September 10, 2015 

By Dr. Valerie Wardlaw 

Contributing Writer

I am very passionate about leadership.  There is a genuineness that comes from the way that I see leadership.  I genuinely care and have a strong belief in building a great team.  At Merrill Lynch, I know that one person cannot have the success a group can have when there is collective thought.  When I’m working with my team, I want their input.  I want to know what my team is thinking, and feeling. It is important to process what I’ve heard and it begs the question:  how can I take what I’ve heard and make our company better?

Results…its important to have them.  As the President of Merrill Lynch says, “its table steak.”  I am very fortunate that I get to work with amazing leaders everyday.  At Merrill Lynch, I get to bring my whole self into the workplace and that provides a tremendous sense of security. That is the hallmark of good company and a good leader will encourage balance and wholeness throughout their team.

I wake up every morning and enjoy what I do. As a leader, I am consistent, responsible, and an achiever.  I seek results daily.  Recent studies have shown that when women are in leadership roles, things happen very differently.  We stop, listen, and pay attention.  We are thinking about your kids, and how things are going for you at home.  We think about the total person and I have benefitted from that type of thinking.  Those qualities are welcomed and sought after in my workplace so the focus is on the strengths that leaders bring individually and ones that ultimately benefit us collectively as a team.

Mentorship is a core component of leadership.  I speak with my mentors often.  Merrill Lynch values mentorship and it undergirds our thinking as we strive to strengthen our community ties.  How can we build trust with members of the community?  How can we educate future generations about the financial services industry?  The answer is found in our ability to teach, to nurture future leaders, to mentor.

As chair of the African American Leadership Team at Merrill Lynch, I see the need for mentors.  I value the wisdom of my colleagues.  The financial services industry needs African American and Latina women.  There is nothing better than taking what I’ve learned in my 17 years at Merrill Lynch and sharing it with kids from the Boys and Girls Club, with mentees from the National Black MBA’s Leader­ship of Tomorrow group, the LA Urban League Youth Professionals, the Southern California Black Professional Group and through our program, Better Money Habits.  Every employee at Merrill Lynch is strongly encouraged to volunteer and give back to the community.  Personally, I want other women of color to know that if I can succeed in the financial services industry, they can as well.  There is no truer statement, “if I can do it, they can certainly do it.” 

Merrill Lynch is one company that is committed to mentoring, and providing resources for emerging women leaders in our local communities and around the world.  I’m happy to be a part of a company that doesn’t just talk about leadership but is progressive in its thinking and in its role as a leader in the financial services industry.

I have learned in my years at Merrill Lynch that people are always paying attention.  When I wake up in the morning, I want to be comfortable with the person that stares back at me in the mirror.  I want to leave a legacy for my children, for other children, for Black children. 

I’m proud that Merrill Lynch seeks out leaders at Historically Black Colleges and Universities.  We have an amazing recruiter program where we are looking to identify young talent.  If I have the opportunity to speak with college students, I would tell them that great opportunities await them at Merrill Lynch.  I also tell them to be mindful of social media and their personal branding.  I want young people to be careful about accumulating unnecessary debt.  My advice is to put money aside, and invest in themselves - they don’t need all the ‘stuff’ when they are in college.  It’s more important at a young age to invest in yourself and the ‘stuff’ will come.

Self-care is important as a leader.  I spend time with my family, especially connecting with my 14-year-old daughter.  I am conscious that my behavior needs to be reflective of what I want her to be as a young woman.  I am conscious that I am leading her; I am her mother and a role model.  Women are leaders not only in the workplace but also in the home.

As a leader in the African American community, it is important to me to be involved in the Taste of Soul.  Fortunately for me, Merrill Lynch shares that same sentiment.  The Taste of Soul gives us a tremendous opportunity to connect to the community, with the people we serve.  Our involvement says a lot about who we are as a company.  We cannot impact and change lives without being out in the community, “you absolutely cannot lead from behind a desk.”  I say “we need to lay eyes on one another,” and as my boss says, “people buy people.”

Words About Michelle:

“What I appreciate about Michelle Avan, is the manner in which she demonstrates a healthy balance in her professional and personal life.  She operates from a place of over-all confidence in her expertise as an executive in the financial industry, in her grace, compassion and integrity as a Black woman with intrinsic value to the community at large.”  Barbara A. Perkins, Mentor.

“Working with Michelle is always insightful as she always offers a unique perspective I hadn’t thought about before.  She is always available to partner with me when I need her expertise and I trust her instinct implicitly.”  Sherrie Holland, Director, Market Client Relationship Manager-

Note:  Michelle Avan is one of the honorees at the 10th Anniversary of the We See You Awards sponsored by Sisters at the Well, Sunday, October 25, Skirball Cultural Center.  For information, visit www.sistersatthewell.com. 

For information on Better Money Habits:  visit www.bettermoneyhabits.com.

September 03, 2015

By Sarafina Wright and D. Kevin McNeir 

Special to the NNPA from The Washington Informer 

How well do you remember the last days of August 2005 when a tropical storm formed over the Bahamas and intensified as it made its way toward Florida, back out to sea and then to southeast Louisiana?

Hurricane Katrina would make history as one of costliest natural disasters and one of the five deadliest hurricanes in U.S. history. But what often comes to mind is the delay of government officials – several days in fact – before they heeded the call for sorely needed assistance in the way of food, water, medicine and shelter.

Now, as the city of New Orleans recalls the day that the levee system catastrophically failed, conversations continue to be held here in the District and across the U.S., assessing what progress has been made in rebuilding New Orleans and other parts of Louisiana and Mississippi – and what still needs to be done.

Criticism has been lodged, and rightfully so, against Mayor Ray Nagin, Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco and President George W. Bush – the three leaders who hemmed and hawed – wasting vital time before initiating emergency response actions.

Today, as former Mayor Nagin serves a federal ten-year sentence for wire fraud, conspiracy, bribery and money laundering, Mitch Landrieu, the first white mayor of predominately black New Orleans since his father Moon Landrieu held office in the '70s, has traversed the U.S. to talk about the hurricane on its tenth anniversary and how his city’s landscape has been changed forever.

Mayor Landrieu appeared at the National Press Club on Tuesday, August 18, in Northwest, outlining New Orleans’s progression, obstacles and the seemingly never ending issue of violent crime.

“In the last 10 years, New Orleans has had to deal with Hurricane Katrina, Rita, Ike, Gustav, the BP oil spill and the recession,” Mayor Landrieu said. “But by nature we’re resilient and won’t bow down. We went from a city being underwater to one of the fastest growing cities in America.”

Somewhere between 1,800 and 2,000 people died during the storm and in days after the skies had cleared. One million people were displaced and the city experienced upwards of $150 billion in damage.

“It was an infrastructure and man-made failure of epic proportion,” Landrieu said. “But in the midst of death and destruction, the sun came up. Bodies were floating in the flooded New Orleans streets and people were stuck on rooftops for days under the blazing New Orleans sun.”

“But neighbors helped neighbors and pulled them out of the water,” the mayor added.

While the hurricane virtually destroyed New Orleans, it did create an avenue of change for the city’s faltering school system.

Some readers may consider listening to recent reports on National Public Radio [NPR] aired during the month of August where editors and reporters have led discussions about the efforts made to rebuild the city and other parts of the Gulf Coast.

“Ten years ago New Orleans was considered one of the worst failing school systems in the country,” Landrieu said. “Today nearly every student attends a public charter school. Students are no longer confined by geography.”

August 27, 2015 

City News Service 

A Los Angeles City Council panel instructed staffers to draw up regulations for short-term rental booking services like Airbnb and to hold at least three public meetings on the issue. The Planning and Land Use Management Committee heard testimony from dozens of residents who complained of noise and rowdy behavior from guests of nearby residences that have been listed on Airbnb and similar sites. The committee backed a motion by Councilman Mike Bonin that proposes the city prohibit property that is not also primary residences from being rented out on sites like Airbnb.Bonin said in his motion that some Airbnb listings are being operated by “off-site management companies” that buy up property for the sole purposes of operating them as a rental businesses. Bonin’s motion also calls for the city to collect transient occupancy tax from short-term rental hosts. Councilman Jose Huizar, who chairs the Planning and Land Use Committee, moved to instruct the Planning Department “to thoroughly assess the potential impacts to existing housing supply and in particular to SRO (single room occupancy) units and to develop a clear and simple enforcement mechanism to effectively limit short term-rentals to primary residents only.”