SHE-WOLF OF WALL ST
Scots mum to become ‘world’s most powerful female banker’
EARLY on in her banking career, Jane Fraser noticed that the most successful women in the profession looked scary, dressed like men and seemed miserable.
Deciding that must never happen to her, the Fife-born economics graduate left the industry.
It didn’t last. A quarter of a century on, Miss Fraser, 53, has become perhaps the most successful female banker in the world – entirely on her own terms.
The mother of two, from St Andrews, has just been named as the new chief executive of Citigroup, making her the first woman to head up a Wall Street bank.
And she got there not by trying to behave like a man in the testosterone-filled boardrooms of the banking sector – but by playing to her female strengths. ‘Women want to win as much as men,’ she told one interviewer. ‘They just don’t need all the badges.’
Miss Fraser, who worked part-time when her sons were infants, said another factor in her success was the ability to say no.
She added: ‘It sounds ridiculous now, but I can remember saying to my clients, “I can’t do the meeting on Thursday, because Thursand day’s the day that I’m at home with my son”. Then they’d always say, “Oh, no problem”. It made you human.
‘If you are advising people and trying to help them change and you don’t have humanity, you’re just not relevant.’
Miss Fraser studied economics at Cambridge University before becoming a mergers and acquisitions analyst at Goldman Sachs in London.
Two years later she became a brokerage associate in Madrid – and two years after that enrolled at Harvard Business School.
It was after completing her course there that she had second thoughts about returning to banking at Goldman’s.
Few women had senior jobs there, she said. ‘And those who were there were rather scary… dressing practically like a man, or in suits that were horrendous. And none of them were happy.’ So she joined consulting firm McKinsey & Company and balanced her career with bringing up her sons, now 18 20.
In a speech in Miami, she told the audience about taking a call from her boss, telling her she had been made a partner two weeks after giving birth. She said she rushed through the conversation, thinking: ‘I have to feed the baby.’
By 2008 it was clear to Miss Fraser and her Cuban husband Alberto Piedra that they could not both be high fliers in the business world at the same time. So he retired as head of global banking at Dresdner Kleinwort and his wife’s ascent of the banking ladder went into overdrive.
She said: ‘He is a decade older than me and he said, “Okay, I’ll be the one who will go and do something different”. There was no way we could carry on.
‘That was the peak of the [financial] crisis. His bank was sold and he moved into working for boards and investing, and also spending more time with the kids.’
By now a rising star at Citigroup, Miss Fraser’s biggest challenge came in 2015 when she was appointed boss of its Latin America arm, responsible for operations in 24 countries.
Many feared fireworks as macho banking executives in countries such Mexico found themselves working under a female boss. Luckily Miss Fraser’s husband was well placed to advise.
She recalled: ‘He said, “We’re going to buy an elegant red dress, slightly higher heels than you’re used to, and a new haircut, and you’re going to stride on the stage”. He knew that if I could stride out there and be comfortable in who I am, and confident around that and transmitting something that was “I am who I am”, that would be a benefit.’
Five years on and earning £9.7million a year, Miss Fraser is the current president and head of the global consumer division.
But, following an announcement this week, she is due to become the chief executive when the present CEO, Michael Corbat, retires in February.
Asked how she switches off from work, she once said she ‘chopped vegetables’ and played golf.
Miss Fraser, who has US citizenship, said she moved to the States because she saw more opportunities for women there.
Last year, Alison Rose was named Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive, making her the first woman to run any of Britain’s big four banks.
‘Stride out there and be comfortable’