Women in Financial Services
Inspiring Women - Priscila Rocco Ignacio - Realising My Dreams
Mark.Freed / 10 Sep 2018
Inspiring Women - Priscila Rocco Ignacio - Realising My Dreams
My career has taken me from Brazil to England, and from law firms to financial services. I’ve worked hard to become a specialist in my field and I feel as though I’ve seized career opportunities as they’ve come along. My career does feel like a journey, both geographically and metaphorically, and, like so many others, it hasn’t always been a straight path.
Realising my dreams
When I was starting out I quickly realised two dreams: to study law at the University of São Paolo, the most prestigious law school in Brazil; and then to secure a scholarship at the University of Leeds, England, to study law. The latter was to study English law, living with British students and really immersing myself in British culture. I returned to São Paolo to write my dissertation on the impact of precedents and English law on the Brazilian legal system* (gaining the highest mark possible).
After about six years of working for law firms in São Paolo, I came to King’s College, London to complete a masters in the Law of International Finance and this is when I first realised that I wanted to work with derivatives – a decision that has guided the rest of my career.
I realised that to expand my knowledge and experience of derivative products, I would need to work for a bank. Itaú BBA was a leading player in the world of derivatives in Brazil and hired me to work within their in-house legal team for an impressive (female) boss, at the top of her game. She really pushed and encouraged me, providing me with huge learning opportunities - I learnt a great deal from her during my time there.
After a year, I was headhunted by Barclays Bank Brazil and I moved there to work in their legal team, one of only four lawyers. My role was to be responsible for derivatives coverage in sales, trading and structuring. This was a fantastic career step for me, bringing with it more responsibility and greater exposure to senior management, including the CEO, and a wide variety of teams.
I was very happy there, building my knowledge and taking over the legal coverage on the private side of the business as well. And then, out of the blue, the chance to achieve my most recent dream, came along.
Moving to London
Planning a trip to London to visit friends, it was agreed that I would also meet some of my Barclays’ counterparts. Once there, I met with senior directors and one of them asked why I didn’t come to work in London. I’d thought this impossible as I wasn’t qualified in English law but he explained that my skill set and expertise would be great in Compliance Advisory. He introduced me to a director within Compliance who by coincidence was looking for someone with my background. I hurriedly bought some clothes suitable for interview and had four whilst on vacation!
In January 2015 I moved to England to work in Barclays’ Equities Derivatives Compliance Advisory where I stayed for almost three years. I now work as Head of Structured Products Compliance for the Private Bank and Overseas Services, still in an advisory capacity, covering not only structured products but also other types of investments. It’s been a steep learning curve but really interesting.
I’ve been lucky enough to have some great female role models throughout my career, starting with my mum who is a very strong woman! My boss at Itaú was inspiring and the senior manager who brought me to London, (my current boss), is a woman too. I’ve been a big advocate of gender equality since the early years of my career, even challenging the partners in the last law firm I worked for when I noticed the great gender discrepancy at partner level (I do hope this has changed for the better over the last eight years).
At Barclays, I’ve had meetings where I’m the only woman in a room of 25 men. Rather than being intimidated, I felt respected and encouraged by the meeting attendees, speaking without interruption. I’m adamant that I will continue to remain authentic, as me, and that I will succeed as a woman, rather than as a woman behaving like a man in the workplace – but it takes time to develop that confidence.
My career journey to date has been very fulfilling but it definitely hasn’t been easy. I’ve learnt to be prepared for opportunities, adaptable to changes and to be resilient - you need resilience to keep going when things don’t really work out the way you wanted.
Lessons Learnt
I’ve also learnt to learn from others. Here are some examples:
- Problems do not age well, once you find out about them, start working on how to fix it. Always escalate problems and issues but make sure you approach your manager with a potential solution! (The aim is to make their lives easier and if you approach them only with problems you are actually making it more difficult.)
- Respect the hierarchy but don't be driven by it.
- Communication is critical and I have my Dad’s advice echoing in my ears every day: “It’s not what you say, but how you say it”. Treat everyone with respect, regardless of their position in the organisation, and don’t forget – people will remember you by how you made them feel.
*Code of Civil Procedure
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