Growing up on Long Island, in New York, my favorite television program was LA Law. People who meet me today, if they havent seen me in a while, are shocked that Im not an attorney. From the time I was a very young girl, that was always what I thought I was going to be.
While in high school, I had a wonderful opportunity to intern at Nassau Countys human rights commission, and I spent some very eye-opening time visiting Long Islands jails. I thought my noble calling was to become an attorney who helped innocent individuals who were unjustly incarcerated.
But after completing my undergraduate degree in political science, I took a year off to work in the marketing department at Publishers Clearing House. I really loved the business environment and working with clients. So instead of returning to law school, I decided to get my MBA with a concentration in finance.
Out of school, I was hired by Morgan Stanley to work as an equity trader. This was the 90s, the Internet boom, and I knew the Internet was going to be the next cutting-edge thing. So I returned to school at night to learn HTML coding.
After getting certified in Internet design, I was offered an opportunity at Paine Webber to help create its client Internet strategy. This was a great opportunity for me, because it allowed me to work one-on-one with clients and advisors. Later I played other senior roles at UBS, working with clients and advisors in product sales.
I joined Merrill Lynch in 2010 as the head of global product strategy and new business development. We had survived the meltdown, but the business had changed and what clients demanded of us now was different. I worked on and helped roll out what we call our optimal practice model, which views everything we do through the lens of clients goals and priorities.
I had always worked primarily with our existing advisors, but I was asked to expand my role and take on new advisor development. Theres a need to expand the businesswe all get thatbut how? Theres a capacity limitation. But if you give our senior advisors an opportunity to work with someone new who has a skill set that complements theirs, allowing them to grow their business without departing from the way they have successfully developed it, then thats something they readily embrace.
I believe Im having my career-defining moment, running our new advisor development program. This is why I wake up every day, and I couldnt be more excited . . . helping to mold the next generation of advisors and meet the noble calling of serving our clients.
As told to On Wall Street editor Elliot Kass.
Read more:
Merrill Lynch Appointment Puts Spotlight on Advisor Training Wealth Management Up, But BofA Posts Net Loss on $6B in Legal Fees Amy Sturtevant: Making a Difference
