Melody Rollins advises anyone thinking about a career in finance to be “assertive and open-minded.” As global head of core institutional clients at $108 billion hedge fund manager Bridgewater Associates, those traits have helped her.
Rollins had no idea she would end up in finance. After a Sponsors for Educational Opportunity internship placement at Salomon Brothers, Rollins had an offer letter. But financial hardship hit her family and she fell behind on college tuition. She called Salomon to say she couldn’t accept and then-CEO Deryck Maughan stepped in to say they would cover costs. “I owe him a lot,” Rollins said.
Her first months on Wall Street were a culture shock. Rollins was living paycheck to paycheck, and it was the era when women still had to wear skirts to work. In fact, at one point, colleagues cut Rollins’ long skirt and told her to only wear ones above the knee. But Rollins persevered and established herself.
After heading back to school to pursue an MBA at MIT, she wanted to intern at PIMCO — a firm that didn’t have an MBA internship. “I started to ask for what I want,” she said. “I was bold and not afraid to ask, ‘will you make an internship program?’” Rollins ended up working at PIMCO for over 15 years.
After a stint at a startup private credit firm, Rollins joined Bridgewater in 2018 as a fellow in client services and came to see it as a place where “you are your best idea. It’s a true meritocracy.”
Rollins, who co-founded Women of Color in Investments, has been asked if it was harder being a woman or being Black while starting in the industry. “Being a woman by far was the hardest thing back then,” she said. “I just don't think men understood how to interact with women in this industry. It just was so new. That's not the case anymore.”
Rollins spends a lot of time talking with young women about how rewarding a career in finance can be and how you can bring your personality to work. “I've developed trust in a way that's authentic to me and to what my style is, and my truth is,” she said.