The Breaks
After more than ten years in private wealth management at Citibank and J.P. Morgan Chase in New York, Lee gave up her career heading the bank’s International Financial Services unit when her husband’s job took them, along with their then two-year old son, to Hong Kong. After the arrival of a second son in Hong Kong, she returned to the workforce in Consulting, starting the day Lehman folded, yielding several tumultuous – albeit interesting – years covering the financial services sector throughout the Asia Pacific region. With the arrival of a third son and another global relocation on the horizon, she resigned yet again, this time to move her family to London. She immediately launched a job search, but was quickly deterred by her lack of a professional network in London and being asked to justify the gaps in her career. It was only when she received an email announcing the launch of several returnship programs in the City several years later that her interest was piqued again, and she joined the Credit Suisse Returnship program shortly thereafter. She spent two years there as a Project Manager in Merger & Acquisition integration before the division was eliminated and she found herself on her third career break, this time not of her choosing.
The Journey Back
During her subsequent job search she was introduced to The Return Hub, who in turn introduced Lee to Redington, who were finalizing their search for their first return to work cohort. In January 2017, she joined Redington’s returnship and on completion of the program moved into a permanent role as their Director of Change. Over the course of the following year, she took on management responsibility of the operational and administrative departments as well as Legal and Compliance, the Project Management Office, People and Client Reporting Teams and in June 2018 she was promoted to the role of COO – Corporate, with appointments to the Operating and Executive Committees, as well as RemCo, Finance and Internal Communications Committees. She credits her time away with her ability to take on different roles and challenges when she has come back and is a public advocate of returning via return to work schemes as well as of hiring returners directly into Redington through using The Return Hub. She is an active member of the Firm’s Diversity & Inclusion team and particularly passionate about gender diversity, issues affecting working mothers and returners (not surprisingly!). She attributes her ability to come back to work in a new market in a new role to The Return Hub, without whom she feels she would never have been able to get her foot in the door. She credits her time away with her ability to take on different roles and challenges when she has come back and is a public advocate of returning via return to work schemes as well as of hiring returners directly into Redington through using The Return Hub. She is also incredibly grateful for the ongoing support that The Return Hub team provide as a sounding board, industry resource and for their assistance in bringing more senior women in to Redington.
