Excellence in Leadership Award
Jennifer Nayar
Firm:REDI GLOBAL TECHNOLOGIES
It’s literally a tale of rags to riches for Jennifer Nayar, who at the age of 16 left school, entered the workforce and helped her single-parent family make ends meet.
And Nayar never looked back, doing whatever was required of her with the singular focus and tenacity for which she would come to be known. As she told Traders, her ability to meet challenges was forged at an early age.
“Money was a bit tight growing up,” Nayar said. “I had to go to work straight out of high school and wound up at a construction company, running their office.”
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And that’s where her journey began – managing paper workflow and personalities. But thanks to a bit of good timing and her abilities, she landed a job in London at the city’s stock exchange. Back then in the late 1980s, Nayar recalled how even as trading was entering the electronic era, it in many ways remained a man’s world, consequently relegating her to the human resources unit.
“As a female, I couldn’t wear trousers and wasn’t even allowed to walk on the trading floor during business hours ? it was very restrictive,” Nayar said.
So Nayar let her work ethic and tenacity do the talking. She didn’t dwell on whether a particular job was “man’s work” or “women’s work” – she simply identified areas where she thought she could add value and did it.
“I just tried to do whatever it took to get the job done, which is a philosophy I very much continue to follow. I did not allow myself to get sidetracked by anyone’s prejudices.”
That includes never attending university.
Nayar then moved to client services, utilizing her people skills and learning all she could about the then-new electronic trading systems. After training the very traders who originally shunned her, Nayar moved to product management and then the technology side of the business.
After leaving the London Stock Exchange, Nayar moved to NYFIX, another high-pressure job where she attempted to help wherever she could, obstacles be damned. At NYFIX at the time, business processes and procedures were sorely lacking, with the overall organization suffering as a result. So seeing an opportunity to lead, Nayar worked to help shape the team from the ground up.
“NYFIX was in quite a bit of distress at that time, but there was no point in getting caught up in the drama,” she said. “So instead we focused on finding good, smart people and methodically addressing the tasks at hand, which ultimately helped us right the ship.”
Leading by example and embracing whatever task she is charged with, Nayar just does it. And as REDI Global Technologies’ chief of staff, Nayar remains committed to facing the challenges the newly independent and growing firm faces. While trading continues to evolve and new challenges arrive daily, her approach stays the same – build a solid group, set measurable goals and focus only on what’s important.
As Nayar put it: “I learned long ago that quality people who’ve been empowered to lead make all the difference in the world.”
