Here are the two Charitable Award recipients for Traders Magazine’s inaugural "Wall Street Women: A Celebration of Excellence." An independent advisory committee of women chose the winners from nominations by the industry. The 16 awards will be presented on Nov. 10 at the New York Academy of Sciences.
See Chart: Winners
The Charitable Works Award is presented to high-performing Wall Street Women who devote considerable resources and energy to philanthropic causes. Other winners will be announced here throughout the next week.
Lisa Utasi
Firm: ClearBridge Advisors
Years in Industry: 25
Previous Firms: E.F. Hutton
Status: Director and Senior Trader
Give much. Get much. Expect little. Accomplish much.
Those could be the themes of Lisa Utasi’s professional and personal life.
In at least one way, Utasi, a director and senior equity trader with ClearBridge Advisors, is among the most outstanding recipients of the Traders Magazine Women on Wall Street awards.
That’s because she has achieved remarkable things in her work with charities, as well as succeeding as a trader. Asked how she did it, she explained that it was owing to all the brokers she worked with in the early years of her career.
"The buyside and the sellside had a strong camaraderie, and the lessons of trading were learned in the trenches. I was also truly lucky to have met and worked with a great group of women traders who served as mentors," Utasi said. These mentors included Alice Davis, Grace McLoughlin, Fern McHugh, Cindy Heigman and Mary McDermott-Holland.
While she prospered, Utasi’s participation in myriad charities has been remarkable.
"Lisa’s dedication to charitable endeavors goes beyond money," a colleague marveled. "It is next to impossible to describe the impact Lisa has had on various charities."
Indeed, one task is impossible: listing all the charities she has and continues to work for in a life that must include lots of vitamins and very little sleep.
These charities include Eden Autism Services, Project YESS Leadership, Nativity Mission Center, SCO Family of Services, the Wounded Warrior Project and Wings Over Wall Street among others.
As is true with almost anyone who accomplishes much in any field, the more Utasi accomplishes, the more she channels praise elsewhere.
Said Utasi: "I truly appreciate my family’s, friends’ and colleagues’ support and their unending generosity in all I do."
Stacey Lee
Firm: Liquidnet
Years in Industry: 18
Previous Firms: Jennison Associates, Prudential, Investment Technology Group
Status: Director of Institutional Equity Sales
High school often means memories of football games and pep rallies, but for Stacey Lee, it recalls a time when she began volunteering for blood drives, student causes and helping the elderly.
She has continued doing the same to this day-not just serving institutional advisors and hedge funds, but also giving her time and energy to children. Lee has been an active member of the New York Junior League for more than 15 years, where she has worked with quadriplegic children. As the mother of two children of her own, she finds that serving the abandoned children of NYJL is second nature.
"This is where my heart is," Lee said of NYJL. She came to the organization with college friends and saw it originally as a way to meet new people after moving to New York City from Long Island.
But working with children who painted without the use of their limbs, helping children without parents do their homework and sometimes just playing games with children-these things changed her. Now, service is a way of life for her, and she is unabashed about spreading the benefits of service.
"I think Wall Street has a culture of service that is extremely underrepresented," she said. "People do not know about the good the Street does."
And that is something she hopes to change, starting in her own home. While too young to serve themselves, Lee’s two daughters will get involved in charitable work when they are older, she said.
Lee has also gotten involved in hospitals, such as Coler-Goldwater and New York Presbyterian, while continuing her work at NYJL. Words, she said, can hardly express the joy she gets from her involvement.
"Your problems are just eclipsed by some of the things that befall other people," she said. "I feel that the more you do, the more you want to do. The value you can add to someone’s life is immeasurable."
