How these women broke through banking’s glass ceiling
When Sarah Rennie gave birth 16 years ago, the cutthroat world of global investment banking lived up to its moniker. She and fellow banker Silvana Schenone never want others to go through what they experienced.
When Sarah Rennie gave birth to her first child 16 years ago, the cutthroat world of global investment banking lived up to its moniker.
When she returned to her role as a managing director of UBS in the equity capital markets group after six months of maternity leave, she was determined to show that she was still bullet proof.
“I would have preferred more flexibility when I returned to work but I really just ploughed into intensive work from very much the moment that I got back into the office,” she says, in an interview to mark International Women’s Day on Saturday.
“I got the sense that was going to be important to continue to progress my career, showing that there weren’t any chinks in my armour as I came back to work.”
Rennie left UBS to join Goldman Sachs in 2013 as a managing director and three years later was promoted to head the firm’s Equity Capital Markets business in Australia and New Zealand.
In May 2020 she took the biggest risk of her career as one of four senior bankers poached by NZ-based investment bank Jarden to establish an Australia arm.
Today, as co-CEO of Jarden Australia with Aidan Allen, she never wants another colleague to go through what she experienced as a first-time parent.
“Whenever a new primary carer comes back to the office, we think it is important to reinforce to them that we understand there are going to be challenges and we don’t have unrealistic expectations,” she says.
“We let them know ‘We are going to give you some time to adjust and to re-acclimatise into the workforce and we are going to help you’, rather than having them think they have to manage it on their own.”
Two women now co-lead Jarden’s investment banking businesses across both sides of the Tasman: Rennie in Australia and Silvana Schenone in New Zealand.
Together they have led the deal teams for bumper transactions such as Fletcher Building’s NZ$700m capital raising in September last year, Ryman Healthcare’s NZ$1bn equity raising in February and Fonterra’s ongoing dual track process for the divestment of its global consumer business.
“We have to have a relationship of trust and respect. We are both also very generous with our time for each other. If either of us need help, we are always prioritising that. Silvana is a huge asset to the team in terms of the unique way she thinks about situations and her technical M&A expertise,” Rennie says, adding that she and Allen also have “different and generally complementary styles”.
“That is not just gender related, it is a number of factors including my background in capital markets and his in M&A advisory.
“There are times when one of us will take the lead for a particular issue or client where we have a particular strength or affinity.”
For Schenone, the partnership with Rennie is a reminder of the power of vulnerability that comes with teamwork.
“I know I can be more punishing for her than she is for me! But I sometimes ring her when I’m grumpy about something and she knows that all I need is a little bit of a vent that settles me down. The fact that I can have that conversation with her is hugely valuable to me,” she says.
“Sometimes I need to actually have a blunt conversation with someone I trust, so that I can be in the right space to have the more difficult conversations outside.”
That vulnerability for Schenone extends to being prepared to be open about personal challenges in the workplace.
She has been a type one-diabetic since she was 12 years old, which, she jokes, means she must be “connected to all sorts of devices”.
“When I started my career, I was quite nervous about showing that. Now, to be honest, when I’m in a meeting I take my pump out and I do what I need to do,” she says.
“Resilience comes out of saying ‘I’m not invincible guys, I’m actually a human being and there are days where I need a little bit more support.”
Fearless in the face of opposition
Rennie grew up in the Sydney harbourside suburb of Hunters Hill, one of four children.
She studied law at the University of Sydney and then took a graduate job at law firm Allens, where she developed a taste for investment banking.
Her older brother, Andrew, encouraged her to move to UBS from Allens when he was working at the Swiss investment bank.
They are three years apart in age.
Andrew Rennie was head of Australian equities at Goldman Sachs for about a decade, and in 2011 moved to Hong Kong to run the firm’s equities sales team across Asia.
In 2017 he returned to Australia to be co-head of equities for Asia, then left the firm in early 2020 to join the Hong Kong-based Segantii Capital Management.
He and his sister have worked together at both UBS and Goldmans, and are extremely close.
“My brother has always been a strong mentor of mine. As I was growing up as an investment banker, there were very few women in very senior roles so I never really had the benefit of strong female mentors,” she says.
“As I was coming through, my brother always challenged me to take a risk, to push forward and really just gave me impetus sometimes when I probably was wondering whether I should take the next step.
“I never regretted any of the risks or challenges that I took on, and he often gave me the confidence to take that next step.”
Schenone, who was born in Chile to a Chilean mother and an Italian father, previously worked in a male-dominated Chilean law firm, where gender assumptions were the norm.
She says the hardest part was that, after a good meeting, hearing comments like “Oh, that guy liked you”, in a gender-framed way, as opposed to “you are doing a good job”.
They were comments that, for a young woman, played on the stereotype of the “impostor syndrome” whereby women feel unworthy of the opportunities they are given.
“To me, it has been an interesting journey to understand that people may choose to work with you for a number of different reasons, including your ability to listen to your clients, think strategically and to connect with people. Authenticity is key,” she says.
“I want to believe that these days it is all about trusting you. It is about appreciating your broad perspectives and the ability to give clients good advice, as opposed to whether they like your personal appearance.”
A Harvard graduate who was offered scholarships at Oxford and Cambridge as well as the US Ivy League law school, she moved to New Zealand in 2007 with her husband, MinterEllisonRuddWatts partner Lloyd Kavanagh, who she met in Chile when Kavanagh worked as a senior executive with Fonterra.
At the time she was a partner at MinterEllisonRuddWatts and head of the firm’s corporate and M&A division. She had previously worked in New York for Sullivan & Cromwell. She joined Jarden in May 2022.
Schenone says she moved across the world with the confidence that, as a woman, she stood out from the pack – especially with her broad Chilean accent.
At each meeting she had attended for years in New York, she had regularly been surrounded by a dozen or more blue-suited male executives.
“Yes you can embarrass yourself badly if you open your mouth and you are the one odd out,” she says.
“But on the other hand, I thought it was going to be a great opportunity to build my reputation.
“I do blame Lloyd for everything that doesn’t go well. That’s sort of a normal marriage. But actually, seriously, I always think: ‘What’s the worst that can happen? If I don’t like it, I can change it. I’m in charge of my career and my future’.”
Change is happening, but slowly
The annual report of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, released this week, shows Australia’s financial services sector has an almost perfect, 50-50 gender balance in its workforce.
Yet women on average still face a pay gap of 22.3 per cent against their male colleagues – almost double the national figure of 12.1 per cent. The average gap at Jarden was reportedly 34.9 per cent, which the firm highlights is second lowest (after Telstra) of employers where the top earners make more than $1m per year.
Rennie is insistent that at Jarden there isn’t a gender pay gap between equal roles in the business.
But the reality is that, as per the industry norm, there are more men in senior roles and more women in support roles at the firm.
She believes more structural changes are needed in society to attract a balance of the genders across each of the roles on offer – and that will take time.
Schenone says the industry as a whole needs to put frameworks in place to support women through challenging life stages like early motherhood, to ensure they continue to rise through the ranks.
“We need to keep working on it,” she says.
“But it’s not that there are barriers because we are bad people. The job is hard, and we need to take it on.
“The high pressure and intensity of the job comes from clients as much as from our own organisations.”
She adds that investment banking firms are better placed than law firms to pay women better wages because clients are not billed by time.
Over the years, she has learned not to take the criticisms of unreasonably demanding clients to heart.
“It doesn’t mean that it is a personal thing. They don’t hate you. They are under pressure and stress too,” she says.
“I think it is a gender thing that we tend to personalise a lot of these things. As women we hear any sort of criticism and we think it is about us. I think depersonalising certainly helps in actually putting yourself in their shoes and offering a solution.”
Jarden last year made its first profit since its Australian launch after it emerged from a difficult period when staff and costs were slashed. This included losing foundation partners such as former local chief Robbie Vanderzeil and co-founder Dane FitzGibbon in 2023.
A year earlier the firm also reportedly investigated complaints related to workplace harassment, including at its Sydney office. It reportedly led to the resignation of a female employee.
In August that year Aidan Allen described “any suggestion of disharmony” at the firm as “A-grade garbage”. Rennie now says the firm learned from the episode and is fully focused on ensuring a culture of respect.
The Australian business that started with five staff now has more than 150.
“The difficulty in part for us was that every step in our establishment phase was under a microscope in the press. But I’m incredibly proud of what we have achieved,” Rennie says.
“I would have much preferred for the bull market to last for a couple more years, because we went into a decade-low period in terms of the mergers and acquisitions, and capital markets but we have navigated through that and we have come out of that stronger and profitable – and are really continuing to take market share in the Australian market.”
She hopes the Australasian market for initial public offerings (IPOs) will open up in the second half of the year, given the pent-up supply.
As the parent now of not only a 16 year old, but also two other children aged 14 and 13, Rennie continues to juggle the demands of parenting with her partner, while working around the clock when it is required by her clients.
But she relishes the culture at Jarden where she says the staff – men and women – can be fully transparent about the challenges presented by their private lives.
“Sometimes life outside of the office needs to be prioritised versus the office, and the team steps in to support you if required. That is accepted, and I rely on our team when I’m managing the competing demands on my own time,” she says.
“Having a family has been incredibly rewarding and a joy for my life, and I wouldn’t want to compromise that for a career.
“But I also love my career, and so I have just had to try and find a way to make it work.”
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