We discuss: 

• The power of leading with empathy and compassion and supporting other women.
• Tips and tricks surrounding finding a balance between fierce leadership and empathetic management.
• How to “take the stage” and own your own voice in your career. 
• How these practices lead Liz to receive the 2021 Woman of Year Award from DiversityQ and InvestmentNews’ Women in Asset Management Awards—USA Edition.

Resources: InvestmentNews | Christine Shaw | BlackRock | Elizabeth Koehler | 

Guest Bio:

Elizabeth (Liz) Koehler, CFA, has been in the financial services industry for 19 years and is currently the head of BlackRock’s Advisor Insights team, which partners with financial professionals as they grow their businesses and serve clients. Her team is responsible for developing and delivering educational programs for financial professionals and investors, focused on practice management, portfolio construction and financial market insights. 

Prior to her current role, Liz led the US Wealth business strategy for BlackRock’s Multi-Asset Solutions platform, where she was responsible for product management, business development and brand-building. Liz also led Product Marketing where she oversaw the development of content for BlackRock's open-end mutual funds, separately managed accounts and alternative investments. 

Liz earned a B.S. in Business from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia and a Master’s in Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and two sons.

We discuss: 

• How the pandemic has impacted the caregiving industry and how this will impact your financial future choices.
• Tips on how to be best prepared for retirement for yourself and your loved ones.
• Advice for women in caregiver roles and how to ease those tensions with proper planning and strategy.

Resources: InvestmentNews | Christine Shaw |Voya Financial | Voya Cares | Jessica Tuman

Guest Bio: 

Jessica Tuman leads the Voya Cares® Center of Excellence, which serves the special needs community — including those living with disabilities and special needs and their caregivers — offering access to tailored financial wellness and retirement planning solutions. She led the development of the program from the ground up into a strong brand that has been recognized by caregiver.com, Wealth Management magazine, Disability:IN and the Disability Equality Index as a Best Place to Work for Disability Inclusion. Under her leadership, the Voya Cares program has developed into a strong brand and market differentiator for Voya Financial.

Jessica brings over 20 years of experience in investment management strategy and solutions. She is committed to helping employers create a more diverse, inclusive and supportive environment for employees with disabilities and their caregivers. To help inform the program, she led groundbreaking propriety thought-leading research with global marketing research firm LRW on caregiving and the effect that it has on individuals and employers that helped raise awareness of and address the unique challenges faced by the special needs community. 

Jessica led the founding of the CEO Commission for Disability Employment, dedicated to leading the way to an inclusive workforce, and continues as a steering committee member. She also has advocated for the ABLE Act and other legislation that is designed to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities and provide equal opportunity and access to employment, recreation and education.

Jessica has appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box, and her writing has been featured in The Street Retirement Daily, U.S. News & World Report, THRIVE GLOBAL, Market Watch, Investment & Wealth Monitor Magazine, Money Management Institute Journal of Investment Advisory Solutions, ThinkAdvisor, Barron’s and InvestmentNews. She has authored a white paper on the unique elements of funding a special needs plan.

Prior to joining Voya, Jessica worked at SunTrust Bank in Wealth and Investment Management and Deloitte Consulting (Banking and Capital Markets). She has a Bachelors degree in Biochemistry (Hons) from the University of Southampton and a Masters degree in Computation from the University of Manchester in the UK.

Episode Notes

We discuss: 

• Advice on how to achieve a healthy work/life balance in your career.
• Choices and the importance of choosing risk and not being afraid to take necessary risk in your career.
• How to overcome risk-aversion.
• How to not only “talk the talk” but also “walk the walk” in your management style.

Resources: InvestmentNews | Christine Shaw | Kestra Financial | Kris Chester | 

Guest Bio: 

As chief operating officer, Kris is responsible for ensuring that Kestra Financial offers advisors the latest technology and highest-quality service while overseeing the continued simplification and streamlining of business processing. In this role, she leads the client service, onboarding, operations, program management, sales supervision, and technology departments.

A strategic, innovative leader, Kris has extensive experience in merger integration, business transformation, product development, and client delivery. Prior to joining Kestra Financial in January 2018, Kris worked at Wells Fargo Bank for 18 years, most recently serving as executive vice president and head of treasury management implementation and delivery. In that capacity, she led a team of more than 750 people that implemented and integrated the bank’s treasury management solutions, among other responsibilities.

Episode Notes

• We discuss:
• How to find purpose in your career and create meaning through your work when you are feeling stagnant.
• Natalie’s journey — challenges and accomplishments — in becoming the CEO of AssetMark.
• Natalie’s tips and tricks surrounding what it takes to be a female CEO.
• The increasing importance of tech in financial services, including advice for women considering getting into fintech and just tech.

Resources: InvestmentNews | Christine Shaw |AssetMark | Natalie Wolfsen

Guest Bio: 

Natalie is the chief executive officer of AssetMark. She leads the strategic vision for the firm, which encompasses its platform of curated investment and technology solutions, business consulting and operations support, and strategic acquisitions that serve the best interests of financial advisors and their investors. Natalie also serves on the board of directors for the CFP Board and has been featured in CNBC, Barron’s, ThinkAdvisor, FA Magazine, Financial Advisor IQ, RIA Intel, and InvestmentNews. Previously Natalie was Chief Solutions Officer at AssetMark. Before joining the firm, she held several leadership positions including head of marketing for New York-based asset manager First Eagle Investment Management, and head of product management and development for Pershing. She also spent several years at Charles Schwab in product development, marketing and strategy roles. Natalie earned a master’s of business administration from University of California, Los Angeles - The Anderson School of Management, and a bachelor of arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

Episode Notes 

We discuss: 

• Advice surrounding the importance of betting on yourself, in both your career and personal life. 
• How Fizza launched her own firm, her journey, and how she overcame obstacles along the way. 
• Advice on how to rewrite rules to create your own vision of success. 
• Management tips on how to nurture your team to have a healthy work-life balance. 
• Education practices surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion.

Resources: InvestmentNews | Christine Shaw | Silver | Fizza Khan

Guest Bio:

A pioneer in providing outsourced compliance services to investment firms, Fizza Khan is an expert on regulations governing investment advisers, broker-dealers and registered and private funds. As a hands-on leader across the firm’s flagship service lines – Regulatory Compliance, ESG and Due Diligence Preparation – Fizza ensures Silver’s clients are fully prepared to withstand regulator and investor scrutiny. 

Through leadership positions at compliance consultancies, in-house legal counsel and compliance roles at various financial institutions and law firm practice, Fizza developed an approach for her clients that calibrates best practices with their business realities. Having personally handled numerous SEC examinations while in-house and as a consultant, Fizza knows how to satisfy regulator and investor expectations without creating unmanageable complexity. 

Prior to founding Silver, Fizza was the chief operating officer for U.S. Compliance Consulting and a managing director at Duff & Phelps. She joined Duff & Phelps in January 2016 as a result of its acquisition of CounselWorks LLC, where she was a Partner.  At both Duff & Phelps and CounselWorks, Fizza managed the day-to-day provision of compliance services to firm clients and built the foundations upon which advice was given. 

Fizza developed her insider perspective from her experience at a wide range of financial institutions. As senior counsel and the U.S. chief compliance officer for DKR Oasis Management, a global private investment fund manager, Fizza was responsible for all U.S. regulatory matters and supervision of domestic employees. As chief compliance officer for the investment management business of Sandler O’Neill Advisors, Fizza registered the firm with the SEC as an investment adviser and developed and oversaw its compliance program. She also served as the chief compliance officer for the Equities Group at Sandler O’Neill + Partners and, in that capacity, was responsible for the firm’s SEC and Finra compliance programs. In addition, Fizza managed a number of formal SEC and Finra regulatory examinations for the Sandler firms. As in-house counsel at Deutsche Banc, Fizza advised numerous registered and private fund managers as to fund and advisory entity structuring, prepared their SEC regulatory filings and, for the registered funds, performed analysis required by the Investment Company Act of 1940. 

As an associate in the investment fund practice at Kramer Levin, Fizza specialized in the formation and management of registered and private funds. 

Fizza received a Bachelor of Science in Business from Drexel University, where she concentrated on finance and economics and published a thesis on the effects of derivative trading regulation. She earned a Juris Doctor from the University of Maryland School of Law. 

We discuss:

• Advice surrounding the importance of empathy and leveraging it in the workplace, regardless of gender.
• Fierce advocacy for employees and how the pandemic shaped Shareen's proactive “treating employees as humans first” approach at RBC.
• The significance of maintaining an “always-be-learning” mentality.
• Helping women find their voice in their careers, Shareen’s personal journey with discovering her own voice amidst a variety of challenges, and how this has empowered her to mentor others to this end.
• The bigger the voice, the bigger the impact.

Resources: InvestmentNews | Christine Shaw | RBC Wealth Management-U.S. | Shareen Luze

Guest Bio: 

Growing up in a household where equality and equity were a core value, Shareen Luze, head of culture and field experience for RBC Wealth Management – U.S., is dedicated to ensuring that our unique culture remains at the core of everything we do as we accelerate our growth and continue to be an employer of choice in the U.S.

Shareen provides oversight and counsel on workplace strategy and serves as the company’s key champion of the employee experience. She also oversees the implementation of a new 360° Diversity and Inclusion strategy and serves as co-executive chair of the firm’s Diversity Leadership Council and executive sponsor of the Women’s Association of Financial Advisors (WAFA).

Shareen has been with RBC for 15-plus years, first joining in 2006 as an associate general counsel. She transitioned to Human Resources in 2008, and became director of the U.S. Employee Relations team. In 2012, she took on additional responsibilities for workplace risk management before she was appointed Head of HR in 2018. Prior to joining RBC, she worked as a senior associate counsel at a Minneapolis law firm, practicing in the areas of employment counseling and litigation.

Luze received a bachelor’s degree with honors from the University of Michigan and graduated cum laude from Hamline University School of Law. She currently serves on the board of directors for the Tubman Center, which promotes safe and healthy individuals and families through education and support services.

When she’s not in the office, Shareen enjoys spending time with her husband and two children. 

We discuss: 

• Advice, tools and influence listeners need to increase self-improvement in their careers.
• Importance of feedback and how to turn mistakes into tools for self-improvement.
• The importance of mentors and how they can shape one’s career.
• How women can get involved in communities that promote the general advancement of women and girls in financial services.

Resources: InvestmentNews | Christine Shaw | Bridgewater | Robyn Shepherd

Guest Biography 

Robyn Shepherd joined Bridgewater Associates in 2004 and is currently the head of corporate engagement. Reporting to the CEO, Robyn oversees the firm’s public affairs, communications and branding functions, as well as the company’s initiatives for operational sustainability, social responsibility, and plays a leading role in Bridgewater’s diversity and inclusion efforts. She is a partner of the firm and a member of the Operating Committee and Commercial and Business Strategy Committee. 

Robyn began her career at Bridgewater as a senior investment associate in the account management group and later took on other key roles within the firm’s client service and marketing team — first as an associate client advisor covering the firm’s international client and marketing relationships, and later as the head of client service analytics. Subsequently, Robyn served as chief of staff to CEO David McCormick, partnering with him on the firm’s strategic agenda, business oversight, management of the client service and marketing department, and corporate governance. 

Robyn was a founding member of the firm’s Diversity and Inclusion Council, and the co-founder and senior sponsor of Bridgewater’s Women’s Influence Network (WIN). In 2020, she was recognized by The Hedge Fund Journal as one of the “50 Leading Women in Hedge Funds.” 

Before joining Bridgewater, Robyn was an analyst at Lime Rock Partners and an investment analyst at HarbourVest Partners. She serves on the board of Oakland Catholic High School, an all-women’s college preparatory school in Pittsburgh, PA. Robyn received her BA in economics from Brown University.