Rising Star Award
Julie Abbett
Deutsche Bank
Julie Abbett entered the financial services arena at the right time. The Rising Star finalist started working in the U.S. capital markets right when trading was moving from hands-on and phone-based dealing to a high-speed electronic market with formulas and equations making a growing number of the trades. And she wanted in.
After studying economics at the University of Connecticut and earning an M.B.A. in finance from New York University, she started as a consultant at Barra and then became a product developer at FactSet Research Systems. It was after visiting her clients and colleagues and seeing the trading floor in action that she saw her next move-and future career.
We would speak with clients and occasionally visit the trading floors. I loved the energy and the drive, Abbett said. It was on my bucket list of things to do.
In 2000, Abbett moved to Deutsche Asset Management for her first stint on the buyside. After DeAM, she was head of portfolio management at IndexIQ, where she managed a number of alternative ETF strategies prior to her current sales role on the sellside. She soon became a quant just as quantitative trading was about to transform Wall Street.
As a director and portfolio manager for a number of U.S. and global strategies inside DeAM/Deutsche Wealth Management, she oversaw the use of multi-factor quant models. Part of her mission is to push the envelope of ETF usage by institutional asset management firms. She currently serves as co-head of the New York chapter of Women in ETFs, an organization with more than 1,000 members.
Abbett uses her experience on the buyside now that she is on the opposite side of the deal. I really dont think of myself as a salesperson but more of a consultant, helping to serve clients, she said. I have been where they have been, and I have asked many of the same questions.
She clearly loves her job, especially the emerging role of ETFs in the marketplace. The ETF sales community is small but growing. I expect to see more growth as this industry matures, she said. I like the fact that it is fairly new and exciting.
