5 Inspiring Women in Finance

Hi all, I hope that you are all enjoying your summer holidays and are following Sarah’s advice for keeping up over summer and have used Megan’s post to help set up a LinkedIn profile.

It was extremely difficult to narrow all the incredible women in the world of finance down to just five but I have chosen women with very different roles to demonstrate the variety of career paths possible and I hope that these women will inspire you to aim high and that you find their words of wisdom helpful.

Mellody Hobson

President, Ariel Investments

Hobson started at Ariel Investments as an intern and rose to be appointed President in 2000. She is also Chair of Dreamworks Animation and the first African-American woman to chair the Economic Club of Chicago.

“It would be lovely to think that success was a result of my being extraordinary, but the answer is far more boring. I worked hard. Really hard.” (2014)

Abigail Johnson

President-CEO, Fidelity Investments

Johnson began her career in consulting and completed an MBA at Harvard Business School before joining Fidelity and working her way up. She was appointed CEO in 2014 and President in 2016.

“No matter how senior you get in an organisation, no matter how you’re perceived to be doing, your job is never done."

Christine Lagarde

Managing Director, International Monetary Fund

Lagarde was firstly a very successful lawyer, then moved into politics and held various positions in successive French governments before being appointed Managing Director of the IMF in June 2011.

“If Lehman Brothers had been ‘Lehman Sisters’, today’s economic crisis clearly would look quite different.” (2008)

Dominique Senequier

President, Ardian

Like many of you, Senequier studied Banking and Economics at university. She was then one of the first seven women admitted to the Ecole Polytechnique in its first year of female intake in 1972. A career in insurance led Senequier to AXA Group where she created AXA Private Equity which she spun out of the Group and named the company Ardian.

“I have found that being a woman in this job has attracted a great deal of jealousy from men. Women tend to be pleased that another woman has been successful.” (2010)

Janet Yellen

Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Yellen is an American economist who was nominated by Obama to become Chairwoman of the United States Federal Reserve in January 2014. She is the first woman in history to hold this position.

“Listening to others, especially those with whom we disagree, tests our own ideas and beliefs. It forces us to recognise, with humility, that we don’t have a monopoly on the truth.” (2014)

Thank you for reading, if there are any women in finance who you personally find inspiring then please post below. Furthermore, please do not hesitate to get in contact with me (hd16986@my.bristol.ac.uk) or my committee (uobwomeninfinance@gmail.com) if we can be of assistance in any way.