Danni Wright : Community Growth and Financial Inclusivity

Join us on Elevate as we sit down with Danni Wright from JPMorgan Private Bank. Danni will discuss her dual role: leading operations in Utah and Idaho while championing the Utah JPMorgan Chase Market Leadership Team's efforts to uplift the community. You'll walk away with a deeper understanding of the bank's initiative, Women on the Move—a program dedicated to mentoring and empowering women within the company and beyond.

We explore the importance of mentorship and sponsorship in shaping successful careers in finance. Drawing from personal Wall Street experiences, we highlight how having the right mentors and sponsors can significantly influence your career path. Danni explains why early financial literacy and involvement are crucial, especially as more women gain wealth through various avenues like inheritance, education, and entrepreneurship. 

The episode also shines a spotlight on the influential leadership of Mary Erdos, CEO of Asset and Wealth Management at JPMorgan Chase, and other powerful women at the bank. We examine the economic and moral imperatives of promoting women in business, backed by compelling studies like McKinsey's. Tune in for an episode packed with insights, inspiration, and actionable advice for aspiring women leaders.

www.wliut.com
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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:05

Welcome to Elevate, a Women's Leadership Institute podcast, where we showcase stories, celebrate successes and shift culture. Welcome to another episode of Elevate, a Women's Leadership Institute podcast. We are excited to have another guest here today, but first I want to make sure you know about our Elevate Her Luncheon coming up on October 9th. If you want more information on that, please check out our website at wliutcom. We'd love to see you there Today. Our guest is Dani Wright. She is with JPMorgan Private Bank and leads Utah and Idaho. She also serves as the chairwoman for Utah JPMorgan Chase Market Leadership Team and that's a mouthful, but we'd love to welcome her here today. Thank you, it's great to be here, that is a mouthful.

Speaker 1 0:52

It is a mouthful yes, and I'd love you, in your own words, to kind of share who you are and maybe something personal about you?

Speaker 2 0:58

Great. Well, I'm Dani and, like you said, I lead the private bank in Utah and Idaho, but I also have the responsibility of organizing all lines of business, so everything from the Chase branches to the investment bank, to the business bank, the commercial bank. We are really lucky in Utah that we have all of those services here in Utah locally, but it's a big job to keep them all organized. So I get to serve with leaders from each of those businesses we meet about monthly and we really spend a lot of time talking through how we're going to show up in Utah, so how we're going to spend our philanthropic capital, how we're going to partner together to give clients a great experience here in Utah. And, frankly, a lot of our time is spent on all the boards and community organizations that we're part of, because a big part of our role is how we get back to Utah and help Utah grow.

Speaker 1 1:50

Perfect, we're going to get into that a little bit, hence our conversation today. Yeah, so it's over Utah and Idaho. Do you get Utah and Idaho both together, or you treat them as separate, or how does that work in your meetings they're really connected.

Speaker 2 1:59

They're technically separate. Yeah, I love going to Idaho. Idaho is growing. That's where I'm from. Is Idaho? Where are you from in Idaho, pocatello? Okay Well, yeah, we love that state and, yeah, there seems to be a lot of connections between the two states. There's people who've? Lived in both places. Businesses that are kind of covering both, but yeah, it's really growing there. Certainly, utah is growing at a really fast rate too, so we think about them differently but almost as like sister states is kind of the way that we cover them.

Speaker 1 2:25

Okay, awesome. And then something personal about you we might not know. Oh gosh, give us a peek into the personal Dani.

Speaker 2 2:32

Let's see my personal life. Well, frankly, I love everything in Utah we love skiing and biking and hiking and camping and everything like that. I love doing all that in Utah. I also spend a time in my career living in Colorado and when I was in Colorado we went on camping trip one time where we had kind of like a bear attack over two days up in Boulder and we were fine I mean we had to. It was pretty intense Actually. We had like our whole campsite ripped open from two black bears.

Speaker 1 3:06

Were you there at the time or you're out hiking.

Speaker 2 3:08

We were there. We were doing a bear hang just about 20 feet away, and then we came back from hanging up our food from the bears. So my preference is to do all of my hiking and camping in Utah, because I've never had a bear experience here.

Speaker 1 3:20

So there's your PSA. Yeah, wow, that's scary.

Speaker 2 3:25

Yeah, it was. People ask that question would you rather be in the woods with a bear or not? And I guess I've already been there, so I know the answer to that question for me.

Speaker 1 3:36

Okay, well, we haven't had a bear scare yet, so I love it I love it, I love it.

Speaker 2 3:51

Let's get into what you and JP Morgan leadership are doing to create opportunities for women and fostering an environment where talent, all talent, can thrive. Yeah, so I feel really lucky to work at JP Morgan because I think all the way from the top, all the way from our CEO, jamie Dimon, down to the level that I'm working at, it just feels like opportunities are created for all talent to thrive both genders, all different backgrounds, and so there's a lot of things internally that happen to make that happen. So everything from our benefits that we offer families, but then also, I would say we have a lot of programming that focuses on women specifically, and so we have a uh. One of one of our internal organizations is called women on the move, and there's a lot of sponsorship and mentoring that happens, and that's not just for employees, it's for clients too, um, and that's been around for over 10 years at this point, um, but we've. What we've started to see as a result of that is there's quite a few women that are in leadership roles now. Um, pretty much everywhere you look in the bank, you'll see at least 50% representation in the management ranks, and if we're not there, there's a good plan on how we're getting there Everywhere, from at the top down our board, all the way down to the business that I'm in, which is led by Mary Erdos, who's obviously a woman, and it's gotten to the point where I don't have to think too much about it.

Speaker 2 5:01

It just feels like a really natural way that we're doing business. So I feel like I've benefited from a great organization that's really focused on that, and for us it's not like a nice thing to do or the right thing to do. It just kind of feels like a business imperative, because our clients are male and female and so they want to be serviced by people who understand them. So anyway, so we see it as kind of a business imperative and I think we've had really good business outcomes because of that focus on promoting women in JP Morgan.

Speaker 1 5:28

Yeah, I love that fact. I have noticed that JP Morgan is very deliberate and thoughtful in the way that they've done this over the years, and also that you mentioned that it's a business imperative, because your clients are both men and women, right, so it makes sense to be able to have all of them thrive. Yeah, with your mentorship program. You said it's both for your clients and internally. Is there like cross-programming there, or the clients mentor clients, or how does that work?

Speaker 2 5:53

So we've done a lot to focus on female-led businesses, the women business owners, and we actually do quite a few events, not just here in Utah but across the globe, really to help women get access to the resources that they need. So we do, I would say we do a lot with female business owners and their companies and everything from. We help them become women-owned, certified, which helps them, you know, grow their businesses. But we also are always putting together events for them to network and get access to our resources and all of the things, obviously, that we offer through JP Morgan.

Speaker 2 6:26

And, yeah, I would say there's also women that I work with personally who want to expand their networks and who kind of want to meet other women like them. So we sometimes bring together women that are all focused on something like philanthropy or investing or something like that, and create places for them to be together and learn from each other. On the mentoring side, many of the women that I work with are either mentoring or being mentored by someone internally at JP Morgan, but then we try and give back to the community too. So I'm a mentor for a couple of programs here in Utah where I mentor women in the state, and I know quite a few other women in leadership that do something similar, so we do try to make it a pay it forward in the community, not just at JPMorgan.

Speaker 1 7:03

Yeah, I love that. It's been found that if women are mentored, they're more likely to get into leadership roles right, get promoted so. I appreciate that, that's definitely been the case. I'm speaking about the community you recently were. Jpmorgan Chase was recognized as 100 companies championing women. Oh yeah, and you spoke on the panel about what makes JPMorgan Chase a place that women want to work. Can you expand on?

Speaker 2 7:29

that I shared some of my personal experiences because, like I said so, I've been with JPMorgan for 15 years now, so I've seen, you know, kind of different things happen and I've seen it become a really wonderful place for women to work. What I shared on the panel is, of course, we have good like a good foundation. We've got great benefits. Like I said, we have great representation and leadership. One example I mentioned is every morning for my part of the bank, we all join a call. That is at 8 am New York time, and on that call you will always see diverse representation and at first you know there probably wasn't enough representation to create a diverse slate of people on the call, but now it's like you don't even think about it, like there's women leading businesses that are on the call and it's where we talk about what's going on in the economy and the markets and we kind of get prepared for the day so um, so that's kind of been an evolution, that was an intentional decision, and now it's like second nature, you don't even think about it, but you see representation on those calls.

Speaker 2 8:24

One of the other examples I shared when we were on the panel is I think management is really receptive to feedback of women and really of everyone. If you can come up with a good idea of ways to help employees, management's pretty open to it, and so, whether it's like, you know, fixing a certain system or making a process easier, kind of on the business side, or if you have an idea that could help you know, whether it's like family building benefits or things like that, I've found management to be really open to that, and so a lot of the benefits that we have now are because employees came together and said, hey, this is something we've looked into that we think could benefit us and hopefully, you know, improve retention and help families. So, anyways, I think the feedback loop is really alive and well, and that's something that gives me really strong feelings about where JP Morgan will go in the future, because I think we're going to continue to listen to our employees and our clients and adapt over time.

Speaker 1 9:17

Yeah, I love that you mentioned the feedback loop, because so often when women are, when companies are working towards this, there isn't a good feedback loop up. So often, when women are, when companies are working towards this, there isn't a good feedback loop up to management, up to people who can actually make the changes. So is that a formalized process in JPMorgan or what does that look like for companies who would like to institute that but might not have it right now?

Speaker 2 9:39

We do it formally and informally. Okay. So we had Jamie Dimon here in market probably six months ago and one thing he always tells us is, if you're in management, you have to get out there on the road and listen to your employees. So I think there's like informal ways where management's just out there trying to listen to employees and hear best practices or things that they need or things they need fixed. But then also we do internal employee opinion surveys where you can formally submit your feedback upwards and then each line of business kind of has a different way of doing that. In the private bank, where I work on a daily basis, they have like a specific place where you can send feedback and someone gets back to you and they actually review it with the CEO.

Speaker 1 10:17

It didn't go into the void, it didn't go into the ether.

Speaker 2 10:19

And I mean, I think it is a lot of time and effort from the CEO to kind of take the time to review all of those and understand, you know, what makes sense and what doesn't. And even if it's not a yes, we're going to implement this, it is at least a hey. We want to understand it more and understand where you're coming from and see if it's a solution that would make sense.

Speaker 2 10:36

So yeah, so I think the feedback loop works and I agree, I think it's important for all companies to have some kind of a feedback loop because chances are, your employees are going to be the first ones that come across an issue or a problem, and if they can come up with a solution to like, that's even better for you to know as a CEO.

Speaker 1 10:50

Absolutely One less problem you have to solve. Yeah, even as simple, as we've heard the story of a CEO sitting down with his female employees who just learned that there was no lock on the women's bathroom. Oh, because he wouldn't know that. Yeah, you wouldn't know that. Really simple thing, right. And as soon as he found out, he's like, well, let me fix that. So it can be all kinds of things. So I appreciate that JP Morgan has that. Yeah, so you mentioned that you've worked for JP Morgan for 15 years, both in Colorado and Utah and New York for most of that, somewhere in between and Texas for a little while.

Speaker 1 11:29

Okay, so all around. What has it been like being a female leader in finance in Utah and what do you do specifically in this capacity?

Speaker 2 11:33

I love being a woman in finance in Utah. I'm finding more of us. I actually love all the women that I've met here in the state of Utah. Some of the big banks here have women that are in really formal leadership positions and we kind of get together on certain things and work together. I think there's a ton of opportunity in Utah. So, even from just like a business mindset, moving back from New York to Utah was a no-brainer for me because I saw the growth here.

Speaker 2 12:00

I knew the community and I kind of wanted to bring like everything I've learned 15 years and bring it here locally. So that's been a real adventure and I really enjoy working with. You know business owners, people that are coming into wealth for the first time and need advice, and I can bring like my institutional knowledge from this huge organization and apply it locally. So I love that being a woman here. I mean, everyone knows the stats, we all know the studies that have been done.

Speaker 1 12:27

We have some work to do.

Equipping Women for Wealth Management

Speaker 2 12:28

We do have some data and some things to do better, which is why I like being part of the Women's Leadership Institute. I will tell you personally, my own experience has been a really amazing one. I was 22 years old, starting a career on Wall Street. I had so many great mentors, sponsors, both genders that really helped me and allowed me to stretch myself, to try new projects, to fail in some cases and learn from it, to be brought to tables where decisions were being made and to allow me to speak up and share my opinion, and so I'm a strong believer in paying it forward, and also I know that that worked for me.

Speaker 2 13:06

So I do try to create a team environment where that's possible here, and I'm very outspoken about the allies that we need as women. We cannot do it just by women trying to help women. There's not enough of us, especially in finance, and so I have found so many men to be incredibly helpful and supportive and wanting to understand the unique issues that we face here in Utah and broadly, and so I think anytime you can partner with someone who's like that, I think it's going to be. I think that is the way forward, and what I love about the Women's Leadership Institute is that is how we really think about it is. We're trying to solve some of these data issues by collaborating with, you know, men and women that have have influence and have power and have the ability to help change these things. Yeah, absolutely and important.

Speaker 1 13:53

I love that you mentioned early on in your career. You had both men and women who allowed you to practice leadership, right to be in the rooms to hear the conversations, and that is something I feel like Utah is getting better and better at with their women and it's showing up in those pipelines for women. So I love that you had that and, as we have people on, that seems to be a pretty common theme for people who've done really well, as they have those allies early on.

Speaker 2 14:20

Yeah, yeah, and one point I'll mention there, like the difference between mentorship and sponsorship is a big difference.

Speaker 1 14:26

Yes, please.

Speaker 2 14:27

So I think it's important to have mentors informally.

Speaker 2 14:30

formally, I think it's important for you to mentor people informally formally but also finding sponsors, people who are willing to put their neck out for you and are willing to pull you up with them, give you real opportunities. I think that's the piece that sometimes we overlook if we're just focusing on mentors. And so really what that means is finding people that have influence and power and can make decisions, that are willing to get to know you and understand what you're capable of and put you in positions where you can really grow. So I call that out because sometimes I think people think they're the same thing and they're really different.

Speaker 1 15:03

Agreed.

Speaker 2 15:04

And both are really important Agreed.

Speaker 1 15:06

They are used interchangeably often, but they are very different. Yeah, yeah, thank you for clarifying. It's interesting that you mentioned that more women will come into wealth over the next 10 years than ever before. Why is that and what are you doing about?

Speaker 2 15:22

it, so it's a cool phenomena.

Speaker 1 15:24

I'm excited about it.

Speaker 2 15:26

And so I talked about earlier how, like we, we have a pretty diverse workforce because we reflect the clients that we support In the private bank. We do wealth management. So we focus on, you know, wealthy individuals and families, endowments, foundations, nonprofits, people who have like real wealth management needs. So I would say broadly, in the next 10 years it's a bunch of things, it's, you know, inheritance certainly. It's more women entering the workforce, it's more women with higher education and degrees. That's helping them gain more earning power. More women are becoming entrepreneurs and growing successful businesses. I could go on and on and on. But there's many reasons that impact this number and or the number of, um, uh, the, the dollar value of wealth that is going to be transferred to the hands of women. The reason why it's so cool, why it's so important, is because women make different decisions about money.

Speaker 2 16:14

Yeah, that is exactly where I was going, and so you have to kind of understand. Especially being a wealth manager or someone that's in that space, you have to really understand it, um, to get in front of that need. So what we've been focused on, at least at JP Morgan and certainly here in Utah, is bringing women into the conversation early on, even if they are maybe in a relationship where their spouse has made the decisions in the past. I want them to come in because, should that spouse pass away, they're going to be in the driver's seat and so they need to kind of, and so many women are like I don't know.

Speaker 2 16:47

Yeah, and it's hard to start if you haven't been included, and I think a lot of that is kind of lowering the barriers of entry and making it a comfortable conversation, because I think sometimes in finance we get excited about all of our acronyms and we want to go really deep on all the knowledge that we have.

Speaker 2 16:59

It can be intimidating if you haven't been in the conversation before, and it doesn't need to be, so I think just kind of having a more approachable dialogue, I think, is the way to do it. So we're really intentional about bringing women to the table anytime that we can, and certainly for our women business owners. We're trying to connect them with the right resources to help them succeed. We've got a bunch of different lines at JP Morgan, so we've got the private bank, which I'm in, but we have the business bank, we have the commercial bank and there's so many resources that we have internally to help women succeed in their businesses. So that's another aspect that we focus on.

Speaker 2 17:35

But yeah, in general, I would just say every day I'm thinking about ways to include women in the conversation because, as we know, this wealth transfer is happening.

Speaker 2 17:42

We have to start now so that we're part of the discussion, so we're helping these women for the wealth they'll come into in the future and I think it's kind of exciting to see what women will do with all the wealth that they'll come into, and I think it's a great thing for the economy, I think it's a great thing for families, and so I think it's all positive and I think the other thing to just be aware of it's an interesting stat, but it's just something to kind of like put this into perspective Um, historically, if you look at women who have come into wealth and are either, you know, a spouse has passed or, um, or they're, you know, getting a liquidity event for the first time, 70% of them fire whoever they've been working with and find a new advisor, and typically it's because they want to start fresh, they want to work with somebody that understands them.

Speaker 2 18:28

Yeah, and I, I, I pay attention to that because, um, I think that says something about the way that women feel treated in finance today. Um, so it's just something to kind of be aware of and make sure that we're, you know, not unintentionally, um, uh, you know, keep keeping them away from the really important discussion at the table.

Speaker 1 18:45

That is a really interesting point. As you say that I'm running back through stories that I've heard of, how are we keeping women away? Maybe through the acronyms? Or maybe like I'll just take care of that. You know you don't need to understand that or whatever.

Speaker 1 18:59

It's a really good thing to keep top of mind as we look into this wealth. Yeah, what just along those lines with women, what have you seen as far as like when they get intimidated or when they might be hesitant to go to the next step or to have the next conversation, or what does that point look like for?

Speaker 2 19:26

I, so there's some data to back this up. But I think in general, women feel imposter syndrome a little bit more acutely than maybe their male colleagues, and so what that can look and feel like is maybe you're all at the table, we're all having the same conversation, we're using acronyms and we're getting deep on something, and perhaps everybody at the table actually has the same level of knowledge, but women will typically feel less equipped for it or feel a little bit more like they're the only one that doesn't know it, and I think that's just a cultural bias. But because of that, I think women are a little bit slower to make important decisions and maybe slower is not the right word a little bit more thoughtful, like they will spend more time mulling over a decision and making sure that it's the right one. So that has that's just at least a difference that I've perceived.

Speaker 2 20:10

It's probably not true of everyone, but the reason I bring it up is because I think, as you're talking about, like the important conversation happening at the table, I think sometimes, sometimes women are intimidated by it only because they may feel like they're the only one without experience in it, when really that may not be the case, and oftentimes it's not, but there's like. There's another stat that I think is kind of cool. I wrote it down just so I don't forget it. So women who invest okay, 68% of women invest outside of retirement, meaning that they are like investing on their own. And if you look at that overall performance compared to men making those same decisions, women outperform by 40 basis points, which means that they're being a little bit more thoughtful about how they're, and maybe thoughtful is the wrong word, but there's like I don't know, there's something to it, so anyway.

Speaker 2 20:59

So we've done a lot of research on that and why that might be and how to engage with women, and I'd love to see a world where there's no difference.

Speaker 2 21:08

But the reality is we live in a culture that kind of shapes the way that we think, and so we have to kind of be mindful of how we approach that conversation. But I will tell you, the women who I work with that are making investment decisions, or the women that I work with that are running companies, these are smart women. These are women who know their stuff and oftentimes have had to know or have had to, like, prove themselves against a male society, and so oftentimes they will know a little bit more or they will spend more time on something or do a little more research, and so I actually think that's been a really great thing for many of these women that are succeeding in their lives. But yeah, I think that's kind of fueled by just the culture that we live in and the reality that women face as they try to, you know, get more involved and come into the ranks.

Speaker 1 21:51

Yeah, thank you for explaining that On the top of my mind. I'm thinking of Melinda Gates, right? Melinda French Gates, and also Jeff Bezos' wife, and how they're giving and where they're giving to. It is typically different. Environment, women's issues, education those are some things that often women focus on. I know that we've done some studies around that as well.

Community Impact Through Strategic Philanthropy

Speaker 2 22:14

Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 1 22:15

Yeah, okay, so you and your team. You've touched on this a little bit, but you and your team serve on many Utah-based boards.

Speaker 2 22:24

Yeah, we do.

Speaker 1 22:25

Your philanthropy to remote business development in our state WI, of course being one of them. Can you share about your focus on underrepresented communities and what you're doing there?

Speaker 2 22:34

As I said earlier, like a big part of my role is how do we show up in our community? How do we show up in Utah? How are we going to grow Utah? And we just celebrated being in Utah for 100 years- which I think is like a little known fact. Yeah, so we started out as American Savings and Loan in 1923 and have grown and evolved and merged since then 1923.

Speaker 1 22:56

Okay, it is.

Speaker 2 22:57

Yeah, so we've been here for a long time, and I, yeah, so we've been here for a long time and I don't think we've necessarily been great about telling our story the whole time.

Speaker 2 23:02

But we're telling our story now and the way that we think about it as business leaders is we certainly need to give back to the community financially.

Speaker 2 23:11

So we have, like, our philanthropic dollars and we are very strategic about where we spend those dollars, because we do like to ensure that it's going to be sustainable, that it's money that is going to be able to fuel growth in a certain way. So we're deliberate about that. But the other thing we have is we have all these really capable employees who are smart, have time, want to help their communities, and so the way that we kind of organize ourselves is across different boards, committees, chambers, things that we're involved in. I think at one point we counted and there's like 70 different organizations where we're actively involved giving our time. There's multiple people who are part of the board or subcommittees and things like that, and when we focus on those, we focus on, obviously, like the chambers, a lot of organizations like Women's Leadership Institute, but we also focus on who are the underrepresented communities that need attention, and so like the Swazo Business Center is one that we focused on and we actually helped them with their application to become a CDFI.

Speaker 1 24:15

And that's important because Now explain that acronym for those that don't know.

Speaker 2 24:18

Community Development Financial. What's the I?

Speaker 1 24:21

I don't know. Institution maybe Okay, Community Development Financial. What's the I? I don't know.

Speaker 2 24:23

Institution maybe Okay, okay, but really what it means is JP Morgan Chase. We can make a lot of loans to businesses across the board. Sometimes there's like a part of the market that we can't really access because either those companies aren't yet bankable or they just don't fit our model, like we understand. We're a big institution and we have some boxes to fill, and so what we like to do is partner with CDFIs who can actually go further and help that part of the community get access to capital when they need.

Speaker 2 24:50

it become bankable over time, and so we intentionally invest in the organizations that are focused on that, versus trying to build it ourselves.

Speaker 2 24:59

So that's one example and that's wonderful. For anyone that doesn't know what the Swazo Business Center is, you should go learn about them. But yeah, and I could go on and on and on about the other community organizations that we're supporting, and the intent is really a business one, like an economic one. We believe if certain parts of the economy succeed, we all succeed. And, like I said, we can't give everywhere and we can't give our time to everything, but we do try to be intentional about the time that we're giving back.

Speaker 2 25:28

And so I love Utah, by the way, I have really loved my move back here. But I think for me the best way to get to know Utah and to really understand the challenges that we're facing in Utah and also the opportunities, is to get out there and like get your hands dirty, roll up your sleeves, like work on these different boards um boards, you know, volunteer efforts, anything you could do in the community Um. I've learned a lot from that. I've met a lot of really smart people that are working on Utah and it kind of helps expand what we're doing at JP Morgan by partnering with organizations here who care about the same thing.

Speaker 1 25:59

Right. Yeah, it's interesting. We talked a little bit about male allies and how it takes all of us to move things forward, and I'm also thinking about money. You also need money to move initiative projects and all those things forward. So I love that deliberate focus on helping the money get to the people who can make changes, helping empower them, helping them understand what the next step might be Right, I really appreciate that.

Speaker 2 26:24

Yeah, yeah, I think that's been um, it's been something that I have learned, um, and it's the money and the time together, and then also the connections too.

Speaker 1 26:34

Yeah.

Speaker 2 26:35

And we think about a lot of the community stuff that we do. We think about it as like return on investment, not for us but for the community, like what are they actually gaining from it? There's been a lot of, probably, in light of like what Melinda Gates is doing. There's like a lot of research is coming out about how effective are your philanthropic dollars, and so we focus on that too, because certainly we want to put dollars towards the right types of initiatives and the right organizations. But we have to be selective too. So we have to kind of put our dollars where we think the greatest impact can be felt and I wish I had way more money that I could give to everybody, but we kind of look at the biggest issues facing Utah and try to solve those.

Empowering Women in Finance and Leadership

Speaker 1 27:14

Great Thank you for sharing that. You talked about the chief just in the beginning. You briefly mentioned the chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase Asset and wealth management.

Speaker 2 27:26

These are really long titles.

Speaker 1 27:27

I'm reading them and that she has often been named one of the most powerful women in finance. How has her leadership at the top impacted JPMorgan as they operate? Do you feel like hers? Is that intentional, pivoting, or what has she brought to that?

Speaker 2 27:43

So you're talking about Mary Erdos, who is the CEO of Asset and Wealth Management and has been my privilege in life to just be near her in the same building, work on projects with her. A lot of time in my, a lot of time I spent in New York was working on things where I got to kind of hear from her and get her leadership, and so that was really a privilege.

Speaker 2 28:01

I would say she's just one of the most powerful people in finance period, regardless of gender, and the reason for it is she sets such a high bar of excellence, like her standards are incredibly high. She holds us to them and they're really like she's the person that's always in the back of my head of like we need to provide best service like best in class service to our clients.

Speaker 2 28:21

Okay, yeah and um, anyone that works in aspen wealth management can tell you that's sort of like how we all operate. Um, and I think just that constant like um, the constant thriving to be better, or the constant thriving to be like we don't want to be the biggest, we don't want to be like everything to everyone, we really want to be the best for our clients and provide the best services. That's kind of the mentality that she has. So certainly, you know she's she's I think it's like Barron's an American banker. Lots of people say that she's, you know, one of the most powerful women in finance, and I know that to be true. But I think it's even more than that. It's. It's. She has built an incredible organization, she has amazing people working for her and she just is the drive that kind of like keeps the whole machine running, and so we're really lucky to have her leadership.

Speaker 1 29:05

Yeah, and it sounds like she's pretty clear on what her expectations are and, as far as leadership strengths, pretty positive just from what you've mentioned?

Speaker 2 29:14

Oh, absolutely yeah.

Speaker 1 29:16

Yeah, I love that. I love always calling out women who are doing amazing things.

Speaker 2 29:21

Yeah, and, by the way, we have a lot of really incredibly powerful women at JP Morgan Chase that I'm able to look up to and kind of to what we were talking about earlier. I do think that matters, like it mattered to me when I wanted to work at this big organization. It mattered that you know Mary was in a leadership role there, because if I see her doing that, you know I'm thinking I can do that or you know there's there's possibility for me to to move up the ranks here. And if you look at kind of like I mentioned earlier, like our operating committee or our board, there's really incredible women there too, and I think it's something again that I don't actively think about. I guess I don't really think like I'm being led by a woman or anything like that. They're just really powerful leaders who have really earned those roles, and so I love working in an organization that just has that diversity at the top.

Speaker 1 30:11

Yeah, like you said, with your everyday phone calls, it's started out and now you're like it's always diverse, different perspectives. That's just how it is now. As we finish up, dani, is there anything else that you'd like to share with women who are wanting to go into finance, or women who are wanting to fund their businesses and their great ideas, or women who want to get on boards to expand their reach and influences Anything else you'd like to share with them before we close?

Speaker 2 30:39

There's a lot of resources available and there's a lot of people who are really interested in helping, and it's just a matter of like finding that niche for you and also getting the right support system around you, and so I always encourage women just to like raise a hand, ask, like volunteer for something, try and get connected to the right people. Um, I am often surprised by how many women I find that are like pretty far along in their career or pretty far along in their business and really haven't tapped into like the amazing resources that exist, not only just here in the state of Utah, but like broadly, and I wish that I could reach all of them and like give them all the help that they need.

Speaker 2 31:16

But I'm only one person, so I really do think like tapping into Women's Leadership Institute obviously has incredible programming to help women like succeed in their careers and, I think you know, help anyone that wants to go into politics. Certainly there's a track there. But getting involved in some of these organizations, I think gives you best access to a lot of the resources that exist, and so I want to make sure people make good use of those, because I do think they're helpful.

Economic Impact of Empowering Women

Speaker 2 31:46

And then like the last thing I would say back to kind of imposter syndrome is like you can do it um. I mean, like I said, the women that I work with, like they, they're all incredibly capable, powerful women and you know, maybe they didn't feel that way, but when they have the opportunity to sit in a leadership role, like they act, act that way, they know the right um things to do. So, anyways, I I I hope that more women get into leadership and um and have wonderful, amazing careers, get access to wealth, um all the great things that we all hope for. Women and um. I know we have a lot to change and a lot of work to do, but I think in the meantime we have some great talent here in Utah and so I'm hoping that more women succeed.

Speaker 1 32:23

Yeah, I love that idea of just like reaching out, trying asking the questions because there are resources available.

Speaker 2 32:31

Yeah.

Speaker 1 32:31

But JPMorgan Chase, is there like a website or somewhere that they can? I should have looked that up before I got here. I'm sure we do. We'll put them in the show notes.

Speaker 2 32:37

Yeah, we'll put them in the show notes. I think we have, like I said, women on the Move. It's a great organization. It has a lot of access to things, but then also just any touchpoint you have to JP Morgan Chase, if you're a woman who runs a business or just wants to get more involved, you can ask your banker. They will definitely put you in touch with resources and certainly we're not the only bank organizations here in Utah that are um, that are focused on just helping women succeed in in many different ways.

Speaker 2 33:08

And, um, I'm really proud to be on the board of the Women's Leadership Institute. By the way, we love having you. Well, um, it's been a privilege because there's so many people there that are really focused on promoting women within our state and, um, uh, I just think it's an important thing to be part of. But, but I think the real reason it's important is because we all want to grow the state and we know the financial impact of women who are succeeding in their companies, who are getting promoted, being put in leadership.

Speaker 2 33:30

We talked about something in our board meeting on Friday. It's a McKinsey study. It's not that old, but it just looks at when companies do the things that promote women and retain women, there's like a 25% increase in profitability and that's because you retain talent. Decisions are made differently. So I do think there is a financial component of it that would be wise for companies to take a look at. But I say that only because this isn't something I'm just doing because I'm altruistic and love women, although I do think it's important. But I think this is one of the keys to success that will help Utah grow to the next level, and so that's why I'm focused on it.

Speaker 1 34:05

I love that you brought that up, because that also came up in our retreat right. Like yes, we want this to be something that we do for the good of mankind, but also it really has impact it has impact on your bottom line. It's a business imperative. You can grow the state through wealth management, so I think both of those together. So thank you for pointing that out Absolutely. Thank you, dani, appreciate it, thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 34:30

This was a really wonderful conversation, thank you.