Hear and Persevere: Inspiring Stories of Dynamic Women – Cheryl Nash

“Women, I hear you. And I revere you.

As a woman, and especially as a female CEO, I cherish the dynamic women whose counsel and support have inspired me to persevere throughout my career. And I cherish our own Amy Yoder, who has partnered with me to tell their stories – stories of how women overcame formidable challenges to rise to the top of their respective fields. For this new Copytalk initiative, Amy will focus her incredible talents on interviewing these woman and writing their stories, which we will publish as an ongoing series. Why are we doing this? Because I’m confident that these amazing stories – extraordinary women all – have something of great value to offer you, as well.”

– Maree Moscati, CEO,  Copytalk

Cheryl Nash

President, Investment Services at Fiserv

Bio:

Cheryl Nash, President, Investment Services at Fiserv, drives the strategic vision for industry-leading technology solutions in wealth management. With over 30 years of experience, Cheryl has a keen appreciation and understanding of industry trends, priorities and challenges, and is a highly sought-after subject matter expert. Her consultative approach has yielded enduring client partnerships.  

Cheryl’s credentials include her appointment to the Money Management Institute (MMI) board of governors and selection as cochair of the MMI Women in Wealth Management, a program dedicated to ensuring women in the workforce 0-5 years have an enriching start to their financial services careers; board member of MMI’s Leadership Pathway; and former co-chair for MMI’s Technology & Operations Committee. She serves as an Envestnet Institute on Campus advisory board member and leads the Women in Wealth Management initiative, a program dedicated to inspiring, advising, and educating career-focused women.  

Cheryl has received numerous awards for her contributions and achievements including Money Management Institute’s Pioneer Award (2009); Gold Stevie® Award for Women in Business (2016); Family Wealth Report’s Women in Wealth Management—Individual Contributor award (2017); MMI/Barron’s Industry award to Envestnet Institute on Campus in the ‘Doing Good’ category, a program for which Cheryl Nash and Fiserv are key contributors (2017, 2018); InvestmentNews 2017 Women to Watch honoree; the FTF News 2018 Editor’s Choice Award and most recently, ThinkAdvisor’s 2019 Top Women in WealthTech.  

 

Amy: Share with our readers something most people don’t know about you

Cheryl: Most people don’t know that I’m a twin and have a twin brother. When we were born, my mother did not know she was having twins. I was under 2 pounds and my brother was 51/2 pounds. I sometimes think about being premature and so small back then – and how lucky I am to be alive! I never take that for granted.

I also know that having a twin brother helped me growing up. We were (and still are) best friends. And I truly believe that relationship made it easier for me to have a successful career in a male-dominated industry.

Early on, I got used to working around double standards. On the night of our high school graduation, my brother could stay out all night with the other kids, but I had an 11 o’clock curfew. Talk about double standards. I also learned the differences in how people treat men versus women growing up, and again, it made me stronger and made me more aware. It also made me very conscious of how I treat people. First off, I always make sure I treat my daughter equal to my sons. And it also translates to the people I work with – when a woman comes into the room, even if there are empty chairs at a table, there’s always one who goes to sit in the chairs along the wall, and I hone in on that every time I see it, and I ask them, “Can you please move to the table?” I really focus on that to make sure that we’re treating everybody as equal.

Amy: Share how your career path positioned you to be where you are today.

Cheryl: I have stayed with the same company my entire career, which a lot of people can’t say these days. Originally, I was the fourth person hired at Security APL. That company has been through two mergers, and I’ve held a lot of different positions there. I learned how to do a lot, and mostly how to contribute where the help was needed the most. Growing up in a company like ours – a technology vendor and strategic partner to so many firms – I can leverage my relationship building, my network and my people skills. Early on, I got very comfortable meeting with clients, helping to set strategic direction, and that’s really helped me from a career perspective in what I do now.

Amy: Who is one of your most influential mentors and why?

Cheryl: One of my most influential mentors is Jim Seuffert. I’m very fortunate to know him, and one of the best pieces of advice he’s ever given me, which I would also give to other women coming into this industry, is that in order to be successful, you need to create a personal advisory board. Having a group of people with different talents can really help your career. It’s also important that you tell people that you’d like them to be on your personal advisory board. Making time to meet with them and cultivating a group that can help you with varying problems you’ll encounter is crucial.

Networking is so important – having a group of peers that you can meet periodically to bounce ideas off and gain different perspectives is critical. I meet quarterly with women who have experienced a lot of the same things I have – we’ve grown up in this industry together, and for every woman, it’s important to pick and choose a few women you know you can turn to and help each other out. Having that support system is really how you thrive and grow.