Darlene Pasquill, head of the Americas equity division for Mizuho Americas, starts most of her days by listening to a leadership podcast. Among her favorites is the Jocko podcast, where retired Navy SEAL Jocko Willink shares his thoughts about discipline and leadership. She has studied Nick Saban, the legendary Alabama college football coach, and reads the biographies of historical leaders such as Alexander Hamilton, George Washington and John Adams to help hone her leadership style. "If you listen to the way coaches or leaders speak and how they drive people, it's applicable to Wall Street," she said.
Pasquill started her career in sales at Owens Corning in its textile and industrial products division. "It was a fascinating time in Wall Street history. The company had just thwarted a hostile takeover attempt, and then announced a big restructuring. I had a front row seat watching how fascinating finance was," she recalled.
After four years at Owens Corning, she decided to get an MBA from Harvard Business School. While she didn't have a background in business — she has a B.S. in applied science from University of Massachusetts Dartmouth — she was intrigued by the thought of working on Wall Street.
At HBS, she learned about Professor Michael Porter's five forces strategy, which are used to identify and analyze an industry's competitive forces. "I loved reading the case studies and understanding strategy and the basics of finance," she recalled.
A couple of people in her study group worked for investment banks, and they told her that her personality and intellect were a good match for institutional equity sales. "I kept telling them I didn't want to be in sales again. I did sales before coming to Harvard," she said.
After she graduated, she worked in a general management role at Stryker, a medical device and equipment company. During her three-year stint there, Pasquill said, she learned about driving top-line growth, how to launch new products and what it takes to create shareholder value.
She next went to work at Donaldson Lufkin and Jenrette in institutional equity sales. "I realized this isn't the sales I did in the industrial world; it was really selling a financial product, selling stocks and raising financing," she said.
Pasquill worked at DLJ from 1994 to 2000, when the company was acquired by Credit Suisse. She stayed on and worked in sales and account management, and ran its Americas equity division at Credit Suisse for the last three of her 15 years at the firm. "It was an amazing experience. I was given great responsibilities and opportunities, and I learned what it was like to work at a bulge bracket firm," she recalled.
In 2017, Pasquill said, the firm was starting to go through a lot of management changes and she decided that it was time to move on. She was looking at fintechs and private equity-owned companies when she was approached by Japanese bank Mizuho to be the head of its Americas equity division in 2018.
Pasquill has doubled Mizuho's equity research department and more than tripled the division's revenue. She's quick to point out, however, that she didn't do this on her own. "The firm has given me great support. I work very closely with our strategy team and senior leadership to build out the infrastructure, attract talent and put together products to deliver what matters to investors," she said.
"We're a corporate and investment bank, we're not a global brokerage, like some of our Japanese peers. So we're able to take advantage of our strengths around that, and deliver whatever resources to clients based on what they all value."
"But we're not trying to be all things to all people," she continued. "We're not trying to be a bulge bracket. We're focused on trying to make sure we deliver what clients value, and to what makes sense for our shareholders and for our clients, and the firm."
Pasquill said that from a leadership standpoint, she thinks it's important to have "reverse mentorship."
"I want to learn every day from the people I hire," she said. "It's important as a leader to hire people who are stronger in areas that you might not be, and can teach me and the rest of the organization."
Being a leader on Wall Street requires "both a strong EQ and a strong IQ when it comes down to strategy and execution" in order to be successful. If a leader has the right strategy and execution, it is easier to hire and retain top performers. But, she cautioned, "you need to make sure you're providing the talent you hire with the resources they need to be successful."
Career advice
Pasquill said that while women may be more comfortable getting advice from other women, she thinks it's important to network broadly within the organization. "At the end of the day, the facts are that there are more men versus women in leadership positions, even though it's improved over the years."
And when it comes to networking, she suggested that everyone should have an elevator pitch about themselves at the ready. "When you're meeting other people across the firm, you want to [succinctly] tell them your background and what you're doing there," she said.
She also advises both the men and women she mentors to take time to reflect on their career journey. "You want to make sure you're taking a step back in your career, and ask: "Where am I now? Where do I want to go? What do I need to do to get there?'"
It's important to take stock, she added, "because a career goes by fast."
