PRESENTER: Welcome to Viewpoint, a TD Securities podcast. Listen in as we draw perspectives from a variety of thought leaders on key themes influencing markets, industries, and the global economy today. We hope you enjoy this episode.
AMY VAN ARNHEM: Hello, and welcome to episode 28 of Viewpoint, a TD Securities podcast. My name is Amy Van Arnhem, and I will be your host for today's episode. In recognition of International Women's Day, I have the pleasure in inviting Lisa Casey, Managing Director and Global Head of Business Management and One TD Partnership Initiatives at TD Securities, to join us.
Lisa has undertaken increasingly complex strategic mandates throughout her 15-year career spanning global markets, private wealth management, and investment banking. So Lisa, thank you very much for joining me today. I'm really excited to delve into your inspiring career journey and just to gain a deeper understanding of your current role.
LISA CASEY: Thanks, Amy. It's so nice to be here.
AMY VAN ARNHEM: Great. So maybe just to start off, just sort of an easy question to get things going, what made you get into finance to begin with?
LISA CASEY: Yeah. That's funny. I was reflecting on that because I had a feeling you might ask me that question. And there's no huge story. But I was thinking back to early childhood. And I can say, from a very young age, I loved math. I loved science. I just seemed to gravitate towards those subjects.
I think I liked the fact that there's always a right answer when you think about mathematics. Throughout high school, I actually thought I would be a doctor just because of that love of science. But in the end, a career in finance called my name.
My dad always said I would go in business, or I was meant to go into business. And he proved to be accurate. And here I am. I think, ultimately, I just knew it would be fast-paced, it would be challenging, and it would keep me engaged for the long run. So it was a great choice in the end.
AMY VAN ARNHEM: What was your career path that led you to where you are today? Where did you get started in the business, and how have you progressed?
LISA CASEY: Yeah, I mean, it's been a fun ride here at TD Securities. I've been here for almost 16 years. It's really funny. What they say is true-- it goes by really, really quickly. Ultimately, once I cemented my thinking and realized I wasn't going to be a doctor, but, in fact, I wanted to go into finance, I went back and did my MBA and I studied finance formally.
So that was a great decision because that ultimately opened the door to our rotational program. So much of our great talent comes in to Global Markets through our formal rotational program, and I'm definitely an example of that. So through my MBA, I was recruited, and I was able to join our rotational program.
One thing led to another, and I landed in fixed-income institutional sales-- spent a decade there. It was fabulous. I loved the people I worked with. I loved the clients that I covered.
And what I think I learned there when I reflect back is really what a truly deep, meaningful relationship with a client looks like. It was an opportunity to really lean in to a meaningful portfolio of institutional clients and develop really deep relationships. So I loved that aspect of the job.
But in 2018, I think it was, I was offered a really interesting opportunity to ultimately cross the floor and try something different. Sharon Kim, who actually I think was here last year-- she approached me and said, hey, have you thought about specifically institutional sales? We have a leadership opportunity if you're interested.
And I said, absolutely, I sure am. And so I moved across the floor and moved into a role that I knew absolutely nothing about. But it was a real opportunity to learn and ultimately see a new asset class, which was foreign exchange, leading the institutional sales team. I loved it. And it really gave me confidence with respect to trying something new and overcoming what was really a steep learning curve.
But one thing leads to another, and in 2020, we launched a new strategic mandate to lead our first formal One TD strategy, which really is about organic growth opportunities facing other internal partners, and in this case, TD Wealth and now AMCB. And most recently, roughly nine months ago or so, the mandate expanded again, and now I do have responsibility for our Global Business Management Strategy.
AMY VAN ARNHEM: OK, great. Well, I am going to ask you a little bit more about the mandates, coming up in a few questions, but maybe just wanted to just talk a little bit more about your career journey. And based on what you've learned throughout your career, what advice would you give to others that are looking at navigating either advancing their career or navigating to different areas of an organization?
LISA CASEY: Yeah, it's a great question, Amy. And I just spoke to my career at TD, and I've done a few different things along the way. And when I think about that, what I think about is lifelong learning and just the opportunity to see new things and try new things. And for me, that's been a really important ingredient.
So I think my advice-- that was the question, what advice would I give-- would be to lean in to new opportunities. Even when that learning curve is steep, lean in because, ultimately, it will pay back. And I think this mindset really can yield a few different advantages. First off, it keeps things interesting.
If you're not doing the same thing every day, but you're, in fact, trying new things, you're going to be engaged. You're going to be challenged. That's going to keep you motivated. And personally, that keeps me wanting to show up each day, just to see what that day might bring.
And then the second thought there is that's really going to build self-confidence. As you lean into new things, you realize, OK, well, if I can do that, I can probably do other things, too. And that just makes you feel more confident and more willing to try new things when new things do, in fact, arise.
And just a last thought is, as you try different things, you do, in fact, gain institutional knowledge. And of course, you gain different skills. And that's ultimately going to make you a more valuable employee.
AMY VAN ARNHEM: Well, I think your moves have been particularly interesting because you were and did start in a traditional sales and trading role, covering clients, and now have moved over to roles where client coverage isn't the main objective, however, obviously, very supportive to all of the client coverage businesses we have. So that's been quite interesting and I think a bit unique with what we've seen from your career versus others.
And so I did want to ask you one thing, just in recognition that it is International Women's Day. You and I personally have this conversation a lot and with other women around the floor, but is there anything specific that you would give to the women listening today, anything unique about their career that might make your recommendations slightly different? Or how do you think about that when you think about the journey that a woman might have?
LISA CASEY: Yeah, it's a great question. It's a complicated and complex question. There's no doubt about that. Yeah, reflecting on, I guess, a woman's experience in this business, I think the first thing I would say to our young women that might be listening-- this is an amazing career. I've absolutely loved my career, full stop. And there's no question that there's a place for you at TD.
And when I think about our women who might be more established in the business, I think it's important just to acknowledge that there's room to grow, room to do a bit better in terms of female representation, particularly at a senior level. And yes, it can be disappointing to look around and see a scarcity of female role models to look up to.
But having said that, I do think that when you take a step back and perhaps broaden your purview, you will see many, many examples of amazing women in the business really enjoying success, working hard, loving what they do. And I will say, just anecdotally, I don't think it's a coincidence that some of my absolute best friends are women who are in this business. I think the women that are here are just absolutely fantastic.
AMY VAN ARNHEM: I think that it is extremely important to recognize that there are a tremendous amount of opportunities for women. And we've also built an incredible support system within the business-- grass roots, but also supported from the leadership team in terms of encouraging, networking, and really just honing in on how to develop your career and move forward for women, as well.
So as I mentioned earlier, I want to get back to talking a little bit more about your current mandates. And I know you briefly touched on the One TD Partnership initiative. But maybe if you just wanted to spend a little bit of time just speaking to that and the relatively new Business Management initiative that you've undertaken.
LISA CASEY: Yeah, I think that sums it up. The question, like, what do you do all day? Well, there's really two pillars to the mandate. It's the One TD initiative that you just spoke to, and the Global Business Management pillar, as well. They're both fantastic. They absolutely complement one another.
Specifically, on One TD-- it's a name that we give to our organic growth strategy facing TD Wealth and our AMCB. And it's really just about optimizing that relationship with these segments. We think a lot about developing new products, new services that we can extend to our wealth and retail clients via seamless collaboration and partnership with all the various stakeholders across those two segments.
Thinking about Global Business Management, I've loved the expansion into this responsibility. I have the pleasure of leading a global team of talented business managers. They're really deep subject-matter experts who act as desk-level COOs. The team has a unique view into the whole dealer.
Really, collectively, we get to see all regions, all asset classes, all strategic roadmaps, and the various change mandates. So I think it's fair to say the team has fingerprints on the dealers' most impactful strategic initiatives. I love the team. I've been blown away by the fact that they're true strategic thinkers and, of course, excellent executors.
AMY VAN ARNHEM: To say that it's a busy time would probably be an understatement, just with the Cowen acquisition and a lot of the leadership and changes that we've had around the organization. And your team's instrumental and involved in all of these.
LISA CASEY: There's no shortage of work, that is for sure. Yes, between [? Vision-27, ?] Cowen integration, and just everything that was already on the plate, yes, there's a lot going on.
AMY VAN ARNHEM: As you said before, lots to learn, lots of learning. I guess, what is one of the biggest challenges that you find yourself faced with with the new roles?
LISA CASEY: I mean, the mandate is such a such a pleasure. I mean, what's the biggest challenge? There's no huge challenge to speak to. But I would say, going back a year when the mandate expanded, or even going back to the birth of the One TD strategy, some of these were really white, undefined spaces, so just defining the right strategy seems crucial. So we put a lot of thought, collectively, into that.
I think every team right now is staring down just how to make the best use of scarce resources, scarce dollars. We think about that all the time. We're a lean team-- roughly 20 of us really looking at a whole lot of different things across all regions, across all asset classes. So how do we make the best use of our time? What are we positioned to lean into and have an impact on? We really want to get that right. We feel that's critically important.
AMY VAN ARNHEM: And one thing that I did want to ask you is that you also have an initiative around employee engagement under your umbrella, as well, which has been a tremendous success in Canada and I think really important just to highlight because it is really focused around our associates and how we've put our arms around and brought the business closer to how we manage the associates program. So maybe just a quick shout-out to the work that you're doing there, just for those that are listening that are perhaps looking at some of the rotation programs.
LISA CASEY: It's a critical piece of what we do. Thank you for highlighting it because who we hire, how we hire-- I mean, that's truly imperative with respect to executing our strategy and bringing strategy to life. You're absolutely right, Amy. We're doing it in a little bit of a different way. It's really a new function that we brought closer to the business as of this summer, being led by somebody fabulous on my team who is just doing such a great job.
We're so happy with the impact that she and the team are having. But ultimately, yes, our rotational program is a big piece. But so is overall colleague experience, colleague engagement, and culture is incredibly important. So we do think a lot about that.
AMY VAN ARNHEM: Thank you very much for joining today. It's been a great conversation, and we're, I know, always happy to have such amazing role models come in and speak, especially on behalf of International Women's Day.
LISA CASEY: Thank you, Amy. Pleasure to be here.
PRESENTER: Thank you for listening to Viewpoint, a TD Securities podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to this series on Apple Podcasts or on your favorite podcast platform. For more thought leadership content, visit tdsecurities.com, and follow us on LinkedIn for all the latest TD Securities updates. For relevant disclaimers to this podcast, please refer to the Viewpoint Episode page on our website.
