Managing partner is not just "that blind person"

From The Boss column about Karen Petrou (pictured), who is managing partner of Federal Financial Analytics, in The New York Times:

In high school I took the train from my home in Briarcliff Manor, north of New York, into Manhattan to take dance lessons with Syvilla Fort in a studio over a bar on 44th Street.

I danced with the Alvin Ailey company for a while but never made the top group. I also worked at Philipsburg Manor, a restored Colonial house in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y. Nothing prepares you for public speaking like appearing in a colonial style dress and mobcap in front of 50 or 60 sixth graders staring you down.

I qualified for early admission to Wellesley College, so I played hooky much of the remainder of my senior year. I had done well in school, so I had what Max Weber, the German social scientist, called legitimacy credits, and I could goof off a bit. I graduated from Wellesley with credits from M.I.T. as well.

At 18, I learned that I had a variety of retinitis pigmentosa. Other than being unable to drive and having difficulty recognizing people, I didn’t have a significant disability until my early 30s. I feel blessed by that because blindness is such a profound stereotype. Blindness scares people and makes it difficult to achieve. People don’t see you as you, they see you as “that blind person.” I was lucky not to have to fight that. I was the only female in my classes at M.I.T., so I was already beating back one stereotype. It would have been difficult if not impossible to fight two at once.

I find I frequently become a person’s Cub Scout moment, their good deed for the day. They either grab me — why, I don’t know — or speak very loudly. I’m more than able to get on a plane, give a speech, and then fly home. When I get out of a cab, I don’t need to be told, “This is the airport.” People do things like that all the time.

After college I got a job at Bank of America in San Francisco to try and decipher federal banking policy. After that I became vice president of the bank’s lobbying organization in Washington. Then, in 1985, I left to start my own company in Washington.

I look at federal legislative and regulatory developments for financial companies, some of which is extremely technical, and I identify the business impact. I like the intellectual challenge of taking a 200-page rule and determining what it means for merger-and-acquisition opportunities, new products and franchise issues.

I deal with the qualitative questions, and Basil, my husband and business partner, handles the quantitative part. We met almost 15 years ago when we had the same client and were sitting at a conference table. I joke that it was love at first sight. We merged our companies and have never had a problem working together because we both love what we do.

I speak to a lot of groups about finance. Years ago, I’d get the reaction, “Oh my, it’s a girl.” Audiences have become more educated over the years, and there are more female executives in finance now. These days, the barrier I encounter is, “Oh my, it’s a girl with a big German shepherd.”

Last year when I had a meeting at the Bank of New York Mellon, I stopped at the security desk and got a visitor’s pass. The bank president’s assistant made a big deal about giving my dog, Ori, an official V.I.P. pass. We don’t often get such a warm reception. I’m used to people being upset at seeing Ori while trying to appear that they’re not.

One of my passions is the Foundation Fighting Blindness. I’m on the board. We’re making great strides through research, and I’m hopeful about finding solutions and cures for people with retinal diseases.

Another passion is exercise. On weekends you can find me power walking at Rock Creek Park with my husband and my dog.