“I was very, very competitive and ambitious.” After a short pause and a chuckle Gail Marquis confesses, “I am still very ambitious.”
That’s probably an understatement coming from a woman who is considered a champion on the basketball court, a success on Wall Street and a tireless advocate for women. Over the last four decades Marquis has been honored countless times for her achievements and has become a master of reinvention and an advocate for women.
Marquis was on the groundbreaking U.S. women’s basketball team when they brought home the silver medal in 1976, the first time a women’s tournament was ever played in the Olympics. Marquis credits her success and that of the team to something she calls the Three D’s: Desire, Dedication and Discipline.
Olympic silver was just the start for Marquis. Following the ’76 games, she was ready for a new challenge. Unfortunately, at the time her options were limited. “I looked at my male counterparts; after the Olympics and college they could look forward to professional basketball careers. There was no pro female league in the United States then. Our only option was to go to Europe to play ball there or go into teaching, and I had more ambition than that.”
Never Take No for an Answer
Marquis chose a road that others would never have considered. In the hurly-burly of the early 1980s financial scene, she headed to Wall Street, where she saw a place she could put her competitive spirit to the test.
This was no small leap. Marquis didn’t have a business degree; she graduated from Queens College with a degree in education and psychology. But her desire to channel her ambition kept her focused. “I wasn’t coming from a business background, but I had leadership skills, I knew how to network, I knew how to dedicate myself to a goal, and I knew how to work with people from different backgrounds,” Marquis explained. “Some people couldn’t see that right away because it wasn’t on paper.”
At the time there were not very many women account executives at the big financial firms—and nary a woman of color, remembers Marquis. But she says her ability to get along with different people and her ability to talk sports got her in the door. She also knew she had to be prepared, and she feared being labeled a “dumb jock,” so she took and passed the high-level Series 7 Registered Representative exam, which gave her certification as a stock broker. She still faced skeptics, and she learned to fight for her place at the table. “People were saying, ‘No—you don’t have a degree in business,’ and I had to say, ‘I’ve been on a team for the last eight years at a superior level. I have problem-solving skills and leadership skills.’ I learned to point out to them what I did have that might not be obvious.”
Once she got her foot in the door, it was still a fight to get ahead. Marquis recalls the lawsuits some women in finance filed because of unequal treatment. Like many other women, she says she wasn’t mentored or given entrée to the big accounts; instead she had to find her niche elsewhere. It was a time of transition when average wage earners were being encouraged to enter the market via money market accounts and new savings and investment products. “I made myself an expert. I was one of the only people in my firm to learn the intricacies of the IRA early on, and I built on that.”
It was during these changing times that she found her success by building a base of accounts among smaller investors and retirement planning. It was also when she realized how important it was to help the average person understand investing and money management, and she took on the motto “Financial Freedom for All.”
Sharing the Knowledge
Marquis’ parents instilled the idea of saving at an early age. “My brothers and sisters and I all had bank accounts through our elementary school. We would save nickels, dimes and quarters. We saw how we could grow our money,” Marquis said. Now that she has made her mark on Wall Street, Marquis is working to teach others the benefits of saving. She has become a passionate advocate—especially for women, helping people gain knowledge and access to financial education and resources.
In 2013 Marquis was a representative at the United Nations 57th Commission on the Status of Women as part of her work with the Wellesley Centers for Women. While supporting initiatives for micro-financing programs to women in developing nations, Marquis also volunteers with PowerPlay NYC, giving lectures on basic money matters to girls in middle school and junior high. She also has dedicated herself to working with Dress for Success, a nonprofit that provides business clothing to low-income women around the world who are entering or re-entering the working world.
“What I give are financial seminars and executive classes for women who have been in the program for a year. These women don’t have much money, so I go over the basics of checking and savings accounts, but I also answer some deeper questions for them…and we talk about 401(k)s or 403(b)s, stocks, bonds, annuities, and I explain to them why it’s so important to take these next steps.”
The Next Frontier
After more than 25 years of working for some of Wall Street’s largest investment firms, Marquis has started her own financial consulting firm that supports nonprofits and corporate foundations. Marquis acknowledges there are some changes in working with the nonprofit sector, but she says she’s up for the next challenge. “They work on a different timetable—it can be a bit slower—and there are different concerns; but I’m learning patience, and I’m using my talents to help increase their reach, stretch their money further and secure their future.”
“I’m in a career transition,” says Marquis. “I have new things I want to take on.” So a few years ago she put herself through an MBA program and prepared for her next endeavor.
“I see myself as a managing director for a financial firm or a grant writer or financial director for a nonprofit. Don’t you?”
The Northwestern MutualVoice Team is a group of professionals who share insights and opinions from experts and industry leaders across the enterprise. Our vision is to inspire others to take action and plan for their financial future through topics ranging from financial planning, retirement planning and distribution strategies, wealth accumulation and preservation, to leadership, philanthropy and innovation.
