said Rosalie Mandel, Principal of the alternative investments accounting firm Rothstein Kass’s New Jersey office. Mandel is an exuberant supporter of women in accounting, she believes that firms can be more successful when they fully support the work/life needs of their employees. That means supporting talented women with flexible schedules that make sense for their individual lives.

She said, “I really don’t believe in work/life balance – I believe in integration. How do you define success? That’s your balance.”

Career in Accounting

Having been with the Rothstein Kass for twenty years, Mandel was the first woman at the firm to negotiate a flex schedule – and the first one to become principal of an office while working a shortened work week.

“I was the first woman promoted to principal at Rothstein Kass while on a flexible schedule. Since that time, both women and men at our firm have taken advantage of this program to pursue a wide range of interests, from starting a family to charitable endeavors. It just demonstrates that the firm really supports work / life integration.”

Mandel studied accounting at Farleigh Dickenson University in New Jersey. “I loved accounting because I loved numbers and I loved the way everything fit,” she recalled. But her real enthusiasm for the industry comes from working with people. Mandel said that her generation of accountants was the first to have equal numbers of men and women graduating college and entering the field. She’s enjoyed being an active part of changes to the industry over the years.

For instance, when she started as an accountant, women were only allowed to wear skirt suits – navy blue, she recalled. “One day there was a snowstorm, and I showed up in pants. It was a practical decision that got the organization to reconsider our existing policy. Within weeks, everyone was wearing pants to the office. In reality, that’s how change is often initiated.”

She was also the first at her firm to negotiate for a significant amount of time off for maternity leave. “When I had my first child, I was out for six months – right during tax season. There was no such thing as maternity leave then, but the firm didn’t flinch. When I contacted our Managing Principals they basically said, ‘Tell me what you want.’ I told them I wanted to work three days a week, and they said ‘go do it.’ They understood the organizational benefits right away.” she recalled. Then, almost as soon as she returned to the firm, she was pregnant again – and was able to take another six months off.

“Because leadership ranks have predominantly been populated by men, industry policies, procedures, and systems have historically been built by men. Most firms have taken tangible steps to change that. Our firm had the vision to see the benefits of flexible scheduling – and it’s never said no. We’ve had an official flex policy since 1999.”

“I’ve learned along the way that sometimes, it’s just a matter of speaking up,” Mandel explained. “You have a voice. Use it!”

By speaking up, she said, female professionals are paving the way for the next generation of leaders – and ensuring that they stick around. She almost left the industry as a young accountant herself. “When I started in accounting, there was only one female role model at the top. And when you look up and there’s not really anyone who looks like you, you can’t see yourself there. You deselect yourself for leadership.”

She continued, “Hard work is not always enough. I was also fortunate to have great mentors who guided me toward success.”

Mandel started the firm’s women’s initiative as a way to keep young women on track to leadership within the firm. “You start to see differences at a certain point in your career. Right when you go into the manager level – that’s when you see the numbers shift in accounting.”

“I founded our women’s initiative LIFE (Leadership, Inspiration, Family, Empowerment) in 2007. I feel like I’m making a difference – I’d like to leave a legacy. I want women to know that you have the full power to make it – don’t deselect yourself. You can do it. And there are role models who want to help you and guide you along the way.”

The Importance of Mentoring

Mandel started the firm’s LIFE program about five years ago. “And at first there was only one member. Formally, there are now fifty committee members, but nearly all employees participate in the program,” she said. “We have a steering committee with high level individuals, our managing partner, and then in each office we have a committee to handle the grassroots regional needs.”

“I’m really proud of it. We’re cultivating the leadership coming up, and I want women to stay. It’s about leadership.”

She continued, “When I first started I thought it was just all about accounting – that it was just about numbers. Another piece is leadership and generating business. I didn’t even think about that at the time.”

Mandel said one of the group’s main platforms is mentoring, and providing advice and guidance to talented women. “We started internally with women, and then we said ‘let’s go outside.’”

The firm partners with the Garden State Women’s Foundation to mentor female rising stars in inner city schools and provide scholarships. “We brought the girls into the firm and they shadowed us to learn about the corporate environment.”

She added, “The girls really shocked me – they were so self-aware! So poised and ready for life. I felt like a proud mother – there’s nothing better than helping others.”

Similarly, the firm is also performing research to delve into the lack of women in the larger professional environment. “At Rothstein Kass, a big part of our business is the financial services and alternative investments arena. And there just aren’t that many women in the industry. We do a survey every year on the industry, and we realized that hardly any of the respondents were women. But we know there are women in the industry. So we came up with a survey specifically for women.”

She continued, “Out of that survey, we saw that networking, mentoring, and developing those key relationships is really important to building your career.”

“Much of the informal networking and mentoring that men do occurs organically through shared interests. For example, a group of men might be talking about football when the conversation turns to business opportunities. Just by being a part of the conversation, these men often have an edge when it comes to hiring or business origination decisions. Women need to do more of this sort of networking to create an equal playing field.”

Advice for Women

Mandel added, “It all goes back to that basic question – ‘what does a leader look like?’ We have to raise awareness of how it looks different for women than for men.”

She said, “Women often like to put their head down and work and men think about leadership much earlier in their careers. We need to think about leadership much earlier.”

“Don’t deselect yourself,” Mandel advised young women beginning their careers. “You have to realize that you have the full potential to make it.”

She also advised young women to find a job they are passionate about. “That’s when you’re really going to succeed,” she said. “And always persevere. If things happen along the way, you get through it and become a better person because of it.”

She noted the importance of learning to delegate – both at work and personally. “Don’t try to do everything yourself. You’ve got to have a support system.”

For more senior women, she continued, “What’s really important is to mentor those coming up behind us. We have the experience, and we know what it’s like out there. It’s upon us to turn around and take those women and pull them along.”

For women interested in forming their own women’s initiatives, she advised, “You’ve got to have that rate of return.” Building a program that brings in business or saves money helps build value for the firm, for your career, and for the initiative itself. Mandel explained, “Obviously it’s changed out there – and everyone wants to help out. Because when you have a successful firm, that means you’re successful.”

In Her Personal Time

Outside the office, Mandel, who has two children, who recently participated in a triathlon. She enjoys working out and dancing. “I teach my daughter’s dance class, and coach her softball team, and I play golf,” she said. “I also have a great husband – he’s very supportive of me.”

She also is involved in charities related to Alzheimer’s disease, breast cancer, and juvenile diabetes.

“Right now what I love about the industry is how dynamic it is,” said Paula Rogers, President of the Chicago-based investment firm Institutional Capital.

She explained, “Things are constantly changing, constantly improving, constantly evolving. I love this industry and it has provided me with a rewarding career.”

Rogers provided some key insight into how she’s built a rewarding career in investments and how women can rise to the top of the industry.

Managing Relationships

Rogers graduated from the University of Michigan with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and was recruited to Eastman Kodak to work in sales in Chicago. “I took advantage of the University of Chicago’s night program to earn my MBA, and then I transitioned to Northern Trust,” she said. Rogers then took on roles at Goldman Sachs and Wanger Asset Management, and has worked at Institutional Capital since 1997.

“I would say some of the operational and client servicing improvements I’ve implemented at Institutional Capital are what I’m most proud of,” she said.

Rogers is also enthusiastic about helping advance her people. “It’s developing people within the firm, helping them achieve their career objectives and helping them become stronger from a skills perspective. This is really what excites me now.”

In fact, she explained that she wishes she had fully learned the importance of building relationships earlier in her career. “Relationships are an important part of being successful in business in addition to being technically competent,” she said. “I wish I had known that when I was first coming out of undergrad.”

Women in Investment Management

Rogers said she doesn’t see any specific challenges for women in the investments industry. “I don’t think about it that way. The way I think about it is ‘what generally are the things people need to do to be successful?’”

She continued, “I’m fortunate because I’ve had great success in this industry as a female – and I’ve never looked at it as ‘what am I doing that is different than a man who is successful?’”

“To be successful, you have to be competent, you have to be highly educated, you have to be motivated, and you have to have the relationships to get ahead. I don’t necessarily see any barriers or challenges specific to women.”

“Because the industry is so competitive and results-oriented, managers are just looking for people who can get the job done.”

In fact, she said, her advice for people new to the industry is to really focus on what results your company needs in order to advance your own career. “Understand the end result and be part of the team that achieves that result. Again, because this is a very competitive, results-oriented business, really understand the criteria by which your management and firm is being evaluated. Be sure you’re doing the things that help management and your firm meet that criteria.

Additionally, she said, make sure you yourself are competitive. “Have a solid education – that might mean working toward additional certifications. Work long hours. Be technically competent. And don’t forget relationships. Basically, work hard and get along with others.”

For senior women, she advised, “Help be a role model for your employees for both women and men.”

She continued, “My advice is for senior management teams to share advice with junior people on how to achieve success. To take that advice to them – it’s a win-win. You get people to do their job better, and they build the intellectual capital for your next management team.”

Setting the Tone from the Top

As President of a small company, Rogers said, she works to ensure equality within her firm. “I don’t want it to be such that I have to have a program in place to advance women. I want development to be an integral part of our firm for women, men, whoever.”

“At the end of the day, what will support the advancement of any person is the orientation that you just want to be the best and brightest representative of the firm – morally and ethically as well.”

She continued, “It’s important that you set up a culture at the firm to support all capable and competent people. We have 55 employees at Institutional Capital – and this may be materially different for firms that are bigger. At our firm, we have transparency on how people are treated, developed and promoted

“We have programs in place to advance all of our people,” she added.

In Her Personal Time

“I do believe in work life balance,” Rogers said.

“I have one seventeen year old son who is going off to college, so our 24/7 right now is trying to help him get to the next stage of his life!”

According to Ivka Kalus-Bystricky, Portfolio Manager at Pax World Funds, one of the most critical lessons she’s realized over the years is the importance of learning to cope – with both lows and highs.

“This business can be a somewhat bipolar world, particularly in volatile markets such as we have seen of late,” she said. “Although you may not fully realize that before you get in, you really do have to develop coping strategies. Investing is ultimately about putting all your bets on the table against the market and against your peers. And, like the song goes, ‘you gotta know when to hold ‘em and you gotta know when to fold ‘em.’”

She continued, “Your hand can be either a winner or a loser, and it really depends on what everybody else is holding. It comes down to having a strong, consistent investment discipline, and to timing, and perhaps a little bit to luck on occasion, but there’s always a good deal of uncertainty. You go through long periods of time when what you’re holding – your strategy – is just not working, and it can get quite frustrating. But then sometimes, to use a surfing metaphor, you’re right in the tube. You feel like the biggest genius in the world.”

“You have to learn to attenuate both the highs and the lows. You have to develop a really structured framework to prevent your emotions from getting in the way,” she explained. “It means taking a disciplined approach to the market.”

Managing Launching Funds

Kalus-Bystricky has been at Pax World for about four years, having launched the firm’s International Fund in March of 2008. She just took over as lead portfolio manager of the firm’s Global Women’s Equality Fund in January as well, now managing both products.

But before joining Pax, however, she built up a wealth of industry experience. “And since I have this foreign-sounding name and speak lots of languages, people never guess that I grew up in Amarillo, Texas,” she said with a laugh.

After studying biology at Harvard, and resource economics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Kalus-Bystricky began her career as a management consultant at Arthur D. Little, where she worked in her native Prague, “just as the iron curtain was coming down,” she noted.

“Then I moved back to the US and worked in Arthur D. Little’s resources practice before earning an MBA at INSEAD and then joining Putnam as an analyst in metals and mining, then media.”

Later she joined Baring Asset Management, managing institutional funds, and then moved to State Street Global Advisors, as a portfolio manager for the firm’s International Growth Opportunities Fund.

Kalus-Bystricky said her tenure as portfolio manager of the Pax World International Fund since its launch in early 2008 is what she is most proud of so far. “I had worked in the international fund space as an analyst and portfolio manager for ten years. I’d had lots of great mentors and I saw the mistakes others had made and the ones I had made myself. And I figured out how I would do it – launch a fund. And then all of the sudden I got my chance.”

“It’s a lot different to start a product – you have to be willing to take on the challenge of putting into practice everything you thought would work, and then be fully accountable for the results” she explained.

Currently, Kalus-Bystricky is excited about taking on the management of a second fund at Pax World, the Global Women’s Equality Fund. “It’s the only mutual fund to focus on investing in companies with global leadership in gender equality. It’s an exciting new challenge.”

Critical Mass in the Investments Industry

“Having worked at quite few firms, and having interacted with people in the industry for a long time, I’ve seen that there can be too much of a groupthink herd mentality that comes from a lack of diversity. There’s very little racial and gender diversity – and I think it’s perpetuated by the way people hire those similar to themselves.”

She continued, “Only 3% of hedge fund managers are women and 10% of mutual fund managers are women. Women are real minorities in this business,” and, she noted, that’s related to what could be seen as an industry-wide culture of “bluster.”

“Confidence is a prized trait in this industry – and of course – who wants a portfolio manager who isn’t confident in their abilities?”

She continued, “But, by and large, women don’t bluster and they tend to admit when they’re wrong. This can work against us in this field.”

Kalus-Bystricky pointed to studies by organizations like Catalyst showing the business value of diverse leadership. “We know all this, and yet our industry seems to have forgotten that having women at the table enriches decision-making. This lack of diversity really makes no sense from a business or investor perspective. We really need to address it.”

But, she asked, how can the industry correct the imbalance? “It’s a bit of a chicken and egg problem,” she explained. “There aren’t enough women because there are so few women blazing the trail. It’s a challenge and a barrier to women entering the industry.”

She suggested that reaching a critical mass of women in the industry can help change this. “Women feel more comfortable adding input and contributing and not acting like guys when there are about 30% of us in the room. But how do you get to that critical mass?”

At PAX, she added, the gender ratio is about 50/50. “It feels completely normal – there’s no drama, there’s no bluster. It’s just not part of our culture.”

“But, overall, asset management is over 90% male. I don’t know how we get the industry to that critical mass but we need to find a way,” she said.

Challenges for Professional Women

Kalus-Bystricky believes concern over work/life issues keeps women out of the industry. “You start worrying about it – but it’s a myth. Work is life – just find a job that you can master and that you love. It just doesn’t make sense to ruminate on it ahead of time.”

She continued, “Early on, you have to spend a lot of time to master jobs – that’s the way the world works. I remember working 100 hour work-weeks. But once you become more successful and get better at managing your time, you can get it down to much more manageable work-weeks and get a whole lot more done at that.”

“Women sometimes short-circuit our careers by aiming too low. We tend to lower our ambitions in the early stages of our careers, during the tough, tooth-cutting period that everybody has to go through.”

Kalus-Bystricky also advised women to think carefully about the work environment they want. “Choose a culture that fits your personality,” she said.

As women become more senior, she continued, it’s important to be remain open-minded. “The challenge is not to get ossified in your approach to investing,” she advised. “What might have worked ten years ago might not work anymore.”

She explained, “Don’t dismiss anything right away, but you still have to be disciplined. You have to be willing to adapt that discipline to respond to the changing market.”

Networking is key for women at any stage of their career, she continued, especially in keeping up with industry trends. “I’m a member of 85 Broads, for example, and most of the members – all you have to do is ask and they’re more than happy to share their experience and give you advice.”

When it comes to women in investments, Kalus-Bystricky said Pax World is ahead of the curve. “Half of the funds we manage in-house are managed by women; half of our wholesalers in the field are women, and half of our sustainability analysts are women. Pax makes sure we put qualified female candidates in the hiring pool for every position,” she explained.

“It’s the first company I’ve worked for that I feel I am paid at the same level as my male peers, and the company provides the same amount of time off for maternity and paternity leave. I think it fosters a really healthy environment.”

She added, “All of these policies were in place before I got here. We can push that message to other companies as investors if we are practicing it ourselves.”

In Her Personal Time

“I have two kids and I’m really proud of my family,” Kalus-Bystricky said. “My daughter is a freshman at Oxford, and my son is into robotics and tennis. My husband has his own company. Everyone in my family is accomplished and I feel like some of that is the values I’ve instilled in them to work really hard and go towards your goal.”

She added, “My family is an important part of who I am.”

Networking is critical, according to Lisa Davis, Director and Global Product Manager, Citi Global Transaction Services. She said, “I want to mention the power of networking. You need to develop a network of people who can help you. Be sure that you’re networking on various levels.”

According to Davis, “Networking is a necessary tool that is underutilized. I believe the sooner you realize the power of networking, the greater your chances are of successfully navigating your career. This is especially true for women, minorities, and the LGBT population.”

“Many people are afraid to network,” she continued. “I for one am a typical introvert and I’m not always comfortable taking the initiative to meet people and interact – but when you talk about true networking, that’s what you do! Its not just about meeting people, it’s about developing relationships rather than just collecting business cards.”

She added, “When networking, you should always have your elevator speech ready and you should always make sure you have an intelligent answer and something relevant to add.”

Managing Big Career Shifts

Davis graduated from Long Island University with a degree in Sociology and Anthropology. She spent 13 years working in conference planning and executive dining services for Equitable Life and American Express before moving over to Citi, where she has spent the last 13 years. She explained, “I was recruited by the former Smith Barney Company to head their conference and dining services in several locations within the New York metropolitan area, and I did that for a few years.”

When Citi began a Women’s Council initiative to focus on the retention and development of high potential women and introduce them to other roles and areas in the company, Davis was tapped to participate.

“I started networking and making contacts, and I realized that I wanted to get out of conference and dining services and move into a core business within the bank. Through one of my networking contacts, I learned of a position within Global Transaction Services.”

She continued, “I worked on the Global Client Delivery team developing and implementing best practices in customer service across regions. Through another contact I made on the Women’s Council, I moved into project management, working on large global implementations for our customers. After working in the Project Management Office as a senior project manager for four years, I moved into a product management role as the Global Lead of Billing. “

“Being able to transition out of a traditional hospitality function and moving into banking and finance was an important achievement for me. It wasn’t something I knew I wanted to do until I got involved in the Women’s Council. However, I realized early on that the work I was doing in conference planning wasn’t so different from banking in the sense that its all about listening to what customers want and finding solutions.”

Davis recently graduated from the Zicklin School of Business, Executive Masters program at Baruch College. “Once I moved into core banking functions, I went back to school so I could hone my skills in banking and finance,” she explained. “That was a huge milestone for me.”

Challenges for Diverse individuals

Davis said, “When it comes to diversity in the workplace, we still have challenges. There are people who are not as comfortable with women, minorities, and LGBT individuals.”

“As a woman in this industry, we need to be more aggressive in terms of how we communicate what things we’ve accomplished,” she suggested.

“Tell your own story, toot your own horn. Women are less inclined to do that, and in this industry, your work can go unnoticed if you don’t self promote. We need to raise our hands and take on bigger challenges because our male counterparts are already doing this.”

Davis was also concerned with the small number of women at senior levels in the financial industry. “It becomes a little more challenging to remain relevant when you’re suddenly the minority in the group,” she explained.

Lesbians also face challenges, she said. Davis, who came out many years ago, explained, “As a lesbian in a corporate organization, the challenges are all about how people perceive you, your appearance, how you dress, how you carry yourself.”

But, she said, “You need to stick it out. You need to be able to bring your whole self to work – and I couldn’t bring my whole self to work if I was hiding something, or not being myself. I would encourage people to stay true to themselves at all times.”

She also encouraged people to speak up when they are made uncomfortable by negative comments. “When people need to be corrected, be very clear and crisp when you correct them. They don’t necessarily realize the impact they may have on you.”

“But,” she concluded, “you never have to worry about what people think about you if you stay true to who you are.”

Advice for Professional Women

Davis advised young women to think carefully about their career path. “It helps to know or have some idea when you’re first starting out, what you want to do, and what career path you want for yourself,” she said. “When I think about my career change, it was certainly a lot of work and there was a lot of catching up I had to do. It helps if you know what you want to do early on.”

She continued, “This is an industry that is very demanding, and it will take a lot of your time if you want to be successful. You have to acknowledge that.”

Diversity at Citi

“I’m not just saying this because I work at Citi,” Davis said, “but Citi really does a good job with diversity initiatives, within the bank as well as within the communities we serve. At Citi, individuals are valued based on the diversity they bring to the Citi culture. We have over 45 Employee Network programs in the US alone and many more in the over 100 countries in which we do business. Some of the employee networks include African Heritage, Hispanic Heritage, Asian Heritage, Pride (LGBT), Disability, Military Veterans, Women and Working Parents.”

She continued, “Because of the work that Citi has done to define and promote a diverse workplace, I can bring my whole self to work each and every day.”

Davis is involved in many initiatives around diversity, focusing on women, African Americans, and the LGBT community. She serves as co-chair of Citi’s NYC Pride network and sits on the GTS North American region’s Diversity Operating Committee.

She also created and chaired GTS’s DCU (Diversity Council University), which works to develop minority AVPs within the organization. “When I was chair of the Training and Development committee, we graduated 35 people through the DCU program, most of whom have been promoted and have taken on bigger jobs,” she added.

In Her Personal Time

Davis’ partner of eleven years, Debbie Brennan, is a Fixed Income trader at a boutique broker-dealer in New York City. The two have raised Brennan’s two adopted children, current ages 23 and 25, together.

In her spare time Davis is also a well-known and talented DJ, having received the 2004 NYC Night Life Award for best female house DJ. Davis said, “I was introduced to DeeJaying when I was 14 years old, fell in love with it, and have been doing it ever since. I love being able to make people dance and feel good. Making people have happy feet on the dance floor is very important to me.”

“One of the things I have learned is that it’s not enough to be good at what you’re doing. You also have to network,” began Marion S. Regnier, Senior Associate in Technology consulting at PwC.

She continued, “They tell you that in school, but it’s not necessarily something I started doing when I started working. But I’ve realized that you can be very dedicated and excellent, but you still have to branch out.”

Career Path in Information Management

Regnier studied engineering as an undergraduate in France, and then earned her master’s degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “During this time, I filed a patent, and I had several journal articles published,” she mentioned. “It was a different part of my life, and very different from what I’m doing today.”

After graduating, Regnier took a job as a consultant at Bearing Point, and moved to PwC in July 2009 after it acquired the portion of the firm she was in. She joined as an associate in PwC’s Technology Advisory business, and she was promoted to senior associate in 2010. “I’m hoping to be promoted to manager this year,” she added. “I focus mainly on information management solutions for financial services firms.”

Regnier said she is particularly proud of her level of client service. For example, she said, “Last year when I ended a project for a big brokerage firm, as we were wrapping up, I sent a farewell to the client. And they all responded that they were very satisfied and appreciated my dedication and enthusiasm.”

She continued, “I am really proud of that – I was able to exceed our clients’ expectations. For my line of service that level of client satisfaction is hard to achieve. I hope to continue it throughout my career.”

Currently, Regnier is working on pushing data protection solutions to the next level. “It’s a hot topic in the financial services industry,” she said. “I’m interested in the new data privacy challenges facing us on a global scale, particularly when it comes to mobile technology. It’s a big challenge, but I’m very excited about it.”

She continued, “Another challenge is the ability for financial services firms to draw information from all the massive amount of data out there. When it comes to applications like twitter, or other social networking – how do you draw information from that to grow your business? These topics are on the industry’s agenda. How can firms integrate information from these technologies into their data management plans at the strategic and tactical levels?”

Women in the Industry

Regnier said the number of women in IT consulting is still low. “It’s still a male dominated field. For example, there are about 20% women in my practice. And the percentage goes down as we move up the ranks. That’s challenging for women.”

She continued, “Plus there are long hours, and you have to travel a lot as a consultant. This can be discouraging as you grow your career. At the end, it’s a personal choice if you’re ready to commit the time.”

Regnier said that her biggest recommendation to young women in the industry is to get a mentor. “Start looking up right away,” she said. She also said her request to senior women is to mentor more people and serve as role models. “There are more and more women in all fields – get mentees!” she said.

As a lesbian, Regnier said, she faces an additional challenge. “Working in consulting you meet and work with new people all the time so coming out is a continuous process. I don’t think there is a one-time solution.”

LGBT individuals also have to make the decision on whom to come out to. She continued, “People have to do what they are comfortable with, but also be smart about it. Unfortunately, it’s the reality of the world – some people are still narrow-minded.”

Diversity at PwC

Regnier is the co-chair of the GLBT Circle for PwC’s New York Metro area. “One of the benefits of leading the circle is that it has greatly expanded my network – externally across the financial services industry and internally.”

She continued, “It’s given me access to all of these people I think I would not necessarily have easy access to – like partners, people in different geographies, clients and competitors, and senior professionals I wouldn’t meet at my level or be in contact with otherwise.”

The firm also offers a lot of benefits for women, Regnier said. “We’re always listed in the top ten for women by places like Working Mother – and there are a lot of different programs like flexwork, networking groups, Mentor Moms, training. I think the firm is very supportive in general.”

In Her Personal Time

Regnier, who recently got engaged, said she loves to travel and to spend vacations abroad. “I also love scuba diving. I recently went to Hawaii, and dove with sea turtles a few feet away!”

“There were sharks too, but they weren’t as exciting as the turtles,” she added with a laugh.

“It feels like we have to work, in some cases, almost twice as hard as men to prove ourselves. And this becomes more of a delicate area as we progress through our careers,” said Nanette Buziak, Senior Vice President and Head of Equity Trading at ING Investment Management.

She continued, “We don’t want to come across as too aggressive, and that can mean walking the right balance of being aggressive and passionate about what you do, so that you are considered for opportunities as they come up.”

Buziak has learned to walk this balance, and she believes that the financial services industry is becoming more accepting of ambitious women. Recently honored with a Trailblazer Award by Traders Magazine, she told a room of 200 during her acceptance speech:

“Too often is the case of a woman who is high-performing and striving to advance in her career who can get defined as being too aggressive and pushy, whereas men who work hard to succeed and who are assertive often get described as being driven. Our industry has made great efforts to remedy that perception and in providing more support to women to help them in this regard. But there is still a lot more work to be done.”

Hopefully, as passionate and high-performing women become more visible in the industry, that balancing-act will become easier.

Career Path

Buziak’s interest in investment began when she was in 8th grade. “I wanted to turn in some bonds I received when my grandmother passed away and invest them,” she said. “My father had me read the Wall Street Journal every day, and then he would quiz me. I built a paper portfolio and he then allowed me to redeem my bonds and invest.”

Buziak, who had always had a bent for mathematics, studied Applied Actuarial Mathematics at Bryant University. She explained, “I wanted to major in finance in college, but it was right after the crash in ’87, and my dad suggested I look at insurance, as I was good in math and had an interest in finance.” Nevertheless, she took an internship during her junior year in college at E.W. Blanch Co., working in reinsurnace intermediary services. “It reawakened a lot of my core interest in finance and a career on Wall Street.”

She continued, “It was an opportunity to see first hand what working at an actuarial department actually meant in the capital markets, and I made the decision to pursue a career in finance.”

She graduated from college in 1993. “It was during a recession,” she explained, “Most firms were not hiring so I was fortunate to have any opportunity to take and could not afford to be selective. So I took the first job offer I received.” Buziak landed at Bear Stearns as a financial analyst, working in between the back office and the front office, where she stayed for about six months. “I felt I wasn’t challenged enough, and they weren’t open to my further advancement.”

So she broadened her search. “A few of the traders knew I was hungry and young and wanted to get ahead, and they suggested I look at opportunities outside Bear Stearns – so that’s what I did.”

Buziak next took a position at First Marathon Securities, which, she explained, would now probably be referred to as a hedge fund structure. “I was their fifth hire, and I learned a lot about business.” Unfortunately, she said, when the firm had expanded to about 30 employees, there began to be some internal conflicts between the managers, and when the work environment was becoming toxic, she made the decision to leave. She added, “We were also doing a lot of index arbitrage, and a lot of the spreads were getting arbed away. I then started focusing on the fundamentals.”

She took a position at JP Morgan Asset Management in 1997 as a junior portfolio manager in structured equity. “It was roughly 80% fundamentally based with a quantitative overlay. We saw lots of growth,” she said.

“I did a lot of work with the trading desk there, and I focused on managing our portfolios to access liquidity in the most cost efficient way possible and continually changed our rebalancing process as a result. We were seeing ECNs being introduced as a result of regulatory changes in our industry and I embraced a lot of that change,” Buziak explained. Eventually, in 2004, she was approached by Rick Nelson, a former manager of hers at JPMAM who had since moved to ING Investment Management. She recalled, “He felt the next logical step for me in my career would be in running a trading desk.”

“I went through an extensive interview process, and when they made an offer I felt I couldn’t turn it down.” ING Investment Management was going through the process of integrating three trading environments, and Buziak took the helm. “We had 25 personnel across three desks, and I had to consolidate them. Now I lead a team of six traders including myself,” she said.

Reflections

“One of the things I wish I had realized and appreciated more at a younger age is how small the industry really is,” Buziak said. “Things can be overwhelming when you’re first starting out, but you should be cognizant of that as you progress through your career – how much smaller your core industry is going to be as you get older.”

She added, “You have to manage those relationships from a very early start.”

Her ability to adapt well to change is a quality Buziak says she is proud of. “I haven’t been afraid to roll up my sleeves and work hard to get through a challenge,” she explained. “For example, at JP Morgan I took over a product for a lead manager who had suddenly resigned – and it was a year before I received any resources to help.”

She continued, “And joining ING meant coming into a completely different environment. I was no longer just a portfolio manager, but I also had to deal with sensitive personnel aspects associated with my role, particularly as I was merging three environments into one and was joining as a new leader. These were things I hadn’t been exposed to before, as well as the dynamics of the buy-side and sell-side relationships that I hadn’t been fully exposed to before either in my previous role.”

Buziak said she is careful to stay on top of the continuing evolution of changes in market structure. “The pendulum for our industry has swung to the buy-side. What we do is really exciting to me, and how we as the buy-side will embrace this going forward and how the sell-side responds is going to be interesting to see evolve.”

She continued, “The question is what all these regulatory changes will mean for the industry. Things are changing every day, and it’s interesting to see how different firms are responding to changes.”

“Particularly for the bulge bracket, each different firm’s response has been different. What does that mean going forward?”

Women in the Industry

“I’ve been very fortunate – I’ve had great managers and mentors whom I could go to in confidence and ask questions,” Buziak said. “You need to have go-to people who you can ask, ‘what would you do if you were in my shoes?’”

Part of this comes from managing relationships with others and building a support network, she explained. “There was some advice a senior woman gave to me right out of college – and I didn’t really pay attention to it at the time. But it was to take golf lessons. Now here I am twenty years later taking lessons – I should have heeded that advice.”

“But it’s more than just golf – pursue different interests that end up affording you networking opportunities. As you become more senior, networking it really important. Similarly, we have to really help mentor and grow the next generation of women.”

She added, “Also for women, as we evolve in our careers it becomes much harder to manage work/life balance. I personally get an F for that!” she said with a laugh. “But it is still very tough – I think men have a bit of an upper hand.”

ING has a number of internal programs for advancing and retaining women, she said. She also pointed to the company’s strong mentoring program, in which she has participated throughout the years.

In Her Personal Time

Buziak has been married for a little over four years. “We love boating on Long Island Sound,” she said. She is also active in a number of local charities in her area, especially Al’s Angels Children’s Charity.

Lee A. Merkle-Raymond, Strategic Solutions Executive at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, is enthusiastic about the career opportunities within the banking industry. “Banking is core to the local economy, the national economy, the global economy,” she said. “Banking is a great opportunity for career growth – and a firm like Bank of America Merrill Lynch has a wealth of job types and roles. If you have the drive and can deliver results, you can have just about any type of career you’d like in a large global bank.”

She explained that the ability to help her clients achieve their strategic objectives – like raising capital, making acquisitions, or achieving other goals – is a point of pride for her. “Often the solutions that are most complex are the toughest to get through. But the greater the challenge, the greater your feeling of accomplishment.”

Growing with the Bank

Merkle-Raymond said the growth of her own career has coincided with that of the bank. “I’ve benefited from the increasing breadth and scope of the company as my career progressed,” she explained.

She began her career in 1989, and embarked on a fairly traditional lending and corporate banking path. “I started at the bank in Boston as a credit analyst and then a loan officer,” she began. “Then I became a relationship manager in corporate banking for many years, with the focus on companies within the energy and natural resources sector and the technology sector.”

She explained, “After a few years within energy resources, I was offered the opportunity to move to Silicon Valley in the early ‘90s. My partner and I left Boston for Palo Alto, and I joined Bank of America as a result of banking acquisitions.”

After 15 years in corporate banking, Merkle-Raymond decided she wanted to try something new. “I wanted  a position overseas, given the expansion of the global economy and the importance of an international perspective.  Through internal networking I learned that the best way to accomplish that goal was to go as a manager, not a direct client coverage banker,” she said. After organizational changes created an opportunity, she was named to a position managing the middle market credit and treasury team in the Bay Area.

She emphasized the value of taking a sidestep every now and then. “If you want to progress, you often have to leave your organization to build new skills, broaden yourself and your responsibilities.”

After several years as a manager, she continued, “I was offered an opportunity to get back into corporate banking as a manager of corporate debt products in Sydney, Australia.  My role was to help integrate Merrill Lynch’s Investment Banking team into Bank of America’s credit culture and risk framework.”

It seemed like a great opportunity, so Merkle-Raymond, her partner, and their two daughters moved to Australia for 18 months.  She continued, “Now back in the US, I have a newly created role in treasury solutions as a strategic solutions executive for Healthcare, Government, and Non-Profit Institutions.”

Currently, she said, her team is working on very large scale projects for federal and state governments and large universities, streamlining payment and collections processes from paper to electronic ones. “I like to say we’re unblocking bottlenecks,” she explained. “We’re making things work more smoothly for millions of people  across the country.”

Generating Consensus

“What I wish I had known when I was younger is that every role requires collaboration – even if you’re an individual contributor,” Merkle-Raymond said.

“Every individual contributor is part of a team – no matter how your job is defined, and no matter how strong your individual contribution, you can only be effective with the help and buy-in of others. Over time, I have also realized that everyone is in sales – whether it’s your opinion or your analysis, you do have to get others to acknowledge your perspective in order to be effective,” she explained.

Merkle-Raymond believes that women in banking have come a long way in the past decades. “Women today are benefiting from the work of women 15 to 20 years ahead of us. We owe the generation ahead of us a huge debt of gratitude for demonstrating that women can perform roles equally, or even better, than male colleagues, and can remain dedicated throughout long careers. Our entire society has accepted the idea of women working, even the necessity of women working,” she said.

“And the corresponding acceptance of men not necessarily being the primary breadwinner is a social shift that has made it possible for women to gain more responsible positions across many industries, and in banking specifically. I think banking is a very favorable environment for women.”

But there are challenges, she continued. “Across businesses in general, barriers are still there at the most senior levels and on boards. It will continue to take time for women to gain experience and for male board members to view women board members as normal and valuable.”

Lesbians in Banking

“Lesbians in banking have the same challenges as in any other industry,” Merkle-Raymond said. “The issue is finding an environment where a person can be comfortable being out at work and be most effective for the organization.”

She continued, “I do believe being out in a client-facing position requires a different level of comfort than being out to your colleagues.  There is always a fear of losing revenue for your company. ”

Merkle-Raymond suggested that level of comfort will come from a broader acceptance of gays and lesbians by society at large. For example, she explained, more television shows with LGBT characters. “Many television shows now have a central character who is gay or lesbian. That didn’t exist even five years ago. I think the different level of acceptance on a macro level is reflected by what’s accepted at work.”

She continued, “At Bank of America, our core values include diversity and inclusion. The reality is what you do, how you do it, and what you deliver is really what people are focused on.”

In fact, in the early 1990’s she was a founder and developer of the bank’s  gay and lesbian health benefits program. “We had an early employee resource group, got together a task force and did all of the research on what benefits the few other companies offered , how they were funded, the tax implications , and the retention benefits.  Then working through the diversity office and HR, we had the chance to present these findings to the board at the time,” she recalled.

She continued, “We had significant opportunity to interact with senior management in a way that was positive and professional, outside our regular business, and it gave executives exposure to our skills and capabilities in a way that was not possible if all we did was our day job.”

Advice for Women in the Industry

Merkle-Raymond believes the financial sector can offer great opportunities for women.  “Banking is at the forefront of accepting women and that makes it a very desirable career choice.”

She said she was grateful to senior women for their contributions to her own career. “By and large more senior women are focused on mentoring more junior women. It’s a huge help for women throughout banking and for furthering the goal of having more senior women over time.”

And, she continued, the managers at Bank of America are actively working to promote diversity within the company. “Management is focused on top talent, and tracks the contributions and growth potential of top producing individuals. And in those discussions a broader range of managers gets familiar with  individuals outside their own groups.”

This talent planning process helps raise the profile of junior talent within the bank, especially women,  she explained. “Women at the junior level, by and large, are more reticent to highlight their accomplishments. This process raises awareness of more junior women in ways they might not do on their own. It’s very helpful.”

She added that she enjoys mentoring young people. “The development of junior associates into more experienced professionals is always very gratifying.”

In Her Personal Time

Merkle-Raymond has two daughters, aged eleven and fourteen, with her partner a former banker. “We met on day one of the new loan officer training program in Boston. My start date and that anniversary are the same,” she said with a chuckle.

She said she was grateful to have had the opportunity to move with her family to Australia for a year and a half. “It was great for the girls to see other parts of the world, to broaden their horizons.”“We want them to know that there isn’t just one correct way, that there are many right answers,” she explained.

The family is the subject of the children’s book Operation Marriage highlighting the impact of gay marriage legislation on children and their classmates.

Lee A. Merkle-Raymond will be a panelist at The Glass Hammer’s upcoming event “Managing Identities at Work Series: Being Out At Work” for LGBT women in finance, law, and technology. For more information, click here.

One of the key lessons that Anita Nemes has learned throughout her career is the importance of personal career management. Nemes, Managing Director and Global Head of Capital Introductions at Deutsche Bank, explained, “Just doing your job extremely well is not enough. You have to take responsibility for your own career, thinking about where you want to be next year and the year after that.”

“It’s not just about getting your job done. It’s taking the initiative to get to where you want to be.”

And that means trusting your instincts and taking risks. She explained, “Sometimes it’s really worth taking risks. When I started in prime brokerage, it was a much smaller business than cash equities, where I had worked previously. But I had a vision that hedge funds were here to stay and grow, and that’s exactly what happened.”

Building a Career in Prime Brokerage

Nemes started her career in Hungary, and in 1996 left to go to INSEAD for her MBA. She then began working in emerging markets equity sales at Credit Suisse in 1997. Three years later, she moved to Merrill Lynch, where she would be covering more ground, particularly South Africa and Israel, which were both attractive markets to her.

“In 2003, I was working in cash equity sales but I saw the potential of the prime brokerage business. I saw that it was an area that was going to grow,” she explained.

“So I put up my hand, and I told my boss I was interested. With some luck, I got the role I wanted and started working in capital introductions.”

Nemes continued in the prime brokerage business, and last year she joined Deutsche Bank. Today, she said, “I have the same job, globally heading the capital introductions team for the prime brokerage business. I introduce clients to different sources of capital. I know hedge funds, I know the investors, and my role is to introduce the right investors to the right managers.”

She continued, “I’m extremely proud of our big hedge fund conference this year, called Bridging the Gap. It’s two and a half days long, and we had a phenomenal agenda for our clients. It was great to get a lot of positive feedback, especially since this was my first year at Deutsche Bank and I wanted to make sure it was very special.”

Additionally, she said, she was proud of her work on Deutsche Bank’s Alternative Investment Survey. “For the past eight years, I’d always read it with jealous eyes, as a competitor, but this year my team and I had an instrumental role in compiling it,” she said with a laugh.

Finally, she said being promoted to managing director while at Merrill was another source or pride. “It was a wonderful confirmation of others recognizing what I do,” she explained.

Currently Nemes said she is hard at work on Deutsche Bank’s upcoming Alternative Investment Survey. “It’s our tenth annual edition, so we do want to have a very impactful research piece,” she said.

Additionally, she is working on a number of exciting new hedge fund launches. “It’s a very interesting period of any hedge fund’s life – finding a seeder and the first couple of investors and arranging roadshows for the new funds. It’s very exciting. One establishes a very strong and lasting relationship with those clients.”

Nemes said that the way the hedge fund marketplace was able to bounce back following the economic downturn shows its value. “This industry continues to grow – it had a tremendous setback just three years ago. But literally within a year and a half, it recovered to an all time high,” she explained.

She added, “I never considered hedge funds a different asset class, just a different way to manage risk. The speed at which the industry recovered following 2008 shows that there is high demand for better risk adjusted returns.”

Women in Banking

“I come from a culture where, when I started my career in banking in Hungary in the 90s, most of my mangers were women,” Nemes said. “It was very normal for women to have senior jobs in banks.”

But, she continued, she does see challenges for women. “I don’t think they are particular to banking only,” she clarified. “The difficulties for women in any job is balancing all the different things that life requires, and it is very hard.”

She continued, “I think banking has become a lot more conscious of the issues and is addressing them. Deutsche Bank is extremely good at this. I’ve only been here a year, but I’ve already met a tremendous amount of senior women who are role models and a lot of mentors.”

Nemes pointed out that external groups, like 100 Women in Hedge Funds, also make a difference for building connections.

Advice for Women in Financial Services

Nemes said her advice for young women beginning careers in the industry is to make sure they feel passionate about it. “In this industry, you really can’t go for very far unless you really enjoy what you’re doing,” she explained.

“This is true for anything in life, but this is a very demanding job – it requires a lot of time and everyone is very competitive.”

She continued, “The other thing is that you have to continue to grow and develop. Once you get to a situation where you are comfortable, you have to challenge yourself.”

“I get bored very quickly, and the reason I’ve been in this job for so long is because it’s a very intellectually challenging job, and I feel very privileged to have that.”

As women become more senior, Nemes said taking risks becomes even more important. “One should always be open minded,” she explained.

In Her Personal Time

“A lot of people talk about the challenges of balancing your private and professional life,” Nemes said. “I like my job enough that whether I’m reading The Economist or doing research or something like that on the weekend, I enjoy that personally. So for me, the line blurs when you enjoy what you are doing.”

“I consider travel a really big privilege,” she continued, “even looking out of a taxi window in a new city is a little adventure.”

Finally she added, “I’m a big fan of reading biographies – you can learn a lot from other people’s lives.”