When Euromoney reporters set out to find the top 50 women in finance, they found the going tough. Identifying senior women in investment banking was especially difficult and it remains very much a man's world. The absence of some of the largest international investment banks from the top 50 is noticeable.
Borrowers, fund managers, multilateral institutions and central banks have a better track record, with notable successes such as Jessica Einhorn, one of five managing directors running the World Bank; Carol Galley, vice-chairman of Mercury Asset Management and Denmark's central bank governor, Bodil Nyboe Andersen.
The scarcity of women in high-flying senior management positions is what makes the achievements of the 50 women listed below more remarkable. As one participant said: "It's not sufficient to be as good as the men and work as hard; you always have to be better."
The women included in the Euromoney top 50 have all done exceptionally well in varied fields. Some have started their own businesses, some are the most respected figure in their area of expertise, while others have been in the vanguard of introducing new instruments, ideas and ways of doing business.
It's to be hoped that, by the next time Euromoney surveys top women in finance, more companies and institutions will have realized that they are missing out on a wealth of talent.
Jessica Einhorn, World Bank
Jessica Einhorn, who became one of five managing directors running the World Bank a year ago, has a guiding philosophy: "You should always have your dreams for the future. Don't dream about the past."
But Einhorn, who became the first woman vice-president at the World Bank when she was appointed treasurer in 1992, has a host of past accomplishments well worth dreaming about. A Fulbright Scholar, she also studied at the London School of Economics and received a PhD in politics from Princeton University. Before joining the World Bank in 1981, she worked in the US Treasury and the State Department. In banking circles, she is remembered as a major player in the creation of the first swap, engineered by Salomon Brothers for the World Bank, and as a conservative risk manager who kept the bank's finances impeccable.
According to Gary Perlin, the current treasurer of the bank: "Jessica's strengths derive from the clarity of her business vision. She has very strong principles." If some people mistake Einhorn's principles for stubbornness, her persuasive personality wins them over. Peter Peterson, who chairs both the Council on Foreign Relations and the Institute for International Economics, two think tanks on whose boards she sits, calls Einhorn "extremely effective ... She brings a kind of physical, psychological and intellectual energy to issues but always with a charm and a smile, rather than that kind of earnest intensity that puts people off."
Turning 50 this year, Einhorn is still looking to the challenges ahead and is thinking about "one more serious professional endeavour" before she retires. She remains equally passionate about finance "I love the energy and the analytics of the markets" and the world of intellect and public policy. Bringing the two sides together is a goal. "If you've accomplished enough to have respect, you can build a life of private and public boards that will give quite a lot of leverage to your best ideas about management and public policy," she says.
The status of women is another social issue that Einhorn cares about deeply. While she has been a golden girl at the World Bank she is keenly aware that the institution has been a difficult culture for women. She is too modest to consider herself a role model for the women who have risen to the top under World Bank president Jim Wolfensohn's new leadership, but she has always felt "a sense of responsibility to help the women coming up in the bank to take positions that help the issue of diversity."
Ana Patricia Botín, Banco Santander
Ana Patricia Botín may well become the first woman chairman of a major international bank. But this 36-year-old daughter of Banco Santander chairman Emilio Botín is not his heir apparent merely through family connections. "She is a highly regarded banker in her own right," says analyst Sheila Garrard at Lehman Brothers. "It would not be fair to say she owes her position entirely to who she is." In any event, she is likely to have a long apprenticeship before moving into the chairman's office like her grandfather, her father shows little inclination to take early retirement.
Since 1981 Botín has devoted her working life to the banking business. Starting at the age of 20, she worked her way from the credit management and financial analysis department of JP Morgan in Madrid to its capital markets and treasury operations in New York.
In 1988 she moved into the family bank and set up the investment banking and emerging markets division, now known as Santander Investment. The following year she became a full board member as well as a member of Banco Santander's executive committee. She is now chief executive officer of the group's investment banking operations.
Having experienced at first hand the inner workings of a major Wall Street investment bank, Botín has developed a sharply focused strategy for Santander Investment, taking into account the bank's natural advantages as well as its global limitations.
"The investment banking arm is structured around three strategic pillars," she explains. "We want to build up our network in Latin America, where our goal is to be one of the region's top three investment banks. We also aim to use Banco Santander's capital resources to back up our swift decision-making capabilities. Lastly, we want to generate distribution capacity in syndicated loans, equities and bonds, mainly in European and Asian markets."
The mother of three children, Botín devotes much of her free time to golf, where family connections have also proved a useful asset: her tutor was brother-in-law and professional golfer Severiano Ballesteros. She also finds time to play the piano and paint.
