Mentors helped Influential Women along the way. Honorees pay it forward.

After studying economics at what is now Simmons University, Krissy Pelletier “was lucky to work with a great mentor (and) portfolio manager” on the public market side of Wellington Management. She still remembers the words said by Michael Carmen to set the tone going forward on her first day as an administrative assistant.

“He said, ‘Krissy, you didn’t go to Simmons to get this great degree simply to be an administrative assistant. So tell me, what brought you to Wellington? What made you interested? Let’s talk about what I do and how we can work together.’ He wanted to see me succeed. He was interested in what I wanted to be a part of,” Pelletier said.

She would leave Wellington in 2006 as a stock-focused research associate, but Carmen, who is still at the $1.25 trillion firm as co-head of private investments, still serves as a mentor to her. Pelletier still checks in him now as a partner and head of endowments and foundations at the $1.7 trillion consultant NEPC — and as a member of Pensions & Investments’ 2024 class Influential Women in Institutional Investing.

Many of the 60 honorees were fortunate to have mentors, and credit them for opening the door to success and for listening and providing advice.

Mentors come in the form of bosses, senior colleagues, as well as college professors and alumni. Described as “people that helped me along the way and answered stupid questions,” these are people who “didn’t give up on me” and “gave me a chance,” said Ann Miletti, chief diversity officer and head of active equity at the $504.9 billion Allspring Global Investments.

Paying the help forward she received by mentoring others, Miletti said she gets “more out of it,” adding it’s nice to see the impact from “the other side.” Miletti and other honorees say it’s imperative for them to build a strong pipeline for younger individuals through formal and informal relationships in and out of the office.

But aside from mentoring, “are you really willing to help put this person forward for an opportunity?” Venus Phillips asked. To the managing director of the $4 billion Kresge Foundation, that’s sponsorship — and “often, diverse individuals are overmentored and undersponsored,” she added.

“What we need to do — as more senior people, especially women in the industry — is that when we have mentored someone to a point where we think they’re phenomenal, use your network to put them out there — whether it’s within your own organization or somewhere else within the field — (and) really usher across the finish line,” Phillips said.

Other than visiting a job board and “applying and hoping you get it,” sponsorships are a way many people obtain jobs, Phillips added, so “use your relationships in order to help your mentees — or, I prefer, sponsorees — get to that next level.”

When Pelletier joined NEPC in 2008, she worked for Cathy Konicki. Described by Pelletier as “a really great mentor,” Konicki “led the endowment and foundation team for a really long time” before retiring in 2022.

Konicki took Pelletier “under her wing, showed her the ropes” and challenged the new consultant “to do better and prepare in different ways.” But Pelletier noted her mentor was particularly receptive if one advocated for their interest or passion, as she did in Konicki’s office after a year or two.

Pelletier said she would say, “Cathy, here are the things that I’m less interested in, but let me tell you about things I’m really interested in. So if these opportunities come up, can you think of me? Can you put me in a position to participate? If this type of prospect walks in the door, can I be on the team? Can I help?”

In turn, Konicki would ask “why is that an interest?” and “why would you be successful working with that type of group?” Exchanges like that are what Pelletier said “helped me carve a path within endowments and foundations.” Having Konicki’s support for a career that “was always marrying my personal passion and professional interest” helped Pelletier understand that her path was “a good fit for me.”

Similarly, on Marcia Page’s journey to founding and leading Värde Partners and MPowered Capital, she said she had the benefit of a sponsor who made sure she “had visibility with senior leaders” at Cargill. Retiring as vice chair of the agricultural firm in 2006, Bob Lumpkins hired Page and early on gave her high-profile projects, including a task to evaluate a high-yield bond in the mid-‘80s, she said.

While Page was preparing research on the bond, Lumpkins told her that he thought she didn’t “understand this company very well” and needed her to “do additional work before coming in” to present to the investment committee, she said.

“My eyes, of course, welled up in tears. I thought ‘I can wing this a little bit,’ but I learned very quickly that you don’t wing things,” Page added. “You come prepared, and you bring excellence to everything you do.”

As a result of the evaluation Page prepared, Cargill purchased $5 million in bonds from what was then Drexel Burnham Lambert, and Cargill’s global financial trading desk added her to its team.

“I felt like I brought enough technical knowledge to bear to hold my own, but it was also an environment that was inclusive and where I was very much supported,” Page said. “It’s that combination that gave me a lot of confidence very early on in my career.”

Both alternative investment firms, Värde Partners manages more than $13 billion in assets, and MPowered Capital closed its first fund with $110 million in 2023.

Paying it forward

As an equity analyst starting her career at J.P. Morgan Asset Management in 1995, Anne-Marie Fink was guided by Susan Ulick. Ending her time at the firm as head of U.S. research in 2000, Ulick taught Fink how to interview people and frame questions to get the most information.

“You can’t necessarily go with your hardest question first,” Fink said, adding that there are “different ways to get people talking, and then lead into some of the tougher places where you really want to get somewhat more sensitive information.”

“Standing on the shoulders of giants” at the firm, Fink said Ulick was just one of the women who surrounded her. When Fink was pregnant, several shared with her “what their experiences were and how to deal with this issue, that issue — or some of the unknown things” of pregnancy, she said.

Now chief investment officer of private markets and funds alpha at the $156 billion State of Wisconsin Investment Board, Madison, Fink is paying her mentors’ work forward. At least once a year, she tries to hold one-on-one meetings over a meal with all 40 people who work with her. But what she does that is “slightly different” for some of the women — including one who is currently pregnant — is talk about the “challenges that are particular to women and some of the things that I’ve seen over the years,” Fink said.

Reflecting on the “trailblazing” of the women earlier in her career, Fink said “their willingness to share that was enormously helpful, so then I try to do that” to support the expectant mother.

Lauren Mathias, who is coming up at 20 years at Callan, said she looks up to Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Inga Sweet, who is a former boss. Both of them are mothers of three, and have “lived through the same challenges” — but Sweet did so “at a time when fewer women were in leadership positions,” Mathias noted.

“Seeing how it can be possible to build a career and become a leader at Callan while also being a mom was important for” Mathias, who added that Sweet “was very supportive of me while we grew our family, so it also taught me that trust, sincerity and kindness really can go a long way.” The COO was also an example of “who we want” at the more than $4 trillion consultant firm “now and in the future.”

Sharing kind words about Mathias, Sweet said she has flourished as a “wonderful colleague,” one who serves in two roles: one being senior vice president of global manager research, and the champion of “diversity, equity and belonging both within our firm and beyond” to make “our industry more inclusive.”

Now, Mathias said the “best way” for her to “express gratitude” is to help develop the next generation of leaders at the firm. She works with an analyst, but she also works with the junior members of the internal Diversity, Equity and Belonging Council.

“I always try to be open and available to them, show that same level of kindness and appreciation for their work at Callan, while also respecting their endeavors outside,” Mathias added.

As they were starting out, some honorees such as Shannon O’Leary did not have mentors and sponsors. Because of that, the CIO of the $1.8 billion Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation said that she feels “strongly that I need to help young people bridge to a mentoring solution.” If she can’t play that role herself, she will “help find somebody else to be that solution.”

As they enter the workforce, Generation Z workers are looking for employers that enable them to learn as well as produce meaningful work — not only for their employer but for society.

“A lot of the young people who are coming into the industry today work differently than a lot of us have,” Kresge’s Phillips said. These people “think differently and speak differently. They’re able to speak up for themselves and change.”

That’s a positive trend for Amy Chen — CIO of the Smithsonian Institution’s $2.6 billion endowment — who’s seeing members of Generation Z looking at the endowment and foundation space as a career opportunity. “This generation is thinking about social impact, and thinking about mission investing in general,” she added.

O’Leary speaks with young women at local high schools and colleges around Saint Paul, giving them “a little rousing pitch on ‘here’s why you should consider getting into this industry’ and ‘here’s why you should stay.’” Aside from securing good jobs and compensation within finance, women can “find meaning in the work,” so O’Leary will tell first-year business business students to explore the opportunity and not “discount your own ability.”

Help from outside

Some honorees mentor younger people through outside organizations. Working with SecureFutures, Allspring’s Miletti participated in a July speed mentorship event with the financial literacy program’s high school students.

Taking time out of their schedules during the summer, the young women whom Miletti met “were just sponges” as they listened to her and other senior women, she noted. Not asking for a lot but wanting to start their careers on the right foot, “they’re just looking for help,” she added.

Honorees’ employers have also sourced interns through programs such as the United Negro College Fund’s Lighted Pathways program. At the $112 billion Acadian Asset Management, several interns worked in the client group, which was CEO Kelly Young’s previous area of responsibility.

An alumna of the program has worked at Acadian for a few months as a full-time staffer. Excelling in the role, the early career woman is an “example of how do you translate best intentions and participation in these programs into actual action,” Young added.

Honorees including Chen and Phillips have also said they source interns or mentor young women through Girls Who Invest. Among the members of the 2024 class of Influential Women who support Girls Who Invest include the nonprofit’s CEO, Katherine Jollon Colsher.

As she inspires GWI’s beneficiaries or “scholars,” Colsher also inspires more junior colleagues like Heather Perceval, head of programs and career advancement, who pointed to the CEO’s energy and ability to find “the opportunity in every moment” to help the nonprofit. Colsher begins conversations through “what if” statements to get those who are junior to her to think big, and in turn, Perceval does the same.

Perceval said she was encouraged by Colsher to devise a plan to give scholars in GWI’s on-campus program “the opportunity to showcase their own stories” and get to know the nonprofit’s board members.

“In the end, we designed a day that did just that,” when board members and scholars “shared their journeys and stories with each other,” Perceval said. For the board members, “their dedication to our mission” was reinforced through newly built connections.