Priya Parrish is Managing Partner at Impact Engine. She also is Professor of Strategy and Impact Investing at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business where she teaches, mentors, and supports MBA courses and programs about impact investing.

We recently sat down with Priya to learn more about her career journey and how she got into Impact Investing.

Can you share about your role and background in impact investing?

At a young age, I was an entrepreneur and wanted to use those skills for social good. This sparked my interest in impact investing, which I pursued coming out of college by working at the very first ESG ratings provider, a group called KLD. There, I led a project to sell their research and indices, not just to the socially responsible investing (SRI) financial advisors, but to mainstream asset managers where we created the first ESG ETF on the iShares platform. I then joined Northern Trust as a product manager where I initiated the launch of their ESG practice. Afterwards, I wanted to gain more investment skills and spent a bulk of my career at a large fund of hedge funds called Aurora Investment Management, and from there became the Chief Investment Officer of a single family office. In 2008, I joined Impact Engine to go back to impact investing, but now as an experienced investment professional.

What is a bottleneck for you right now?

Capital. Some believe that talent is the bottleneck in impact investing, but there is an oversupply of talented investment professionals seeking impact investing jobs. Everyone sees the headlines about the high growth rates in allocations to impact investing, but it’s off a small base. It’s still very difficult for newer firms and smaller firms, which is the vast majority of impact funds, to raise capital.

What trends in Impact Investing are most interesting to you right now? Where do you see the industry moving in the next 3-5 years?

Over time, I think we’re going to see managers develop more specific impact strategies for their markets. So, if you’re an investor in healthcare, or you’re an investor in like B2B service companies that tend to employ a lot of low-wage earners, or if you’re investing into sectors that have really complex supply chains, your approach to impact is very much going to vary. And that nuance will only come with the first step of honestly asking the question, “how can we create impact with our investments” rather than starting with the more common decision to say you drive impact without determining what or how.

I’m hopeful that we’re going to see more LPs educated and supporting GPs doing this, and it being a real back and forth relationship.  We think this is a critical role for LPs, and it’s why we make investments in companies and funds.

What has the last year been like as an entrepreneur?

I’ve invested in a lot of new funds or emerging managers over my career. But until you step into that seat of being a new fund manager and experience all of the structural barriers to entry, you don’t realize just really how hard it is. And so, it’s been a lot of hustle and perseverance. It’s also required a lot of educational conversations, as most investors don’t start with the decision to make an impact investment. We have to help them understand what it is, how we do it, and why it can generate just as strong returns as non-impact investments.

What guides you to want to teach and train the next generation?

I think that good impact investors are critical thinkers and they’re problem-solvers. And they’re creatives with a technical skill. And you don’t get that by following a linear path that Career Services told you to pursue, but rather by charting a multi-disciplinary path. So, anyone pursuing this career needs support, and I’m passionate about helping the next generation. This is why I teach impact investing at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. I hope that one day you can’t get a finance major at any business school unless you took impact investing and impact investing is actually incorporated in your finance class.

What advice do you have for women who want to create impact in an industry where it isn’t as intentional? 

There’s this word – additionality – that impact investors use. It refers to the impact created specifically by your investment or involvement. The interesting thing about private equity is that you win by having influence and creating value. So a good investor is already in the position to create additionality. It doesn’t matter whether you’re investing in sectors that are considered impactful or not. In fact, a private equity investor in the industrial sector, for example, can create impact by engaging with its companies on their environmental practices or employee safety policies. If you have a long enough time horizon, these efforts are financially material and can lead to strong performance.

Priya is speaking at the Kayo Women’s Private Equity Summit in Boston on June 15th where she will be apart of a panel discussing Impact Deals. Register here to hear Priya speak.

Heather Arbogast serves as a strategic corporate advisor to utilities, energy companies, developers, power purchasers, sponsors, investors and other clients on a broad range of transactions and regulatory issues in the power, retail energy, solar, wind and battery storage sectors of the energy industry. Heather is a member of the Greater Baltimore Committee’s Leadership Class of 2019, a rigorous program dedicated to developing and connecting civic leaders to strengthen the Baltimore region. She is also head of pro bono legal service for McGuireWoods’ Baltimore office, Co-Chairs Baltimore’s Recruitment Committee and oversees the Legal Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) program in the Baltimore office.

We recently sat down with Heather to learn more about her career journey and how she got into the Renewable Energy sector.

 

Can you share about your role and background in renewable energy?

I have been practicing in the power, gas and renewable energy space for over 10 years.  Early in my career, I focused primarily on mergers and acquisitions, but, over the years, my practice has really grown to encompass far more than buying or selling an energy company.  I advise companies on both retail and wholesale energy transactions, retail regulatory matters (including renewable incentive programs) and all life cycles of renewable projects, including the development, financing, operation, and divestiture. 

What has been your greatest challenge as an attorney in this sector?

The greatest challenge (and the greatest motivation) is keeping up with the technology.  I’ve worked on utility scale solar and wind projects, rooftop solar projects, battery storage projects and everything in between. To best serve my clients and their business objectives, I work not only with the legal team, but immerse myself in the client and work alongside project managers, analysts, engineers and environmental specialists who understand how these projects are built and operated.  

What trends in renewable energy is most interesting to you right now? 

EV technology is very interesting to me. There are a lot of stakeholders taking an interest in EV technology and for good reason.  Opportunities abound in this technology, but it will require significant infrastructure investments. There are still a lot of issues to consider in terms of effectively implementing this technology.  Offshore wind is also a very interesting variation of a technology that has been very successfully implemented onshore. Offshore wind presents many challenges not faced in a traditional onshore wind project and as more of these projects come online, I think we will be dealing with more issues of first impression.

How do you think about your pro bono and volunteer work? 

Pro bono and volunteer work allow me to explore and support other interests beyond my interests in the energy space, and to do so in a way that makes a difference in my community and for organizations that mean a lot to me.  I’ve always felt fortunate to have opportunities where I can use my skills and time to contribute to causes that I feel connected to.  I think pro bono and volunteer work is critical to a well-rounded attorney, and although it can be challenging to carve out the time for pro bono and volunteer commitments, it is hugely important to me.   

What maxim guides you?

Relationships Matter.  Maintaining strong relationships is important in every facet of life, but particularly in your career.  Building and maintaining relationships with your clients, colleagues, network, and even counsel on the other side of a deal distinguishes a good attorney from a great attorney and builds the foundation for the future of your career and practice.

What’s the best compliment a client has given you?

Hands down, the best compliment is when a client refers a friend or colleague to me.  Or offers to introduce me to someone in their network.  As attorneys, our clients put a great deal of trust in our experience, judgment, and work ethic, among other things.  They trust us to help them solve their problems, and to do so creatively and adeptly. 

What’s one piece of advice you have for other women?

Find other women in the energy space, nurture those relationships, and promote other women.  It took me several years before I found conferences like Kayo where I could really connect with likeminded women in both energy and in life.  It is OK to acknowledge that, as women, we face challenges that our male counterparts do not or cannot understand or appreciate.  And as women, we have unique abilities.  Building out a network of women in whom you can turn to share your successes and failures, your doubts and your frustrations, is so meaningful.  I am forever grateful to the women who have shown up for me in all of these ways and I hope to return the favor to the next generation. 

Heather is moderated Kayo’s Power Markets Outlook Webinar on July 14th. Miss the webinar and want the recording? Join The Corner to catch up on what you missed.

Learn more about trends in renewable energy, hydrocarbons, ESG, energytech and more at our upcoming Energy Transition Summit, September 21-22, 2021 in Houston, TX this fall.

Jessie Gabriel is the founder of All Places, a business and legal strategy firm that supports women asset managers and entrepreneurs. Jessie is a champion for women, and a prominent voice on the role of capital ownership and control in achieving gender equity. Raised by a single working mother in Southern California, Jessie’s success came with a deep appreciation of how gender norms and unequal access to capital contribute to a systemic lack of opportunities for women-identifying entrepreneurs and executives. Her personal vision and passionate advocacy are fueled by the desire to create true change — All Places is the culmination of her expertise and ethos, a space for women to formulate businesses of all kinds, receive trusted legal and strategic guidance, and ultimately cultivate long-term financial success.

We recently sat down with Jessie to learn more about her career journey and how she developed All Places.

 

Can you share about your role and background in private equity?

I’m an attorney by training, so my first connection to private equity came when I took a case defending a family office that had been involved in a deal gone wrong. The industry was a good fit for me–I had been a math geek since childhood and had aspirations of becoming an economist before I decided to go to law school. But my passion for the space didn’t really take off until I met a woman who was launching a private equity fund (shout out to Maggie Arvedlund!). Eventually that led to my own realization that what I wanted to do with my legal skills was use them to support women like Maggie, who were changing this industry that is so critically important to the broader equality conversation.

 

What sparked you to take a leap and start All Places?

Like so many women in law and finance, as I continued to rise up the ranks in my corporate organization it became increasingly clear to me that I did not belong there. Dead in the middle of that struggle I hosted a dinner for women who ran their own funds. That night a number of the women around the table told me the best way I could support them (and myself) was to start my own firm. These same women helped me understand how traditional law firms were failing them and continued (in sometimes gentle, and sometimes less gentle, ways) to persuade me that I really was an entrepreneur just like them.

 

What has been your greatest challenge as an entrepreneur? 

Aside from the limited hours in the day, for me it’s self-doubt. Women regularly receive the message that we need to stay in our own lane, be patient, and not get too big for our britches. This was certainly true when I was working at a large firm. I assume this reaction comes from feeling threatened, but regardless, it sucks. Each time I tried to press forward it was as if there were a rope tied around my waist. You have the illusion of potential, but when it’s time for it to be realized, you’re yanked back. As an entrepreneur, you necessarily have to do things you’ve never done before. That’s when the self-doubt kicks in and you start replaying all the limiting things people have told you over the years. Fortunately I am surrounded by women (and my husband) who are constantly telling me to cut it out.

 

What maxim guides you?

There is no gender equality without capital equality. We are never going to be treated as equal human beings until we have the same financial power as men. It would be lovely if that were not the case, if money were not so determinative of how human beings are treated, but that is our current reality. I want women to make more money, manage more money, and have access to more money. We are taught that just talking about money, or wanting money, is unfeminine. No way. Money is power and women need a whole lot more of it.

 

What’s the best compliment a client has given you?

Honestly, each time a client hires All Places it is the hugest compliment. These are insanely accomplished and credentialed women running successful funds. They could hire any firm. The fact that they want to bring their business to us, a woman-owned, unabashedly feminine, startup firm with a strange name rocks me every time.

 

What’s one piece of advice you have for other women?

Engage in more delusions of grandeur. We don’t need to make ourselves smaller or less sparkly or quieter. We can believe that we are the best at what we do, because chances are pretty good it’s not a delusion at all–it’s a fact.

To learn more about All Places, click here.

 

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

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

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

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).

By Lindsay Burton, Founder Kayo Conference Series

Early in 2018, I was on a call trying to talk someone into sponsoring one of our events. The person asked me a simple question: Why does Kayo exist? Such an important question. I had no clear answer. I fumbled a wordy response about conferences and communities of women. Finally I gave up.

I replied, “Fair question. Let me get back to you.”

Over the next months, I tackled some of the most intellectually challenging exercises of my career. I needed to distill down why my company exists into one simple sentence. We run conferences for women in male-dominated industries. We are not just another conference organizer. I knew that for sure. But then what are we?How do I explain that in plain language? I was told as a rule of thumb, an educated 13 year old should be able to go to your website and in under 5 seconds understand exactly what you do. That’s much harder than I ever imagined. Simple is not the same as easy.

My journey began towards brand clarity started as follows:

• Hired a dedicated marketing consultant to take an objective look at our company
• Discovered Storybrand and as a team took their online course to learn about storytelling and clarifying your brand message
• Crafted our story, defining the characters in our brand’s story and what they will achieve by working with us – in other words, their transformational journey
• Built a Brand Book to crystallize our message, look and tone
• Created a new wireframe for our website and relaunched

One of the hardest parts has been trying to conduct business as usual while also completely rethinking our communication style and brand. For months, my team rode along with me on a rollercoaster ride, where we reexamined every single word of copy, every process, every communication with clients. They’ve been ever so patient and provided valuable insights. It was a true team effort to burrow towards the core of our company.

By the end of all this, we finally articulated the problem we are trying to solve.

Networking is hard when you are the only woman in the room.

We chose the best way to explain what we do.

Kayo hosts industry summits uniting women professionals for networking and business development, so that they can advance further and faster, together.

We even came up with a tag line:

Trailblaze together

The journey for Kayo is far from over. We’ve just only passed the first mile marker of many to come. Thankfully, it’s great fun and an enormous honor to serve our clientele, who are both women and men who work incredibly hard to achieve their professional goals and want to feel connected to others along their journey.

No woman should walk alone on her path to success. I look forward to continuing this journey together my peers as well as the next generation of leaders. #trailblazetogether

Lindsay Burton is the Founder and President of the Kayo Conference Series.