Champion WOMEN

As the Global Head of the Private Capital Advisory group for Raymond James, Sunaina Sinha Haldea is one of the most influential people working in private equity today. In a field still dominated by men, she had to overcome great odds to get there.

• Abhijit Masih •

Sunaina Sinha Haldea is often the only woman in the room brokering deals for some of the largest private equity sponsors in the world. She is the Global Head of the Private Capital Advisory group at Raymond James. She obtained a bachelors of science degree in Management Science and Engineering and a master’s of science degree in chemical engineering, both from Stanford University. She has an MBA from Harvard Business School. She founded Cebile Capital, a private fund placement agent and secondary market adviser to private equity firms, in early 2011. Research from McKinsey shows that women make up only 12 percent of managing directors and 16 percent of principals and partners in investment roles at private equity firms. It’s in those conditions that Sinha Haldea is one of the most influential people of either gender in private equity.

Sunaina Sinha Haldea spoke to SEEMA from her office in central London about the hard knocks she faced in being a woman of color in a male-dominated field and the skills and qualities she employs to drown out the noise. She is also a champion for greater women’s prominence in the financial workforce and walks the talk with 50 percent of her employees being women and minorities.

Citizen Of The World

I was born in Delhi, but I left India when I was 8 years old, and grew up all over the world. I call myself a citizen of the world; I was raised in India, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Vietnam, before I went to university. If I had to summarize my upbringing in one word, it would be adventure. With adventure comes plenty of highs, but there can also be a lot of knocks that teach resilience. The resilience came from changing locations every 3 to 5 years. My dad was a diplomat and the lessons learned and the memories that were being created, not just for me, but for my 3 younger siblings, have been absolutely invaluable for us.

Humble Beginnings

I graduated with my MBA and worked for a few years, doing what I currently do, but doing it for two large hedge fund managers. I was very successful at my job but I also knew that eventually I wanted to start something on my own. I got the opportunity in 2011, when one of my former employers said to me, if you start something on your own, we’ll become your first client. I took them for their word and started the business.

The early days were really tough, but with incredible learning experiences. I was the only shareholder in the business so all of the responsibility for the growth and the decisions rested on my shoulders. That was rather daunting. However, I look back and think the lessons of learning by doing, the growth mindset of pivoting from failures, figuring out what works and leaning into those are some nuggets that have stood me in great stead. No

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DRESS: ELIE SAAB

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PHOTOGRAPHER: SUJATA SETIA MAKE UP ARTIST: MAKE UP BY TANIA GRIER USING MERIT matter how much of a hard knock I suffered in the first two years, we were delivering good work and have long standing clients that go back 10 years plus at this point. I can’t say that financial services and entrepreneurship is for the faint of heart. But if you have the resilient muscle to lean into it, it can be incredibly rewarding.

Not Enough Women

The finance industry does an okay job of recruiting women and people from a minority background into the junior ranks, but not a very good job when it comes to retaining them and progressing them on to senior management and leadership positions. Why is that? Finance can be very lumpy, very deal oriented where there are big peaks of workflow, and those big peaks aren’t for everybody. So if you’re trying to start a family, if you’re a young mother, you really have to go through some very hard nights and weekends juggling a lot of things at the same time. Finance has one of the highest burnout risks for women so that really holds back the diversity element.

Gaining Ground

My advice to companies and to fellow leaders when they ask me how I did it myself is by creating a diverse workplace of my own. More than 50 percent of my employees are women and minorities. You absolutely have to have an off and an on ramp for women and for people from diverse backgrounds. What does that mean? That means that if someone wants to take a couple of months out for mental health reasons, you do that, because the loyalty and the empathy that builds with them means that they’re likely to come back to you at the end of whatever journey they’re working through. Secondly, it cannot be a one size fits all model. There were many times we had to lean into what it means to be a woman and a minority. That means giving different holidays off. It means giving equal paternity and maternity, and sticking with it across the team. It also means that you leave hires open for longer, because you didn’t find a diverse set of candidates to evaluate. Diversity doesn’t come by itself. People just sit back and think it’s all gonna magically appear. That’s not how it goes. Leaders really have to lean into it and make that extra effort.

Hone Your Skills

There are three that have been absolutely integral. One of the skills I invested in about 12 years ago was meditation. I go to an annual meditation retreat. I meditate every morning for at least an hour, and that has been an absolute seminal centering point of each day. Any day of the week there would be things coming at you that make you feel a certain way - angry, sad, ecstatic, happy, etc. The big power of meditation is to give you control over your mind versus the other way around. The other two practices have been equally important. The second practice is really learning quickly from setbacks and failures. That has been a great secret to any type of entrepreneurial journey, but also in your personal life. Every time something negative happens, I say, okay, that’s great. What are my

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