Wish to attend the Energy Transition Summit, but don’t know how to convince your employer? We can help with that. Make the case.

The Energy Transition Summit in Houston, TX on September 21-22 has something for everyone and offers a wide range of sessions to reach professionals in every segment of the industry – upstream, midstream, oil and gas, debt finance, electrified transportation, carbon capture, ESG, and more. Hear the latest trends from top industry leaders, network with professionals from diverse disciplines, and share the knowledge and experience back with your team. 

It’s hard to step away from your desk, it’s a busy time of the year… we get it. We’ve put together a letter for you to present to your employer to save you some time. Invest in yourself. 

Download your letter for The Energy Transition Summit

Championing your peers is one of the three pillars on which Kayo stands. We often hear stories from the Kayo Community of relationships built around this concept, so we were thrilled to kick-off 2021 by sitting down with Emily Quinlan, Jennifer Grett, and Trish Watson, three colleagues with Alliant to learn more about their practice, how they champion one another regularly, and what they’re predicting for the year ahead. 

 

TELL US ABOUT YOUR ROLE IN PRIVATE EQUITY

We are an insurance advisory firm that works on clients from diligence to divestiture. Each of us lead teams and are personally involved in every step of the process.

 

HOW DID YOU MEET ONE ANOTHER? 

We met by working together at Alliant in three different states: Washington, Colorado, and California.

 

WHAT’S ONE THING YOU ADMIRE ABOUT THE OTHER TWO?

Emily: The thing I admire most about Trish and Jennifer is that they are smart, diligent, and support women without competing. They embody the saying “a rising tide lifts all boats” so from our first conversation forward it has been a true collaborative approach internally and externally to ensure we are providing the best service to our clients.

 

HOW DID COVID 19 IMPACT RISK MANAGEMENT / INSURANCE? 

Covid 19 played into a hardening market, but it is not the sole cause. It is shifting the Executive Liability market as there are an increased number of D&O claims (partly driven by bankruptcy) and EPL claims (partly driven by perceived discrimination around layoffs, potentially requirements of vaccines, etc.). We anticipate that moving forward we will see more explicit Covid exclusions across the board on P&C policies but – like many effects of this pandemic – this is still evolving daily as more information becomes available.

 

WHAT’S SOMETHING YOU ARE PROUD OF FROM THE PAST YEAR?

Emily: I am proud of our direct team and overall company with how we seamlessly adapted to the roller coaster of 2020. Internal and external teams increased communication to ensure we were not missing anything even though we were not seeing each other on a daily basis. We had grace with each other, our clients, underwriters, etc. knowing we were all acclimating to a new way of life – temporary or potentially forever shifted.

 

WHAT MAXIM GUIDES YOU?

Treat each client and make recommendations like you own the company. You wouldn’t recklessly leave something underinsured or carelessly pay for insurance you do not need if it was your dollar on the line, so be thoughtful and strategic with recommendations of risk management and the insurance program as if you were the one paying the bills.

 

WHAT’S THE BEST COMPLIMENT A CLIENT HAS GIVEN YOU?

The best compliment I have received is that we have proven ourselves time and time again that they completely trust our guidance both in the diligence process and in the post-closing risk management of their portfolio companies.

 

MAKE AT LEAST ONE PREDICTION FOR 2021…

 It is going to be better than 2020!

 

Trish, Emily, and Jennifer are all featured Guides in The Kayo Guidebook. To learn more about The Guidebook, click here.

About The Team:

Trish Watson is a Vice President at Alliant. She takes great pride in creating effective and strategic offerings for Private Equity Firm clients and their portfolio companies. Exploring alternative funding arrangements, driving employees to quality providers, and adopting transparent Rx programs are, in our view, the starting point for any good benefits program. Our programs typically save our clients 15% on their health and welfare spend, which equates to a 4-6% EBITDA lift, in many cases. Cost savings opportunities can be analyzed side by side during due diligence of a target, post close, or pre-exit to maximize the multiple.

Emily Quinlan is a Vice President at Alliant. Emily has been advising on risk management programs since 2008 for private equity firms, family offices, and portfolio companies. She advises on all aspects of a company’s risk management program with a primary focus on the Property & Casualty insurance placement and Risk Solutions to help reduce loss frequency and mitigate future losses.

 

Jennifer Grett is a Vice President of Alliant. Over the past 13 years, Jennifer has been laser focused in the private equity industry. As an insurance broker, Jennifer assists companies reduce their employee benefits spend while being strategic in the how we structure the benefits and retirement. Jennifer helps to place property & casualty insurance, provides private equity insurance diligence services, reps & warranties, cyber, D&O and much more over a specialty industries and sub-industries. Heavily focused on Manufacturing & Industrials, Distribution & Logistics, Construction, Hospitality, Healthcare, Technology, Consumer and the Cannabis space.

About the Firm:

With a history dating back to 1925, Alliant Insurance Services is one of the nation’s leading distributors of diversified insurance products and services. Alliant is a top 10 national insurance broker and the largest specialty broker with 100+ offices and 4,000 employees. Alliant is among the fastest-growing insurance brokerages in the industry. Although our organization is in the midst of significant growth, we remain true to our guiding philosophy, seeking out likeminded companies and professionals who strive to excel and live to serve.

2020 was a challenging and transformational year for the healthcare industry. Healthcare investors and executives stepped up to help healthcare organizations adapt and continue to deliver critical services to patients using technology and creativity. Meet the top 21 in ’21 Women in Healthcare Investing focusing on tech and services who use ideas, capital and collaboration to solve complex problems in healthcare.

To learn more about leaders in healthcare investing, download our Top 21 in 2021: Women in Healthcare Investing report.

 

VIEW THE TOP 21 in ’21 Women in Healthcare

First generation immigrants Carolyn Inoa-Monje and Mae Klinger met as freshmen at Harvard and bonded on shared values such as family, education, and hard work. Fast forward two decades – their friendship remains strong, sincere, and anchored to those same values. Carolyn is Director of Portfolio Management at Nuveen Real Estate based in Washington DC. Mae is Vice President of Asset Management at Insight Property Group, also based in DC. As friends, mothers, and business executives, they have leaned on one another to develop into leaders who pursue excellence, but also never ignore the human element.

ON BEING FIRST GENERATION IMMIGRANTS

Carolyn: My parents shaped who I am. When we came to this country from the Dominican Republic, I was five years old. My parents were in their late 20s. My father is a mechanic and worked every day of his life even on weekends to provide for the family. My mother worked two jobs, going to night school to learn English and complete her college degree. She graduated from college when I graduated from high school. My parents were the ultimate examples for me and my sister. 

Mae: I was born in the Philippines. My family immigrated to the US when I was 10, and I grew up in New Jersey. My parents worked incredibly hard – my mom is a nurse and my dad worked in sales, but just making ends meet, living paycheck to paycheck. They were always very supportive and told us education is your path to success or achieving more.

THEY WERE DETERMINED TO GO TO HARVARD, AND DID

Carolyn: My parents instilled this belief that if you work hard enough, there is really nothing that you can’t do. I say that, and it almost sounds cliché, but it really was something that I believed so incredibly wholeheartedly. When I was in sixth grade I decided, “Well, I can do anything if I work hard enough. So, what I want is to go to Harvard.” It wasn’t easy, and I’m obviously skipping all the details, but I made it happen. I went to Harvard.

Mae: I had sort of the same one-track mind, like Carolyn. Our first summer in the United States, we visited Cambridge and I saw Harvard. A family friend who was our “tour guide” told me Harvard was the best school. I really knew nothing about it, but decided, “Well, if it is the best school, I want to come here for college.” Then I rubbed the foot of the John Harvard Statue for luck, which we later found out I really shouldn’t have done, because people do gross things on that foot. But yes, I also made it into Harvard.

I AM FROM THE BRONX AND I DON’T LIKE PEOPLE TOUCHING MY STUFF

Carolyn: We met at Harvard through a mutual friend. When I filled out the application that pairs you with roommates, I wrote something along the lines of, “I am from the Bronx and I don’t like people touching my stuff.” I was used to living in an apartment with three deadbolts on the door and bars on the windows to prevent break-ins and thefts, so I was always worried about securing my belongings. It was no surprise when Harvard ended up placing me in a dormitory that was all singles. My next-door neighbor in the dorm became my first friend in college, and she was a friend of Mae’s. She introduced Mae and me, and we just hit it off. We’ve been really close ever since freshman year. Being first generation immigrants has really given us a lot in common. We have surmounted a lot of the same obstacles; we share a lot of the same values.

Mae: The central thing that connected us is where we came from, our shared values, and a commitment to our studies. Harvard is such a big place and people come from all sorts of backgrounds, especially socioeconomic experience. There was (and still is) a group of five of us that keep in touch very closely, all sharing the same type of backgrounds.

MAE’S PATH TO BEING A PARTNER

Mae: I thought I was going to be an immigration and labor attorney when I entered Harvard. When I graduated, I got a fellowship to work for a local non-profit that was serving Latino immigrants. I quickly realized that I couldn’t be a lawyer though, because I get too emotionally attached. Sometimes the law is just so rigid. You either came here legally or not. These are the rules for the path to legalization or citizenship – sometimes the answer is just no. I would get too personally attached to the people and couldn’t deal with the emotions when we couldn’t help them. Through that experience, I was exposed to community development and urban revitalization, and that’s how I started getting interested in real estate. I happened to stumble on an entry level consulting position with a group called RCLCO based in the DC area, and that was the start of my real estate career.

I have switched jobs every two years, which I really need to stop, but each one has been a step up. After RCLCO, Carlyle was hiring for an analyst position in their real estate group, and that was my transition from consulting to commercial real estate and finance. I started as an analyst at Carlyle’s Asset Management Group, and then an asset manager role at Federal Capital Partners, and then I went to AvalonBay for a very brief stint as a director. Now, I work for Insight Capital.

Carolyn: She is being modest – she just keeps getting poached by companies because she is so amazing. Now, she is a partner… she forgot to mention that.

Mae: Thank you. Yes, that was pretty great. I made Partner, so I’ll be staying here forever!

HOW CAROLYN FOUND HER DREAM JOB

Carolyn: I determined early on that I wanted to be in real estate. I realized networking and relationships were important in business, but I felt I was lacking in those areas. Coming from the Bronx and being thrust into networking happy hours at places like Goldman Sachs, where I had some of my early internships, felt uncomfortable. Honestly, I would look around at these successful professionals in their fancy suits and thought to myself, “What could we possibly have in common?” I knew this was something I had to overcome. Much to the chagrin of my counselors, who always, of course, encourage us to pursue areas that you are really good at, I opted to start my career in sales. It was my way of forcing myself to get proficient at building relationships – because I knew if I didn’t it, would cost me my job and hold me back in my career, and failure was not an option. I joined GE Healthcare’s Commercial Leadership Program, went on to successfully manage a sales territory in New York, and worked in healthcare for about five years. From there, I went on to get my MBA at the University of Chicago, which served as a launching pad for me to get into real estate. After I graduated, I worked at a large REIT called Host Hotels for three years, then transitioned to a middle market real estate private equity shop here in DC. Finally, I landed where I am today, at Nuveen Real Estate, where I am a director on the portfolio management team for one of the largest diversified real estate funds in the world. It really is a dream job. I look back at everything it took for me to get here, and it’s starting to really feel like it was all worth it.

HAS YOUR FRIENDSHIP IMPACTED YOUR CAREER?

Carolyn: 100%. Mae was in the industry before I was. I did five years in healthcare, then did my MBA, and then got into real estate, but Mae has been in real estate almost since we graduated. Once I started to make the transition, Mae was my first call when I was trying to prep for an interview or a case study. As our paths converged, we have different roles in real estate but we still call each other, whether about a career transition, compensation, or what is happening in certain sectors of the industry. For example, my fund has invested in student housing. Mae was starting to think about student housing and so she came to me to get some insight there. I always go to Mae for insight on multifamily and asset management related matters, and also because Mae has been investing in the DC area for most of her career. My fund is national, but whenever I am looking at properties in DC, Mae is an expert, so I always check with her.

Mae: Carolyn has a sales background, and it helps me. She gives really great advice on how to pitch messages. When there is a conversation about a role or compensation, I definitely go to her to ask how to message and who to approach. I love that our conversations are not sugarcoated. We are very honest with each other. I may not think I’m being unreasonable, but when I share it with Carolyn, she can point out, “Here is the other side of things. Here is a different perspective or vantage point.” That has been helpful in diffusing situations both at home and at work, and having a clear mind to process things and make decisions.

IF SHE CAN DO IT, I CAN DO IT

Carolyn: Mae is as close to a sister as my own biological sister. It is a blessing to be so close and to be in the same industry so that we can support each other. Now that we are growing our families, our responsibilities are getting bigger and bigger and we are busier and busier. It helps to have that person to text late at night when the kids just went to bed and you are sleep-deprived but firing the laptop back up to finish your work. You just want to tell somebody about it that can relate. It fills you up and energizes you, like, “Okay if Mae can do it, I can do it.”

Mae: I had guilt feelings of going back to work. Having friends who are in the same boat and to talk through the process of going back to work helps. It shows that you aren’t alone. It is cliché, but there is a lot of power to that.

ADVICE FOR OTHER WOMEN

Mae: There is a lot of fear right now, but remembering the human element – that we can all help each other right now – is so important. In real estate, we might be scared that we are not going to get rent from our apartment communities. We might be worried about returns to our investors. We are certainly worried about the people who actually live in our buildings and don’t have jobs to actually pay for their rent. But the world is not really coming to an end. You might feel like that sometimes right now, but take a step back – let’s appreciate this time we have with our families and kids. Normally, it isn’t there because we are so busy during the work day.

Carolyn: Women are just so powerful. Really just superheroes. The amount that we can do, the amount that we can take on in a day is amazing. We need to relish that. Take a little moment at the end of the day to revel in everything you did and that you were able to accomplish. Like Mae said, we are in this together.

More than a decade ago, two women in private equity met on a deal. The first, Christine Hommes, was a young and ambitious associate at the time who decided to reach out for lunch and advice from the other, Olivia Wassenaar, who was a rising private equity principal a few years her senior at a competing firm. Fast forward 10 years – these two women have moved past a mentor/mentee relationship and now are colleagues, confidants, and friends. Christine Hommes is now Partner at Apollo Global Management in New York. Olivia Wassenaar is Senior Partner and Co-Lead of Natural Resources, also at Apollo Global Management in New York. They believe that when you work long hours, you should do it with people you like. They also believe there need never be only one seat at the table for women in energy or private equity.

ON HOW THEIR FRIENDSHIP BEGAN

Christine: Olivia and I first became friends working on a deal together. We were at different firms at the time (she was at Riverstone and I was at Apollo), which had partnered in a company called Talos Energy. It was a tough deal to negotiate, but we got along well and developed a good rapport. Since I hadn’t met many other senior women in energy private equity, after we signed the deal, I reached out to Olivia to see if she would serve as an unofficial mentor.

Olivia: Funnily enough, I had never actually worked on a deal with another woman in private equity either. We bonded over how rare it was (but shouldn’t be).

Christine: Before Olivia joined Apollo, we’d occasionally meet for lunch or drinks near our offices. Now, I work for Olivia so if she asks me to grab lunch, I’m sort of obligated… [Laughter] But before, that wasn’t the case. There are plenty of “mentor relationships” that I’ve tried – you go to lunch one time and there is no connection. I’m very bad at following up with people in general. But I actually wanted to follow up with Olivia – she offered a good perspective and was also just fun to grab lunch with.

SHARED EXPERIENCES

Christine: Both men and women can make great mentors, but there are aspects of the “female professional experience” that are difficult for men to understand. For example, when you show up to a meeting and an executive mistakes you for the most junior member of the team (even when you are the Partner), or assumes you’ll handle the scheduling because you’re a woman.

Olivia: Yes, those kinds of things happen more than men realize – the default assumption that you are more junior than you are.

Christine: While it sounds like a petty issue, it keeps happening and undermines both your standing within the team and your own confidence. Sometimes you just need someone else with that shared experience to offer a few points on how to navigate it. I saw Olivia as a more senior professional who had gone through similar experiences without letting it affect her. And having a person who understands my industry, who knows the personality types, to bounce ideas with and to offer counsel has been incredibly helpful.

WHEN YOU WORK LONG HOURS, FRIENDSHIP MATTERS

Olivia: It is essential to have friends in this business. We work a lot. We work long hours and they can be intense, especially when you are working on a deal. Being able to call Christine after a conference call and to admit, “that was a bad conversation” has been incredibly helpful. Having that informal network and camaraderie which offers support, whether deal-specific or more broadly, is grounding and makes me stronger in my job. Work is so intense – it’s best to do it with people you like.

Christine: Our conversations don’t have to be 100% business, either. This is a demanding job and you can’t maintain that level of intensity without comfort with your team. You should be able to joke and laugh, which allows you to escape the stress. But sometimes, you also really need trusted confidants where you can let down your guard and ask for honest and sincere advice.

Olivia: Like the day oil went negative. Christine and I were texting all day – we were horrified. “It is at $4.25, it is at $1…” Midway through a Zoom call, she finally said, “I can’t follow you right now, oil is negative.” It was a really tough day, but then you pick up the phone and call your friends and commiserate over “what do we do now?” It’s so much easier to speak freely and brainstorm those ideas with someone that’s not just your teammate, but your friend.

THERE’S MORE THAN ONE SEAT AT THIS TABLE

Olivia: When I joined the World Bank, I worked for a strong, smart woman who was a promoter and mentor to many women. She was the first person to instill in me the criticality of forming strong friendships in business with the idea of building allies. Her philosophy was that we all need friends in this industry – women especially. There isn’t just one seat at the table – we need to find seats for as many women as possible.

Christine: Before meeting Olivia, I hadn’t met many women in the industry. Early in my career, I was hesitant to reach out to women simply based on the shared experience of being a woman. And then at some point I realized many of the men in our industry were reaching out to others because they went to the same college or they were in the same fraternity, or whatever. Now, I’ve nurtured my female relationships and I’m better for it because I meet women with such a broad range of experiences.

FILLING THOSE SEATS

Olivia: I’ve always valued the inclusive perspective I gained early in my career, and have focused on helping connect women with their potential “seats at the table”. Whether it is meeting with an investment banking analyst looking to get into private equity or suggesting a particularly impressive CEO, who happens to be a woman, as a speaker at an event, it’s critical to highlight female leadership and opportunity. The more we highlight each other’s successes, the more successful we all become.

Christine: I remember a deal before Olivia came to Apollo where we were concluding some fairly disputed negotiations and three parties, including me and Olivia, were on the line hammering out the final points. After the call, one of us made a comment that it was great that all three of the lead negotiators were women – it was the first (and maybe only?) time I have been in a negotiation with only women at the table, and I’m excited for the day when that’s not even notable.

Olivia: I remember that call and it was very efficient! It’s so great to see women increasingly filling those decision-making and board-level roles. Last year, we started hosting a women’s cocktail hour around NAPE in Houston and each time we look at the RSVP list, we’re excited about the impressive female investment bankers, lawyers, investors, and consultants – the list grows every years. I love that.

HER SECRET SAUCE

Christine: Olivia’s thoughtfulness is not a secret. She is really, really insightful and determined to get to the right answer regardless of what that means. That is really rare in this industry. She doesn’t say, “this is my idea and this is my plan, and this is what we’re executing,” but rather has a commitment to achieving the best result that enables her to be more open to others’ ideas. “I want to get to the right answer, and I don’t really care how we get there.”

Olivia: If I ever have a complex issue, a nut to crack – no one is better than Christine. She is great at driving to the heart of things – quickly and thoughtfully. We’ll have meetings where Christine doesn’t say anything, and we all talk ourselves in one direction. Then, Christine jumps in with an insightful, well-informed comment and we’re all like, “oh no, we should not do that. That was a horrible idea.”

ADVICE FOR OTHER WOMEN

Olivia: Establish trusted relationships – it is important to have someone who you can confide in, who you can use as a sounding board. In the absence of being able to have that in the workplace, find people with at least some sort of shared experience. I have had many informal mentors – sometimes people who didn’t even work in the same industry – who are great allies. You can use all the friends you can get.

Christine: There is literally no industry – whether you are in real estate, or design, or retail, or medicine – where people do not have added stress right now. That world of shared experience is expanding quickly right now. It is so important just to take care of yourself. Find something that you actually enjoy, and give yourself the opportunity to say, “I’m blocking the next hour. It doesn’t matter if somebody calls me or something happens. I am blocking off this time for myself.” Whether it is working out, reading, learning a new hobby, or just watching Tiger King and needle-pointing – all which I’ve done during my quarantine.

Who should you include on your Personal Board of Directors? Begin with a friend.

High-powered lawyers, mothers, wives, and community leaders, Hope Newsome and Noni Holmes-Kidd are two women who “do it all and do it well.” They both operate at the epicenter of the business and cultural community in Orlando, Florida, and have been recognized by the Orlando Business Journal as 40 under 40 and “Women to Watch”. These two humble, hardworking, and generous women have risen to leadership positions of their own accord, but they also have a secret weapon: their friendship. Through commonalities, mutual respect, and grace, they have formed a bond that propels them through each challenge – be it launching a law firm, succeeding in the C-Suite, or motherhood.

Hope Newsome is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Virtus LLP, an Orlando-based law firm founded in 2019 practicing in the areas of Corporate, Financial Services, Private Equity, and Public Finance. Prior to that, Hope spent 15 years in general counsel and compliance roles for private equity and asset management firms. She received her B.A. from Spelman College and J.D. from Barry University School of Law, and lives in Orlando with her husband and two children.

Noni Holmes-Kidd is Vice President and General Counsel at Parkway Property Investments, a real estate investment firm where she is responsible for all legal and corporate governance matters. Prior to that, she was an Associate at Hogan Lovells US LLP in Washington, DC. She received her B.A. from Emory University, her J.D from the University of Virginia School of Law, and lives in Orlando with her husband and son.

OH, THIS IS MY PERSON

Noni: We met at a baby shower. I like to say it was love at first sight, but I may only be speaking for myself! It was instantaneous. It was really meant to be.

Hope: If you’re familiar with Grey’s Anatomy, I thought: “Oh, this is my person, my Christina.” We have so much in common. In every area of my life, I have something in common with Noni. I can ask her opinion and I value her opinion.

ON COMMONALITIES

Hope: Politics.

Noni: Yeah, politics for sure. We have so many other things in common though. We both are big lovers and supportive of the arts community here in Orlando. We both went to college in Atlanta. We are both black women and the minority in our field respectively. We’ve both reached a high level of success, and that’s really a bonding thing.

Hope: It’s not to be lost that we were both General Counsels in fields where there are so few women of color. It is so special that we are women, young women, young African-American women – there was just a lot of opportunity to get ideas and feedback on how to lead and how to navigate the day-to-day of our jobs.

ON GRACE

Noni: There has never been a moment where I haven’t been able to access or reach Hope and pick her brain on something. Even if it’s just a 15-minute call to pick her brain, we just try to be there for each other. We’ve also started the Power Hour Happy Hour. We’ve got 45 minutes with our list of things to talk through over a glass of wine and some appetizers. There’s no formal agenda. It’s so good for the soul.

I have also never been like, “Oh my gosh, Hope didn’t respond to my text.” I know she is busy. I know it is not intentional. We give each other the necessary leeway of leniency to be who we are.

Hope: My favorite thing about our relationship is grace. There is this mutual respect for everything that is going on. I don’t have to worry about Noni taking something the wrong way. There is just an ease to the relationship which makes it that much more special.

ON CAREER ADVICE

Noni: When we were going through our general counsel days together, it was just so invaluable to have Hope as a resource and to be able to just check in and bounce ideas off of her. Now in her role as head of her own law firm, our communication is even more valuable.

Hope: Noni was there when I decided to start my own law firm. She was definitely my confidant during the entire planning process, including the, “I am thinking about doing this” stage.

Noni: When Hope decided to launch her own law firm, I was thrilled. When Hope first started talking about doing her own thing, I thought this actually makes a lot of sense given that her practice area is so specialized. She is so good at what she does. When I found out that our other friend was joining her and they were going to do this together, it was the best news ever. I am generally very conservative and risk averse. I’m likely to tell you all the risks if you decide to, like, go across the street, but I knew that Hope and her law partner, Camille, were going to be amazingly successful in their law firm. And they have been – it is just a testament to Hope and Camille’s expertise and hard work.

SHE DOES IT ALL, AND DOES IT WELL

Hope: I think that she should be on the cover of magazines and spreading her leadership skills and thoughts across the country. Noni’s strength is her ability to just remain calm. Her ability to lead through stressful situations. I’ve never been on the other side of negotiating a deal with her, but I can probably bet that she is a great poker player because it is very difficult to rattle her at all. She is not just an excellent attorney, but also an innovative attorney and a hard worker. She is humble too. To be able to do that while also being a pleasure to work with is uncommon in our field.

Noni: There is a long list. Hope is an amazing connector. She has been in Orlando for a while, but she is just so involved in the community, in local politics, and it is all almost underground. You won’t ever know until you start to peel it back and you’re like, “Oh, you know this person?” Because, again, she is never going to toot her own horn. I’m still learning and understanding the breadth of her exposure and leadership here.

She just does it all and does it all very well. Her kids are amazing, because of Hope and her husband. They are amazing parents notwithstanding the fact that they are both very busy. She has given me so much advice as I have been navigating this wife, mother, and professional role. I am forever inspired by what she does.

ON QUEEN BEES

Hope: Yes, there is still a little bit of that lingering. But I don’t think that it is at the level that it probably was in the late 90s/early 2000s. It is not as common and it usually comes from a place of insecurity for that person.

Noni: There is a push generally for women to help each other, or at the very least not to push another woman down, and I think that is evident with the prevalence of organizations that are focused on women promoting women.

Hope: Because we now have opportunities to connect with women that want to lift other women, I don’t let it get to me. The Kayo Executive Leadership Retreat was my first Kayo conference. It was the most amazing and collaborative experience. 

ON FINDING SOMEONE WHO GETS IT

Noni: I am so thankful for Hope and the relationship that we have built. Hope uses this term – Hope, correct me if I get it wrong – “personal board of directors”?

Hope: Yes.

Noni: Every now and then, you do need to be able to talk to someone outside of your family who gets it.

Hope: Personalities in our field are interesting. When you come across someone you connect with, and who is a nice person too, oh my goodness. That’s what I love about her.

Chantelle and Kemi Abdul are two sisters in a family of five children who grew up in Lagos, Nigeria. Both women have emerged as leaders in the power industry and exude positivity and grit, crediting their entrepreneurial mother for lighting a fire and showing them how to see problems as opportunities. Chantelle is now the CEO of the company her mother founded, Mojec International Holdings, a conglomerate with subsidiaries in the power, energy, real estate, and retail sectors with operations across Africa and based in Lagos. Kemi is a private equity infrastructure investor serving as Director at Mubadala Infrastructure Partners in Abu Dhabi. With these two, the question is not so much how did they get where they are today, but instead, where are they going next?

ON BEING BEING RASIED BY AN ENTREPRENEUR

Kemi: Our mother was an entrepreneurial maven who started as a bank teller and went on to form many businesses of her own. I think she can’t sit still. She started her first business as a distributor of Michelin tires. Then she grew that so big,  she was one of the largest distributors in Nigeria and then became an ambassador for Michelin. She then became a large distributor of ream paper, and then got into textiles, manufacturing, chemicals, and finally fashion materials for women. Her biggest success to date has been in the electricity industry. I remember years ago when she called me one day whilst I was an investment banker on Wall Street covering energy companies, saying “Kemi, you know, I would like to speak to some of your power generating companies that you work with.” And I’m just like, “What do you know about power generation mum?” Fast forward today, those sort of companies that she wanted to be introduced to, the GEs of the world, potentially are her partners and investors. So she had a vision earlier on the cusp of the liberalization of the electricity market in Nigeria. She knew, of course, from her active participation in market discussions that the power market in Nigeria was going to open up and be deregulated.

Chantelle: My mom had a natural business acumen. She never went to college, but she achieved so much. She founded Mojec International Holdings and was a thriving businesswoman in her own right. At the time, the State ran the sector, and she had the opportunity of being a contractor. As a woman, they were skeptical of her because she was female, but she convinced them she could execute.

Kemi: In a lot of ways, for me, she was my hero growing up because I saw how much she was able to juggle and excel at. If there was traffic in Nigeria, because back then there weren’t traffic lights, she’d get out of the car and literally be the traffic warden just to get the traffic moving – so she’s wearing a yellow suit, like a complete yellow suit with a skirt and suit jacket, and just navigating traffic in order to get to her meeting on time. I have stories of my friends’ parents telling them, “I think we saw your friend’s mom on the road navigating traffic.”

ON THEIR UPBRINGING

Kemi: We were born in Lagos, Nigeria. We’re Christians but my dad is Muslim so he’s allowed more wives and went on to have 16 children. Theoretically, I’m the last of 16. If you just focus on my mom, who was married to my dad for 43 years before he passed away, there are five of us siblings. Although we were raised in a big family, our parents paid close attention to our social, moral, and educational development. We spent every summer growing up in London participating in extracurricular activites. I went to high school in Nigeria and then I moved to Washington, D.C. for college. I must add, being born into a family of 16 kids helped me learn how to differentiate myself from an early age.

Chantelle: The family tradition was to go to college in the U.K., but I wanted to be in the U.S., so I started the tradition of going to George Washington. When we were in college, all five of us lived in one house. You can imagine being the oldest of everybody and trying to be responsible when everyone’s rebellious and no one wants to listen and bearing the brunt of it. We had a nice house in Arlington with a pool that everyone loved to swim in but no one wanted to clean. My mother finally said, “I refuse to keep spending money on cleaning this pool… I think we need to get rid of it!” Which she then turned into a garden.

ON ENTEPRENEURSHIP

Chantelle: I’m a renegade entrepreneur. I enjoy creation, origination, and structuring, and moving onto the next thing. Treading in uncharted territories is very natural for me. I never wanted to climb up any ladder. I was never looking to run and modernize an established company. Originally, in 2013, I came to Nigeria after being educated in the States after I bought the license to produce The Apprentice for all of Africa. It was after that, my mom approached me to come in, manage, and modernize the business. It was completely a surprise.

Kemi: All of my siblings are entrepreneurs. I’m the only non-entrepreneur… yet. But I’ve always felt entrepreneurial in my role as a PE investor. I pour a lot of passion in whatever I do and work closely with our portfolio companies not only to bring creative value but to build a strong management structure and team morale. Infrastructure is the backbone of every economy. The world needs good roads, clean water, renenwable energy, etc. We also have a social responsibility. We are delivering a service and a good for the benefit of all – especially in the Middle East, where there is a great need for providing water, electrification, power plants, and telecom. Besides the power and water plants, renewable energy, and seaports we own and operate, we were involved with three start-of-the-art university projects including the Abu Dhabi campus of one of the oldest universities in the world – the Paris Sorbonne University. Our goal was to bring up the level of education and standards in the UAE to international standards so females can be educated at home.

ON BEING YOURSELF IN A MALE-DOMINATED BUSINESS

Chantelle: As a woman in the United States, you are encouraged to be successful. Deal hard. Go toe-to-toe. Here in Africa, you have to walk a middle line and when you do that, you risk being alienated. You can be smart without being sassy or snarky. If you maintain your femininity, you can earn the respect of your peers and superiors without having to come across as rude. I became CEO in 2016. At the time, the market was male-dominated primarily by older men, who owned the manufacturing companies and owned similar businesses like ours. Today, four years later, we are the largest and only female-owned electric meters firm and usually I am the youngest CEO in the room. We have gone from mid-tier to the leader of the pack in the industry. It is a firm started by a woman, run by women – most of whom are younger than our male counterparts.

Kemi: Being an African woman in the Middle East, you’re a double minority. When I felt like giving up, I thought, “Kemi, you can be an African woman in the Middle East, in Private Equity, dominated by men, and still do well. You just have to excel at what you do, work hard. and people will see your contributions.” I was nominated to the board of several of our portfolio companies either as a board member or board observer. I came a long way but it’s reassuring when such responsibilites and opportunities are entrusted upon you.

ON NETWORKING

Kemi: I’m part of a women’s network in the UAE where we mentor women and introduce them to corporate executives. I’m excited to give back and invest in female-backed companies whilst creating a women’s private equity network. One of my goals is to empower women so hopefully I will eventually be able to pull together capital that will provide soft loans to developing nations in small markets that are willing to help women invest and become financially independent.

Chantelle: Of the eleven utilities in Nigeria, only two of them have female CEOs. I have a personal relationship with every single CEO and oftentimes they trust me more than their male competitors. If you carry yourself well, you will have those CEOs protecting and looking out for you.

ON FUTURE DREAMS

Chantelle: Vision casting and the big picture are most interesting to me. If I were to move on in a few years, I’d like to remain on the board but raise an innovation fund for technology in power. I would invest across different sectors on the African market. In order to be able to do that, you have to run multiple investment parallels and have an excellent management team in place. I’ve always wanted my siblings to come together. The way we’re doing that now is through investing. One of the things I’m trying to do now is create a family office and be able to invest in things that everyone wants to do. Everyone has their own courses to chart.

Kemi: One of my goals is to empower women by advising them on what they should be buying. I’d like to create an investment club for women where women can make their money work for them, similar to a good ETF that performs well. I want to share it with women and take that fear factor of investing away. We’d need a lot more capital and I’d like to be settled into a new role, then actively chase that goal. I’d also like to have some senior women come on board as well, some of whom have said they’d be happy to join.

ON SISTERHOOD

Chantelle: You can imagine there’s a lot of responsibility, being the oldest, but it’s fun.

Kemi: I never saw my siblings as competition. I’ve always been collaborative with my siblings.

 

Co-Authored by Meg Miller and Lindsay Burton

Sarah Schwarzschild, Co-Head of Metropolitan Real Estate and Partner at The Carlyle Group based in New York, believes in championing women. That includes her younger sister, Anne Duggan, Senior Principal at Partners Capital, a $30B global outsourced investment office for institutional and high net worth clients, based in Boston. As investors, parents, wives, aunts, and business leaders, this loving and intrepid duo are a force of nature that has rarely been seen before in the world of finance. Where did they come from and how has sisterhood played a role in their success? We sat down with them to find out more.

ON POWERHOUSE PARENTS

Anne: Our parents were both corporate lawyers with significant jobs. My mom started in law in the 1970s when there were not a lot of women in law firms. She was one of a few women in the industry, but our dad was very supportive. Having both of those pieces – two parents with significant jobs and a dad who supported our mom’s career – was unique.

Sarah: Our parents raised us to believe that girls can do absolutely anything. I don’t think there is any difference between the way that my parents raised Anne and me versus our brother. My dad always said, and I quoted him at the Kayo Conference, “Don’t let the turkeys get you down,” which I think can be roughly translated into “Don’t listen to the haters.” My mom would always say “You miss 100% of the shots that you don’t take, so you have to take every opportunity.” With those as part of the family mantra, it never really occurred to either of us that we wouldn’t go out there and try to do these things

ON KNOWING WHAT MATTERS

Anne: Sarah and I benefit by having our mom as a role model – we can look at our own mother and say, “yes, it is possible!” And our mom felt it was important to be that role model to us and others. She would bring Sarah and me to her office, Ropes & Gray, for “brown bag lunches” with more junior lawyers. Women in the firm would come and ask us questions about what it was like to have a mom who worked, because it wasn’t as common back then. And we said it was fantastic! And that we were so proud.

It made a difference – all these years later at the Kayo Private Equity Summit, I talked to two women who are currently lawyers at Ropes & Gray who remember going to those lunches. We try to reflect the same in our own lives through mentorship and sponsorship of each other and other professionals. We are both active with mentorship internally at our own firms and through outside organizations.

Sarah: My mom was really great at figuring out what was important. She was always there for what mattered to us. I remember one year in high school my lacrosse team was in the State Championships. My mom was working on a deal out of town, but she flew back for the game… and it was rained out! Three times. She flew back and forth three times during a deal to see my game. I never forget that.

When I became a mom, I asked her how she knew what was important and was wasn’t since she couldn’t go to everything. She said, “I just asked you what really mattered to you. And so, I was there for the things that were important to you.” It sounds very simple, but it shows how much she trusted us and how strong the relationship was between our mom and us as children. That relationship is as strong or stronger today.

ON SARAH’S CAREER: HEY, WE SHOULD START A BUSINESS

Anne: Sarah had an idea for a new business. At the age of 33, she pitched it to a group of Carlyle executives. That takes a lot of guts.

Sarah: I did it with a great partner who has been a critical part of our growth path. I was also pregnant, which is another amazing wrinkle in the story.

We were invited to discuss our idea with top executives at Carlyle. And so on a Saturday, we made a pitchbook in my living room, bound it at Kinkos, and pitched to Carlyle that they should start a real estate secondaries business and hire us to be the plug-and-play team. A month later, we were working there. That was a little over six years ago.

It has been an incredible journey. From the beginning there was a lot of support from Anne, from my family, and from my husband, all of whom said, “Go for it!”

ON ANNE’S CAREER: MAKE THE PATH YOU WANT

Anne: I was recently been promoted to Senior Principal at Partners Capital.

Sarah: I am so proud of Anne! She has held various positions in her career. She started in banking, moved into investing, and after business school was in strategy consulting. For her current job, she is in a position that draws on all of those different roles, and she can really leverage the depth of her past experience to the benefit of her firm and her clients.

Anne: I don’t believe that your career has to be linear. Make the path that you want. Go out and find it or make it. Don’t be passive in your own life. I made decisions that were right at the time, and it led me down this path. Sarah is right that it came together nicely with the role that I have now.

ON COMMUNICATION

Sarah: The communication between us is constant; texting, calling, FaceTime, WhatsApp. It would be more efficient if we could just use osmosis. We see each other frequently because Boston and New York are not far apart. If we’re in the other’s city, we try to get together for a quick sister power lunch or an evening visit.

Anne: The constant communication is key. We talk about everything and help each other through different areas of our lives, including being women in finance and working mothers, and lighter topics such as the fashion at the most recent awards show. In addition, we are both family-oriented so we do trips with our whole family including our children, parents, and brother.

ON HOW THEY ARE DIFFERENT

Sarah: I am super organized. Perhaps hyper-organized is the best description. This is a trait that comes from our grandma and has gone to my aunt and my cousin and myself.

Anne: It’s hard to compete with Sarah on organization. The contest isn’t fair.

Sarah: Anne is really funny and finds joy in making others smile. She is constantly finding memes and silly things on Instagram and sending them to me to make my day better. Anne’s humor comes out a lot with our family and with our kids. It just lightens everything.

ON BEING AUNTS

Sarah: Being an aunt to Anne’s son is a natural extension for me. We see each other all the time with our kids, and our families know each other really well. There is a lot of parenting sharing going on – tips, notes, ideas, even the most trivial things like.…

Anne: Mittens.

Sarah: True. We just had an exchange about where to buy mittens for the season because our kids always lose them so often we have to buy several pairs.

Anne: Sarah just sent out photos of her kids, which she does regularly, and one of them was of her daughter Kate pretending to be a CEO. Kate had fake glasses that looked like Sarah’s and her toy computer, right next to Sarah’s.

Sarah: And her cell phone and her coffee. Don’t worry, it’s decaffeinated. Kate is a dynamo. She has two generations of strong women to look up to and her paternal grandmother is a great role model as well!

Future CEO: Sarah’s Daughter, Kate, age 5, Sarah and her daughter.

ON HAVING A ROCK

Sarah: Having a rock like Anne in my life allows me to take risk. There is always that comfort that there is somebody who is going to be there who can help me, comfort me, support me, drive me. It is that amazing stability in our relationship that I can always fall back on.

Anne: I brag about Sarah. “My sister was on Bloomberg.” She is just such an amazing woman. She often pushes me to do more. She encourages me. She is like a mentor in some ways because she helps me figure out what I should do, but she is also like an indirect sponsor because she guides me in what to do and coaches me, “You should do this. Go have that conversation.”

Sarah: Our relationship has been incredibly strong since the beginning. It has evolved in that it has gotten deeper and there are more ways that we connect. I can’t even imagine a life scenario without Anne in it. At all.

 

Co-Authored by Meg Miller and Lindsay Burton

Grishma and Puja Parekh are first generation Indian-American sisters that seem to have an electric current running in them, and between them. Their children were born on the same day, they finish each other’s sentences, and they are both business leaders in the same niche area of finance – private credit. Grishma recently joined HPS Investment Partners after almost thirteen years at The Carlyle Group where she was a partner, Head of Origination for Illiquid Credit, and a member of the investment committee for the direct lending business. Puja is a Managing Director at MidCap Financial, an affiliate of Apollo Capital Management based in Washington, DC. There’s a connection between them that is impossible to ignore. Is it coincidence they both ended up on such parallel paths? We sat down with Grishma and Puja to see how one family raised two high-achieving women with so much in common, as well as what makes them each unique.

ON THEIR UPBRINGING

Grishma: Our parents emigrated from India when I was three years old. It was the quintessential immigrant story: they came to this country with very little financially, in search of bigger opportunities and a better future for their children. They made enormous sacrifices and, as a result, there were certain expectations that were placed on us. It was clear that our successes were also their successes and vice versa, our failures were a reflection on them. After a decade in Queens we moved to Jericho, Long Island, which was the single most transformative experience for me. I remember looking at my new classmates and thinking that they were living the American dream, and I so badly wanted a piece of it. I think a hunger and determination was planted in me then.

Puja: I am five years younger so my lens is a bit different than Grishma’s. When I remember back to myself as a young kid, I remember both my parents commuting to Manhattan daily while adapting to the “American way”. There were often trying times balancing expectations from them and from friends. Grishma as an older sister provided guidance and buffered my parents expectations of me during these times so much so that I now joke that Grish also raised me. I have been fortunate to have not only a strong set of parents who took a huge risk by moving to this country, but an older sister who helped me navigate my childhood.

THEIR MOTHER, THE UNEXPECTED PILLAR

Grishma: My mom is hands down my biggest role model, but she would be shocked to hear that. I don’t think she really gives herself credit for all that she is capable of and everything she achieved. Throughout her life she wanted to be a mom and a homemaker, but life circumstances required her to work. A few years after my sister was born, she began taking gemology courses in hopes of finding a job in the trade. I don’t think she expected to get a “real job”, let alone one that would be an important financial contributor to our family for the next twenty years.

Puja: Our mother was a lot of things – a mom, a working professional, a mentor, and a best friend. As was common in their generation and in many ways still common, she did not assert her authority in public but was truly the backbone of our family. As I have become an adult and a mother myself, I now realize the extent of her ambition and drive not only for herself, but for her family. I still recall as child her coming home from work, cooking home-cooked meals for dinner, and being in the stands for our volleyball games.

THEIR FATHER, THE ENTREPRENEUR

Grishma: Our father had two things running through his veins – entrepreneurialism and gemstones, much like his father. In the late 90s our father decided to venture off on his own and start a business, the same year I was going to college. At the time, I resented him for it because I knew the additional financial and mental burden it would place on our home. While it wasn’t easy at all, and it still isn’t, I don’t think he ever felt like it was “work”. I admire his hustle, his ability to see the glass as half full, and his thirst for life.

Puja: My dad would never say “no” or that he couldn’t do something, and he has instilled that in us now as well. I became more risk-averse seeing what my dad went through, and how tough it was. I commend him for having the conviction and boldness to start a business, but it also made me see firsthand the tribulations of being an entrepreneur and business owner.

ON HIGH OCTANE CAREERS

Grishma: I think I have always liked to test my own boundaries and had something to prove to myself. I originally intended to do pre-med, but my dad redirected me because he saw a little of him in me and thought I would be best served entering the business world. I am grateful for his open-mindedness, especially for someone that came from a generation where being a doctor was the most prestigious path to pursue. I think my career is some combination of hard work, great role models, a bit of luck, and good timing.

Puja: She’ll say I copied her, but that wasn’t quite the case. After college I chose investment banking because I knew it would allow me to pursue almost anything else after. After two years at Goldman Sachs, I was equipped with critical skills in understanding business fundamentals and time management. At the end of those two years I intended to go into private equity, but the Great Recession had other plans and I found myself in private credit. Given the growth of the asset class, I agree with Grishma that we are fortunate to have found ourselves at the right place at the right time.

ON FAMILY AND PARTNERSHIPS

Puja: I cherished my childhood and that my mother made such an effort to be present in my life despite working full-time. I am fortunate to have found a partner with whom I share a similar vision. While we both have busy careers, we have found ways to prioritize our family (our daughter and dog) without sacrificing career goals. We have prioritized family dinners, weekend activities, and traditions which contribute to a sense of family. Given the nature of the workplace today, it is impossible to have enough time for everything so we have tried our best to capture quality over quantity when it comes to time.

Grishma: The only way careers this demanding can work is with the right partner. My husband has been a major supporter of my career in the most important way: sharing the FULL load of parenthood with me. Our household is a 50/50 division of labor. There are times where he takes ownership of restocking the pantry or getting the groceries or going to the pediatrician. His meetings or business trips don’t trump mine by default. And he is even starting to help with the “invisible work” that typically falls on the shoulders of moms (although this is still very much a work in progress!).

DO WE HAVE HOBBIES?

Puja: Far less than we would like, but our personal interests are very similar. We are avid readers, we love to travel, we find organization to be incredibly cathartic, and we are interested in nutrition and wellness. I personally want to learn to golf.

Grishma: Our hobbies live within the little whitespace that we have between building our careers, tending to our families, and embracing some self-care, which means there isn’t a lot of hobbying happening. But I am fine with that – different periods require different things and I am sure there will be a time where I can embrace some of my other interests more.

ON FINDING BALANCE

Puja: The benefit of being five years younger is that I watched my sister, my dad, and my mom. I embraced the attributes I really liked while being very much aware of what didn’t work for me and setting that aside. The way I achieve “balance” is by microplanning. I try to map out my day before I go to bed down to the last detail and execute that game plan the next day. Of course, the unexpected arises everyday, but this allows me to limit the amount of wasted time.   

Grishma: Balance is sort of a unicorn although Puj gets pretty darn close to achieving it. I’m amazed by her. The way I have tried to design my life is by giving an oversized amount of time to the one or two things that need it the most. And that can change day to day, week to week, and month to month. For example, right now I have a big opportunity at a big platform and that is what needs me. If tomorrow my son gets sick, my attention will be redirected to healing him with lots of TLC. And that is how I imagine the next bunch of years will go. Someday I’ll slow down, but I feel like I’m at an important juncture in my career and journey through motherhood and I like to push hard. 

ON ATTENDING THE 2019 KAYO CREDIT CONFERENCE

Puja: It’s hard to find time for just the two of us. We always have either our husbands, our friends, our kids, or our parents around. It’s very, very rare where it’s just the two of us. We took advantage of that to the fullest at the Kayo Conference. We hope to do that again every year now.

 

Co-Authored by Meg Miller and Lindsay Burton

Women are rising to executive positions in energy. Ten years ago, only 6% of Chevron’s board of directors and 11% of its management committee were women. Today, Chevron’s board of directors is comprised of 36% women, and its management committee has evolved to 20% female representation.

How did they do it? After all, Chevron, a major integrated energy company, is a success story in an industry that still struggles to overcome its legacy of gender imbalance. Second only behind construction, energy is the worst ranked industry for gender equality, according to a study by Boston Consulting Group (source).

The data looks even worse when you look at senior level positions.

That Chevron nearly doubled its representation of women managers in a decade calls for celebration. We are ringing in the new decade celebrating the efforts of Chevron, who is fueling performance and driving innovation through diversity, inclusion, and personal accountability – starting at the top.

What was the company to do to successfully move women into leadership positions? How would they be able to foster a supportive culture?

1. INVEST IN CULTURE SHIFT

Chevron implemented Catalyst’s Men Advocating Real Change, commonly known as the MARC initiative. MARC works to reveal unconscious bias and convert male coworkers into advocates for gender partnership. For over 20 years, Chevron has partnered with Catalyst, a women’s rights advocacy group, to take action to improve gender equity in the workplace. Notably, Chevron awarded Catalyst’s MARC program $5 million to continue its groundbreaking research, programming, and training aimed at engaging men in gender equity and inclusion efforts.

“We are expanding our partnership with Catalyst to support an initiative that is helping Chevron create a more gender-inclusive workplace, and that we believe can benefit other companies around the world,” said Michael Wirth, Chevron’s chairman and chief executive officer. “This grant proves once again the power of partnership – how with commitment and dedication, real change is possible.” This year, the company will serve as Chair to the MARC Advisory Committee.

Chevron is committed to accelerating the reach of MARC to a multi-regional audience of Catalyst supporter organizations. The company believes MARC has the power to create a more gender-inclusive workplace across the entire industry. The program expands the dialogue about the role men want and need to play, and equips leaders with the tools to forge more effective gender partnerships to truly move the needle in service of equity and inclusion. MARC has become an important part of Chevron’s gender advocacy and inclusion journey in helping male colleagues understand the challenges their female colleagues face.

2. INVEST IN THE EDUCATIONAL PIPELINE

With a fully engaged leadership, Chevron has truly stepped on the gas. Building a pipeline through investments in STEM education, with an emphasis on advancing STEM opportunities for women and underserved communities, Chevron is implementing programs that create pathways for women. Most recently, the company launched “Welcome Back,” a program focused on re-engaging skills to accelerate the process of getting back into the workforce for women following child leave, family care, or other challenges.

Source: Boston Consulting Group

The company is helping employees understand obstacles and learn how to connect inclusively through bias training programs. Successfully, the company has engaged men and women in deep, honest dialogues where men gain insight, empathy, and personal motivation to take action to improve gender equality.

3. ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS

Mike Wirth, CEO, is fully committed to growing the number of global staff women, and their Chevron Way values holds everyone accountable in advancing diversity at all levels of the company. At Chevron, women in executive and senior management roles have increased year-over-year for the last five years, including women like Kayo Advisory Board Member and General Counsel and Vice President Land at Chevron North America Exploration and Production Company Kristi McCarthy. Even though Chevron sits above the industry average for women employees, they are proving that actions speak louder than words.

Through the power of partnership, Chevron exemplifies how women can advance their careers, connect with leaders, and champion their peers. We’re particularly inspired by the collaboration of both men and women at Chevron to make this change happen, partially inspiring our closing keynote at the 6th Annual Kayo Energy Summit, “Men Who Stand With Us,” which will provide a platform for senior male executives in oil and gas who have a track record for championing women professionals.

We salute Chevron’s effort and hope to have more success stories like this to share. We invite you to continue the conversation with us in April at the Kayo Women’s Energy Summit.

Jenny Kavak was visiting her sister Sibyl Kavak (who is older by six years) in Los Angeles when they realized they would both be attending the same conference – the Kayo Women’s Credit Forum – the following week. As children of Turkish immigrants in a family of three girls, Jenny and Sibyl grew up in Los Angeles and both graduated from the University of Southern California (USC) with degrees in finance. Sibyl is now a VP at St. Cloud Capital investing private credit in middle market deals and based in Los Angeles. Jenny is a VP at Wells Fargo Capital Finance in New York where she focuses on larger ABL deals. She is also a certified professional trainer. While they may not be lovey-dovey sisters who share every detail of their lives, they do have a lot in common beyond credit investing. We sat down with them to learn how one family produced two high achievers with parallel careers.

ON THEIR UPBRINGING

Sibyl: We are children of immigrant parents. Our parents were born and grew up in Turkey, but we were born in the U.S. Our father got his Ph.D in engineering and then went into real estate. Our mother went to a two-year college and is a homemaker. In my parents’ generation in Turkey, the women didn’t work, but that seems to be changing now. Education has always been really important to the family. We also grew up playing a lot of sports with our parents shuttling us from practice to practice.

Jenny: They were not tiger parents by any means. They wanted us to do well. We did too, so they never had to force us to do our homework. Naturally, they wanted us to be high performers. First and foremost they cared about us being happy but didn’t pressure us to do anything. They wanted us to succeed and do well. One time I got a B in grade school which is one of the few times my parents were disappointed, only because they knew I could do better. Any pressure I had growing up, I had taken on myself. For example, when I got to USC, I struggled with not being one of the best students like I was in high school. Being in the middle of the bunch was something I had to get used to.

ON TAKING NOTHING FOR GRANTED

Jenny: We also have an older sister, Yasmin. She is developmentally challenged so she’s more like a younger sister to us. Having a developmentally challenged sibling makes us appreciate the abilities we have more. I try to remind myself of that whenever I’m comparing myself to people with more Instagram followers or people that have the job I want, or whatever. I’m an extremely lucky person to have the job I have, to do the things I do, to have the physical capabilities that I do.

Sibyl: Our mom has always been the rock. Always taking care of our sister. Our older sister just recently went into a group home, but up until then our mother had been taking care of her tirelessly every day of her entire life. I’ve always thought that job is way harder than any of our jobs. I have a huge amount of respect for my mom.

ON CAREERS

Sibyl: Neither of our parents groomed us for finance. If it was up to them, they’d probably want us working for our dad and living at home. I started my career in investment banking at CIT in New York and then eventually moved back to L.A. to work at a boutique investment bank. After that, I ended up working at a few banks in cash flow / leveraged lending, but that proved to be difficult with all the regulation around banking. Recently, I moved to St. Cloud where I am focused on sourcing, executing, and managing growth capital (debt and non-control equity) transactions in the lower middle market. It’s been really fun and fulfilling. I really enjoy the mix of looking at a lot of companies across a wide variety of industries but also digging really deep during the diligence phase. I also enjoy partnering, building relationships with, and learning from entrepreneurs and management teams.

Jenny: I’ll admit that I wanted to do what my sister was doing. My sister was a pioneer. I wanted to follow in her footsteps. In high school, I went to visit Sibyl when she lived in New York. After that trip, I knew at one point in my life I would want to live in New York. I made my way there after graduating from USC. For the past five years, Wells Fargo has been really great, and I’ve learned a lot. Someday, I might want to move from senior secured debt and go the private credit route, doing more mezzanine and junior debt tranches.

ON SPORTS

Jenny: Fitness is what I’m passionate about. I’ve thought about completely leaving finance and going straight into fitness, but if I were to add the pressure of making money to fitness, by finding more clients and getting as many followers as possible, I wouldn’t like it anymore. Fitness is what I use to de-stress. It’s my happy place. I don’t mind working hard in the office, but I have to have a good work-life balance. Otherwise, I would burn out and not be the best version of myself.

Sibyl: I’ve always gotten into weird fringe sports. I have been playing dodgeball for six years and won a National Championship. When I was younger, I was obsessed with rollerblading and always going to the local skate park. My mom hated it because I’d get hurt all the time and hang out with a bunch of boys. I do like to take risks. I like to be uncomfortable. I was the only girl rollerblader. I am the only female investment professional at this company so I guess there are some parallels.

ON SISTERHOOD

Jenny: We weren’t attached at the hip growing up, given the age difference. Six years was a big age gap as kids.

Sibyl: We’re not the most lovey-dovey. I’m not just going to hug her out of the blue. But we like to hang out with each other, we like similar things, and we always have each other’s backs.

Jenny: We’re low-maintenance people. I trust that she’s doing fine. She’s trusts that I’m doing fine. We’re not the type to keep tabs on each other, but I know she’ll be there when I need her (and vice versa).

Sibyl: I feel very lucky to have Jenny as my sister. My friends and I joke that Jenny’s the extreme version of me. I’ll do something, and she’ll do it 10X better. There are ways she’s inspired me and ways I’ve looked up to her. Maybe less so in work, since I’m five years ahead of her. But I’m proud of what she’s accomplished between work, working out, and her sports. Personality-wise, Jenny’s more outgoing. I like that about her. She’s good at feeling very comfortable right away. She’s definitely more of an extravert. Have you seen her fitness Instagram?

Jenny: I do feel really lucky to be the younger sibling and to have Sibyl to look up to. It’s nice that we’re in similar industries. Even though our products are different, we are able to talk about deals. I have asked her a lot of questions about finance and careers, and she’s always been a trusted resource. I don’t know if I’d be here today without her.

 

Co-Authored by Meg Miller and Lindsay Burton

Suzanne Yoon, founder of Kinzie Capital in Chicago, noticed that the biggest challenges for middle market industries were around operational enhancements caused by limited resources, particularly in technology. Suzanne would find herself stepping out of strategy meetings and identifying what was inherently wrong with companies who were trying to stay in the game: the lack of operational and technical solutions and advancements. 

This gap in the market ignited her entrepreneurial fire and ultimately motivated her to start Kinzie Capital, which not only helps fund middle market companies, but also helps them with operational challenges. We sat down with Suzanne Yoon, featured in our Top 19 in 19 Buyout Firms with Women Founders, to learn more about what drives her, starting a business, and her advice to others.

Tell us how you came up with your firm’s name. What does your firm’s name mean to you?

Although a big chunk of my 20+ year career was built in the East Coast, prior to Kinzie, I grew up in Chicago where most of my family members reside. I always felt strong ties to Chicago and wanted my firm named after one of Chicago’s iconic landmarks. Kinzie is named after the “Kinzie Street Railroad Bridge,” the first bridge over the Chicago river. It also happens to be one of the most iconic and beautiful views of the city looking down the Chicago river where the landscape has changed dramatically due to development over time.

Tell us about how the idea of Kinzie started. What were the qualities you looked for in a partner?

The idea of Kinzie started as I envisioned a private equity firm, investing in underserved lower middle market companies and finding a true strategic partner that provided not only capital, but also operational expertise to accelerate value creation and elevate the companies to the next level. After determining the need for this kind of firm, my next step was to line up operating advisors with various backgrounds, focusing on technology implementation. Companies typically pay consulting firms for stunning reports that outline issues identified during the assessment and potential solutions to mitigate such issues, and ultimately must bring the reports through RFP process to identify a technology implementation firm that could execute it. 

David Namkung, who I have known now for over 10 years through a nonprofit board, was an obvious choice as a founding partner for Kinzie. He co-founded and built a 150-plus person technology consulting and implementation firm, Clarity Partners (“Clarity”), with his partner, Rod Zech. As entrepreneurs, we found many things in common. For example, understanding the need for technology in the target market, and more importantly sharing similar investment philosophy and process. David, Rod, and their team at Clarity continually impress me with their capacity for acquisition, portfolio management, and technology consulting. We all feel strongly that combining the right capital partner with a focus on operational excellence and technological innovation will drive accelerated value creation and growth. Equally important, we shared the same vision around work culture. This was the final piece that guided us to creating a diverse team with integrity not only inside, but outside of the firm.

What advice would you give to a class of 11th grade girls interested in business, finance, or entrepreneurship?

Stay authentic and embrace diverse perspectives. As the only woman and minority in most of the meetings throughout my career, I’ve encountered plenty of situations where people questioned my ability due to unconscious biases. I experienced several instances as a young VP leading deal execution, where I walked into management meetings where I was assumed to be the secretary or junior associate. Regardless, I pitched and asked questions without fear of judgement. I believe when you are underestimated, there is a unique opportunity to make people notice and respect you when you over-deliver. I broke bias by speaking for myself rather than trying to fit in while respecting the environment and the people around me. I encourage girls to be bold when facing the bias, but also remain open-minded; respect others and their opinions as well, no matter how heavy the crown of doubt and insecurity press them. 

It takes courage to grow up and become who you are meant to be. 

How do you continue to develop yourself?

It is important to be around others in the industry and learn from them. We are all very busy, but conferences like Kayo provides a platform where you are surrounded by very talented and smart women that share their ideas, and are an incredible resource. I feel very fortunate to have an incredible network of friends, investors, and colleagues through Kinzie and believe continued development comes from sharing ideas and reading A LOT. In addition, I see enormous self development by serving on nonprofit boards. Being around other motivated, hard-working, mission-driven people, you are exposed to diversity and an array of experiences. It is also a great way to develop emotional intelligence, exert influence, and increase self awareness, which are all extremely important to professional and personal development.

Where do you find your inspiration?

In terms of inspiration, I find it everywhere around me. From my partners, to my friends in the industry who have braved this path before me, to my children whom I know I am setting an example for, to all the great entrepreneurial success stories that we all see and read about every day. Every private equity firm and company out there started as a start-up. Finally, I’m very fortunate to have grown up with immigrant parents who believed in the American dream – where hard work and determination make anything possible.

In 2020, we’re encouraging you to focus on self care. Research suggests that the more we practice self care, the more confident, creative, and productive we become. While there are some obvious approaches to doing this (facials, sleep, saying “no”), we’re highlighting some of the ways Kayo can help you put yourself first in the new year.

 

BECOME A BETTER NEGOTIATOR

Negotiation is one of the most valuable skills you can learn in life. From discussing lunch plans with a friend to securing a big deal, we negotiate every single day, even when we don’t know it. Take time for yourself this February at our Executive Leadership Retreat, where we’ll learn the art of negotiation from Chris Voss, former FBI Negotiator and author of Never Split the Difference.

It’s the perfect combination of personal care and professional development as you surround yourself with 50 other leading females among 340 acres framed by horse farms, lush vineyards, and the Blue Ridge Mountains.

KAYO WOMEN’S EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP RETREAT
February 23 – 25 | Middleburg, VA
Only a few spots remain. Don’t miss this unique opportunity.

>> REGISTER

 

 

FIND A NEW JOB OR UPGRADE YOUR TEAM

Kayo has recently launched a job board, which is a great resource for both job seekers and employers looking for a niche audience. This could be your year to change roles or boost productivity by building the right team.

>> FIND A JOB

>> POST A JOB

 

FIND A NEW MENTOR

It’s important to have women in your circle who energize and inspire you. Kayo events are the perfect place to connect with mentors, advisors, and colleagues who build you up, champion you, and fill your tank.

>> ATTEND AN EVENT

 

BOOST YOUR RESUME AND CAREER

One of the easiest ways to get noticed is by taking the stage and sharing your learnings, failures, and expertise. Kayo offers a variety of different speaking opportunities, from keynotes to panels to roundtable discussions to pop-up events. We’re currently accepting speaker applications for our Power & Utility Summit and Real Estate Summit, so get yours in today!

>> APPLY TO SPEAK

Our cities are changing right before our eyes. It’s incredible to be alive in an era that continues to catapult advances in technology and science, providing knowledge and information like we’ve never seen. But these aren’t the only changes we are seeing. Our cities and urban communities are faced with challenges of increased population, living costs, cultural changes, diminishing resources, and so much more. At the cross-section of technology, real estate, energy, power, and finance, you can start to see where the future is headed.

Our first-ever pop up in San Francisco focuses on The Future of Cities, featuring a panel of investors and entrepreneurs who shine light on emerging technologies that will improve the overall function of cities, spur environmentally responsible economic growth, and enhance the quality of life for residents. We sat down with panelist Julie Lein, founder of Urban Innovation Fund, a venture capital firm that invests in startups shaping the future of cities. Here is her story.

What led you starting Urban Innovation Fund?

My background is in political polling and consulting, and I went to business school thinking I would start my own company in the space. I ended up working for a healthy school meal startup – Revolution Foods – that was quickly scaling to cities across the US. The experience opened my eyes to the immense potential of startups.

I met my co-founder Clara during business school at MIT Sloan, and she had a similar experience while working for a real estate tech startup called Fundrise. While at school, we conducted a research study around what we started calling “urban innovation startups” – which were using technology to tackle tough challenges in our cities. And we decided to use that research as the backbone of an investment thesis. In 2013, we started an urban ventures accelerator called Tumml, where we incubated 38 startups in the space. We then launched the Urban Innovation Fund in mid-2016 to provide seed capital and regulatory support to startups tackling our toughest urban problems.

What are the most important urban problems you are trying to solve?

Rapid urbanization is one of the most catalytic trends of our time. 82% of Americans live in cities, and two-thirds of the world’s population will be urbanized by 2050. With this growth comes an ever-increasing number of challenges for city dwellers – including traffic congestion, the rising cost of housing, access to good jobs, etc. Each of these areas, on their own, represent a multi-billion dollar market opportunity.

These unprecedented dynamics are giving rise to a new type of entrepreneur – the “urban innovator.” These startups are working in areas like transportation, energy & water, and the future of work. And they are fundamentally enhancing the livability, sustainability, and economic vitality of our cities. These entrepreneurs are developing products that impact the lives of millions – and hopefully billions – of city dwellers.

What about your job most excites you?

There are two best parts of my job. First, partnering with my co-founder Clara, who I intend to work with for the next 40 years (and hopefully longer :). The second is meeting with entrepreneurs and hearing their business ideas. I think you have to be naturally curious in this job, and I love digging into new startup ideas. Also, there’s a tremendous passion that founders need to have in order to start something new. I always like to hear the entrepreneur’s founding story – there’s incredible tenacity in building something that literally didn’t exist before.

What is your favorite city and why?

San Francisco! It’s where I live and the first city that truly felt like home to me. While we have our fair share of problems (as do all cities), I believe the overall ethos is very progressive and inclusive, which I love.

Best piece of advice you’ve been given?

“Show them the fish, hit them with the fish, and show them the fish again.” Basically that you need to constantly say and remind people what you do, why you do it – and don’t be afraid to repeat that message a bunch of times for emphasis.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Have the confidence to start a company as early as possible.

Don’t miss our San Francisco Pop Up on Tuesday, November 12. Register here.

The quantity of conferences available to energy dealmakers, private equity, finance, and infrastructure is overwhelming. I observed over eight years ago that women were often underrepresented at the many events – both as speakers and attendees – but I wasn’t sure why. In the second year of Kayo’s flagship Private Equity Summit, I was approached by women in energy. “If you think we are the ‘only women in the room’ here in NY, you should go down to Houston and meet women in oil and gas,” an early Kayo enthusiast quipped. As Kayo approaches its 6th Annual Women’s Energy Summit, our team checked in with a few long-time supporters as to why they continue to make the time and more surprisingly, why 30% of attending companies send an average of 5-7 team members across a variety of disciplines and tenure.

Each year, Merit Energy encourages multiple women within their organization to attend a Kayo event. The well-orchestrated content attracts this dynamic group of dealmakers, legal advisors, business generators, and executives who each benefit in different ways. Meghan Cuddihy, Vice President of Investor Relations, who has been with Merit for 17 years, sat down with us to share her observations.

“Given how busy everyone is these days, in some cases, the only place I see some of my industry colleagues, is at Kayo – so it is a wonderful time to slow down and reconnect with people I truly respect. With this group, I feel that we are all supporting each other to succeed, and we raise each other up. This is a different setting than most conferences – especially where many competitors are in one room. We all seem to share a common goal – build each other up – we all succeed when one succeeds,” said Cuddihy.

“Everyone can benefit from attending – whether learning how to network better, gaining industry information, discussing mentoring strategies… or finding connections that may benefit you in the future,” continued Cuddihy. “Sometimes, I am not even sure I have a problem to solve, but Kayo brings fresh ideas and allows me to rethink and examine how and why I do things – maybe there is a better way, maybe not – but critical reflection brings growth – and I want to be the best version of myself that I can be. For me, that means to challenge myself – to grow, to question why, to be uncomfortable sometimes – and to put myself out there.”

NOT JUST FOR INVESTOR RELATIONS

Investor Relations professionals bridge the deal team and the limited partner community. They soak up the content and industry trends, and they fortify relationships with investors who share their vision. For Merit, long-term relationships are critical, especially given how notoriously challenging fundraising has become.

Cuddihy realized early, however, that everyone in her organization had something to benefit from at Kayo. She started encouraging her colleagues and peers to attend Kayo pop-up events and other summits.

At the core of all strategic investments and deal opportunities lie legal issues and mitigating risk. The evolving regulatory environment plays an active role in the Kayo energy program. Its impact on deal structuring, fund formation, and tax benefits continue to be top of mind for our attendees.

Kat Lyles, Assistant General Counsel at Merit, attended a Dallas pop-up luncheon and the Energy Summit for the first time after hearing her colleagues share their Kayo experience. She was delighted at Kayo’s refreshing approach to what’s trending in energy investment.

“Kayo offers a unique experience where women at all stages of their careers come together to share experiences, perspectives, and encouragement to one another to persevere and run the race with confidence.”

YOUR TIME IS PRECIOUS

With complete intention, the Kayo Energy Summit curates impactful content that attracts business leaders and decision makers who source capital, drive deal flow, actively invest, and know the industry. Dealmakers benefit from the perspective of their peers, learning about trends in their markets and adjacent markets, so that they can analyze risks and make better decisions with their capital. It creates a unique opportunity for dealmakers to network, form authentic relationships, and engage in natural business opportunities.

At Kayo, we believe women should have a community that supports, elevates, and champions them. Our goal is to provide a platform to learn and connect. We want women to know we’re stronger when we Trailblaze Together.

We thank Merit Energy for their continued support of the Kayo Energy Summit, especially for trailblazers like Meghan Cuddihy and Kat Lyles.

 

Merit Energy is an oil and gas exploration and production company with headquarters in Dallas, Texas. Founded in 1989, the company has proved reserves of over 833 MMBOE and operates primarily in the southern U.S. states of Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, and Oklahoma, as well as in Wyoming. Merit Energy specializes in the acquisition, operation, and direct investment in oil and gas properties. For more information, visit Merit Energy online.

Lindsay Burton is the founder and CEO of Kayo Conference Series, an organization dedicated to helping women in finance investment across a number of industry segments network more effectively. For more information about the Kayo Women’s Energy Summit on April 22-23, 2020, click here. 

When engineer Amanda Freick was asked if she was in the wrong classroom on the first day of Microelectronic Circuit Theory at Cal Poly, she chose to flip that feeling of not belonging into “YOU BETTER BELIEVE I BELONG HERE.” And it was true. She DID belong there, and we were lucky enough to cross paths with her at our Power Summit, where she was wearing her Director of Business Operations hat for TRC. We say “hat” because Amanda is also a rockstar entrepreneur and former bodybuilder (oh, yah know, just a little something on the side), plus a wife and mother of a toddler (wait, how is this even possible?).

She seems superhuman (and we’re not convinced she is not), but during our Q&A with Amanda it’s as if she handed us a big drink of inspiration and motivation so that we too could gulp it down and gain the superpowers that she truly believes are instilled in all of us. After you read this, you’ll be ready to conquer the world. Take the time to soak it all in, and expect to dig into these top learnings:

• Engineering is not for nerdy men
• Everyone deserves cake
• It is possible to be creative and analytical
• Finding something that sets your soul on fire is key to living a meaningful life
• Be unapologetically you. Find your superpowers and use them

Below is the full interview with Amanda Freick, Director of Business Operations for TRC.

Tell us briefly about your current role in the Power Industry.

Currently, I serve as the Director of Business Operations for TRC. We’re a full-service engineering firm supporting many markets, but I focus on partnering with electric utilities. Business Operations is just that… the business of operations. About half of my time is spent focused directly on my clients. This can include discussing future partnerships, existing projects, or learning from our past experiences. The other half is looking at my “internal” clients, or the various engineering practices within our Engineering Operations, to find opportunities for creative improvement, support, and driving things forward. I am excited to share that I recently launched the first internal podcast for TRC called Enlighten. It features authentic conversations with members of our organization, in hopes of creating a stronger sense of community within our employees.

What advice would you give to a class of 11th grade girls interested in engineering?

Engineering is not just for nerdy boys. It is for dreamers. For creatives. For women with an entrepreneurial spirit. Engineers literally create the world of tomorrow, and your degree is only a stepping stone into whatever path you decide to take. I once had a mentor tell me, “No matter what the job, I always love to hire engineers. Not because they have the knowledge of what I’m hiring for, but because I know they know how to learn.” So, know that just because you’re an “engineer” doesn’t mean you’ll be engineering things forever. I have personally worked in Engineering, Operations, HR, Sales, and now Strategic Leadership roles.

I will not say that being a female engineer is always easy. Unfortunately, there are still stereotypes and ridiculous assumptions that come with joining a technical field. The world of engineering needs more girls, more minds that think differently, more humans who will question the way “we’ve always done it.”

I believe that everyone on earth has “superpowers.” Gifts that are within you that when used, make you light up and put you into your purpose. For me, I am wildly creative and have this weird ability to get people really excited. Not always welcomed in a very traditional, technical environment, but powerful with the right opportunities. I was told by a previous boss, “When I’m having a bad day and need to get re-energized, I call you. You’re like a shot of tequila and wheat grass. Fun, but also good for you.” Find your superpower and USE IT. Are you an incredible listener who makes people feel truly heard? Are you a total math whiz who can explain complex problems in simple terms? Whatever comes so easy to you that you don’t even realize you’re doing it, but it gets your blood pumping and soul on fire, that’s your superpower.

What is the best advice you have received?

At a very young age, my mother taught me that whether it’s the janitor or CEO, everyone should have cake on their birthday. It seems silly, but I honestly remember the cakes she would make and take into work when it was someone’s special day. The lesson here is not about the cake, but about recognizing the incredible people around you. Making them feel special, feel appreciated, feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves goes a long way. It’s honestly the smallest gestures that make the largest impact.

You are not only a power executive but also an entrepreneur in the fitness/fashion space. How did you get into fitness? What drives you to pursue both? Have any lessons from your fitness/entrepreneurial experiences impacted your role in power (or vice versa)?

The engineer who designs swimwear. Weird, right? It’s been an interesting conversation since I started my swim line, Amanda Louise, in 2014. I was competing in the Bikini division of Bodybuilding shows and had ordered my first suit (the bikinis worn are very specific) online and wasn’t happy with it. I had learned to sew from my mother and grandmother at a very young age and thought, “there’s got to be a better way.” From the design to the customer service, I knew I wanted to create something better.

When it comes to these competitions, women work REALLY hard to step on stage. It can be months of dedication to a very strict diet and exercise plan. The suit becomes your uniform while presenting all of your hard work to the judges, and getting on that stage in anything that doesn’t feel perfect seemed like a waste. So, I set out to make it better. I put my focus on the athlete and providing them the highest quality suit possible, with one-on-one attention so they feel sure about investing in a suit from Amanda Louise. The company has morphed into this amazing community of like-minded women that I am honored and blessed to lead. We now have a booming competition suit business, a beachwear line with a collab with Gretchen Rossi from the Real Housewives of Orange County, and a podcast called Confessions of a Fit Chick. I also have to put in a shameless brag because we made it into the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue this year, which is basically the holy grail of swim. I’m still very much in a state of “pinch me.”

My entrepreneurial life keeps me in a state of constant creativity, a place of craving knowledge and always looking for the “angle” to create new opportunities. This has flown so deeply into my corporate career and I believe makes me 100 times more impactful to my organization. My previous Vice President would laugh that I “always have an angle,” but it’s true. I love getting creative and squeezing every last drop of opportunity out of any situation. Spending so much of my free time on self development through books, podcasts, and online communities has helped me grow into a person I am truly proud of. All that said, having a “side-hustle” is not always seen as a positive.

There is still this mentality within some of the more traditional corporate environments that you need to be 100% focused on your “job.” From 9-5 (or whatever your hours are), then yes. You’re getting paid to be there, so BE THERE. But outside of that? I find this absolutely ridiculous. Are they saying that they’d rather see their employees spend free time on Netflix binging Scandal rather than reading Marie Forleo’s latest book? Whether you coach your child’s soccer team or are building an empire outside of your day job, finding something that sets your soul on fire is so important to living a meaningful life. Now, I’m not saying that my corporate job doesn’t set my soul on fire because, and this is true honesty here, I am a full-blown utility nerd. Give me an electric reliability issue and I’ll roll up my sleeves faster than anyone in the room… want to debate renewables? Bring it on. But that isn’t ALL of me.

I get asked a lot if I would “leave corporate for Amanda Louise?” The answer is yes, under very specific circumstances. That said, the question that doesn’t get asked and truly is far more likely the outcome is “Would you shut down Amanda Louise for the right opportunity in corporate?” Hell yes. It’s no secret that having a Director level role within an organization can be demanding, and adding not only a fashion and lifestyle brand, but a husband and toddler on top of that is some days, insane. I am constantly working on myself to make sure I don’t burn out. I have a personality that can run a million miles an hour for too long. I’ve recently spoken at a couple events for female entrepreneurs, many of whom are also still working in corporate, and describe it like this:

Think of your life as an engine… spinning. We measure this spin in RPMs, or rotations per minute. Some engines max out at much higher RPMs than others. I play with this acronym and have dubbed those who are able to “spin” faster as “Rapidly Productive Minds.” We just work faster. Are you finished with a project exponentially faster than your coworkers? Were you always the first one done on tests in school? That’s being an RPM. This way of life is a blessing and a curse. The blessing is obvious, you can get things done. I’ve found these women are usually the “go-to” at work for their organizations. The curse I describe like this… the faster you spin, the harder the crash. Burnout is an epidemic plaguing our workforce. (Did you know it was recently declared a legitimate mental diagnosis by the World Health Organization?) Glorifying the “hustle” is anything but healthy. Believe me, there are times to hustle for sure, but there are also times you HAVE TO take a step back and care for yourself.

I was recently nick-named the “woo-woo engineer” by one of my mentors because although I am wildly Type-A and logical, I am also deeply spiritual and practice different forms of mindfulness every single day. I believe that for an RPM who doesn’t infuse their life with some sort of mindfulness, it’s not a matter of if burnout will happen, but when. Being so involved in entrepreneurial communities has not only taught me this, but helped me really step into it. Within corporate, I don’t see this talked about nearly enough. I plan to change that.

What is a goal that you’ve set for yourself in the coming year?

I want to leverage my entrepreneurial spirit even further in my corporate career. Whether that be speaking to women in the industry, volunteering for board positions, or becoming even more bold with my pitches for innovation… it’s time. I’ve been using the theory of having an alter ego from Todd Herman’s book The Alter Ego Effect. My alter ego is the BEST version of myself, and way more confident. I have been training myself to think “what would SHE do?” and step into that. She still needs a cool name though… if you have an idea, shoot me an email! amandafreick@gmail.com

Networking with other women seems important to you – why?

The power of one female mind is amazing, but if you put multiple great female minds together? Watch out world. Now let me be clear, I am NOT one of those anti-man feminists who comes at this subject with anger. I am a woman who is incredibly proud to be female and has a passion to see women succeed, not at the expense of men, but in collaboration with men.

This is why it’s so important to build a strong female network. There are just certain things your “girl gang” can support you with that not even the best male mentor would understand. Mom guilt. Emotions in the workplace. Allowing your feminine side to shine, while still driving success in an overly masculine environment. Having women you can lean on for support, motivation, and inspiration will literally change your career path and life. Recently, I have intentionally been focusing on elevating the network of women I surround myself with… I’ve found role models and mentors who quickly became more like big sisters than anything else. They help me think bigger, see blind spots, and offer advice when I’m way off base. They listen when I’m going through a difficult situation and provide guidance based on their own experiences. These relationships are precious, and I am so grateful for them. It inspires me to be there for the women following in our path; to help them find even more success than we do.

The thing about networking though is that so many people approach it with “What can this person do for me?” I challenge you to turn that around to “What can I do for this person?” Can you introduce them to a possible business deal? Do they love ice cream and you offer up your favorite local spot? It doesn’t have to be something big, it just needs to be something. I can honestly say that helping others is THE single habit that has propelled my success at a young age. Yes, I work hard, do my homework and put myself out there, but it’s truly going out of my way to help people that has made the biggest difference. Because then, when that person has an opportunity on their lap and needs to tap someone, you’re going to come to mind.

My last piece of advice…

Be unapologetically you. Find your superpowers and use them. Look up and see the women you want to be alongside and reach out. Look down and see the women coming up behind you and reach out. Help yourself by helping others.

My current motto: I don’t just want a seat at the table… I want to buy the damn table.

Special shoutout to Susan, Lucy, and Maria. Your mentorship, love, and guidance is invaluable.

Over the past decade, private credit has exploded, and with it, new firms run by emerging managers have taken the stage. At our most recent Kayo Women’s Credit Forum held in Boston, we heard from five women on what it’s like to start a new fund in private credit today.

Pictured Left to Right: Carrianne Basler, Moderator (AlixPartners), Andrea Grosz (Lightspring Capital Partners), Carolyn Galiette (Ironwood Capital), Rui Falcon (Princeton Asset Management), Jeri Harman (Avante Capital Partners), and Melanie Brensinger (Anagenesis Capital Partners)

Here are our top takeaways:

1. Don’t have a Plan B.

Why? When you don’t have a Plan B, then Plan A has to work. Showing investors that you are “all in” counts for a lot.

2. Still, lead with a track record. 

All the interest from institutional investors supporting new and diverse managers is not altruism. It’s about returns. “I’m not here because it’s fun,” said one institutional investor. “I’m here because diverse managers deliver stronger returns.” Emerging managers first and foremost need to prove theirselves at delivering returns to investors and find unique opportunities in their niche.

3. Start-up capital is key. 

It’s expensive to start a fund. “The biggest difference between Fund I and Fund III is that you don’t go three years without being paid,” explained one fund manager. It can take 3 years to collect the first management fee, so new managers need to prepare to cover operating costs and work without a salary for a period of time.

4. Fundraising is hard, so get creative.

Placement agents hesitate to represent first-time funds, often because of the smaller amount of capital they are looking to raise and the smaller number of institutional investors who will take a chance on a first-time fund. SBIC structures can be an option to get a first-time fund going. SBICs are privately formed and managed investment funds which, if licensed by the Small Business Administration (SBA), may borrow from the SBA two times their privately-raised capital on very favorable rates and terms.

5. Hiring is more challenging. 

Hiring is never easy, but it can be harder for new firms. Compared with established firms, careers at emerging firms are viewed as riskier and the economics more uncertain. Not every candidate is willing to take the risk. Looking for the best people with the right risk tolerance, while also building a diverse team with a variety of backgrounds and perspectives, takes a lot of work.

6. It’s worth it.

“The only regret I have is that I didn’t do this sooner”, said Jeri Harman, founder of Avante Capital Partners. Our other speakers echoed the same sentiment. For the rest of us in the room, wondering if we could ever dare to venture into an entrepreneurial pursuit, the answer was not to overthink it. In her own words, Rui Falcon from Princeton Asset Management said: “Just do it. If you think too much, you’ll never get off the couch.”

We feel lucky to have learned from these wise women at our 2019 Credit Forum. “Working with this incredible group of founders was fantastic”, reflected Carrianne Basler, Managing Director at AlixPartners, who moderated the panel. “Their openness and insights were so inspiring, and I believe a few of the ladies in the audience might have made a decision to follow in their footsteps.”

What tips would you add to this list? Let us know below in the comments!

Earlier this summer, a member of the Kayo private equity community brought to our attention that many firms today still do not have clear parental leave policies in place. Many women in our community are the first person at their firm to become pregnant or the first person to adopt, and often are asked to create a policy themselves.

“So much of maternity leave policy is emerging and there are not institutionalized expectations… I negotiated my leave policy with my firm based on a mere 12 data points gleaned from a fellow female investor’s friends. This could be a great opportunity for Kayo to poll its attendees and publish findings that would be incredibly helpful as we are trying to increase the number of women in the field and level set expectations.” – Partner, Private Equity Firm

We frequently hear stories at our events about how mothers-to-be in a male-dominated work environment experience anxiety. Policies about maternity leave may not be clear, or women may be hesitant to ask for fear of being stigmatized or judged as less committed. Even when policies are clear, best practices on how to navigate maternity leave and the transition back to work are murky and often untested – particularly when women have few female colleagues or friends in their industry to turn to.

Although birth mothers may struggle with family leave policies due to the physical toll of childbirth, they are not alone.

Whether you are pregnant or adopting, the primary caregiver, a dual or secondary caregiver, a mother or a father, family leave policies matter. In response to our community, we polled our audience of professional women about their parental leave policies, and compiled a report summarizing the responses.

Here are a few take-aways from the report:

• 89% of participants’ firms offered paid maternity leave
• 12 weeks of paid maternity leave is most common
• 11% of participants negotiated with their firms for better terms
• 78% of participants’ firms offered paid leave for partners, spouses or other caregivers

We hope this report will help both mothers, fathers and the firms who employ them to better communicate about family leave policies. Together, with more transparency, we can reduce the stress for parents and help firms retain and attract the best talent out there, including moms.

A special thank you to everyone who participated in this survey.

Fill out the form below to download the full report.

 

VIEW THE 2019 KAYO FAMILY LEAVE SURVEY REPORT

No woman should walk alone on her path to success. Share your experience

“So much of maternity leave policy is emerging and there are not institutionalized expectations from fund to fund.  It would be incredibly helpful for Kayo to poll its attendees and publish the findings as we try to increase the number of women in the field and level set expectations” – Elizabeth Chou, General Partner, New Markets Venture Partners

Imagine you work in investing, and you are pregnant with your first child.  You are juggling so many uncertainties. Will your deal close on time? Can your belly really get any larger? Can you really fit any more baby gear in your 1,000 square foot New York City apartment?  It’s almost a relief to head into the office every day where you can focus your mind on work, except during the mid-afternoon when a bout of fatigue hits you like a ton of bricks. (Luckily, you sneak down to the gym to nap in the ladies locker room.)

There are so many questions, and yet a big one is lurking…maternity leave.  You need to talk to your team, and you want to do the right thing by your family, your new baby and by yourself, without jeopardizing your career and advancement.  What is the best approach? Maybe there is a policy in place. Maybe there is none. Maybe you are even tasked with creating the policy yourself. 

Woman live these scenarios every day. Whether you are a general partner at a small private equity firm or at a larger asset manager, when it comes to negotiating maternity leave it can be difficult to know where to start. What are other firms doing? What are the expectations? Am I asking for too much? Or, more importantly, selling myself short? Where are the pitfalls?

With Kayo’s unique access to female general partners and finance investors we have the opportunity to learn from your experiences and level set expectations when it comes to maternity leave. By sharing information and pulling together the data, you’ll be helping women and yourself when it comes to future maternity leave negotiations.

Please complete this short questionnaire as a way to support your Kayo community and the women in your industry.  

TAKE THE SURVEY

 

WHY IT MATTERS

“In order to attract and retain top talent and benefit from a diverse environment, we recognized that we needed to update our family leave policies for both mothers and fathers.  I took it upon myself to research best practices and implement them at FCP, which included extending our paid family leave and creating a wellness room for nursing mothers. At such an exciting and stressful time, new parents should not have to worry about finances and should be able to fully focus on bonding with their child.” 

-Summer Haltli, SVP – Strategic Management & Sustainability, Federal Capital Partners

“So much of maternity leave policy is emerging and there are not institutionalized expectations from fund to fund. Personally I negotiated my leave policy with my firm based on a mere 12 data points gleaned from a fellow female investor’s friends. This could be a great opportunity for Kayo to poll its attendees and publish data and findings that would be incredibly helpful as we are trying to increase the number of women in the field and level set expectations” 

-Elizabeth Chou, General Partner, New Market Venture Partners

We recently polled our alumni of more than 1,600 women in the finance and investing industry with the question about what advice they would share with their 22-year old self.  One answer that appeared more than once:

“Learn to play golf.”

We have been thinking about this answer. Why should women learn play golf?  I’m terrible at golf and really never learned how to play. I wish I could play, but I don’t wish it enough to actually learn to play. So why encourage young women to play this sport?  

The answer is of course that our male counterparts love golf.   Any given sunny day in spring, summer and fall, they are out of the office and out on the ol’ golf course talking not only about their pars and birdies but also wheeling, dealing and most importantly bonding – they are establishing trust and rapport that will make their future business relationships easier to close.  So, what this advice is really saying to young women is that if you want to be part of those business deals, you better be out on the course.

But is that really the answer?  Ultimately, it comes down to one thing: building relationships. Do women have to learn how to play golf to build relationships? Are there not other alternative society-approved options for work-and-play networking?

Kayo exists because we believe there are more effective and dare we say, more modern ways to network as we approach 2020. When you think about what makes golf appealing, and more importantly, networking effective, it comes down to the connections you make with someone when you find something in common with them.

Let’s are the days of Mad Men martini lunches and hitting a birdie (that’s what it’s called right?) and in are new ways to network in this modern world (for women AND men). Here are some of our favorites. What are yours?

 

SPORTY EXPERIENCES, OTHER THAN GOLF

 

From cycling classes to bouldering to boxing studios to axe throwing and bowling, there countless ways to bond over fun sports-inspired activities. Places like Top Golf and luxury bowling alleys make it easy for businesses to rent meeting space then hit the gams. These are perfect places to bond over shared (and sometimes silly) experiences, get a little bit competitive, and step outside your office walls.

• https://badaxethrowing.com
• https://topgolf.com/us/
• https://www.luckystrikesocial.com/locations/new-york/
• https://www.rumble-boxing.com/
• https://brooklynboulders.com

 

GO TO A MUSEUM OR EXHIBIT

Many museums have meeting rooms, and nothing says a change of scenery like soaking in some culture during your workday. In fact, you can join us in July at the National Geographic Museum in Washington D.C. where we will host 20 leaders in Private Equity for a tour the Queens of Egypt exhibit. It’s a nice way to showcase women in leadership, give us all something to discuss, and meet someone new in an unfamiliar environment.

EXPERIENTIAL EVENTS

Taking a potential lead or client to a music festival, brewery tour, performance or pop up could be the perfect opportunity to connect over a shared experience. It’s a good way to showcase the culture of your company and gives you an excuse to think differently for a day.

COOKING CLASS

May I be so cliche’ and say to get off of the golf course and get in to the kitchen? Afterall, isn’t that a man’s place? (sorry, can’t help it). Seriously though, there are some amazing cooking classes these days in nearly every city, and men love them just as much. It’s a great experience for corporate events, entertaining clients and talking biz while rolling sushi or shaping gnocchi.

https://www.surlatable.com/
https://recreational.ice.edu/
https://www.culinaerie.com/

 

KAYO POP UPS AND EVENTS

We host five summits each year, but in addition, Kayo hosts lunches, pop-ups, and this year, our second annual Leadership Retreat. These events are intimate, casual, and curated to bring together a mix of women who have commonalities they may have not yet discovered. As the host, we make every effort to make these a place where you can avoid the awkward conversations and dive straight in to finding the right connections.  Check out our list of events here.

What is the [BLANK] that has replaced the golf game in your networking playbook? (P.S. we do love golf here too and think it is a great way to network, it’s just not the only way anymore). Tell us in your comments below.

Earlier this year Kayo reported on the Top 19 in 2019 – Renewable Energy Firms Founded by Women featuring 19 powerhouse females in renewable energy.  These women are solving the complex problems facing our planet and the energy industry and leaders to learn from and be inspired by. One of the 19 is Anne Marie DeMent, founder of Excelsior Energy Capital, who shares her story, struggles, and lessons learned along the way. 

1. What problem are you trying to solve? Where do you find your inspiration?

We are trying to solve the problem of connecting thoughtful, institutional capital with a fragmented and complex North American renewables market. Excelsior is an infrastructure fund with an exclusive focus on investments in solar and wind power generation assets. We live and breathe renewables, and renewables only, because we think the market demands this level of focus and experience given its complexity. The complexity is born in part out of the layers of Federal, State and local tax and other incentives, and the fragmentation is largely a bi-product of the local nature of solar and wind development with the need for local permits, buy-in of local landowners and the support of local communities.

Where do I find my inspiration? This is a big question. On a fundamental level, I find it from my parents and their encouragement from the earliest days to create something meaningful with a short life. On a more immediate level, I find inspiration in my three partners who co-founded Excelsior with me. Creating a partnership is an interesting endeavor. The four of us come from very different backgrounds, both personally and professionally, and this diversity creates incredible opportunity – opportunity to expand the world of what is possible and opportunity to put ego at the door and always seek to understand another’s perspective. This is challenging! All of this opportunity for growth is in the midst of often stressful moments as you create a business together, while also juggling personal demands (in each of my partner’s case, multiple children!). I am constantly amazed and inspired by the day in and day out commitment of each of them to this partnership and to consistently expanding viewpoints to encompass the diversity of the partnership.  

2. “The otherness that was hard at the beginning was my towering strength as a CEO,” said former PaperSource CEO Sally Pofcher at our last conference. What unique characteristics do you have? Was there something that may have been seen as odd or challenging or a weakness at one point in your career that has emerged as a strength as a founder and C-Suite Leader?

As a junior associate, green out of law school, I struggled with the job scope of a junior lawyer in a big firm. I came out of law school desiring to think globally and strategically when what was really needed for the role was to focus on making sure the disclosure schedules were accurate and that the authorizing resolutions included the appropriate signatory.  Consequently, as I moved through my career, I continually migrated toward roles that involved problem solving and strategic thinking, and less day in and day out perfection. My brain naturally trends toward trying to connect dots and find the relational value of disparate slices of information and experiences. This mindset has been incredibly helpful as a co-founder of Excelsior as the role demands a bird’s eye view and navigating a labyrinth of daily problem solving from fundraising, to closing investments to building and growing the team.

3. Tell us how you came up with your firm’s name. What does your firm’s name mean to you?

We are very creative – Excelsior (the name of the city where HQ is located), Energy (we acquire, own and operate renewable energy projects), Capital (we invest capital for our LPs). It is fortunate that Excelsior also means “Ever Upward” in Latin. Core to our DNA is creating returns for our investors by being grounded in reality. As I think of the term “ever upward”, I envision a climb up a mountain, which requires a groundedness in the midst of upward progress. There are a lot of folks out there looking for returns and the “ever upward”. What is important to Excelsior is ensuring that we pursue that return and that “ever upward” from a place of fact and reality. We always diligence the assets and optimization potential meticulously, and good, bad or ugly, face the reality of the diligence findings, and from there assess the relative merits and opportunity to find the return for investors. We lose a lot of deals, and we think that is a good thing, because if we are to plot an ever upward path, it can’t be a pie in the sky jump, but a realistic step by step approach.

4. Tell us about the decision to go it alone versus partner up with co-founders. What would you look for in a co-founder?

It was the most natural and easy decision. My three partners, Chris, Alex and Ryan, had been my colleagues in a past life for a number of years. We had gone through the highs and lows and then highs again of bringing a company to IPO and then through to a sale. When you go through the messiness of business and life together and still respect the hell out of each one individually and collectively, and can still stand being in the same conference room at 4 a.m., it is a no-brainer to decide to partner together as co-founders.

5. How long did it take to raise your first round of capital or your first fund? What lessons did you learn during fundraising that you can share with others?

It took around three months from launch of the Fund to our first funding close with our anchor investor. However, we had a long-standing relationship with our anchor investor and had a strong basis of trust that led to the fairly quick first closing. What I have come to learn in the fundraising process is that like any relationship, it is about spending time with potential investors, getting to know how they think, what they care about, and having them get to know how we think and what we care about. We are focused on long term contracted cash flows creating stable returns for our investors (and us as we personally invest alongside our investors), and so we think it critical that we create a relationship based in trust with any investor.

6. What advise would you have to a class of 11th grade girls interested in business, finance or entrepreneurship?

Be patient with yourself. Pay attention to what you are naturally good at and enjoy and try to find work that naturally aligns with how your brain works; however, if you don’t find the perfect job out of the gate (which you won’t), be patient with yourself and the job and the process. Learn what you can from every experience and try to remain human and kind no matter how much you like or dislike your job.

7. How do you continue to develop yourself?

Relationships. As my career evolves, I find that I evolve and grow most by spending thoughtful time with people I respect, both personally and professionally. This is one of the reasons I have really enjoyed the Kayo events, as there is always spaces of time crafted for meaningful dialogue with really interesting, kick ass women.

Oh and of course, reading the New York Times and Japan Times over coffee on Sunday morning.

Download the full Top 19 in 19 Women in Renewable Energy report and be inspired by 18 other women trailblazing this industry.

 

Research shows that in grades K-12, female students’ achievement in mathematics and science is on par with their male peers. Also, female students participate in high level mathematics and science courses at similar rates as their male peers, with the exception of computer science and engineering. Yet somehow but the time women get to the job market in their twenties, and then into leadership positions in their thirties and beyond, their participation in roles that involve mathematics and science plummets.  In the investment industry, in every category from real estate to private equity, the percentage of female investment professionals is less than 10% of the total professionals. 

What’s happening the pipeline of women interested in pursuing these important career paths?

Last winter on vacation in Hawaii, I met a teacher at a local high school who taught a class of 11^th graders on the topic of Entrepreneurship.  The class is a mix of female and male students, with equal enthusiasm and talent for the subject. However, she started to observe some of the young women holding back.  The teacher was determined help the 17-year old’s develop the skills needed to survive in a cutthroat business world, and overcome self-doubt.  She told me about some of the exercises she prepares for her class to help them develop the important skills needed to be a business leader.  

For example, one assignment was called What if They Say No.  The students are tasked with finding an opportunity to ask for something, with the strong possibility that they will hear the answer no. One student asked to be the announcer at the local baseball game.  One student asked a random surfer on the beach for a turn with their board.  One student went down to the fish market asking for a job for the day — and that unfortunate student was actually granted his ask.

It’s a clever exercise for one of the most important lesson all business professionals and especially entrepreneurs eventually learn: Rejection. Handling rejection without an emotional reaction is key.  We hear a lot more “No” than “Yes”.

When the she found out what I did for a living – organizing events for women investors – the teacher asked me what advice I have for the girls in her class.  So, we put this question out to our audience of women investors and business executives in the renewable energy and power generation industry at our recent event in April. 

What Advice Would You Give a Class of 11^th Grade Girls?

Here are our top 10 responses:

#1 Don’t follow the rules.
#2 Build each other up.
#3 Go outside your comfort zone.
#4 Have thick skin.
#5 Be financially independent.
#6 Math is cool.
#7 Don’t freak out.
#8 Take a public speaking course.
#9 Study Hard. (But Don’t Study Too Hard)
#10 Speak up. Your voice matters.

I plan to share results with the teacher I met in Hawaii. Please join us in this dialogue.  Together, let’s strengthen the pipeline of young women in mathematics and science-based industries. In high school, young women have enthusiasm about math and science, so it’s up to us adults to think about we what can we do to help them follow through and pursue careers in these industries.

Define “Basically”.  “Basically” means nothing, basically.  It’s one of the Weak Words we use to fill spaces.  

Um…

So..

Just

Well… the list goes one.  

These are examples of weak words we use to fill spaces.  I never realized how often I used them, and that there was a powerful alternative – a silent pause. This is one of many things I learned from Amy Wong, an expert in communication who facilitated our first annual Women’s Executive Leadership Retreat in February in Austin, Texas. 

This gathering of 45 women in finance and business came together with the shared goal to become better communicators.  How can we increase our credibility? How can we say more with fewer words? How do we make sure our audience is hearing our message? How do we navigate high stakes conversations?

Over the course of three days, Amy Wong, Facilitator from communication experts Own the Room introduced us to skills we could practice in order to become more effective communicators.  Through interactive workshops which involved all kinds of shenanigans, from videotaping ourselves to drinking games (with water-downed coca cola, not booze, sadly) to using our body to tell stories.

When we weren’t in session learning about communication, we spent time relaxing at the Miraval bonding with other women leaders and reflecting on the lessons we learned.

Over the course of three days, our group felt a strong sense of camaraderie and community. We had exposed our insecurities and fears, yet somehow remained incredibly authentic.  We committed to one another to take the lessons we learned back to our teams and our communities and not let what we learned slip away when we returned to our hectic lives.

This first-time event was a risky experiment in many ways, but it worked. This retreat will go on to become a pillar of the Kayo Conference Series.

In many ways, it changed the way I think about how to measure success at our conferences.  It’s not just about putting women up on the podium, but also making sure they are heard  – helping them tell their story in a clear, concise and engaging way so that their message gets through their audience’s filters.

Pop quiz:  Which of the following do you need more of to become an influential communicator?

1. Talent
2. Charm
3. Charisma
4. Intellect
5. Skills  

The answer: Skills

We are not constrained by talent, intellect, charm or charisma when it comes to communication. Each of us can acquire and build the skills necessary to communicate. That gives me great hope for me and all  the aspiring women leaders out there that we can become great communicators and share our message.

Imagine you’re at the Yolo County Fair in Sacramento, California in the early 2000’s.   You wander the fairgrounds inhaling the smells of cotton candy, the livestock and chili dogs in the air and enjoy the music from the Carousel.   Next to a giant pumpkin, you see an exhibit tent with a sign that reads “Sunrun” and the lady there manning the booth says to you:  

“Let’s create a planet run by the sun.”

Keep moving, right?  What a hippy dippy tree-hugging looney toon.  

Well, if you had walked away, that would have been a mistake.  You would likely have been talking face to face with Lynn Jurich, who went from telling families about solar power at county fairs to becoming the co-founder and CEO of the largest dedicated residential rooftop solar company in the country, Sunrun (Nasdaq: RUN).

Pioneers in renewable energy have not had it easy.  Many of their ideas seem at first farfetched and unrealistic.  However, to solve big programs like those facing our power grid, sometimes the crazy ideas are the best ones.  

Fast forward a few years to 2019, and we’re seeing more and more big “wacky” ideas coming to fruition to solve the complex problems facing our planet and the energy industry.  Many of the innovators and pioneers putting forth these solutions are women.

For example:

• Turning buildings in to power plants. Robyn Beavers and Claire Woo are two New York-based co-founders of BluePrint Power develop electricity grid blueprints designed to accelerate the transformation of buildings into intelligent power nodes

   

• Redesigning nuclear energy.  Leslie Dewan is the Co-Founder and CEO of Transatomic Power whose molten salt reactor has the potential to generate clean, safe, proliferation-resistant and low-cost nuclear power, and can help replace coal plants coming offline.

   

• Creating self-reliance. Karen Morgan is Co-Founder, President and CEO of Dynamic Energy Networks.  Her firm is developing microgrids and distributed energy sources that can work independent or in parallel with the current utility grid.

   

• Connecting communities to share solar gardens.  Sandhya Murali and Steph Speirs are Co-Founders of Boston-based Solstice who believe every American household can be powered by affordable renewable energy and believe community solar to be the answer.

To learn more about pioneers in renewable energy, download our report Top 19 in 2019: Renewable Energy Firms Founded by Women.

 

VIEW THE TOP 19 IN ’19

Earlier this year we published Kayo-curated report on the Top 19 in 2019 Buyout Funds Founded by Women. This incredible group of women each have their own story to tell, so we sat with each of them to discuss where they’ve been, where they are going, and what advice they have for the rest of us.

Leslie Frécon is managing partner and founder of LFE Capital, a Minneapolis area growth equity firm that provides capital for health and wellness companies with a focus on businesses with female ownership and management.  She founded the company in 2000 after having served as senior vice president of corporate finance at General Mills (GMI), where she was both the youngest and the first female executive in the company’s history.  

Why did you decide you to start your own firm?

I had always wanted to do something entrepreneurial and I felt it was now or never — if I waited too long, I could run out of time because I realized that it would take at least a decade to build something from scratch.  Fortunately, I had some financial flexibility to take the risk of starting my own venture. It also helped that I come from an entrepreneurial background which has been a value that was reinforced in my family.

When I decided to pursue private equity, I considered working with an established firm, but as I met with people in the industry, I was turned off by the culture.  Part of my motivation in starting LFE Capital was to create an environment where the focus was less on transactions and more on building relationships and great businesses to achieve good returns while having a positive impact.

Was there something that may have been odd or challenging or a weakness at  in your career that has emerged as a strength as a founder and CEO?

I intended to go to graduate school to follow my passion for literature until my Shakespeare professor at Stanford University pulled me aside at graduation and recommended that I get an MBA.  I remember being offended at the suggestion, like he didn’t think I had the intellect to be a professor of English. He said, “You have fundamentally good judgment and express yourself well.” 

What about a career in business? 

As a woman, it could be a real competitive advantage to have an MBA and  I ended up following his advice after working for a year. While I was a liberal arts undergrad who’d studied voice and piano, it turns out I had a flair for financial theory. 

After a brief stint in commercial lending, I moved to GMI to learn more about business.  I started in corporate development, moved into divisional financial management and then into my executive role where I was responsible for treasury, corporate development and risk management worldwide.  I honed my strategic, transaction, and operations skills while working with senior management to grow GMI’s various businesses. 

These experiences served me well in private equity.  A lot of people in PE have analytical and transactional skills but lack operational experience and an understanding of how businesses work.  A large part of the value equation in growth equity comes from the resources and acumen that managers bring to the portfolio businesses in addition to sourcing and structuring the investments and exits.  

How long did it take to raise your first fund? What lessons did you learn during fundraising that you can share with future emerging managers?

It was the most difficult thing I have ever done, raising that first fund. I had gotten tons of advice not to do it and that it would be very difficult, which obviously I did not follow. I pursued it because I was convinced that the market opportunity was there, that businesses with women owners and leaders were a large, growing, and underserved segment, and that I could leverage my network of relationships to find good companies. Believe me, at the time, that was not a concept that was widely understood by the male-dominated investment community. 

My timing wasn’t the best; I launched LFE in the early 2000s, in the aftermath of the dot com bust, plus I didn’t have a partner. Instead, I built the team as the business grew. Fortunately, I had a network of people from my business and personal life who were willing to back me. The critical lesson I learned about fundraising is that the best strategy is to find the believers, versus trying to convert the non believers.  Persevere and stay focused. And don’t be afraid to start small.

We are now organizing our fourth fund. Our current investor base is primarily banks, foundations, and family offices that value what we’re doing. They know that our goals are to provide access to capital to underserved markets, create jobs through small business growth, and find solutions to help people lead healthier lives, all while delivering solid returns.  

I think it’s safe to say we were ahead of our time. Now, more investors understand the capital access issues for women business owners and the need to attract and retain more women in PE. They recognize the power of the female network to source deals, the value of having diverse management teams to deliver superior results, and the importance of collaborative relationships. These attributes are all part of our business model.

What advice would you have to a class of 11th grade girls interested in business, finance or entrepreneurship?

Stay true to yourself.  When I started my career, assertiveness from women wasn’t common.  Men didn’t have that much experience being around women with it. I got feedback that I had to soften my approach. In retrospect, while everybody gets coached in corporate roles today, that was not particularly helpful in my case. To the contrary, it caused me to second-guess myself and my natural style. People in leadership roles, while they need to be empathic, should not be discouraged from being themselves. Everybody must find their own voice, and that’s an important part of developing confidence and trust in yourself, which is an important part of being successful.

The second piece of advice I would give is to be courageous.  There are many paths one can follow to get to the same place, and don’t be afraid to pursue your dreams. Figure out what you want and how you want to get there. Study your options by speaking with people and trying different jobs and exposing yourself to opportunities to learn.  

 

On January 21, 2019, Kayo Conference Series hosted its first international event, a pop-up in partnership with the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP), in Toronto, Ontario.

The event brought together 40 women in private equity, real estate, energy, power, and infrastructure and began with a “2019 State of the Markets” panel. Featured speakers included Lindsay Stiles, Slate Asset Management, Sarah Yates, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, and Vivian Chao, Fiera Infrastructure, led by moderator Lisa Lafave, HOOPP.

The speakers provided insight on a variety of topics including their highlights and top lessons from 2018, what major trends are impacting their portfolios in 2019, the effects of technology, how to find value in a changing market, and targets and risks for 2019.

“Disruptive tech is an opportunity. Uber is 9, Amazon is 24. The big technology in 10 years probably already exists today.

The panel’s advice for 2019 included giving early-on TLC to portfolio companies to better prepare them for any big punches the year may throw, always modeling in a recession and staying cautious in 2019. The biggest threats noted included Brexit, China, and political uncertainty. Representing three globally invested firms, diversifying portfolios based on asset classes and locations was also noted as an approach for taking on the uncertainty 2019 is presenting.

The panel concluded with advice to a room full of other professional women on how to succeed in the investment industry. All three panelists agreed that women in the investing world need to champion themselves and one another, learn from other leaders whenever possible, and always strive to learn more.

“We [women] need to be our own advocates. We need to put our own hands up. ‘I want to be at this meeting, I want to work with this client, I want to be on this deal.’ Don’t be afraid to say, ‘Hey, what about me?” – Sarah Yates

“Speaking to our nieces, our daughters, our neighbors about what it is that we do. Talk and educate the next generation.” – Lindsay Stiles

Special thanks to the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan team for hosting. Kayo currently curates six annual summits reaching 1,500 women annually in industries such as Private Equity, Venture Capital, Energy, Infrastructure, Credit and Real Estate. They also host pop-up lunches and leadership retreats as a way to tighten their community and create continued networking and personal development opportunities.

Get on the list for our next Toronto event here. 

Just before the holidays we prepped you on the “Don’ts of Performance Reviews” which was intended to prepare you for your own annual review.  But, if you’re a senior leader, especially a female, giving someone a bad performance review can feel just as daunting as getting one. However, we’re here to shift that mindset.

Giving a bad review can actually be a good thing. It gives us the opportunity to coach and champion women in our industry and help them become better leaders. Think about it as a moment to mentor those more junior than you and express what you wish someone would’ve told you early in your career. It’s a second-chance moment to fix the mistakes we’ve made by educating someone else.

Below are some tips to keep in mind if you have an employee that just didn’t “meet expectations” this year and how to turn what’s historically a negative moment in to something positive.

1. Have them come prepared with a self review

Oftentimes, if an employee isn’t hitting the mark, they know it. Ask them to list out three strengths and three areas of improvement. Add an extra dimension by having them separate these into hard skills vs. soft skills. More-often-than-not, they’ll call out the very issue you are going to address, making tough conversations a bit easier.

2. Do your own homework and have examples ready

I have given and I have received (hey, it was a long time ago) not-so-great performance reviews. As the recipient of a poor review, I have always asked concrete examples to support the feedback. Conversely, as a leader, giving a poor review seems a lot easier when you are prepared with specific examples. Try to keep a file throughout the year for each employee should this very moment arise.  It’s fair to everyone to be able to cite examples and makes creating an action plan much easier when you have something specific to point to.

3. Get feedback from colleagues or clients

Some companies have a process in place to get “peer” reviews in which colleagues are asked to give feedback about their fellow employees. These can prove to be incredibly valuable as they make the review less personal and can give you insights on whether others in the company are experiencing the same challenges you are. If you company doesn’t have something like this in place, you can conduct it yourself. Have your employee pick three people they’d want to give them a peer review, then pick three additional people. Ask thier peers about both your employee’s strengths and weaknesses and use their responses as needed during their review. Of course, all responses remain anonymous.

4. Be positive

Sometimes that can be hard to do, when your about to point out the negative. We are all human (including you) and it’s always good to hear positive feedback before diving into the “room-for-improvement” feedback. We’re not asking you to like or be dishonest, but pointing out something good about your employee at the beginning, can start the conversation with the right tone.

5. Remember, it’s just business

I think as women, we can get more emotional during these discussions than our male counterparts but remember this truly is business. You’re responsible for the success of your team or better yet, your company and it’s imperative that your standards for performance are met. Plus, you are helping them to better their career, which will prove to be invaluable for the future. Was there ever a time that you wished someone would’ve given you constructive criticism? Many times we aren’t self aware and it simply takes someone pointing it out to shift our behavior. Be the leader that guides them so they don’t keep making the same mistakes

6. Create an action plan together

So, the tough discussion is over but where do you go from here? Write down measurable steps to improve the behavior both short term and long term. Involve your employee in creating the plan by asking them what they think they can do to improve?

7. Think outside the review process

Surprises can be fun except when it comes to reviews. Make sure that you have frequent conversations with your employee throughout the year, pointing out any issues and examples as they arise so that you can correct them in a timely manner. This will ensure that your employee understands expectations during the year and when comes time for their annual review there will be no surprises and tough discussions are easier for both parties involved. Who knows, your due diligence may have already solved the problem and what might have been a negative review is now a positive one.

Kayo Conference Series hosts annual events for women in business, finance, and investing. Our annual summits create opportunities for women to advance their career, champion their peers, and connect with leaders (who have probably given their share of reviews).

No matter how high up the ladder you are, chances are that someone is higher than you, which means that you’re likely gearing up to have that annual conversation about performance, raises and promotions. These discussions are industry-agnostic and being prepared for them will help ease any nerves and set you up for success.

We chatted with Hina Ahmad, General Counsel Capital Dynamics Inc. and Global Compliance Officer, and Maryfrances Metrick founder of M. Metrick Advisory, on some pointers about compensation, negotiation, and talking to your leadership about performance. Both dynamic women were on our “How to Negotiate Carry” panel at the Private Equity Summit in October which proved to be one of our most popular sessions.

First thing to note, is that most successful compensation discussions start well before the actual reviews, which are typically in the first quarter. That said, it’s not too late to start preparing now and planning for next year (and years to come). These “don’ts” don’t expire, so keep them close and take a look at them year-round.

1. Don’t assume your boss knows what you’ve accomplished

I heard someone once say “no one will pay you what your worth, they’ll only pay you what they think you are worth”. And they won’t know what to think, unless you show (and tell) them. Make sure to have the hard facts on how and when you helped the firm. Ideally you have been making sure your leader is aware of your accomplishments throughout the year, but if it seems unclear, make sure you’ve written them down before the review.

2. Don’t set unrealistic compensation expectations

Do your due diligence to understand where your firm sits within the market and the ecosystem when it comes to compensation. Your role may be paid less if you are at a smaller firm, but come with other perks and benefits. There are many tangible and intangible ways to compensate. Some firms aren’t able to pay you market, but give you opportunities that larger firms can’t.

Understand your entire compensation package and not only the pay for your role outside the company, but how you line up within the company, before you bring it up in a performance review. Educate yourself and set realistic expectations when talking about compensation with your boss.

3. Don’t assume leadership knows your career aspirations

Most companies have mix of employees with a melting pot of personalities, backgrounds and ambitions. Some are anxious to climb the corporate ladder and not afraid to do what it takes to get there. On the flip side, employers will also across good employees who are very satisfied coming to work each day, getting their job done, collecting a paycheck and rinsing, washing and repeating. Both types of employees are valuable, but sometimes they aren’t always obvious and, since your boss isn’t a mind reader, you can’t assume they know your goals and aspirations. Make sure to communicate this to your leaders and allies throughout the year, it’s important they know where you want to be and (hopefully) help you map out a plan to get there. Same goes with compensation, they won’t know you feel unhappy about your current package or environment unless you speak up.

4. Don’t limit yourself to the review process

Realistically the review “process” should be a year-round conversation so that when the “official” review happens, there are no surprises for either party. Communicate on a regular basis about what you are doing, communicate openly and make sure you track your projects. When you embark on a new project, don’t just do it in hopes of advancement, but put your all in to it to build credibility, respect and support your team. If you’re doing it just for recognition, it will show through.

5. Don’t forget that careers are driven by relationships

This topic deserves it’s own spotlight, but we’ll save that for another day. Remember that advancing your career has a lot to do with the relationships you build, how well you get along with others, and your attitude. That’s why “hire for attitude, train for skill” has been a common saying in the workplace as studies show that only 11 percent of new hire failures lose their job due to technical incompetence. That means, no matter how well you perform, it will be overshadowed if your soft skills aren’t in tact. Remember this before your review, during, and after as you continue to drive your career forward.