In its 16th year, American Banker will be hosting their annual “Most Powerful Women in Banking” awards dinner. Protiviti is proud to be the exclusive Diamond Level sponsor for this prestigious event. In anticipation, we are excited to spotlight inspiring women who work within the financial services industry (FSI) here at Protiviti. While these women do all have their industry expertise in common, their stories are all unique and each offers wonderful perspective. We hope you enjoy our #ProtivitiWomenInFSI series!
Meet Amy, a Senior Manager in Risk & Compliance out of our New York office. An Accounting undergraduate in college, she started her career as a financial investigator with the Department of Treasury. From there, she grew her career switching to do regulatory work for a non-for-profit and later transaction monitoring before coming to Protiviti! Focused on Anti-Money Laundering (AML) work, Amy notes, “I’ve been fortunate at Protiviti because I’ve had so many opportunities. When I started in Anti-Money Laundering with the company, the team was small and we’ve grown so much!”
I had a chance to catch up with Amy and get her perspective on career and industry.
Talk to me about leadership. What does it mean to you and what makes a good leader?
” I think for me, it’s one of those things that when you see it, you know it. I do think some of the aspects that make a good leader are confidence, communication, clarity and community. We are such a team environment, so community is particularly important and I think the family environment really resonates with people.”
You help to lead the Diversity & Inclusion Employee Network in New York. Can you share some of your most impactful moments?
“Last year, we had an iGROWW* cornerstone event where we had a panel of female, client executives. It was really nice to be able to have that breakfast and hear and learn from the experiences of women who are so successful. Understanding the challenges that they’ve gone through and how they’ve prevailed was something that was relatable for the women in our company. It’s also it comforting to know that you’re not the only one who feels the way you do.
Another memory that really stands out is the Diversity & Inclusion month we had which focused on sharing the stories of our employees and building community. Throughout the month, we had several events from walking in the AIDS walk, a multi-cultural potluck, and a Parent’s Employee Network luncheon to discuss available benefits. Increasing the awareness of multicultural and diverse events in our community has been really special to me.”
*iGROWW = Protiviti’s Women’s Network
Have you felt you’ve faced any challenges in your career as a female?
“I think sometimes it’s difficult to self-promote and self-advertise, especially for women. It can be tough taking the approach that my efforts will be recognized versus communicating my efforts.”
I live for the success stories. Do you have any examples of your own?
“One project does come to mind for a client where we needed to help on-board a group of 60 people who had no defined procedures and weren’t sure what they were doing. Over the course of two-weekrs, myself and two other Protiviti employees worked hard to come up with over 100 pages of training documents and 3-day training. It was a crazy project but it’s really rewarding to think about, especially since of those 60 people, about half were Protiviti employees that were contracted!”
Rapid Fire
If you could have any job in the world, what job would you have? : “I’d want to lead a non-profit! Or, a yoga teacher, which I am already, but full-time. Who doesn’t love yoga?”
If you could only have one food for the rest of your life, what would that be? : “Bimbimbap – it’s like a Korean version of fried rice! I would recommend you try.”
On behalf of Protiviti, we’re proud of all that Amy has accomplished and we know she has many successes to come. Thank you for being a strong female leader in management and for inspiring us each day!
