Cecilia Jiménez Cornejo, CEO at SAM Asset Management, won Excellence in Asset Management at Markets Media Group’s inaugural Women in Finance Latin America Awards, which was held in Mexico City on March 6.

Markets Media met with Cecilia at her office on March 5 to learn more.

When and how did you decide on a career in finance?

I grew up in Chile, and I first wanted to become a doctor. But in my senior year in high school, I did an internship at a hospital and I found myself crying a lot, so I decided I should do something else!

I’ve always liked math and numbers, and also political science. I was drawn to commercial engineering, which is similar to civil engineering, and it’s what you study to become an economist in Chile. I liked this field because it had numbers and also social studies, and it gave me the opportunity to pursue several different numbers-based career paths.

When I was in college, I found algebra, calculus and other math courses easy, but finance and accounting were difficult. But as I studied those subjects more, I started to like them, and it became clear to me that I should be an investment analyst. I wasn’t exactly sure what an investment analyst did, but I liked markets, bonds, equities, and macroeconomics, and I knew it was for me.

What has been your career path?

I started as an investment analyst with Legg Mason, in 2007. It was a fun time to be in the industry with all the IPOs at that time, but I soon learned all about liquidity constraints when the global financial crisis happened in 2008.

In late 2008 I left Chile and took a position as a sell-side equity analyst for Santander in Spain. In 2010, I returned to Chile for love — to be with the man who’s now my husband – and started working for Santander Chile in their asset management business, as a portfolio manager for Chilean equities.

My husband’s job moved him to Mexico, so we moved to Mexico City and I joined Principal Financial Group as an investment and credit analyst. I was there for two years before returning to Santander, first in asset management and then in sell-side research for the investment banking side of the business. I did sell-side research in real estate, cement and construction, and equity strategy for five years and I really liked it — it was a great experience, and I had a lot of interactions with institutional clients, in Mexico and abroad. I was head of research and I also led the equity capital markets business for investment banking before I became CEO of SAM Asset Management.

One feature of my career has been moving back and forth between sell side and buy side, which has given me a holistic view of the industry.

How have you been able to succeed and reach the CEO level?

I enjoy what I do, and I find passion and commitment drive results. I’ve also always been curious — I like to look deeper and deeper into whatever is in front of me and try to connect the dots from one thing to another, in a way that other people maybe don’t do.

When you have an appetite to learn and work hard, it’s easy to go above and beyond the basic level of requirements.

Also, I have worked in Mexico for almost 15 years, and this has allowed me to build a strong network of counterparts, coworkers, and clients.

How would you describe your management style?

I’m democratic. I try to empower people. I know I’m not always going to be the expert — my teams have to provide the expertise. But I’m going to challenge people and ask why.

For important matters, I try to hear all opinions before making a decision, and I can be flexible, but ultimately I take responsibility for the decision.

I am intense and I can be tough, but I try to always be fair. I appreciate transparency and addressing problems right away, because I’ve found that problems left unaddressed never become easier with time, they become harder.

I try to keep a line between weekdays and off days, between office hours and out-of-office hours. This is super important. Everyone needs to enjoy their own time, with family and friends, to relax and do whatever they want. Also, you have to enjoy what you do on a daily basis. We spend too much time here in the office to not have some fun. So I try to make office a place to enjoy.

How has been your personal experience as a woman in finance in Latin America? Have you experienced challenges in your career, that perhaps you would not have faced as a man?

There have been challenges. Right after college, early in my career, it was like a woman had to work twice as hard as a man just to get to the same place.

I think still, women in their 20s and 30s need to prove themselves more. That’s because, especially in Latin America, it’s embedded on your profile as a woman that you might want to have a family, which means you would want to step away or work part-time, and that takes you off your career path.

Is the landscape improving for women in finance in Latin America, in terms of opportunities?

Over the past 20 years, there have been material improvement in several countries of Latin America, particularly in Mexico and Chile. But there is still a long way to go.

How do you, as a CEO, foster an environment that provides more opportunities for women?

One, flexibility works for everyone. We have to be flexible for women, and for men, to do the work they are supposed to do, in the place they can do it, either in the office or at home. If I want the best talent and a balanced team, I need to ensure that the frameworks, the schedules, we have in place are flexible enough to cover a broad set of potential collaborators. It’s about having the best people in place.

Two, I am pretty sure that in general terms, we as women, ask less and take fewer risks. Sometimes this means a capable, talented woman does not apply for a position because they do not fulfill 100% of the requirements. So as CEO, I have requested that in any hiring process with at least three people, one woman needs to be included.

This makes a big difference for an organization in terms of leveling the playing field. Having just one seat for a woman in a hiring process obligates you to have a pipeline of women for different position – that provides visibility and sponsorship while also showing more women that it’s possible to do big things.

What would be your advice a young woman in Latin America, who might be either starting or considering a career in finance?

Think ahead. Look forward to where you want to be within the next five years, and whether the decisions you’re taking today are moving you in that direction or not.

For example, organizing a birthday party for someone in your office might not be the best use of your time, but organizing a book club for investment solutions, or for the applications of artificial intelligence, might be.

Time is our most valuable asset. Take ownership of your time, be super careful in how you spend your time, and don’t be afraid to say no.

Take ownership of your decisions. Challenge yourself to be uncomfortable, because that’s the only way to keep growing. Take pride in your missteps as well as your successes, because we learn more from our missteps.