No More Women on Top
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New York Magazine profiles the rise and fall of Zoe Cruz, expected to become the next CEO of Morgan Stanley. So what happened to the only woman in line for a Wall Street firm's top spot?
The short story: Cruz was responsible for a proprietary trading position in mortgages that turned sour when the market tanked.
The long story: Cruz (nicknamed Cruz Missile) was for a long time considered to be the heir apparent to John Mack "the Knife" until the sub-prime debacle. By that time, she had made sufficient enemies on her way up - be it through her personality or merely being a woman clearly favoured by the firms CEO is arguable - to lack support within in the bank. Her orders to cut mortgage positions were not followed immediately, and Morgan Stanley ended up sitting on a losing position. A position in fact losing so much money that somebody had to go over it. And once it boiled down to it being her or Mack, his proposal to remove her was happily accepted by the board - many of which dissented her.
The article says that "She was fired at a time when women on Wall Street were starting to wonder - after more than a quarter-century of getting M.B.A.'s and slugging it out in the firms' trenches - when one of them was finally going to make it to the CEO's office. And she was fired at a time when the first serious female candidate is running for the presidency and women's anxieties about competing in a man's world are playing out on the national stage. Cruz, of course, would prefer to be seen as an executive rather than a female executive. But it's impossible, at this point, to make the distinction."
And most discouragingly, the article reminds us of the state of senior women in finance.
"More important than the number of women in the field, however, are the positions they hold. There are very few women in the highest levels of management at any of the big Wall Street firms. Goldman has three women on its management committee of 29, but only one of those positions wields any real power - the others are general counsel and a hedge-fund liaison. Similarly, the two women in upper management at Merrill Lynch work in public affairs and as general counsel. Respectable jobs, certainly, but not jobs that lead to CEO. Citigroup's Sallie Krawcheck was recently moved from CFO to a less high-profile position. Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers have one woman each in upper management, JPMorgan has two, Credit Suisse has none."
Click here to read the full story on New York Magazine.
The long story: Cruz (nicknamed Cruz Missile) was for a long time considered to be the heir apparent to John Mack "the Knife" until the sub-prime debacle. By that time, she had made sufficient enemies on her way up - be it through her personality or merely being a woman clearly favoured by the firms CEO is arguable - to lack support within in the bank. Her orders to cut mortgage positions were not followed immediately, and Morgan Stanley ended up sitting on a losing position. A position in fact losing so much money that somebody had to go over it. And once it boiled down to it being her or Mack, his proposal to remove her was happily accepted by the board - many of which dissented her.
The article says that "She was fired at a time when women on Wall Street were starting to wonder - after more than a quarter-century of getting M.B.A.'s and slugging it out in the firms' trenches - when one of them was finally going to make it to the CEO's office. And she was fired at a time when the first serious female candidate is running for the presidency and women's anxieties about competing in a man's world are playing out on the national stage. Cruz, of course, would prefer to be seen as an executive rather than a female executive. But it's impossible, at this point, to make the distinction."
And most discouragingly, the article reminds us of the state of senior women in finance.
"More important than the number of women in the field, however, are the positions they hold. There are very few women in the highest levels of management at any of the big Wall Street firms. Goldman has three women on its management committee of 29, but only one of those positions wields any real power - the others are general counsel and a hedge-fund liaison. Similarly, the two women in upper management at Merrill Lynch work in public affairs and as general counsel. Respectable jobs, certainly, but not jobs that lead to CEO. Citigroup's Sallie Krawcheck was recently moved from CFO to a less high-profile position. Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers have one woman each in upper management, JPMorgan has two, Credit Suisse has none."
Click here to read the full story on New York Magazine.
