Two Alumni Exemplifying LT's Values in Their Workplaces
Mary Pugh, LT'86, CEO, Pugh Capital Management
Photo: Mary Pugh (center) with two Pugh Capital employees, Greg Wilson, LT'22 (left) and Darius Cayetano, LT'14 (right)
Tell us about your work, why it matters, and how Pugh Capital Management prioritizes building community and belonging in the workplace?
Pugh Capital manages fixed income portfolios for institutional clients, such as corporate and public pension plans, endowments, and foundations. Our vision in creating the firm was to build a diverse, successful firm that clients would view as a trusted partner. Today, Pugh Capital manages more than $10 billion on behalf of its clients, and we are one of the most diverse asset management firms in the country.
I stumbled into a career in investments, and I feel blessed to make a living spending time doing work that I love. I think building community and belonging in the workplace came from my life experiences, which included periods when I did not feel a sense of inclusiveness and how that contrasted with the times I felt part of the team. As an African American and a woman in finance in the 1980s, I often walked a lonely path and wanted to make a difference by increasing diversity in the asset management industry.
When you launch your own firm, you have an opportunity to create the environment that you would like to experience during your time at work. In building a diverse, equitable, and inclusive community at work, and by focusing on culture and values, we have created an environment where people want to come to work, be together, and succeed as a team. Other benefits include low employee turnover, more experienced and loyal employees, and a designation by "Pension & Investments" as a Best Places to Work.
How did your LT experience impact your leadership?
LT was a pivotal experience in my early career. I was 26 or 27 years old and working at Washington Mutual when I went through the Flagship Program. I was introduced to the program by Lynn Ryder, who was head of HR at the bank. She was active in LT at the board level and super supportive of me being in the program and the program itself. She represented servant leadership and actively engaged with me throughout the program year. Andy Smith, who headed Pacific Northwest Bell, was on Washington Mutual’s Board. Our LT project was to create a video on teenage pregnancy. Andy offered up his video team to help us with this project. He modeled servant leadership and caring about my experience and the community.
Throughout the program, I was exposed to people who wanted to make a difference in the community and in life. Those experiences were often on a small scale, but for the person they impacted (like me), it meant the world. Some of the lessons I learned were that great leadership is about the personal touches, as well as the results. LT exposed me to different leadership styles, experiences, and the community. All of those aspects were foundational for my path forward as a leader and a community volunteer.
Julie Pham, PhD, LT'16, CEO, CuriosityBased
Tell us about your work, why it matters, and why you focus on helping others practice curiosity.
Research shows about 83% of leaders say they value curiosity at work yet only 24% of employees feel curious on a regular basis and 70% of people say they face obstacles asking questions at work. My company, CuriosityBased, helps organizational leaders close this gap between the curiosity they say they want for their teams and what their teams feel safe actually practicing. With our original curiosity exercises, we guide companies, teams, and boards to renew their sense of self-discovery and learning in the work that they do and with whom they do that work, so they don’t feel bored, disconnected, or burnt out.
How did your LT experience impact your leadership?
LT introduced me to a new community of local leaders. Dozens of my LT'16 classmates became lifelong friends, collaborators, and cheerleaders. When I started my business, many supported my book, 7 Forms of Respect: A Guide to Transforming Your Communication and Relationships at Work, and some even became CuriosityBased clients. My LT experience deepened my fascination with differences among those working in the government, nonprofit, and private sectors and with our unconscious sector stereotypes. I volunteered on and eventually chaired the LT Curriculum Committee to continue pushing my own leaning edge, which gave me new opportunities for personal and professional transformation.