Mary Ellen Iskenderian: My Pivot Point Led Me to Follow My Passion

By Mary Ellen Iskenderian, President & CEO, Women's World Banking

To celebrate International Women's Day, Mary Ellen Iskenderian, President and CEO of Women's World Banking, shares her pivot point.

For 17 years, I worked at an international financial institution making multi-million dollar investments in financial institutions in developing countries. I saw the great impact this kind of work can have in building systems and institutions to address the economic challenges of these countries.

But after years of working around the world, I began to realize that I was getting further away from the people whom I wanted to serve most, low-income women. I now know that this was the pivot point that pushed me to take on a new role as President and CEO of Women's World Banking, the global nonprofit devoted to giving low-income women access to the financial tools they need to achieve security and prosperity. My decision taught me the importance of pursuing work that is aligned with your core passions. In my case, I was able to focus my career on serving these women that I care about so deeply.

Every day, my staff and I meet with women who inspire us with their stories. I remember one entrepreneurial woman from Hyderabad, India who saw opportunity where others saw only garbage. She collected used bottle caps from the trash outside her home, purchased a bottle cap pressing machine with her first loan, flattened the caps and sold them back to soft drink bottlers in her region. In Kenya, I met a woman who operated a small hardware store. Five years later, I saw her again and she had expanded from her small hardware store to cement making, had sent her children to college and set aside savings for her retirement. We are able to provide such women with resources to build their business and provide for their families. In turn, they provide us with the motivation we need to grow in a sustainable way and best expand our services to reach an even greater number of unbanked women.

To be clear, there are challenges when moving from the private sector to a nonprofit. But each day at Women's World Banking is an inspiration. The institutions we work with around the globe are full of powerful leaders, who feel passionately about women's economic empowerment. The clients for whom we develop savings, credit, and insurance products are building a stronger future for themselves and their families.

If there is any recommendation I can give to someone at a crossroads in his or her career, it is to follow your passion and do what you love. While on paper a career can be seen as successful, it is more important to pursue work that is also personally fulfilling. My decision to do so has led me to a career that is rewarding as well as constantly inspiring.

*The Citi Foundation has partnered with Women's World Banking since 1997, investing nearly $6MM in both their global and local initiatives across 13 countries.