Meet Nikhil
Valuation Services
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Therese Sebastian
Director, Valuation & HR Advisory Services
Certified Equity Professional (CEP)
University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management
MBA
Ateneo de Manila University
BS with honors, Management Engineering
"You don’t have to be an executive to effect change—you can be a leader simply by having an idea and being ready to make it happen."
In the Philippines, where I’m from, I worked for a large conglomerate right out of college. Then I went back to school for my master’s degree in the United States, and from there I landed at Equity Methods.
It’s a very different kind of environment. In my prior job, any new undertaking needed to go through layers of management approval. To get anything done was an exercise in frustration. Equity Methods, on the other hand, is entrepreneurial—you have the freedom to pursue different things. If there’s a problem and there’s a fairly straightforward way to fix it, you can just go ahead and do it.
"It’s not the title or the position so much as it is the attitude you bring to the table. And when others see those attributes in you, it can pave the way to an actual change in title and position."
The culture is pretty egalitarian as well. You don’t have to be an executive to effect change—you can be a leader simply by having an idea and being ready to make it happen. It’s not the title or the position so much as it is the attitude you bring to the table. And when others see those attributes in you, it can pave the way to an actual change in title and position. That’s a refreshing contrast to a traditional corporate role, where you might not be able to advance unless your boss leaves.
Equity Methods is a good fit for those who like a dynamic environment where you might wear different hats, depending on what the business needs and what our clients need. You need to be flexible and willing to pitch in and try something new.
I like being stretched in different directions because it exposes me to different things. There’s my primary role in our valuation and HR practices, with the associated client service work and travel. But I’m also involved with marketing, recruiting, and training.
We do a lot of training. To me, the advantage of training a new hire is that it flexes different muscles around presenting information and distilling highly technical concepts into simple terms that anyone could understand. We do these things for clients every day, and training our own people is a way to hone those skills in a safe internal environment.
"We enable companies to grow and people to gain wealth. That's a very fulfilling experience."
From a client service perspective, my favorite type of project is helping companies design compensation programs for their employees. Those have generally been the most challenging projects that I’ve been on. But they’re also the most interesting because the situation for every client is different. There’s always a twist or nuance you’ve never run into before that will influence the recommendations you’re going to make. I also like the fact that the work we do has a direct impact. We enable companies to grow and people to gain wealth. That’s a very fulfilling experience.
We do go through busy periods, so I have to allocate my time carefully. In a dynamic workplace, I don’t think it’s realistic to expect a fixed schedule of work, family, and hobbies. If work is going to take up a lot of time, I prioritize accordingly. For example, at the start of what looks like a busy week, I figure out the top personal and social activities that are important to me and block them on the calendar to make sure they happen. Then I evaluate which of my work tasks are critical. I also identify which work tasks will take a lot of my time and energy versus those I can be efficient with or enlist my team to help with. This approach helps me set more realistic expectations of what to expect and what I can accomplish. And if things slow down a bit, I’m very intentional about taking more personal time. Because you do need to rest and engage in other activities that energize you.
" Having that agency—that degree of empowerment—is a very inspiring way to go about work and life."
Just going outside for a walk or hike can clear my head. Yoga does the same thing. I also enjoy reading fiction—I was doing some inventory the other week and discovered I’ve read close to 500 books. And I love to travel. I’m a bit of a foodie and enjoy sampling local cuisines.
For those considering a position at Equity Methods, my advice is to just be excellent in the work that you do. If you can do that and keep up the energy, you can have a lot of impact in the organization. And to me, having that agency—that degree of empowerment—is a very inspiring way to go about work and life.
