Owning Your Seat at the Table

“When things are uncertain, that is the time for black women to step into being information centers and nodes, because then you have an opportunity”

Black women are the most educated demographic in the United States, yet very few of us are seated at decision-making tables across the corporate world. If we want to change the pay disparity and ensure our voices hold space in these important conversations, we need to have the courage and take action in order to get there. 

My guest today is Rukaiyah Adams, a trailblazer in the field of financial services, investment, and institutional asset management. She has secured a seat at numerous tables of influence, power, and decision making. Rukaiyah is the Chief Investment Officer at Meyer Memorial Trust, one of the largest charitable foundations in the Pacific Northwest. She's responsible for leading all investment activities to ensure the long term financial strength of the organization. Before joining Meyer, she ran the $6.5 billion capital markets fund at The Standard, where she oversaw six trading desks that included several bond strategies, preferred equities, derivatives, and other risk mitigation strategies. Rukaiyah is the chair of the prestigious Oregon Investment Council, the board that manages approximately $100 billion of public pension and other assets for the state of Oregon. During her tenure as chair, the Oregon State Pension Fund has been the top-performing public pension fund in the United States.

Rukaiyah has been opening doors and breaking through glass ceilings,  paving the way for other women of color to be seated at the table. She's made it to the top and she's sending the elevator back down to bring up more people who look just like her. She is passionate about owning her seat at the table and driving lasting change both in the makeup of the table and the impact of the table. She's an African American woman who's earned not just a place at the table, but the chair at the head of it. 

Getting to that table is one thing, but owning your seat is another. Once we make it to the table, it can be easy to just sit back and revel in our success. For Rukaiyah, that wasn’t enough. Earning her seat wasn’t the pinnacle. She wanted to change the makeup of the table, shake it up from the inside, and direct real change that would benefit her community. She has never been afraid to make unpopular decisions and does not compromise on her ethics. Owning her seat at the table is about demonstrating consistent excellence. With excellence comes confidence in her decision making skills, and that in turn gives her the power to invest ethically, benefiting the people who need it most. 

Rukaiyah grew in Northeast Portland in a strong black community she describes as being “a hotbed for black thinking in the 70s and 80s”.  It was a place where her self-confidence was encouraged through the nourishment she received from family relationships and powerful community connection. She’s dedicated much of her energy in the finance sector towards rebuilding and reenergizing the historic community center where she was raised. 

In today’s episode, we talk about owning the seats we occupy at the table. We also discuss how times of uncertainty can actually be the most opportune moments for women of color to step up into leadership. This episode was recorded on Black Women’s Equal Payday, so there was truly no better time to talk about how to get more women of color into positions of power and leadership. 

Some Questions I Ask:

Who were some of your biggest influences in life? (7:48)When did you discover your ROAR? (10:40)Who influenced your love of community? (16:07)What did your career journey look like? (18:37)When did you start to find your voice? (24:21)How have you learned from your failures? (35:25)What is your advice to young women of color? (46:24)What is your vision for Portland? (49:22)How would you have been impacted as a young girl seeing the success of women of color today? (1:01:02)

What You’ll Learn in this Episode:

How Rukaiyah’s relationship with her Grandfather made an impact on her life (9:04)Why the decision to leave public school had a transformative effect (11:06)How code switching is being flipped around (14:45)How being an outsider became an unexpected benefit during the financial crisis (20:53)The powerful moment when she recognized her moral responsibility as a black woman in finance (24:41)Her strategy when she faces pushback (30:18)The unique choices women in business have to make about family (38:42)A recent success in Portland community building (44:04)

Connect with Rukaiyah Adams:

LinkedInTwitter

Resources:

Meyer Memorial TrustVideo: TED: Homegirls’ Guide to Being PowerfulVideo: Tech Fest 2017 Book: The Overstory by Richard Powers

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