Brandeis International Business School

Kim Meyers, MA'13: A woman in finance

Kim MeyersAs a student at Brandeis International Business School, Kim Myers was a Leadership Fellow, co-president of the Investment Club and a member of the winning team at the Boston CFA Institute Research Challenge. Today, Kim puts her financial skills to work at electronic trading company EBS BrokerTec.

What were some of your early influences?

I grew up an adopted child in a blue-collar neighborhood outside Detroit. My father worked in a car manufacturing plant and owned his own janitorial business; my mother was the first person in her family to get her associate degree. They wanted more for me though, and my education was a priority. When I turned 18, I met my birth mother. She was a nurse, a reservist in the military, and she held an elected position on the school board. It was inspiring. Both my mothers taught me about ambition, self-improvement and hard work.

Describe your career before Brandeis International Business School.

After college, I worked at a homeless shelter near Washington, D.C. I had opportunities to get involved in all parts of the organization including operations, marketing and fundraising. It was 2008, when the economy was terrible and many nonprofits were just scraping by. However, our organization had managed its endowment well and was able to expand its programming during a time of great need for our clients. This got me thinking about the impact of managing capital, the financial markets and business in general. I learned about Brandeis at an Idealist grad fair, and it seemed like a perfect fit.

"If you have energy and ideas and you're willing to work hard, there is nothing you can’t do at Brandeis."

You were active on campus.

If you have energy and ideas and you're willing to work hard, there is nothing you can’t do at Brandeis. Through my extracurricular activities, I became more confident in my abilities. Most important, I learned about leadership: how to motivate people, how to keep them engaged and how to bring out the best in a team.

What have you done professionally since Brandeis? 

I won a spot in State Street’s Professional Development Program, where I rotated through several of the company’s business units. It gave me a deep understanding of how a custody bank operates. Now I work in New York for a subsidiary of ICAP, the world’s largest interdealer broker. My job is to develop the business – essentially, to get clients to increase the volume and variety of products they trade on our platform.

What are some of the challenges you’ve faced as a woman in finance?

I don’t feel there’s a limit to my success, but since there are so few women leaders in our industry, this is an important issue. Recently a number of senior women in my field started a professional networking group for women in foreign exchange. I am starting to get more involved. My hope is that women in their 20s and 30s will be able to share ideas with these senior leaders and learn from them.

What’s your advice to women embarking on their careers? 

Be willing to take risks. Push yourself. Speak up in meetings, volunteer for leadership roles and when an opportunity presents itself, take it. The worst that will happen is that you make a mistake. But you will learn from that mistake and be stronger because of it.

Master of International Economics and Finance
Class of 2013, Leadership Fellow

Home Country
United States

Job
Money Market Sales Executive, EMEA NEX

Previous Experience
Professional Development Program, State Street; Boston CFA Institute Research Challenge, ICAP