Maryann Miranda Cuenca’s experience at NAM and beyond
Maryann Miranda Cuenca went to Luxembourg to pursue a 6-month internship. It was her birthday, so she took the interview and spent the rest of the day getting to know the city. That turned out to be a fortuitous decision—she stayed for seven years and counting.
Like many of her peers at NAM, Maryann’s internship turned into a full-time job. “I was a fund risk and performance officer for four years and then was promoted to manager for the last two years,” she says. “It’s been a great experience. It was a great opportunity that was given to me. I learned a lot and was empowered by the whole team.”
Maryann was born and raised in Peru. During her school years, she took advantage of study abroad opportunities in Australia, France and England. She enjoyed the exposure to foreign countries so much that she signed up to attend the last two years of her baccalaureate in a French boarding school. It was there that she became interested in economics; in particular, the study of econometrics fascinated her.
Next, she earned her Bachelor in Econometrics from the University of Lyon, where she completed her final year as an exchange student in the United States at the University of Virginia. She then returned to Lyon and earned a Master’s Degree in Finance, which included a research assignment in Buenos Aires at the Catholic University of Argentina.
When she arrived at Nordea Asset Management, she joined a workforce of colleagues from 30 different countries. “If I had to tell a story about every time I worked with someone who is different from me, we would be here all day,” she says. “After living half my life abroad, I had become very multi-cultural. I discovered in my job at NAM that I started out as a data-driven person, but became more right-brained. I have a different profile now than when I started. Every time you work with someone from a different country you have a new world to learn.”
After seven years at NAM, Maryann grew eager for a new experience but she did not want to walk away from the job and people had grown to love. She got an opportunity to pursue a program with an international organization and, with the support of her manager was able to arrange a leave to make it work.
“At first I was afraid to ask,” she recalls. “I didn’t think there was any way my manager would let me leave for an entire year, but my mentor encouraged me and I’m really glad I did. I think there are a lot of people who don’t dare to ask for what they want—they should. They may be surprised by the outcome!”
“When Maryann approached me about taking a year to expand her horizons, I was initially encouraged,” says Steve Reinert, Head of Client Relationship Services at NAM. “Diversity and Inclusion are a core value at Nordea and I was happy to support her with her project.”
“Someone once told me diversity without inclusion doesn’t have any positive effect,” says Maryann. “You can have a very diverse pool of people working in the same team but if they don’t feel included, it just doesn’t add any value—NAM has been very supportive of my journey and it has made all the difference.”
In New York, Maryann been able to leverage her knowledge of sustainable investment and ESG in her work with LDC’s (least developed countries), and she’ll bring that experience back when she returns to NAM.
Nordea Asset Management is committed to ensuring our corporate structure and workplace reflect our respect for diversity and inclusion (D&I).
To find out more, visit our D&I page.