On the Path to the Corner Office: "Leap before you look. It's OKAY to take career risks.”

At BNY Mellon, diversity and inclusion are a top business priority, consistent with our values of client focus, integrity, teamwork and excellence. Building a vibrant culture of inclusion is just good business. It creates a stronger, smarter and more successful company. And, as a global company with offices, employees and clients around the world, we operate across cultures and serve a broadly diverse client base.

Throughout March, BNY Mellon's virtual mentoring series explore the career insights and candid perspectives of executives who have reached the corner office. These dedicated leader-coaches share many common traits and values, reflecting how BNY Mellon has become the Investments Company for the World.

If you had 5 minutes with an inspirational woman leader what could you find out?

Newton's CEO Helena Morrissey shares the five things I would tell my 21-year-old self if I were just getting started:

1.     Work out what's important to you in life.

2.     Never be compromised on those - be true to yourself rather than following others.

3.     Marry someone who really understands you - and vice versa.

4.     Leap before you look. It's okay to take risks.

5.     Enjoy yourself!

Helena Morrissey CBE is Chief Executive Officer of Newton, a London-based global investment company with assets under management of over £50bn. Newton is known for its global thematic approach to investing across a broad range of asset classes.

Helena joined Newton in 1994 as a fixed income fund manager and was appointed CEO in 2001. During her time running Newton’s bond funds she was twice-winner of Investment Week’s Global Bond Fund Manager of the year.

Helena is involved in many aspects of the UK fund management industry and a regular speaker at conferences. She was named the Financial News ‘Most Influential Woman in European Asset Management’ in 2010. She was the first female director of the UK’s Investment Management Association, serving from 2005 till 2012. She represents the investment industry on the FSA’s Practitioner Panel, a statutory body providing input to the regulators from practitioners’ perspectives. She is a member of the University of Cambridge Endowment Investment Board, the UBS Research Advisory Board and the Royal Academy Corporate Board.

In 2010, Helena founded the 30% Club, a cross-business initiative aimed at achieving 30% women on UK corporate boards by 2015 through voluntary, business-led change. In April 2012, The Times and Opportunity Now honoured her as ‘Champion for sustained and highly effective individual leadership efforts’. She was appointed CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the Queen’s 2012 New Year’s Honour’s list for her contribution to British business.

A Cambridge philosophy graduate, she began her career as a global bond analyst with Schroders in New York.