Spotlight on the Finance Committee

November 21, 2024

Building a self-sustaining source of funding to support the FWA’s mission 


The FWA runs myriad enrichment initiatives and networking events – from the Annual Summit and International Business Conference to the Pacesetter, Wall Street Exchange, financial literacy, mentoring and Back2Business programs. None of this would be possible without the Finance Committee, which monitors the operational costs of the association and manages the organization’s endowment, among other functions.


When Carol Chan joined the FWA, she quickly identified where she could make a difference, given her knowledge and expertise in pension and endowment investing across multiple asset classes. Sherree DeCovny, co-chair of the Marketing & Strategic Communications Committee, talked with Carol about her professional background, why she joined the FWA, her role as assistant treasurer, and how she has benefited from her membership.

Sherree: Carol, please tell us about yourself and your professional background.


Carol: I’m originally from Hong Kong. My sister is a doctor, and my brother was trained as an engineer, so my tiger parents wanted me to be a lawyer. However, my interests lie elsewhere. I enjoyed economics when I was in school, so I ended up majoring in business in college.


I started my career thinking that I would become a CFO, but a friend suggested that I should consider becoming a CFA charterholder. As I studied for the CFA exams, I found that I enjoyed doing research and analysis. After I did my MBA at the London Business School, I had the opportunity to change my career path and became an investor.


Currently, I’m the deputy chief investment officer at EY. I manage the retirement plan investments for over 92,000 active and retired staff and partners in the firm. During my tenure with EY, our retirement assets have grown from $8 billion to over $27 billion.


I love being an investor because the market is very dynamic. I’m always learning new things and meeting smart people. Over the years, I’ve honed my skills in the public markets, and become a subject matter expert on asset allocation, risk management while also being able to make informed decisions on private markets and alternative investments. I believe being well rounded in a variety of asset classes has helped to make me a better investor. 


In addition to my day job, I leverage my investment experience to help the FWA and two other nonprofit endowments, which focus on empowering women, environment/conservation and STEM respectively. It’s my passion to make a difference for others and in my communities. 


Sherree: Why did you decide to pursue a leadership role in the FWA?


Carol: When I first joined FWA in 2020, I intended to become a mentor for Baruch College and Seton Hall students. When I discovered that the FWA had a small endowment fund, I realized that I could leverage my work experience to help the organization grow the fund. To me, that’s a great way to give back. 


I was excited to join the Finance Committee as an assistant treasurer, which is a board position, because I believe in the FWA’s mission, and all our activities require funding.


Sherree: Please tell us about the Finance Committee and your role within it.


Carol: The Finance Committee meets monthly to discuss the FWA’s financials. Sometimes we collaborate with other committees. For example, we worked with the Operations Resource Committee (ORC) to modernize the FWA’s operating manual.


When I first joined the Finance Committee, we were working with a financial advisor, who in my opinion wasn’t serving our needs. I spoke to the other committee members, and we came to the consensus that we should do an RFP to solicit candidates from several firms. That was a heavy lift on my part. Ultimately, we hired our current financial advisor, who is from J.P. Morgan Private Bank.


Sherree: How have you benefitted from the FWA personally and professionally? 


Carol: I was late in realizing the benefits of having mentors and sponsors in my career, so when I joined the FWA, I participated in the Member2Member mentoring program. I was paired with a board member who had years of financial services experience and had just retired. She helped me with some challenges that I was facing at work and gave me good career advice. I’ve learned valuable leadership skills from fellow board members, and I’m grateful for the relationships that I have developed through the FWA.


Having been a mentor for the Baruch College and Seton Hall students has been personally rewarding. I came to the U.S. as an immigrant. I like to share my career, life and cultural experiences with minority students so they can benefit from the lessons I’ve learned over the years. For example, Asian women tend to keep our heads down, do our work and build technical skills. However, our contribution isn’t always recognized. I learned that you have to make yourself visible. I always encourage the students not to be shy in group settings and use their internships as opportunity for practice. For example, they should speak up at the beginning of meetings so that their presence is noticed, be the first to share ideas, and build relationships early and often.


Sherree: What would you like to see the FWA do in the future?


Carol: The FWA was originally established by women on Wall Street, but the organization’s mission is to advance women across the entire financial community. I would like to see our membership expanded to include women in finance functions across all industries. I would also like us to survey our constituents periodically to ensure that we offer events and programming that keep our members engaged and enable them to build skills to advance their careers. 


Sherree: What advice to you have for other members in terms of getting the most out of their FWA membership?


Carol: Being a member of a professional association is like managing your career. How much you get out of it depends on how much you put in. I’d like to see our members become more active in our many standing and programming committees, e.g. Fintech, Impact Investing. It’s a great opportunity to build skills and expertise, and network with likeminded women. 

Preparing for What's Next: Cailyn Kitchens and the Power of Mentorship

August 13, 2026
by Robert Brown "I believe that mentorship is incredibly valuable, especially during college as you are navigating a lot of changes and first-time experiences." For Cailyn Kitchens, a junior at Baruch College, those words aren't simply a reflection on her college experience. They've become the foundation of how she's prepared for her future. Following her junior-year internship at Scotiabank, Cailyn credits the Financial Women's Association's Baruch College Mentoring Program and her mentor, Laleh Bashirrad, Managing Director at BNP Paribas, with helping her approach one of the most pivotal chapters of her college journey with greater confidence, curiosity, and perspective.

Wall Street Exchange Interns Get an Inside Look at Strategic Communications

August 6, 2026
On July 7, 2026, interns in the FWA’s Wall Street Exchange (WSE) Program came together virtually for the fourth session of the summer, titled “Strategic Communications,” sponsored by Joele Frank. Jordan Resnick, HR Specialist, and Heather Wallach, Talent Acquisition Manager, introduced interns to Joele Frank and the world of strategic communications, a field many interns had never considered as part of the financial services landscape. Jordan and Heather explained that Joele Frank advises companies through their most consequential moments, from mergers and acquisitions to shareholder activism, restructuring, leadership transitions, and crisis response, ranking as the #1 U.S. M&A PR advisor and #1 shareholder activism defense advisor in the industry. To bring the firm’s work to life, Jordan and Heather walked interns through several high-profile engagements, including Joele Frank’s support of Warner Bros. Discovery, a current client, as an example of how the firm helps companies navigate high-stakes, high-visibility situations in real time. The discussion underscored that effective strategic communications require not just managing a narrative, but protecting a company’s credibility with every audience watching, from investors and employees to the media and the public. Jordan and Heather also broke down the many disciplines that fall under the strategic communications umbrella, including investor relations, corporate and media relations, governance and corporate stewardship, design, and digital strategy. They emphasized that the firm hires like a law firm, bringing on Account Associates directly out of undergrad, and encouraged interns interested in the field to build strong writing skills, stay current on financial news through outlets like The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg, and consider Joele Frank’s summer internship or full-time Account Associate programs as a path into the industry. Interns had the opportunity to ask questions throughout the presentation before breaking into small groups to discuss their key takeaways from the session and reflect on what they had learned so far this summer. Many interns shared that the session reshaped their understanding of what a career in PR actually looks like, moving past common misconceptions to reveal a discipline built on strategy, judgment, and relationships. Several groups also highlighted the session’s emphasis on soft skills, noting how much communication, adaptability, and emotional intelligence matter in a field so often mistaken for being purely about writing press releases. At the conclusion of the session, the WSE spun the wheel to award a CFA Society Student Membership, sponsored by the CFA Society, to Sarah Convery. Congrats, Sarah! A huge thank you to Jordan Resnick, Heather Wallach, and the entire Joele Frank team for giving interns a behind-the-scenes look at the strategic communications industry. The WSE Co-Chairs and Committee extend their sincere thanks and appreciation to the President’s Circle Firms, the Partnership Circle Firms, and the Friends of FWA for their unwavering support and generosity to the interns and the Wall Street Exchange Program. 

Wall Street Exchange Interns Learn Foundations for Professional Excellence

July 30, 2026
On June 23, 2026, the FWA's Wall Street Exchange (WSE) Program 2026 cohort gathered virtually for the third weekly session of the program. The session was sponsored by Knopman Marks, a boutique NYC-based firm known for its high-performance training for securities licensing exams. Brian Marks, Co-Founder and President of Knopman Marks & Highwire, led a practical, high-energy conversation titled "Foundations for Professional Excellence." The first topic that Brian discussed was the habits that drive a successful early career and why those habits matter well beyond an internship. The skills interns build now are the same ones that separate a good intern from a great one; and that later separate a good professional from a high performer. He described high performance, not as a matter of raw talent, but rather as a set of behaviors one can practice. The habits put in place early are the ones that compound. The interns who start practicing them now are the ones who carry them from an internship with limited responsibilities into executive-level responsibility later. The interns then reviewed a series of four credibility builders and four credibility killers, proactive behaviors that shape how senior professionals come to trust a young professional. Owning your mistakes and learning from them is a key credibility builder and surprising your manager with bad news at the last minute is a major credibility killer. The interns then rated themselves on a Strategic Action Matrix, a four-box framework charting how strategy: “Are you focused on the right things?” interacts with execution: “Are you doing the work to get there?”. He asked interns to consider one or two new habits they could put to work immediately. Brian impressed upon the interns that professional excellence is thinking strategically and executing well, while stepping outside their comfort zone, stretching past their limits and building resilience when the plan changes. Brian then introduced the five strategies in The Intern Success Playbook, emphasizing that interns are building their personal brand every day through what others observe. Whether it's staying focused instead of constantly checking a mobile phone or taking the initiative to connect with colleagues, everyday actions shape how others perceive them. His five strategies focused on working and communicating smarter, building authentic relationships, and paying close attention to perception and details. The interactive format kept energy high. Interns enjoyed the live Q&A, the quiz, and the chance to ask questions. A screen full of Zoom hearts spoke to the value they found in his advice. A huge thank you to Knopman Marks and Brian Marks for investing their time and expertise in the WSE 2026 cohort. The session concluded with the WSE Committee awarding intern Sarah Convery a CFA Student Annual Membership, sponsored by the CFA Society. The WSE Co-Chairs, Gerri Bostick and Laura Smith Dunaief, and the WSE Committee extend their sincere appreciation to Brian Marks and Knopman Marks for their support in making this virtual session a success. We also thank the FWA President Albana Theka, FWA leadership, volunteers, sponsoring firms, and participating employers for their continued commitment to providing this valuable experience to the next generation of financial professionals. 

Wall Street Exchange Interns Learn Networking Best Practices

July 23, 2026
Interns participating in the 2026 Wall Street Exchange (WSE) Program gathered virtually for the program’s second session, an interactive panel discussing “Networking Best Practices.” Sponsored by S&P Global, Northwestern Mutual, and Wells Fargo, the session brought together three financial services professionals to share how they have built and sustained meaningful relationships throughout their careers. The discussion was moderated by Dan Yu, Co-Founder of FutureProof You and Director of Partnerships at the talent development nonprofit Ascend Leadership . After a long career on Wall Street, Dan pivoted to recruiting and career coaching, work that has since taken him from coaching college students to C-level executives. He set an energetic, conversational tone for the panel, joined by Jena Angeliadis, Executive Director and Senior Lead Product Manager at Wells Fargo; Antonietta Gaudio, Recruiting Operations Manager at Northwestern Mutual; and Christina Siekierski, Senior Product Manager at S&P Global.  Jena traced her own path across American Express, JPMorgan Chase, and now Wells Fargo, encouraging interns to think of networking less as a transaction and more as an ongoing practice built on curiosity and follow-through. She pointed to her own career transitions, including launching the Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business card, as proof that relationships built early in a career often resurface in unexpected and valuable ways later on. Drawing on nearly 14 years in talent acquisition, Antonietta spoke about her “white glove” approach to building trust, urging interns to lead every interaction with empathy and authenticity rather than a polished pitch. She reminded the group that confidence in networking is built from within, and that the goal of any conversation should be genuine connection, not simply a foot in the door. Christina offered a product manager’s view of networking, describing how cross-functional relationships across product, commercial, and client teams at S&P Global have been just as important to her growth as relationships built outside the office. She encouraged interns to treat every colleague, not just senior leaders, as a connection worth investing in. To help interns put the panel’s advice into action, Dan closed the session with five “homework” assignments to complete in the weeks ahead: Update your LinkedIn profile Build a Linktree or dotcard Join or start a virtual networking group Reply to your three oldest unanswered text messages, using voice text Call someone you haven’t spoken with in a year A huge thank you to Dan Yu, Jena Angeliadis, Antonietta Gaudio, and Christina Siekierski, and to S&P Global, Northwestern Mutual, and Wells Fargo, for helping interns build the confidence and tools to network with purpose. At the conclusion of the session, the WSE Committee awarded a CFA Society New York student membership to Angela Lin. The WSE Co-Chairs and Committee extend their sincere thanks and appreciation to the President’s Circle Firms, the Partnership Circle Firms, and the Friends of FWA for their unwavering support and generosity to the interns and the Wall Street Exchange Program.
More Posts