JENNIFER REYNOLDS

LEARNING FROM DIVERSE POINTS OF VIEW IS HELPING HER CHANGE THE WAY FINANCIAL MARKETS PERCEIVE TALENT BY ANDY HOLLOWAY

Jen ni fer Reynolds graduated from her MBA program at McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Managementin 1998 assuming that the gender imbalance incorporate Canada’ s upper echelons was soon going to be a thing of the past. Her generation, she figured, would be the one to finally realize that women deserve leadership roles because there were so many of them graduating from universities and that times had changed. Almost 20 years later, little has apparently changed .“It’ s a bit shocking that wear en’ tab it further along than I thought we would be ,” she says.

Securities regulators in 11 provinces and territories in 2014 adopted a rule forcing publicly traded companies to report how many women were on their boards and in their executive suites. The Ontario Securities Commission a year later did a study of more than 700 TSX- listed issuers and found that more than half of them didn’t have a single woman on their board and 40% didn’t have any female executive. The results shouldn’ t have surprised anyone, but they did emphasize that women still lag behind their male counterparts in this country’ s power corridors.

Reynolds sees the issues first hand as CEO and president of Women in Capital Markets, the largest network of financial females in the country. But she also sees one of the roots of the issue: The MBA schools .“Part of the issue is that much like we in the capital markets industry need tore market, we need to re market the MBA, because it is a feeder for leadership roles ,” she says. “Let’s face it, people who have MBAs tendto end up in those types of roles. Women need to understand the importance of taking that sort of degree .”

But they don’ t, or at least not as much as they need to. It’ s certainly not the case that an MBA is a guaranteed key to the C-suite, but it can bean important stepping stone.

And, she adds, the collaborative and team approach that MB As are known for play to women’ s strengths, which is something business schools can play up in their marketing if they want to capture a better gender enrolment balance. If that happens, the corporate world will have a better chance to play catch-up.

In the meantime, however, there will be plenty of talk about meeting quot as, an idea Reynolds is not a fan of since they area“blunt instrument” when she’ s after a cultural change. Targets, she says, are a better way of achieving that kind of change as businesses are used to setting targets in other areas such as profitability, growth and the number of new products .“That’ s how we get better; we strive to meet those targets ,” she says. “We want people to make the best business decisions as they strive towards that target, but it’s aspirational, it’s a path, and we want to get therein the right way .”

Many women, of course, also have to worry about juggling their family responsibilities, something that has been cited for their lack of progress. But Reynolds, mother to six children, aged six to 12, in a blended family, points out men are taking more of an active role in their children’s lives and that mothers would be in a better position if they had a little more seniority since they would have more flexibility and the financial capacity to get some help when they need it.

But to get to that point, something has to change. Reynolds says many believed the problem would be solved organically, but there’s a growing recognition that the process needs help and that has led to some changes in managing talent. Whereas in the past, employees were put into sink-or-swim situations, managers are now expected to formally develop talent—and diverse talent at that — since it’s the most valuable resource a company has. “Our industry is undergoing significant change and it’ s only going to increase in the

MUCHLIKE WE IN THE CAPITAL MARKETS INDUSTRY NEEDTO REMARKET, WE NEED TO REMARKET THEMBA

next few years, so that’s giving innovation, creativity and ideas much higher value than they may have had in the past ,” she says .“You can hire talent, but you can watch it walk out the door if you don’t have the right people in the leadership roles .”

CLASS OF ‘98 MCGILL UNIVERSITY

FP Why did you want to do an MBA?

JR I absolutely wanted to go into capital markets. I had an undergrad in political science and economics — originally, I thought I was going to go into law, but then I had a bit of a change of heart — but felt I needed a stronger finance background that an MBA would give me, and a leg up in terms of interviewing for those jobs in the industry. I’ ve always had my aspirations to have great success in my career and play a leadership role, so I felt an MBA would certainly help me to get there. FP Did you work before getting your MBA?

JR I did a couple of years of work. It’s very important to get that work experience. It brings a better dynamic to the classroom. I spent most of my time working in the I.T. industry for a couple of years. We don’t all graduate knowing exactly what we want to do and Is tumbled across this thing called investment banking through a couple of friends who had gone into it and thought, wow, that sounds like a great job, I’ d love to try that out, so I made a plan to get there.

F PW hat challenges did you have to overcome to complete your degree?

JR I paid for my university degree so I worked 30 hours a week and did a full-time MBA and finished it ina year and a half, because financially, the faster I could get it done, the better it would be. I had to be extremely efficient in terms of the hours I spent working and studying,

STUDENTS SHOULDBE LOOKING FOR PROGRAMS WHERE THEY ARE GOING TO GET A REAL DIVERSITY IN THE ROOM

but I think that made me a better professional later on in life because I didn’ t have the luxury of wasting anytime and I also valued that degree. Sometimes when people pay for things for you, you don’t value them quite as much. If it’ s your dollars and sweat going into earning it, you really appreciate it. F PW hat was your favourite part of doing the MBA?

JR There were a lot of international students in the McGill MBA and I found that to be additive to the experience. Getting their different perspectives, having a broader view of the world and seeing the different work environments people came from added quite a bit to my education. In Canada, we need to think globally. Canadian executives tend to have less international experience than executive sin other parts of the developed world. McGill certainly opened my eyes on that front. It was a good lesson because doing my MBA and pretty much working full time, I had to seek out people who were probably in the same boat as me. I had to stop to create those relationships and really leverage the talents of people around me, find those people who could be the most productive in groups.

F PW hat advice do you have for prospective MBA students?

JR First of all, an MBA is a very valuable program. But it’ s important to pick the right one. They should be looking for programs where they are going to get a real diversity in the room and will get exposed to people who have different work experiences, cultural experiences, geographical diversity, and, whenever they can, seek out opportunities to get international experience. In the world we live into day, that’ s so important for senior managers to get. In terms of an investment, an MBA is an excellent investment. You want to make sure you have a real solid plan around what you are trying to achieve with the MBA, what job you’ re going to be getting and whether that is going to give you a good return at the end of the day.