Spring 2009 Member e-Newsletter

Content

WBC Member Profile - Patricia Daly

Motivational Topic: Spring into Action

Join the WEB on LinkedIn

Individual Membership

WBC February Event - "Back to Basics"

WBC March Event - "A Global Economic Forum: Defining the New Paradigm"

Meet Patricia Daly

By Patricia Daly / Delphine David-Huet

It's been just over a year since my position was eliminated in one of many Investment Bank downsizings. My story is very familiar these days - over 20 years at large financial services firms, happy with my career and no real desire to do anything else. Losing my job certainly wasn't part of the plan and even though it was a bit intimidating, it was time to open my eyes and see what the future had to offer.

I had spent so many hours at my job over the years and so much time traveling to offices all over the world that I had ignored the entire population in NY who had not lead the somewhat conventional life that I had. Now that I had time I could actually use all of those networking skills I'd learned. It quickly became clear that the job market in financial services at my level was abysmal and getting worse so I had to begin to stretch my imagination and think of other things I could do. The opportunities to make connections were endless. People were so willing to meet, talk, share ideas and introduce me to other people who might be able to help.

Most of us are used to structure in our day and the idea of all that free time was exciting but also frightening. I didn't want to spend all of my time cleaning my closets and going to outplacement. That's when I had to remember all of the things I always said I'd do if I only had the time. I renewed my gym membership and actually went. I saw friends and family that I hadn't seen in a very long time. I volunteered more of my time with a few nonprofits that interested me and joined the Board of The Transition Network. I finally had time to work on Corporate Outreach for the Women's Bond Club and helped organize last year's Diversity event. I even got involved with a small downtown theater group, something I could never have imagined doing. I continued to indulge my travel bug and finally, after a decade of trying, completed my goal of visiting all 50 states. In summary, I said "yes" to a lot of things that I previously would have said "later" to.

While all of this was fun and I met terrific people, I began to get a bit nervous about future job prospects particularly as I saw the market drop and unemployment grow. It had been six months since I'd worked, a time when I hadn't even updated my resume or seriously interviewed for a position. I decided my sabbatical was over and I would begin the job search as soon as I returned from my twentieth anniversary trip to the Baltic's. That's when my connections really kicked in. The day I returned I got a call from a colleague who runs an advisory firm that I had done work with at my former employer. They had an engagement that sounded perfect for me if I was interested. As a friend said, it's not necessarily who you know but who knows you.

So, I'm now a consultant using a lot of what I've learned during my 20 years at large investment banks and loving it. I'm enjoying being on the other side of the table, in familiar territory but having to stretch myself in new ways. Each day is a bit different and I don't know what the next assignment will be. I try to remember what I liked and didn't like about the consultants I worked with during my career and strive to be the resource I always wanted them to be. There are adjustments going from large to small and employee to consultant. I was used to having a staff to do things that I now have to do myself but that's a small price to pay for the flexibility that I now have. I'm completing my certificate in fundraising and development at NYU and am planning to combine some nonprofit consulting with my other engagements. Now if I can just find an engagement that travels to exotic parts of the world, I will have satisfied all my goals.

I've talked to so many people who are transitioning now and each is going through their own journey. So many are following a new path and becoming entrepreneurs or switching fields completely. It's a scary time but it's also an exciting one. If I had to give a piece of advice to people who are in the situation I was in a year ago it would be trust your instincts, reach out to your connections and their connections and say Yes. It will be worth it.

Pat is a senior technology consultant with over 20 years experience in the financial services industry. She has previously worked a Managing Director at Credit Suisse, and COO of Technology at Salomon Brothers. She specializes in integration and consolidation initiatives leveraging her global experience managing firm wide technology programs in partnership with the business. Pat has a Bachelors Degree in Social Sciences from Pennsylvania State University. She is on the Board of Directors of The Transition Network, the NY Development Committee of FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) and is on the Corporate Outreach Committee of the Women's Bond Club.

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Motivational Topic: Spring into Action

Reprinted from the Motivational Manager, 800-878-5331, www.managementresources.com

Take on mounting challenges to emerge tougher and stronger

2009 is already a difficult year for leaders because challenges are coming from all directions. Leadership consultant Gregg Thompson counsels meeting them head on. As he puts it, "Most of us are facing the worst recession of our working careers. What a wonderful opportunity for the organization leader!" Accept four tough challenges:

1. Tell the truth. Delivering bad news is always onerous, and withholding information, releasing only selective details, and spinning everything are always tempting. Instead, remember: your crew members are not fragile and not only want but need to know the hard facts in order to handle them well.

2. Offer a vision. Face the fact that the current reality, bad as it is, will change, and decide what you want your group to look like when the crisis is over. What new skills will they have developed? How will they have learned to be resilient in the face of obstacles? How will they better serve your customers? Communicate this vision steadily.

3. Help employees improve, not just survive. Do what you can to implement those aspects of your vision that will help your employees. In particular, despite cuts to your training and development budget, help employees continue to enhance their skills. They'll appreciate the boost to their careers, and they'll do better at their jobs as well.

4. Share the pain. Some things should be obvious. If employees' salaries take a hit, accept a cut yourself, or at least don't complain about not getting your regular raise. If employees lose long-time perks, don't whine about losing them yourself.

7 steps to help staff hone their decision-making skills

Studying the steps you take when you've got a decision facing you can lead to better choices.

You-and your workforce-will be more effective by following this structure:

Step #1: List your options. Come up with as many possible solutions as possible. Don't judge them yet-just get them all down so you can analyze them objectively later.

Step #2: Think about your choices. Sort through how you feel about each option. It's not a logical analysis; rather, observe your thoughts and feelings about each one.

Step #3: Relate choices to priorities. Compare the possibilities to your most important objectives. People who have well-established priorities have no problem with this step; those who don't often struggle.

Step #4: Make your choice. Once you've related your choices to your priorities, things should fall together and your choice should be clear-cut.

Step #5: Analyze your decision. Before implementing anything, give the decision time to sink in. If you have trouble letting other options go, you may want to re-evaluate your priorities. Just don't get stuck second-guessing yourself.

Step #6: Commit to action. Identify the first steps you need to take, and get started with them. Tell people what your decision is so you're accountable to someone other than yourself.

Step #7: Make the decision work. Don't obsess over the options you discarded. Do everything in your power to implement your choice successfully.

How to-and how not to-strengthen teamwork

It may be a cliché, but "all for one" teamwork has become a mantra for many modern workplaces. Yet the team mindset comes more easily to some than others.

These four "dos" and "don'ts" can help your group improve their teamwork:

1. Share the destination. Do you get on board a plane or train, or into a car, without having some idea where it is headed? Of course you don't, and the workplace journey is no exception. Make sure all members of your team have a solid understanding of their individual roles and of the department's role in the organization.

2. Keep your motives in plain view. Suppose that both Mary and Bob are hardworking employees who have shown initiative, but you must pick one to handle the lucrative Henderson account. If you think Mary is better suited for the job than Bob, explain to Bob why Mary got the account. Also emphasize that he is valued and tell him why you feel that way. He may still be disappointed, but by telling him why you made the choice you did, you've preserved his confidence in himself and his trust in you.

3. Don't scapegoat. Try a solution-based approach, rather than a blame-based one. It's never a good idea to scapegoat one individual for what might well be a group failure. Instead, focusing on processes more than people is the key to even-handed management. For example, approach the need to make deadlines in this manner. Workers need to understand that not making deadlines impacts not only themselves but the team as a whole.

4. Don't let conflicts worsen. Conflicts and people problems can fester and become unmanageable. It's your job to help employees reconcile their disagreements with each other. Allowing them to continue disrupting the group's work is not an option.

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Join the WBC on LinkedIn

By Linda Wittich, Beth Luty

LinkedIn is the world's largest professional online network. With over 38 million members globally, LinkedIn doesn't spend a dime on advertising. Member profiles depict a person's knowledge, expertise, talents and passions as well as work and educational history. Where a resume is like a blind date, a LinkedIn profile is an open kimono, that's candid and full of character. As a member of the LinkedIn network, you design the profile you want to showcase. The real beauty of LinkedIn lies in the networking capability to link contacts from your personal rolodex to another's. The WBC recently created a Group on LinkedIn, and now our online platform supports our real-world community of professional women in capital markets.

LinkedIn replicates how we network in the real world but is infinitely more effective. For instance, when do we network with a purpose? The answer is: all the time; when we're looking to hire or contract someone, seeking specific knowledge, selling a service, seeking to build out a team, etc. We're networking when we want opinions on a potential new hire, or when we're seeking employment ourselves; we want to hear professional opinions, and ones we can trust. LinkedIn helps you with every one of these situations by linking more data about your network of contacts and in the process is indirectly networking you with your contacts' networks. Your network builds exponentially with each connection you make because your connections trust you, and you trust your connections. It's all about authenticity.

Let's walk through a realistic example: your boss asked you to find a reputable external law firm to represent your company in an upcoming arbitration. Rather than sifting through thousands of people in your rolodex struggling to remember who's a lawyer, who's married to a lawyer, whose brother is a lawyer, you turn to LinkedIn. Quickly you sign in and search the NY area by entering a few keywords like legal, regulatory, compliance and securities, then voila (!) you've created a list of potential lawyer candidates who met your criteria and could therefore, represent your firm. Now the true value of LinkedIn appears - it automatically gives you a roadmap on how to connect with these individuals; it tells you who you know in common (shared connections). So, what's the first thing you do? You contact those shared connections and solicit their opinions, all on LinkedIn in a trusted environment, and if favorable, you request an introduction. Talk about efficiency! With a few easy steps, you've done what might have taken weeks to accomplish before LinkedIn. Networking with a roadmap is now just a few clicks away.

LinkedIn puts you in the driver's seat to control your own personal brand by managing a profile that uniquely represents you. Your custom profile provides you the opportunity to broadcast your expertise and your character. The written profile is the narrative of your career history and now, new functionality allows you to post presentations as well as create workplace huddles or market research polls. And for the curiosity in all of us, LinkedIn allows you to upload a photo, which has proved a handy feature when introducing yourself to fellow committee members at WBC events! Just as you use LinkedIn as a means to expand your network with a purpose, LinkedIn is being used by 38 million other professionals, who can potentially learn about you. Professionals from all across the world may look at your profile, see your unique background and verify your reputation through shared connections. The key is to use the Advanced Search and Answers features to input the criteria of your search. LinkedIn's tools allow others to find you, and chances are, they could be potential clients, colleagues or managers who share a common expertise, passion, or background. You can easily find people you worked with five jobs ago, or discover what your college friends are up to and how their career have been shaped. In addition, LinkedIn offers several solutions for corporate clients that span recruiting, branding and business development purposes.

The good news is that the WBC is on its way and is an official group on LinkedIn! Although our group site is young, it's already provided great value to its users. Members have posted interesting news articles about women on Wall Street, opened discussion threads on key issues we face, and shared information about growth areas within their firms. However, my favorite use of the WBC Group is to help me with in-person networking skills. Many WBC members are staples at our WBC events and I want to connect with them. Before I head off to a WBC meeting, I look for key WBC members on LinkedIn and see what I can learn about them. Almost always I find interesting nuggets of information from their profile that becomes my ice-breaker comment, making 3-dimensional, in person networking easier.

For more information on LinkedIn, be sure to visit their learning center at http://learn.linkedin.com/ . Then go to www.LinkedIn.com ; enter your profile and start networking! Don't forget to search and join the Women's Bond Club Group under LinkedIn groups. For questions about this article, contact Linda Wittich and Beth Luty.

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Individual Membership -

By Patricia Catalano

Individual membership costs only $195 per year and provides the same access to the WBC's extensive services and events as corporate membership slots do. It's a worthwhile investment, especially in times like these.

Established in 1921, the Women's Bond Club of New York is one of the oldest professional organizations for women in finance. Our membership reflects buy-side and sell-side across financial services, and a cross-section of executive management, consulting, and technology functions. The organization is dedicated to the professional and personal development of all its members through educational, networking and mentoring activities. There are two types of membership offered - Individual and Corporate.

As an Individual Member, you have the opportunity to forge relationships with seasoned, professional women from all sectors of the financial industry, enabling you to create a strong personal network while gaining knowledge that assists in your career advancement. Individual memberships also offer the benefits of access to the WBC member web site, invitations to all WBC functions and events, and the opportunity to join any WBC committee.

Direct benefits of Individual Membership include:

• Join a network of successful women:
• 70% of members hold positions of Directors, VPs or Higher
• 60% of members have ten or more years financial services experience
• Develop professional skills:
  • Events focus on individual growth and market conditions
  • Committee participation strengthens leadership and team-building skills
• Help strengthen our community:
• Mentoring, internships, charitable giving, and scholarships

Should you need to switch from a corporate to an individual membership for any reason during the year, the process is simple - just contact WBC Board Member Patricia Catalano at patrcatalano@aol.com. to inform her of the change. Your new membership status will be processed immediately and you will be billed the WBC individual membership fee directly.

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WBC February Event -"Back to Basics"

Hosted by: The Bank of New York Mellon
Article By Daisy Vasquez

Panel: Karen Peetz, Debra Baker, Marina Lewin, Collen Meehan, Kevin Quirk, and Jeremy Todd

This event hosted by The Bank of New York Mellon on behalf of the Women's Bond Club was geared at helping their audience identify some of the underlying factors driving the financial meltdown we have experienced as of late. Discussion focused on the housing bubble, and shifts in counterparty relationships in the hedge fund world.

The panel discussed provisions in market regulations and policies that will minimize predatory lending and fraudulent borrowing going forward.

Part I - Financial Meltdown and The housing bubble

The credit market turmoil has substantially affected the terms and conditions of funding in leveraged finance markets. Rising investor risk aversion, growing pressure on bank balance sheets and a loss of confidence in structured credit products have sharply contributed to the housing bubble. What was apparent to the panel and those well versed on this subject is that "despite all the fancy modeling on Wall Street and at the bond rating agencies, you can't create AAA bonds from loans anchored by little or no equity." It was clear that a relaxed regulatory system reinforced the sharp increase in leverage. An emphasis on self-regulation within the financial industry enabled over-the-counter derivative trades to be undertaken with little or no margin deposits, which increased the market turbulence even further. The liquidity crisis that ensued was gravely affected by the Lehman bankruptcy. Last September, the fall of the investment bank Lehman Brothers triggered the dramatic plunge of the markets. Today, even Citigroup and Bank of America are struggling to cope with the crisis. This caused the Treasury to use TARP funds to inject capital directly into the equity portion of bank balance sheets.

More recently, in an attempt to address the issues discussed above the Treasury Secretary has proposed the following:

1) Create a single independent systemic risk regulator;

2) Develop and impose higher capital standards on systemically important firms;

3) Require hedge funds to register with the SEC;

4) Increase the oversight of the OTC derivatives market; and

5) Create new requirements for Money Market Funds to prevent the possibility of rapid withdrawals by investors.

Part II - Hedge fund changing views on counterparty relationships - (Survey) by Pershing LLC & Aite Group LLC

In these uncertain times, the role of counterparty risk has come to the forefront. In this fragile investment environment, counterparty risk is taking on greater importance as institutional investors question their trading partners' abilities to make good on their obligations. Managing counterparty risk has become a much more critical component of hedge funds' business operations than it was several years ago.

This survey brought to light the need for the development of a standardized, well-documented approach to counterparty risk. The general consensus of this survey was that several best practices need to be adopted in order to address this issue. For example, designating a full time staff member to assess counterparty risk and formalizing business processes for portfolio management are two key steps that institutions can take.

In conclusion, despite the growing concerns over counterparty risk management, hedge funds are continuing to expand their presence globally and move into investments in more complex instruments. Hedge fund managers remain optimistic that reliable counterparty relationships will continue to expand, assisted by innovation in technology and services.

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WBC March Event -"A Global Economic Forum: Defining the New Paradigm"

Hosted by: Merrill Lynch and Broadridge Financial Solutions
Article by Jane Prokop

Merrill Lynch and Broadridge Financial Solutions co-sponsored the 2009 Global Economic Forum, which is a perennial favorite among WBC events. The panel represented a broad cross-section of the financial markets:

• Mary Ann Bartels (Chief U.S. Market Analyst and head of the U.S. Technical and Market Analysis team within the Investment Strategy Group at Merrill Lynch) focuses on the equity markets;
• Barbara A. English (Executive Director, Senior Credit Analyst at UBS Global Asset Management) chiefly addresses the asset-backed commercial paper markets;
• Christian Menegatti (Managing Editor and Lead Analyst at RGEMonitor.com) focuses on the global macro picture;
• Jeffrey Rosenberg (Managing Director and head of the Credit Strategy Research Group for Banc of America Securities) is responsible for high-grade, high yield, credit derivatives and collateralized debt obligations; and
• The moderator, Leslie P. Norton (Asia Editor and feature writer at Barron's magazine) writes about trends in the U.S. and Asia.

Given the timing of the event, the key focus of the panel was the Treasury's latest rescue plan. There was lively debate over the plan's likelihood of success in restoring stability and liquidity to the credit markets. Seen from Barbara's viewpoint, it appears that there has been measurable progress in stabilizing the money markets. But on balance, there was a "wait and see" attitude - while the plan has some clear advantages over earlier government efforts, there are still significant hurdles to overcome, such as ensuring that sellers of toxic loans are willing and able to absorb the short-term GAAP losses that may come from offloading loans that could perform well in the long run.

In addition, Christian drew a distinction between the "real economy" and the financial markets. Even if the credit markets stabilize, it remains to be seen whether the government's actions can have positive near-term effects on core economic trends such as production and employment in the overall economy.

An intriguing theme that emerged at Jeff's initiative was whether the government is pursuing the right path out of the maze of over-indebtedness (both consumer and commercial) that has built up over the past 10 years. Broadly speaking, there are three options for de-leveraging: bankruptcy, an increase in savings, and inflation. At present we seem to be moving toward the third option over the mid-term.

Despite moments of levity, the overall tone of the discussion was somber. Should the current rescue plan not work, the range of policy options facing America (and the world) today will narrow, and the nationalization option may rear its head once again.

Nevertheless, there are steps that individual investors can still take to improve their chances of having a healthy portfolio. Mary Ann pointed out that even if investors assume minimal capital appreciation over the next few years, they can benefit from focusing on components of the market that offer significant dividend yield.

The evening ended with spirited discussion in small groups over cocktails and hors-d'œuvre, where the panelists made themselves available for one-on-one Q&A. Until next year!

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