Future Leader Award
Erika Serow
Bain & Company
Erika Serow, armed with an undergraduate degree in Sociology and Italian, joined Bain & Company for what she thought would be a short stint—just enough time until she figured out what she really wanted to do with her life.
That was 14 years ago.
Today she is a Partner and a leader in the firm's Retail practice in North America. "I joined Bain excited about the problem-solving nature of the work," she says. "Increasingly, the part of the job that I found most interesting was the 'soft' stuff—understanding what motivates people to take action."
As part of the Retail practice, Serow spends a lot of time working in the apparel industry. "Apparel is a very hard business. The margins are terrible. The tastes are fickle. And yet, I love it," she says. "All of my life, I have unabashedly loved clothes, and to my great delight, there were more little girls like me that have grown up to be executives in this space, so I am constantly appreciative of how many women I come across on executive teams."
She says she can not think of a time—at least in the last 14 years— in which she felt that being a woman created or constricted opportunities. "This is a business of personal connections, and I believe strongly that you need these—with clients and internally—to be successful," Serow says.
When she's not client facing, Serow keeps plenty busy. Internally, she's the MBA recruiting partner for the New York office. And out of the office? "In the last 12 months, I've climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and ran the Rome marathon," she says. "That feels like a pretty good year."
—J.K.
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