Most financial services firms are not known for offering flexible work arrangements, but Macquarie Group is, helping employees achieve work-life balance and spend more time with what’s important to them.
Case in point is Erin Ledger-Beaupre, managing director in the real estate investment banking group in Chicago. She focuses on executing advisory and principal transactions across the real estate sector, including developing, directing, underwriting and execution across advisory, debt, equity and principal transactions.
Finding a situation that works for employees going through life changes
Having recently celebrated her eight-year anniversary at the bank, Ledger-Beaupre spent the first four of those in Macquarie’s New York office after coming over from Credit Suisse, initially as an associate. The following year, she got married. At the time, her husband was going through an optometry program and residency. A couple of years later, she gave birth to her son, who is now four years old.
“After we had the baby and my husband finished his residency, we decided if the right opportunity came up that we wanted to move to Chicago. It was very important for us to be more centrally located and closer to our families – I’m from Iowa, and he’s from Michigan,” Ledger-Beaupre said.
At that time, Macquarie provided three months of paid maternity leave, but Ledger-Beaupre was in the middle of a big transaction that she had been working on for more than two years, and she didn’t want to come off the deal. She decided to take two months off, stayed involved in that transaction, then worked part time for the next couple of months.
When the right opportunity came along for her husband, now a full-fledged eye doctor, Ledger-Beaupre said that everyone at Macquarie was very supportive of her desire to work from the Chicago office, even though the rest of the real estate team would continue to be based in New York. She and her family made the move four years ago. She is able to work remotely as needed, and she often travels to the New York office and all over the world to meet with clients.
“I had spent a significant amount of time in the New York office, but Chicago has worked out great for me, my husband and our family,” Ledger-Beaupre said. “Since that time, Macquarie has gotten even more flexible about how our teams work together and working arrangements with flexibility are openly accepted.”
Flexibility for a family man
New York native Raul Narciso’s career has not been conventional by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, he has served in a wide spectrum of roles across Macquarie.
Narciso joined Macquarie’s New York-based Finance team in 2000, focusing on regulatory and management reporting. He then became a business operational risk manager for Macquarie Capital, the investment banking division.
After performing at a high level in that role for five years, Narciso moved down under to the Sydney office’s human resources department, where he was able to apply his first-hand business experience to a variety of high-profile human resources projects. From there, he moved to the Philippines to set up the Macquarie Human Resources Shared Service Center, leading a team of 120 employees.
In 2014, Narciso moved back home to New York to take on his current role, the Head of Risk, Americas, for Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA) – the firm’s asset management division.
Narciso is the father of nine-year-old twin daughters, and he works remotely from home one day a week to avoid his commute from Long Island to Manhattan and be able to spend more time with his daughters.
“Being able to work remotely – I think it’s huge,” Narciso said. “Usually during the other days, I get to spend maybe an hour with my daughters every day before they get to bed, because I leave before they’re awake in the morning and they’re in bed an hour after I get home.
“On Tuesdays, I see them in the morning, help them get ready for school and I get to walk them to the bus, plus I can pick them up when they get off the bus, so I get to spend an extra two or three hours with them,” he said. “It also breaks up the week from a commuting perspective and reduces stress levels.
“Macquarie is a great organization to work for – it’s really dynamic in terms of giving people opportunities to move geographies, work flexibly and support their families.”
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