\n How Karen Firestone, Chair Emerita of Aureus Asset Management, thrived in the male-dominated world of finance in the 1980s. <\/p>\n
When Karen Firestone walked into Fidelity Investments in 1983, she entered a world that was dominated by men. The firm employed 750 people. Women were few and far between. And the culture, needless to say, was not built for women.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Four decades later, Karen Firestone, who goes by Kari, is the co-founder and Chair Emerita of Aureus Asset Management<\/a>. Her firm oversees more than $8 billion in assets. She sat down with Karen Finerman for a special episode of the HOW SHE DOES IT podcast at the CNBC Pro Live Event: Wealth For Women<\/a>, and shared what she learned about investing and risk, as well as what it takes to build a meaningful personal and professional life.\u00a0<\/p>\n A Different World<\/p>\n Karen Firestone was drawn to the world of investing while still in high school. She earned a scholarship to Harvard and went on to graduate with an MBA from Harvard Business School. She recalls her 22 years at Fidelity as being a \u201cvery competitive, pressure-cooker environment\u201d where one was expected to work long hours, even on the weekends.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n One example of how different the times were: When Firestone delivered her first set of twins on a Sunday, her boss, legendary fund manager Peter Lynch, called her at the hospital. After congratulating her, he asked about the status of one of the companies she was assigned to research.\u00a0<\/p>\n Then, she says, she went into the office that Friday. \u201cI\u2019m not suggesting that to anybody,\u201d she says now, with a laugh. \u201cBut it was a little bit of the culture.\u201d<\/p>\n Two years later, she was pregnant again, and an ultrasound revealed it was another set of twins. The prospect of being 30 years old with four children under two, she was concerned about whether it would be possible to continue working. Even friends and family suggested it was best that she stay home.\u00a0<\/p>\n She was torn.\u00a0<\/p>\n Expert Advice<\/p>\n Shortly afterwards, while still pregnant and traveling for work, Firestone had an unexpected encounter on a flight that changed her perspective. She found herself seated next to famous advice columnist Ann Landers, whose real name was Eppie Lederer.\u00a0 Firestone introduced herself and asked, \u201cWould you please talk to me? I have a problem.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The two spent four hours in conversation.\u00a0 Lederer\u2019s advice was simple but transformative.<\/p>\n \u201cShe said, \u2018You just need to make sure that you\u2019re happy, because if you\u2019re not happy, then no one else is going to be happy in your family. And you can\u2019t be overworked. You have to have plenty of help\u2014 lots and lots of help. You have to make sure everybody is getting enough sleep, enough attention, that you\u2019re in good shape,\u201d Firestone recalls being told. \u201c\u2019But it\u2019s important for you to work, so take the time off you need, but then hire the right people and go back to work\u2019.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Re-entry wasn\u2019t easy, and Firestone made the necessary adjustments. She skipped after-work socializing, negotiated her Saturday office appearances down to once every six weeks (sometimes bringing a child along), and was out the door by 5:30 p.m. to pick up her kids at hockey practices and swim meets. Her children, now nearly 40, insist she never missed a thing. She\u2019s not sure that\u2019s entirely true, but she\u2019s grateful they remember it that way.<\/p>\n Lessons from a Legend<\/p>\n Managing a portfolio is a high-stakes job, and few have done it better than Peter Lynch<\/a>. For the 13 years he ran Fidelity\u2019s Magellan Fund, it delivered an extraordinary average annual return rate of 29.2%. Karen Firestone became the third assistant fund manager on Magellan, working alongside Lynch at a time when he held 1,000 stocks and had only 12 analysts to cover them.<\/p>\n Lynch\u2019s approach was all about deep research on every opportunity. \u201cTurn over another rock at the beach,\u201d she recalls him saying, \u201cand eventually you\u2019re going to find an oyster with a pearl underneath one of them. You just have to keep looking.\u201d<\/p>\n The key was to scrutinize each potential investment in order to understand its potential value before others caught on.\u00a0 Firestone recalls that Lynch did this with Las Vegas, recognizing its promise as a family-friendly destination long before the strip underwent its megaresort boom of the late 1980s and 1990\u2019s. It was her assignment to know everything about that market.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI spent so much time in Las Vegas that everyone in my family and my friends thought I had a gambling problem,\u201d Firestone recalls, laughing. \u201cEven my husband.\u201d\u00a0 But her work researching emerging companies in the area paid off.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAnd we invested in almost every single company that came public [in Vegas] which happened a lot in the \u201980s,\u201d Firestone recalls. \u201cAnd we made a lot of money.\u201d<\/p>\n Risk, Resilience, and Living Life To The Fullest\u00a0<\/p>\n Firestone has spent her career managing risk. She literally wrote the book on it, Even the Odds: Sensible Risk-Taking in Business, Investing, and Life. <\/a>\u00a0She created a framework with the four tenets she believes need to be considered before making any big decisions:\u00a0<\/p>\n Make sure the risk is the right size Firestone employed all four of those considerations when taking her biggest professional leap: co-founding her own asset management firm, Aureus.<\/p>\n \u201cI was 47, so I had a lot of experience. My kids, the youngest ones, were going to college,\u201d Firestone recalls, so the timing felt right as well.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t need to get a paycheck for a while. I mean, I hoped I would get a paycheck,\u201d Firestone shares, chuckling.\u00a0 Her backup plan if things didn\u2019t work out?\u00a0 \u201cCrawl back to Fidelity,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n But that wasn\u2019t necessary.\u00a0 Founded in 2005, Aureus now manages billions in assets for families, individuals, and endowments. Firestone even invested the proceeds from selling her Fidelity shares back to the company upon her departure into portfolios at her new firm.<\/p>\n Across the past 20+ years, that\u2019s proven to be a smart investment. \u201c[Aureus ] beat the market for most of those years,\u201d Firestone said, noting she \u201cwas so happy and grateful that I did that because I couldn\u2019t have imagined doing better.\u201d<\/p>\n Through hard work and an indefatigable work ethic, Firestone took risks and reaped the rewards. Despite battling breast and ovarian cancer and enduring 15 surgeries over four and a half years, she remains positive. These days, the avid runner, mom of four, and grandmother of six is all about being in the moment. \u201cI don\u2019t feel that longevity is so important to me,\u201d she reflects. \u201cIt\u2019s the quality of my life. It\u2019s how I manage every day.\u201d<\/p>\n In other words, Firestone bet on herself and won. Vegas would be proud.\u00a0<\/p>\n MORE ON HERMONEY:<\/p>\n Editor\u2019s note: We maintain a strict editorial policy<\/a> and a judgment-free zone for our community, and we also strive to remain transparent in everything we do. Posts may contain references and links to products from our partners. 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\nAs best as you can, ensure the timing is right
\nHave the necessary knowledge and experience\u00a0
\nView it all with a healthy dose of cynicism\u00a0<\/p>\n