Women at Baird Fixed Income Capital Markets: Cindy Neitzke

When I first started at Baird, I was on the support desk assisting traders along with trading Commercial Paper and Repurchase Agreements (Repos), which later expanded to trading Treasury/Agency securities and CDs. Over the years, as the Fixed Income department continued to grow, financing the inventory was top priority. I was able to expand the Repo business, making connections to identify counterparties that could help finance our inventory. Today, we have contracts with about 15 different counterparties financing roughly 85% of the department’s inventory.

As a leader on Fixed Income’s Repo desk, I work closely with our institutional traders to finance as much collateral as possible. That can involve reaching out to multiple counterparties, booking collateral in the repo system, processing margin calls and working with the settlement team to ensure all collateral and cash have settled for each security on time. This is all done while making sure I’m in compliance with daily Repo and exposure limits set by the Risk and Finance departments.

You need to be personable but assertive and motivated too. Being a hard worker and gaining as much experience as possible will make you more valuable to the company. In the financial industry, perseverance is important – when you set a goal for yourself, don’t give up until you’ve reached it. I've learned the more effort you're willing to put in, the more likely you are to succeed.

Don’t be afraid to get out of your comfort zone. Challenge and push yourself to improve at every stage of your career. There’s nothing wrong with setting goals for yourself in your career – just be sure to take ownership of them. Hard work and integrity lead to success.

Spending time with family and friends is very important to me. At times, life can be a balancing act. This means a mixture of time management, commitment and prioritization, including being realistic and honest about what you can and can’t do. Learn to delegate work and be able to detach from your job during personal time off. I really value working for a firm that allows flexibility and is so supportive to their employees facing work/life challenges.

In this industry, you’re going to encounter a lot of strong personalities. I was taught early on to never give up – if you let other people’s actions discourage you, you’ll never grow as a person. Take on challenges: The more you challenge yourself, the more you will learn and the more confident you’ll become.