Julie Connors jumped from the role of adviser as apartner in the enterprise risk management practice at Deloitte toexecuting strategy as chief risk officer and senior vice presidentof audit for advertising's $6 billion Interpublic Group, theholding company for agencies including McCann Erickson.

“As a service provider, you think you know everything about aparticular industry that you've been working in for years, but youstill learn so much when you're looking at things from a differentperspective,” Connors says. “I miss being part of the revenuestream because there's such a rush when you sell new business. Butat the same time, it's been very rewarding to executestrategy.”

Since joining Interpublic in February, Connors, 39, hasrestructured the risk management group's responsibilities and isworking with the business units to increase the efficiency of riskmanagement operations.

How did you come to be working infinance/treasury?
Truly by accident. When I was incollege [at Rutgers University,] I was an economics major. And justas I was about to graduate, I realized to get the job I wanted, I'dhave to get a Ph.D. So I retooled by getting a second major inaccounting. That turned out to be very helpful since it gave me abroader perspective on business.

What's been your most rewarding project sofar?
Implementing an enterprise risk managementframework at IPG.

Is there something about riskmanagement for an advertising agency that is more specialized thanfor general corporate?
Social media is an emergingarea of risk for us. That whole market is still being defined. Andwe're involved just as it is emerging. And intellectual property isvery important to us: it's one of those heightened risks that we'retaking a deeper look into. That's what's so interesting about thisbusiness: just how fast it is changing.

How long have you been at IPG?
Since February 2010.But I cheated a bit: I was a service provider for IPG prior tojoining. That made the transition easier.

How did you get on the career fast track?
I was lucky to have joined Deloitte when I did. It was at a timewhen Deloitte was getting serious about supporting women in theworkforce. Within a year, with only a few projects under my belt,they had designated me as a high performer. And then that opened somany doors for me. They put me in special programs where they hadtraining for high performers. I also had the opportunity forone-on-one coaching.

Did you have a mentor and how important wasthat?
I've had many–some of them were formalized.And some were mentors who didn't realize they were acting as amentor to me. My advice to people just coming out of school is tothink very carefully about the relationships you forge and keep inmind you can always learn from the people around you.

What advice would you give newbies starting out intreasury and finance now?
Of course you need to workhard, be smart and be capable. But the softer skills are what aregoing to help you excel. The softer skills–how you work withpeople, being optimistic and the way you communicate–are reallygoing to impact someone's career. I think pessimists, for whomeverything is a challenge, are much less successful than people whoare optimists, who look upon challenges as an opportunity.

What skills are the most sought afternow?
Beyond those soft skills, I think it's theability to step back and look at the data and understand what it'sreally telling you.

What skills of your own would you like toimprove?
It's not so much skills, as experiencesthat I'd like to gain: I'd like to learn more about global andemerging markets. Places like China, India, Brazil. And it's reallygreat because I've gotten the opportunity to go to those places.And it's been eye-opening.

In what way? How business is conducted? Thepeople?
All of the above. The people interactdifferently and you have to be sensitive to that. They conductbusiness differently and we at IPG need to be comfortable with theway that they want to do business.

What are your goals in the next two years? The nextfive?
In two years, I'd like to be able to show howthe change in the alignment of the risk function has dramaticallyserved the organization. And in five years, I'd like to move on tothe operations side and move out of finance and see a little morebroadly than I do today.

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