Heather Roulston Ettinger earned the nickname “Scrappy” nearly 30 years ago.
As the co-captain of the Dartmouth women’s hockey team, she was willing to go up against competitors twice her size. “If you make up your mind that you’re going to come out with the puck, most of the time you come out with the puck,” says Ettinger, executive vice president and senior adviser at Cleveland-based Fairport Asset Management. “The same principle can be applied to business.”
Ettinger followed her father’s footsteps into the male-dominated finance industry, but established herself independent of her family. (Tom Roulston established Roulston & Co. in Cleveland in 1963. The firm merged with the Hickory Group in 2001 to create Fairport Asset Management.)
Ettinger started her career at equity trading firm Jeffries & Co. in Boston. Of the 150 traders at the company, she was one of only five women. After four months with the firm, she walked into her boss’s office and told him that she wanted to abandon her small salary and become a fully commissioned employee, similar to the other traders.
To her surprise, she was told no, because the two men who were hired before her had not graduated from salary to commission. “I said, ‘I know what they are doing, and they’re at a point where, if they are on my salary, they should be converted,’ ” she recalls.
The two male employees had been hired at twice her salary. When word got out in the office, Ettinger was allowed to transition.
“I think the traders were a little embarrassed that I was moving on to where they should have been,” Ettinger says. “And when I was successful, I reaped the reward of it.”
After less than five years with Jeffries & Co., Ettinger was being sought after by headhunters.
“I could basically go anywhere I wanted,” she says. “So I figured, now I’m ready to join the family because I won’t be coming in on somebody else’s coattails. I’ve brought value back here.”
Part of that value was Women in Transition, a practice within Fairport Asset Management that she created five years ago. Ettinger, who has worked on the issue of financial literacy for women for 22 years, considers it her greatest professional accomplishment. Women in Transition guides wealthy women through the financial changes that result from the death of a spouse, divorce, marriage or a large career change. The practice also consults on philanthropic giving.
Unlike other wealth management programs for women, Women in Transition educates women according to their unique learning style, Ettinger says.
“I really believe that our industry is not doing a good job at serving women because of this learning style difference,” Ettinger says.
Last year, more than 40 percent of new revenue for Fairport Asset Management came from Women in Transition.
Carolyn Deasy Pizzuto, senior vice president of corporate planning at ASW Global in Mogadore, has known Ettinger for 20 years. She serves on the advisory board for Women in Transition and is also one of Ettinger’s clients.
“Heather has taught me some financial savvy, but it pales to her insights and savvy,” says Pizzuto. “She treats every day as an opportunity to think of something new and
different.”
Life Lessons
I’m absolutely my father’s daughter. I’m very strong in math, and I just love this business.
My dad is a mentor of mine; an amazing and very accomplished man.
Four years ago, I broke my ankle playing hockey in Cleveland Heights. Two plates and 10 screws later, I decided to slow down a little bit.
When men find out that I play, they see me in a very different light than if I told them I was a ballerina. They automatically assume there is a certain toughness there, and that has helped me in business.
Women have a different learning style. They like to learn in a small environment that is hands on and based on sharing and relationships.
They want to share stories and interact, not be lectured.
We are terrible about negotiating on behalf of ourselves. I’d kill myself at negotiating for a friend, but I’m lousy at doing it for myself.
A lot of women think we will be rewarded for hard work, but unfortunately that is not always the way it works. You have to tell your bosses many times how hard you’ve worked and what your results are.