Today we’d like to introduce you to Annie Schneidman Coleman.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Annie. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Upon graduation from college, I knew I wanted to work in finance, but I wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted to do. My first job out of school was as a financial adviser at Ameriprise in October 2008 – which happened to be the official start of the Financial Crisis. This role taught me many things, but most importantly, that while I wanted to be in front of clients, I also wanted to be more involved in the investment side of the business. After Ameriprise, I was an Investment Consultant at Natixis Asset Management, where I pitched many different investment strategies to financial advisers. Again, I had many great experiences at Natixis, but I still wanted to be deeper in the investment conversation while also being client-facing. In July 2011, I landed my dream job at Wellington Management in their global relationship group – they took a huge leap of faith in hiring me given that I had limited analytical background (I barely knew how to use Excel), but had a great amount of relationship management and client-facing experience for someone only 3 years out of college. While at Wellington, I studied for and attained my CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) designation over a 3 year period and was able to work my way up to a senior relationship analyst position. I had no plans to leave my dream job and company, but was approached by a competitor who had heard about my unique background and career path. They were looking for someone to help build out their institutional sub-advisory business, which is what I specialized in at Wellington – after going back and forth for months, I decided to leave and join Loomis Sayles. As a Vice President and Strategic Relationship Manager at Loomis Sayles, my responsibilities are quite broad – I am tasked with relationship management, new mandates, and business strategy with strategic institutional clients and prospects with the end goal of effectively developing and broadening the firm’s largest strategic relationships, In addition, I work with my boss to help frame out how our team will be structured going forward so that we continue to grow and be viewed as a key player in our market. Since I joined in February 2016, we have brought in close to $10 billion in new business and have hired 2 additional dedicated members to our team.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
My career path has been the opposite of smooth – while I learned a tremendous amount in my first 2 roles, they were not the right fit for me and I struggled with how to transition into a position that would be better suited to my strengths. I interviewed with 5 different groups at Wellington before I was eventually hired, but I kept my head down because I knew the end result would pay off. When I started at Wellington, it was extremely challenging to get up to speed – I had lots of experience meeting and interacting with clients, but I didn’t have the basic foundation that many of the other analysts on my team had. I had to learn how to use Excel, how to produce reports, and how to run and analyze data, things I had never done in my prior roles. Once I was able to learn and master these key parts of my role, I was then able to do what I enjoy the most, which is interact with clients. Dealing with very large, sophisticated institutional clients can be tough – there is little margin for error, and figuring out how to consistently deliver the highest level of investment service can be challenging. When I joined Loomis Sayles in 2016, my role was newly created, so figuring out what my responsibilities were was somewhat difficult at first. I was used to having 100 “tasks” per day that I would check off a list (reporting, data analysis, presentation decks), but in this new role, I had to constantly be thinking strategically and generating a lot of the activity on my own. Figuring out all these challenges was difficult at times, but absolutely worth it to get the place in my career where I am today.
Loomis Sayles – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Loomis Sayles is an incredible organization – we are a global asset management firm based in Boston. Founded in 1926, the firm has helped fulfill the investment needs of institutional and mutual fund clients worldwide. The firm’s performance-driven investors integrate deep proprietary research and integrated risk analysis to make informed, judicious decisions. Using foresight and flexibility, Loomis Sayles looks far and wide for value – across traditional asset classes and alternative investments – to pursue attractive, sustainable returns for clients. While Loomis Sayles is best known for its excellence in fixed income,, we also offer a tremendous equity platform that has grown exponentially over the last 5 years, which is broadening our reputation beyond being just a “fixed income shop”. I am most proud of the integrity and strength of our investment platform – we are true believers in active management and the numbers reflect that. In an industry that continues to be challenged by low-cost, passive investments, I am proud to say that on a one year basis, 91% of our client assets reside in accounts that are ahead of their benchmark as of April 30, 2018. For the three year and five year periods, 87% and 89% of client accounts are ahead of their benchmark net of fees respectively. In an environment where active managers are struggling, these numbers are quite impressive.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
The proudest moment of my career so far was the first strategic partnership that I was responsible for winning and building out at Loomis Sayles. When I started in my role in February 2016, this (now) client was a prospect, meaning they had done no business whatsoever with Loomis Sayles. Today, they are invested in 3 different strategies with us totaling over $1.7 billion in assets. In addition to the large size of these accounts, they are hands down one of the best clients I have ever worked with – I am in constant communication with many members of their organization (almost daily) and they are the most hard-working, enjoyable people to build a relationship with. We continue to figure out ways in which we can keep growing the partnership and I could not be more proud of how it has been built and grown in just over 12 months. Within my personal life, I am extremely passionate about animal welfare and animal rescue and am on the fundraising committee for the MSPCA – my proudest moment with my efforts with this incredible organization was being asked to serve as a vice-chair for the upcoming annual 2018 MSPCA Cape Cod gala.
Contact Info:
- Address: One Financial Center
Boston, MA 02111 - Website: www.loomissayles.com
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/company/loomis-sayles-&-company/
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