Today, we spolight the winners of our Lifetime Achievement award.
Given to women with more than two decades of senior management experience on Wall Street, who have achieved the pinnacles of success and acted as role models to younger generations of women and men.
Traders Magazine salutes Peggy Bowie, Senior Trader, Manulife Asset Management and Nancy D. McLaughlin, Managing Director, Sales and Business Development, ConvergEx Group.
TM Lifetime Achievement Award
Peggy Bowie
Firm: Manulife Asset Management
Years in Industry: 40
Previous Firms: MFC Global Investment
Status: Senior Trader
Peggy Bowie has seen it all.
The 40-year trading veteran has seen trading evolve from its telephony origins and paper-and-pencil roots to the warp-speed electronic marketplace. But one thing that hasn’t changed, she said, was the value of relationships and their impact on a career.
“People will still need people in this business. Whether you are 65 or 25, you need those relationships to make it in this business,” she said.
Even in this era of high-speed algorithmic trading, tools and technology will not replace the human element on each end of an order, she added.
Bowie’s relationships are countless. Whether a person is at a sellside or buyside firm, both are of equal importance and value to her. The same holds true whether a person is in her native Canada, the U.S. or in Europe.
“They’re all important. We all work as a unit to get trading done,” she said.
And she knows trading. She started her career in 1969 as a bookkeeper at a mutual fund and then landed on the trading desk in 1972. She remains on the desk today.
Aside from her passion for trading, Bowie has served the industry in other roles. Given her depth of knowledge, she has been very active shaping the industry and its agenda. She is a past Canadian Security Traders Association chairman, a co-chair for the CSTA’s Institutional Committee and serves as a director at the Buyside Investment Management Committee.
So what’s next for Bowie?
“Now, I want to educate the regulators on how we do our business so that the rules they create are fair and equally levered,” she said.
TM Lifetime Achievement Award
Nancy McLaughlin
Firm: ConvergEx Group
Years in Industry: 25
Previous Firms: Execution Services Inc., BNY Brokerage
Status: Managing Director of Sales and Business Development
Life’s road can be long, winding and bumpy. Surviving it is the key to long-term success. (more)
That’s how Nancy McLaughlin views things. With two daughters and a golden retriever, she made her way to the Big Apple in search of a fresh start after one of life’s most traumatic events: divorce. With a little help and encouragement from her brother-in-law and a “can-do” attitude, she landed her first job on Wall Street at ESI, a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley, as an institutional sales trader.
“There were 11 people on the trading desk at our Wall Street office,” she said. “And I had no idea what they were doing. But I loved the energy, the people, everything.”
It was love at first sight for McLaughlin. Thanks to her “I’ll do anything” attitude, a quarter-century love affair was born while matching trade tickets -a n affair that continues today.
One thing McLaughlin takes pride in is her ability to be a generalist. She was willing to perform any task on the desk, whether it was executing a trade or back-office work, and she did it gladly. That ability to adapt has been integral to her longevity.
“I’m passionate about keeping busy, doing whatever needs to be done,” she said. “And the upside was, the day was over before you blinked.”
And she has been busy. AT ESI, she was responsible for relationship management and business development with money managers and major banks. As the business became more complex, she led the creation of ESI’s Client Service Department, taking on soft dollar sales, management and administration.
And her flexibility has enabled her to endure several management and ownership changes, which included Morgan Stanley, International Bank of Japan and Bank of New York.
“Cultures and management change, and the secret to survival is that you have to be willing to morph into what was needed at the time,” she said.
