It’s been a rewarding career, enriched by Spillane’s willingness to plunge into roles different from her previous ones.
Spillane thinks investment banking needs to do a better job of selling itself as a career option to young women beyond its traditional male-dominated and aggressive aura, which she is thinks is not necessarily well-earned. Next, she thinks women must believe in themselves when stepping outside their professional wheelhouse, and feeling free to lean in when other parts of their lives demand more attention.
Tchou’s first love was law. But an internship towards the end of her dual commerce and law degree at UNSW left her thinking lawyers were the less exciting counterparts of investment bankers, who were on the front foot in helping a company shape its strategy. As far as female role models go, the younger bankers at Morgan Stanley have two solid female figures to look up to.
If the common perception of investment banking is that it is mostly male, that is no more so than in debt capital markets. And she does it well, getting UBS into the lead position for three of the four largest TLB acquisition financings in the Australian and New Zealand market in the past year, including, and Vocus NZ’s $NZ1.7 billion acquisition of telco 2Degrees.