Her Story
About Cheryl
I've been in the financial services industry for 30 years, working in global sales management for T. Rowe Price, a trillion dollar asset manager. My work focuses on improving seller and client experience, exploring technologies and innovations, and thinking about how the future of work is evolving in the asset management industry - which I find to be such a disruptive time right now. One of my most notable achievements has been finding how we use AI across our sales ecosystem and being a speaker on how enablement of the future transforms the ways that we work. Fifteen years ago, I founded my own nonprofit because I was really frustrated with how other organizations were run. We do programs in Kakuma, a refugee camp in Kenya, where we've built vocational training centers and teach women new skills across the camp. In Ghana, we've done nursing scholarships, vocational training, and community development. What I love most about my careers is that I didn't pay attention to what people told me to do. I grew up with my dad working 3 jobs, and my parents are not college educated. I didn't know anything about the business, and people told me I had to choose one or the other. I've built my careers on blazing my own path, and I think there's great synergy between my corporate life and my humanitarian life - both deeply rooted in humanity and a deep sense of accountability to be a good human.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Cheryl
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to seeing my parents - my dad worked 3 jobs, and some people could look at that and say wow, that's a lot, but they took it as such a deep sense of responsibility and love. I think that you can bring care and humanity into all aspects, even those that seem a little bit colder, or linear, or technical. Most often, my success is my human factor - being able to connect the dots, being able to listen, and kind of drive to the desired place where people want to go.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I received was more about what wasn't said than what was said. I would say to be curious.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say a couple things. One, to not conform, and to realize that you can blaze your own path. The second is to know your values and know what you're willing to compromise on and what you're going to stay true to, and don't waver from that. Those are not easy things to do - sometimes you might get pushed, but you should still persevere. And the third is to really be mindful of what societal norms you're accepting that are being placed on you, versus trying to debunk that. I think there's a great amount of power in that.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I think it's still pretty male-dominated. I think that there are, in some cases, pretty strong personas that people feel like you should embody. So continuing to stay true to who I am at the level and career trajectory I've been on continues to be something I stay focused on.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I feel accountable to be a good human being - to connect, to drive outcomes, whether it's personally or professionally, that just make our environments better. I don't just mean physical environment, but whether it's a work environment or the humanitarian work I do. I think people understanding the value that they can bring gets so lost in so many aspects of our world and in our professional lives, and I take a deep sense of accountability of making sure people know the value that they're delivering.
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