Managing Director, Co-Head of Global Macro Americas
Heather Orrico's career in finance got its start at a field hockey game. Orrico was a member of Yale University's field hockey team, and after a game, she got into a conversation with an alumni who worked in finance. "She told me that I should consider sales and trading," she recalled.
After graduating from Yale in 2007, she started her finance career on a trading desk at UBS. At the time, UBS and other banks held AAA mortgage-backed securities as a liquidity buffer. "My job was to check Fitch and Moody's ratings," she said. "I had to call my boss one night at 8 p.m. that they'd been downgraded." That heralded the beginning of the 2008 mortgage crisis. She had only been working on Wall Street for nine months at the time.
UBS moved Orrico to foreign exchange (FX) sales where she stayed until September of 2009. "I was getting antsy and felt like I was missing out on learning the macro fundamental perspective," she said.
She joined Morgan Stanley to help build and diversify its asset management client coverage division. During her three-year stint there, she worked in FX and emerging markets sales.
A co-worker had left Morgan Stanley and had joined BNP Paribas, and urged Orrico to join her there. She started at BNP Paribas in November of 2012 in FX sales, and moved to London for three years working in FX and local market sales. She built relationships with the bank's U.K. client and helped globalize the U.S. client footprint."It gave me good insight into the firm and our growth ambitions," she said.
She moved back to NYC in 2017 to lead BNPP's real money FX and local market sales team in the U.S., and continued to climb up the ranks at the bank. For the next two years, Orrico held various sales management positions, and in 2020, she was named co-head of FX, emerging markets and commodities Americas.
Last year, the 2.66 trillion (EUR) bank reorganized its business lines, and Orrico was tapped to be the co-head of global macro Americas. "When we reorganized our business lines last year, I knew I needed a leader with a strong vision for the future, someone with an entrepreneurial spirit, who was also risk-minded," said John Gallo, global head of institutional sales for global markets and head of global markets Americas. "I needed someone who would have the passion and drive to succeed, tempered with the sensitivity to mentor and build a diverse team. Heather has all of these attributes and more."
Orrico now manages 165 people in the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Argentina, and is responsible for sales and trading businesses, foreign exchange, emerging markets, commodities derivatives and developed market rates.
Throughout her career, Orrico has been an advocate for women in the industry. At BNPP, she's on the leadership team of its Women in Global Markets, which hosted its first event during International Women's Week. "It was a big success," she said. "Women are starved for these kinds of events, and it's important for young women to have exposure to women in the senior ranks. We need to show them there's a path and that you don't have to compromise who you are."
Orrico leads by example. In addition to having a high-profile, demanding job, she's also the mother of two young girls, ages 3 and 5. "You have to know your boundaries," she advised. "If I get a call from school that my daughter is sick, I want to be there to take her to the doctor's."
