From High School Lifeguard to Citibank Executive to Global Consulting Pioneer: Meet Mary Graham
In honor of Women's History Month, we are proud to feature Mary Graham. Mary Graham Davis founded The Davis Consulting Group LLC in 1996 to focus on strategy implementation through effective organization structure and leadership.
My personal and professional journey:
My journey encompasses a number of pathways, some were dead ends but even those pathways provide context for later twists and turns that bring me to where I am today. My adult journey started at a very large public high school north of Chicago where one had to sink or swim! My leadership and education experiences began on the swim and lifeguard team where I taught children, ages 6 to 12, to swim in a very large Olympic sized pool which frightened them all. So the first lesson was to gain the trust of young and water-fearful, sometimes panicked, children and support their introduction to water, buoyancy, and the thrill of staying afloat! I often think my ability to coach individuals to manage the unknowns of change and disruption originated in that pool of water.
My journey continued through Mount Holyoke College and a very formative junior year at the University of Geneva, Switzerland where classes and oral finals were in French! I began the year with a rudimentary capability and finished with adequate fluency, a major accomplishment that also confirmed my interest in international relations and economics. I pursued a Masters Degree at the Fletcher School at Tufts University and then joined Citibank’s Global Division as the first woman in their executive training program, which was equivalent to an MBA. Being first is a blessing and a curse, but you get to set the pace so why not run fast and make an impact? I challenged the system, negotiated what was needed for success, and was lucky to have supportive bosses and sponsorship to get amazing projects reporting to the top of the house. This senior level exposure and the impact of the projects themselves, including global development initiatives, a strategy project on the future of international banking transactions and technology, division planning goals, metrics, and tracking, served me extremely well going forward.
Then I married a senior banker! This changed my trajectory. We moved to Australia where he was the head of Australia, New Zealand, and Pacific Islands banking. We lived in Sydney. I made a career switch into merchant banking (read this as nascent private equity) and joined a boutique firm as the only woman on the Sydney equivalent of Wall Street. They would say “gentlemen and the lady”! My deal making skills matured, and my communication skills had to change: slow down your speech with that American accent and listen intently to the male Australian twang! So a new lesson in global understanding was learned!
We returned to New York three years later, and I had a baby in tow. New focus was needed. We settled in the suburbs, but I was seconded by my Citibank friends to volunteer in the non-profit world of New York City. I worked with the United Way, Catholic Charities, the Protestant Welfare Agency, Jewish Services, and the major banks in the city to provide bridge finance funds to the city’s non-profits because the city was unable to pay the reimbursable contracts to these organizations on time. This fund allowed the non-profits to continue their services and meet payroll and other expenses until the City could catch up.
That non-profit work, along with other side projects, kept me very involved in business solutions to distressed situations. My private life now had another son, and over a few years three stepsons joined our household as they matriculated in college. So lots of juggling ensued!
Then we moved to Chicago. That was a distressing time for me as I was very active in New York City and its environs and needed to reinvent my life in Chicago. Through networking I teamed up with the Dean of the School of Social Work at the University of Chicago and learned consulting! We worked on non-profit strategy, strategy implementation, and problem-solving. We did team building, facilitated offsites and board meetings, and coached start ups. Then, at the urging of friends, I decided to run for the local seven-person school board and was elected. This gave me a lot of exposure to small town politics, school budgets, parental influencers, and more. Unfortunately, we experienced one of the very first school shootings in 1988 and this was crisis management of the first order. Working as a team, the school board and local officials navigated the incredible tragedy. The child who died was a school board member’s youngest child, a nightmare that stays with me.
While in Chicago I joined a human resources consulting firm. I was introduced to the firm by the outgoing school board member I had replaced and, again, became the first woman partner. We focused on the rust belt restructuring occurring in the mid-west. The firm provided consulting and career transition services. I learned the basics and beyond of consulting and executive coaching, working in a partnership organization, and gaining influence by demonstrating value in the normal course of operations. I also acquired marketing and client relationship skills.
Then another switch took us back to New York City. My husband went back to Citibank as a very senior executive and I followed – another change, another opportunity. The human resources consulting firm asked me to establish a beachhead in the East, in New York City. During my Chicago tenure I had managed relationships with key corporate clients headquartered in the East, and this became the foundational business for the new start up. My partners in this venture were critical: the retired head of IBM’s European operations, the head of the management training program at the IBM training center, and a psychologist. We had a very successful five-year build out including expansion to New Jersey and the Philadelphia area. I became Vice-Chair of the firm, a board member, and part of the decision to sell the firm to a larger entity. As a key person I completed my earn-out and then started my own firm.
Parallel to starting Davis Consulting Group LLC, I joined the Board of Trustees of Mount Holyoke College. This journey of nineteen years of board service was pivotal in furthering my interest and values related to education that had started with my local school board experience. I had the fortune of working with two college Presidents and many wonderful and caring colleagues on the board, in the administration, and on the faculty. I experienced firsthand the importance of shared governance. The opportunities that presented themselves to liberal arts institutions needed to be appreciated and valued as building blocks to the future – strategic in fit with the mission and future picture, fiscally sound, and attractive to students. Major accomplishments included global student enrollment expansion, support of Women’s Education Worldwide serving emerging women’s colleges around the world, an early focus on curriculum and career alignment in the liberal arts, the concept of innovation labs or makerspaces for an added dimension to classroom education, and for Mount Holyoke, a leadership role in transgender student admissions.
All this experience has braided together to support the work I currently perform across several dimensions. I continue to work for corporate clients facing change by assisting with strategy implementation through organizational design, role clarification, and senior leadership coaching. For non-profits, my consulting is strategic, organizational, and problem-solving. My activities are mainly focused on community economic development, workforce training, or museum impact and education. My work with higher educational institutions centers on board governance, strategy development and implementation, and assessment.
What valuable lessons have you learned during this journey?
Valuable lessons:
What drives your desire to contribute and make a difference?
Many things interest me. Perhaps I need change and a place for my curiosity to focus. I continue to bring my mind and values to support organizations that make a difference. There must be a values match for me to engage. I find partners who share the optimism that we can change for the better and build for the future if we do it with care and commitment.
I have a strong interest in human capital optimization – that is, helping individuals and institutions reach their highest potential. It is good for each of us to feel a sense of achievement, it is good for the economy and a rising standard of living, it is good for the general betterment of humanity, and it is good for democracy.
ONWARD!!!
What advice would you give to your younger self?
My best advice is to be more patient. Life evolves and sometimes you have no control. Stay true to yourself and seize opportunities that come your way which are aligned with your value set. Avoid taking a U-turn in a direction that has already proven costly or lacks alignment. In short, say no.
How can GlobalMindED help you with your goals?
This institution can serve as a cauldron for new ideas, a place for emerging leaders to meet one another, for more experienced leaders to offer advice and support, and through networking – including online communications and in-person interactions – to keep the dynamic spirit of entrepreneurship, individual and collective achievement, and a diverse global perspective at the forefront of our minds. We will pass on wisdom in every direction and acquire knowledge from this broad circle of people and activities. There is no limit.
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