BNY's Emily Portney on leading with authenticity

Zions Bank recently completed a carefully orchestrated core system transformation. In this Leaders episode, chief technology and operations officer Jennifer Smith shares the details of the project, how she and her team overcame hurdles, and the benefits they are reaping from 10 years of hard work.

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Mary Ellen Egan:
Hi, I'm Mary Ellen Egan. I'm the senior editor of Women's Programs at American Banker, and I'm here today with Emily Portney, Global Head of Asset Servicing at BNY. Thank you, Emily, so much for joining us today.

Emily Portney:
Such a pleasure to be here.

Mary Ellen Egan:
Why don't you start with a little bit and talk about your role and your responsibilities.

Emily Portney:
I've always loved market structure and really the underpinnings of the financial ecosystem, understanding how it all worked and really problem solving. So to me, I'm in the perfect job because I'm the head of asset servicing for the Bank of New York. And what I say that most people think, well, first of all, most people don't know what that means,

And if they do, they think of custody. And the fact that we at Bank of New York is the largest custodian in the world. In fact, just in the second quarter we reported a record assets under custody and administration of just under 50 trillion. So we are much more than custody. We also offer fund accounting, fund reporting, ETF servicing. We fund administration for all kinds of alternative products, et cetera. So we really do support the underpinnings of the financial ecosystem. We happen to be probably the best known and we are the largest business of Bank of New York. But ultimately we really are supporting the entirety of the financial ecosystem.

Mary Ellen Egan:
So one of the things that we were interested in and you talking a little bit about how Bank of New York is straddling, or handling, from traditional banking to the more digital world in that I think the tokenization of money market funds and Bitcoin ETFs. So can you explain a little bit about what that means and what your strategy is going forward or now?

Emily Portney:
So let me start by saying that culture is very important at Bank of New York. And actually the reason I'm answering this question about digital assets, talking about culture is because I actually think what we've done in the digital asset space very much exemplifies a lot of the cultural attributes that we really are emphasizing at the firm. So first, be more for your clients. This is something that all of our clients are asking for. They want to be able to do custody and fund administration on digital assets just like they do it on more traditional currencies and or assets. So that's very important. Likewise, own it. Another key value, we have built this really from scratch and we're one of the only banks really I think now in the world that has a capability to really customize or custody digital assets. And by that I don't mean crypto only, I mean all types of assets that are being tokenized or could be tokenized also. It's a great example of being forward thinking and innovative and agile. So I love that about this whole effort. It's been a years in the making. And the last thing I'd say it's about trust. We've had to bring our regulators along with us and we're doing this because our clients want a trusted service provider in this space. So I'm really, really proud of what we're doing, not only because of what we're actually now able to deliver, but because we're winning minds share and market share.

Mary Ellen Egan:
That's great. So let's switch gears a little bit and talk about you've been a leader for a long time, not decades like me, but you are a

Emily Portney:
A leader decades--me too.

Mary Ellen Egan:
So what is your leadership style? How would you define that?

Emily Portney:
Well, I'm definitely someone who's very passionate in pretty much everything I do. And I of course bring that passion to the workplace. I have a high bar, not only for myself, but for others. And I think if you asked folks who work with me, they'd say I'm very results oriented, very execution oriented. A bit of a derivative of that is that I'm also very iterative. I think I'm happy to offer a helping hand and strongly prefer that, especially if there's a project that is perhaps that there are checkpoints along the way so that we are making sure we're going in the right direction. But by far the most important thing I think about my leadership is authenticity. And by that I mean being very open, being very transparent. And sometimes that also means being very, very vulnerable. And I learned a long time ago that authenticity is probably the key to leadership.

Mary Ellen Egan:
One of the things you'd written about in your submission for the most powerful women in banking and finance was the importance of education. And is that to you personally or to the younger generation or, I mean education obviously important to everyone, but why is that so important for you?

Emily Portney:
Well, education and the importance of education was really impressed upon me by my mom, from my mom since I was very, very young. And I think part of that is honestly because she had to pretty much reinvent herself and raise two kids and go back into the workforce kind of very unexpectedly and in middle age. And so education was always something that was stressed as an important ingredient to ensure you have opportunities and to open up doors. I've been very fortunate. I have had opportunities and some of it certainly I think as a result of how hard I worked and my education. But I also realize that education and opportunities for that matter are not always fair or equitable. Some of it is luck. And so what I've tried to do in terms of establishing scholarships and even some of the mentoring, et cetera, that I do throughout with people also in high school and college, is to level the playing field to some degree.

Mary Ellen Egan:
And what kind of scholarships do, is this personally or through the bank?

Emily Portney:
Oh, no, this is personal. I funded a scholarship in my mother's name actually at my alma mater, Duke University.

Mary Ellen Egan:
So your mom was clearly a role model for you, and you also understand the importance of especially young women to have role models and also professionally to have a sponsor, which is different from the mentor. And so what do you see as the difference between sponsorship and mentorship and how important is that for women like you to pay it forward?

Emily Portney:
Well, both mentorship and sponsorship I think are incredibly important. I've been in the industry now for about 30 years, and both mentors and sponsors have played pivotal roles as you point out. I do think they are different. To me, a mentor is generally something that you probably have at the more beginning of your career, helps to show you the ropes, does give you some advice, could be formal or could be from an informal relationship or oftentimes a more formal program. Whereas a sponsor is very different. I think that is usually much more comes from a relationship. Maybe a former boss could even be a former client. And generally that's probably as you have more experience and really they are an advocate, they often open doors to their own network or other opportunities that you might not have known about. And by the way, they're also a voice of reason. A really good sponsor is someone who also points out where you could look at things differently or do things better. And I feel it is absolutely my job. It's my obligation to pay it forward. Hence, I do mentor and sponsor not just women, many individuals at all levels. And by the way, not just at Bank of New York, but also throughout the industry.

Mary Ellen Egan:
And I think that's a good point you make, especially for, because we don't always know who your sponsor's going to be. It's not like somebody you point at them and say, you're going to be my sponsor. It is a relationship that develops. And it could be, I've had great male sponsors and great female sponsors, and it just so happened that there were just somebody that came into my life and really saw something in me and saw the opportunity would push me. What's so important is that they also challenge you to not just say, okay, you've done well enough, but say like, okay, here's where I think you need a little more work. And it's a remarkable

Emily Portney:
Relationship. Absolutely. I think sponsors, especially at pivotal moments in time in your career, very, very important.

Mary Ellen Egan:
So when you look back, when you started out, did you intend to be in finance for when? Definitely not.

Emily Portney:
I had no idea what finance really was, certainly not what banking really was.

Mary Ellen Egan:
Right. How did you end up there then?

Emily Portney:
When I graduated university, a lot of banks came on campus. Again, this was 30 years ago. It was either banks or consulting firms, basically came to campus. And I actually had a very open mind. I don't know that I understood either. And I ended up interviewing and frankly, I made my decision my first job. And actually for the first 23 years of my career, I spent it at JPMorgan. And it was very much because I really liked the people. I felt like I fit. And actually, I'll never forget, they also were at that point in time, they were giving away free lunch. And you know what? When you're moving to New York, oh, free lunch is the best. And when you're moving to New York, $4 a day back, in the early nineties, that was important. But who knew that that would lead to really an entire career in financial services.

Mary Ellen Egan:
So what advice would you give your younger self today when you look back and think, I wish I would've known this, or maybe I shouldn't have done that. Or I mean, we all look back and think about those things.

Emily Portney:
I'm laughing because if I could go back in time, there are so many things I would tell my younger self.

Mary Ellen Egan:
Don't take that guy or that guy.

Emily Portney:
Maybe some of that too wouldn't have wasted so much time. But one, patience, certainly patience. Two, the importance of bringing people along. And there's a saying I love and it says, I think it's alone. You can go faster, but together you can go farther. And I really appreciate that now. And I don't think I understood what that meant early on. And especially as a leader, that's incredibly important. Pause, pressing the pause button, is important. And that could mean pause before you send an email, or it can actually mean after a stressful stint at work, actually taking the weekend and really disconnecting to come back refreshed. And look, finally, maybe this goes in the authenticity category, but follow your gut. If I hadn't followed my gut, I usually end up course correcting and doing what my gut told me to do in the beginning. So follow your gut.

Mary Ellen Egan:
That's great advice because that's the one thing I found too. Every time I went against my gut, it was not a good ending. And so I think that's a really great advice for people. So Emily, thank you for your time. I really appreciate it.

Emily Portney:
My pleasure. It's great to be here. Thank you. Thank you.