Today, we spotlight the winners of our Crystal Ladder award.
Crystal Ladder is given to women who began in an entry-level job in a financial firm and climbed steadily through the ranks to reach senior management.
Traders Magazine proudly salutes Kerry Byrne, Senior Vice President, First Eagle Investment Management and Jennifer Litwin, Senior Director, Greenwich Associates.
Kerry Byrne
Firm: First Eagle Investment Management
Years in Industry: 25
Previous Firms: ASB, Nikko Securities
Status: Senior Vice President
Some people are lucky in a trading career. Others make their own luck. And some careers involve elements of both, which is the story of First Eagle Investment Management’s Kerry Byrne.
Trading was in Byrne’s blood, but she was always upbeat about the business and happily has taken on any job, no matter what it is.
That’s because from an early age, Byrne, whose father was a Big Board specialist, knew what she wanted. She was looking to a trading industry career. So when she went to college, she studied economics and management. The trading bug bit hit her early.
“I was one of six kids, and I was always the one who asked him about the market,” she said of her father. “I loved the business and used to visit him on the floor on breaks from college.”
In the beginning, it might not have seemed like such a smart career move; She started at the bottom, working summers on records for First Eagle, then known as Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder Inc.
But, she said, reviewing her early years in the back office, she was in a trading firm, and that was what mattered. She later learned to trade at Nikko Securities. It was trial by fire, since she came on board only month before the crash of October 1987.
By 1989, she had been hired by First Eagle for its U.S. equity desk, trading small hedge funds and institutional money. Six years later she was running it.
“First Eagle is different. It is a unique place. I found a home here, as a lot of people have. Management values the employees and what they can bring to the firm,” Byrne said.
Her advice for young people?
Byrne said one key is to be enthusiastic about a job in a trading firm, no matter what it is.
“I would say have a positive attitude,” she said. “Attitude brings everything to the job. People want to be around positive people.”
Jennifer Litwin
Firm: Greenwich Associates
Years in Industry: 17
Previous Firms: RPC-Mitchell/Titus, AIG Financial Products, UBS Investment Bank. (see next page)
Status: Senior Director, Relationship Manager
Few people can sing arias and also develop sales relationships with investment managers.
But that has been the unique experience of Jennifer Litwin, who has a master’s degree from the Yale University School of Music. Litwn began her working life as a singer and musician, but ultimately went from a being a temporary secretary trying to earn a decent living to becoming a senior director and relationship manager at Greenwich Associates, where she works with equity and fixed-income professionals.
Would she ever have thought she would end up an executive at Greenwich Associates?
“Absolutely not. Never in a million years would I have believed I would be here. Back then I was still actively pursuing my operatic career,” she said.
When she was at AIG Financial Products, Litwin said, she became “curious” about the back office and decided that, even though it wasn’t her dream job, “I was going to do my best” working there. Told that musicians had many of the qualities that could help one succeed in the trading world – they are competitive and disciplined, and are good performing under pressure and in public – Litwin decided to accept a full-time job. She saw it as a stepping stone to music. But in the meantime, she did her best for AIGFP. “I am not a mediocre kind of girl,” she said.
She learned trade tracking. Litwin dealt with client questions and started developing relationships with traders and portfolio managers. These relationships led to a GICs sales trading position at UBS.
Litwin found her years of hard work paying off with a role she enjoys. “I found that the favorite part of my job has been speaking to the clients and then meeting them in person. I realized I was really good at developing relationships,” she said.
Litwin added her parents’ values were essential: “Perseverance, patience, old-fashioned hard work and don’t be afraid to ask questions.”
