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How Janet Hanson became a champion for working women. |
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Janet Hanson.
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Entrepreneur, innovator, author, mother, breast-cancer survivor
and philanthropist Janet Hanson is also a managing director
and senior advisor to the president of Lehman Brothers. At
the firm’s midtown Manhattan building where Hanson’s
office is located, several women walk through the corridors
carrying a copy of her new book, More
Than 85 Broads (McGraw-Hill,
$21.95). These women have just attended one of Hanson’s
regular roundtable discussions and, judging by their voices
and gesticulations, are clearly energized.
Their excitement and enthusiasm are understandable. Hanson
is soft-spoken, yet her passion for encouraging women is both
intense and contagious. Fond of superlatives, she proudly describes
the businesswomen of today and tomorrow as “rockets and
superstars.”
Self-characterized as extroverted, client-oriented and with “sales
in her blood,” Hanson made her way to Wall Street via
the fixed-income division at Goldman Sachs after graduating
from Columbia Business School in 1977. She spent 14 years at
Goldman Sachs, becoming the first woman to achieve a sales
management position at the firm. At the height of her career – overworked
and overwrought by working next to the man she had recently
divorced – Hanson left the financial world, albeit temporarily,
to resurrect her personal life and raise her two children in
Tarrytown, NY.
It took Hanson many years to fully recover from her decision
to leave Goldman Sachs. The isolation she felt and disconnection
from the banking world – her colleagues, clients and
the markets – were emotionally challenging. However,
she did manage to establish herself as a champion of change
for women in the business sector.
After a few stints at several jobs that weren’t quite
right, Hanson started Milestone Capital in 1994. The only women-owned
institutional money-management fund in the U.S., it was founded
on the premise that its small size would allow for a higher
level of customer service. After several years of uncertainty,
Milestone Capital is now thriving and manages over $2 billion
in assets for large institutional investors.
Hanson’s greatest passion, however, is 85 Broads, an
international network of more than 15,000 women. She started
85 Broads in 1999 while at home with her children. Initially,
85 Broads – the address of Goldman Sachs’s downtown
Manhattan headquarters is 85 Broad Street – was intended
as a way for former and current Goldman Sachs female employees
to connect with one another. However, Hanson quickly expanded
the reach of the network to include women from other firms
as well as graduate and undergraduate women through the branches
of Broad2Broad and Broad2Be.
Hanson’s achievements have been offset by personal challenges.
In 2002, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Following a
bilateral mastectomy, she turned to the women in her network
for support and received an overwhelming outpouring of encouraging
e-mails and letters. The survival stories from many women in
the network she had begun gave Hanson the strength she needed
at a difficult time. Indeed, it was at that point that she
felt compelled to write More Than 85 Broads, intending to document
the myriad stories of so many strong women who overcame various
life-altering challenges. The book explores the multitude of
ways that success is manifested.
Hanson devotes much time to serving on the boards of several
philanthropic organizations, including BreastCancer.org, Miles
to Go and the Christopher Reeve Foundation. When she was diagnosed
with breast cancer, she says she “needed answers,” and
she now supports and believes in the mission of BreastCancer.org,
which is to provide intelligible and comprehensive information
about breast cancer.
Although a star in her own right, Hanson has established herself
as part of a much larger constellation. By harnessing the power
of the network, she has been successful in empowering women
and propelling their careers. Hanson hopes that each woman
in her network will turn around and help launch the career
of another. |
Laura Rand |
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