24 October, 2024
#56 Portret van een mannelijke bondgenoot van women in finance: Sébastien Albert
Can you shortly present your role as today in the organisation (in 1 sentence)?
I am SVP for Strategy & Business Excellence in Europe.
What brought you to finance?
I started working for Financial Institutions as a consultant at the Boston Consulting Group. I really enjoyed and decide to pursue a career in payments. Joining Mastercard was then an obvious choice, there are not so many companies of that scale & impact and that have a true regional decision centre in Belgium.
I like working in payments because it’s an innovative space, highly driven by numbers, and that impacts everyone’s day to day life.
What did you learn recently regarding gender equality?
Recently, I learned something inspiring about gender equality. One of my colleagues, a member of the leadership committee at Mastercard Europe, chose to take the full 16 weeks of parental leave. What makes this remarkable is that it is still unfortunately uncommon for men in such high positions to do so.
I see this colleague as a positive role model, because by embracing parental leave, he demonstrates that both men and women can balance family responsibilities. Moreover, during his absence, he empowered his team to thrive and made it an opportunity for them to shine. In my opinion, an excellent example of how equality benefits everyone.
What was one of the decisions that had the most impact on you/your career?
At one point, while at BCG, I found myself on a super difficult cost cutting project. At the end of it, I was mentally and physically exhausted and wanted to resign but my career advisor did not accept it and recommended me to take a week to think it over.
One of the senior partners said to me: ‘When you ski and you fall, if you stand on the ground, you become scared. If you can, it’s best instead to stand up and go back at it”
Inspired by this advice, I stayed with the company for three more years, learning to set up healthy boundaries. I don’t think I would be where I am today if I had not persevered.
What would you tell your younger self?
Everyone has anxieties; don’t bother with it, just go for it, keep on moving and trust people will see you are a nice person that’s doing its best.
Any message to share with female students interested in finance, or with young women starting their career?
Work-life balance is a consideration for everyone, regardless of gender. However, I’ve observed that many women tend to optimize early in their careers for their future selves. For instance, even if they might have enjoyed a first job that required less obvious work-life balance, they often choose not to take it because they believe it wouldn’t be sustainable in the long term.
On the other hand, many men don’t approach this the same way. This difference in mindset can put women at a disadvantage at the start of their careers. I think it’s essential to recognize that work-life balance is adaptable. Both male and female professionals can adjust their balance as their situations change throughout their careers.
