Madeleine Dassule is Partner & Co-Head, Technology at Wellington Management. She previously was a Vice President at Goldman Sachs in the area of equity trading technology. She holds a number of Board roles including being a member of the Board of Finos and Boston City Singers. Our conversation starts with her upbringing in France, and her path to study math at Columbia College. We discuss the French approach to education - the concept of "peut mieux faire" - can do better/can try harder, and how this influenced her to push herself, but also hold out standards for the industry.
We move then to her career trajectory and the unexpected twists and turns that led to such a fulfilling position at Wellington. We talk about what is on her mind as tech leader today - the importance of scale, of using technology as a way to enable people to flourish. We talk about the importance of cybersecurity, of continuous improvement and of growing a tech stack that is fit for purpose.
Madeleine has always placed a high priority on career development and mentorship, and we pose the fundamental question as to whether the wisdom that we internalized - as a certain generation - is necessarily the wisdom that we wish to pass to future generations. She reveals the lessons that frank and honest feedback has taught her, and suggests how we should all give and receive feedback ourselves.