Wall Street Women 2012: Industry Trailblazer Profiles
Industry Trailblazers
Traders Magazine Online News, November 19, 2012
Today we spolight the winners of our Industry Trailblazers award.
This award is presented to high-performing Wall Street women who broke the gender barrier when it came to trading and advancing up the career ladder on the buyside and sellside. These trailblazers forged the opportunity for other women to become traders, managers and successful financial professionals.
Traders Magazine salutes Janice McFadden, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs and Donna Sims Wilson, Executive Vice President, Castle Oak Securities LP.
TM Industry Trailblazer Award
Janice McFadden
Firm: Goldman Sachs
Years in Industry: 22 years
Previous Firms: None
Status: Director, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs Asset Management
Don't get too comfortable in your job even if you're a master of the universe.
Janice McFadden, GSAM
Be willing to do lots of things at the same time and try new things, especially if they seem challenging - or maybe even impossible, at first. Constantly communicate with clients.
Those are the philosophy components of Goldman Sachs' Janice McFadden. It's a philosophy that took her from compiling numbers as a trainee to her spot as trading desk chief. She started with Goldman Sachs in 1990. She worked as a trainee. She recorded P&L for the highly profitable arbitrage desk. She learned the desk while studying for an MBA.
A few years later she was offered a unique opportunity.
"I was offered a job as an assistant trader," said McFadden, who had never thought of becoming a trader. "I had to make the decision about whether to stay where I was, and where I was comfortable."
McFadden opted for discomfort.
But there were days when she might have thought she'd made the wrong choice.
"It was very hard the first four months of trading," she said. "After the first three or four months I didn't think I was getting this. I went from knowing what I was doing to the low person on the pole." She thought about whether she had made the right decision. Still, she persisted. Then, around five months into her new job, "it clicked."
Suddenly, McFadden had the same confidence in her trading ability she's had in her previuos role. Later, her ability to help others led to another job and the challenge of today running a desk.
How can someone duplicate McFadden's remarkable career path?
Traders must able to multi-task and must be in constant contact with clients throughout the day, she said. "A person must be persistent in continuing to develop skills and learn to be a problem solver, a team player and a good communicator with clients."
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