Andrea Finan’s journey from sports to J.P. Morgan: The Climb

When Andrea Finan got a call from J.P. Morgan Wealth Management CEO Kristin Lemkau, she wasn’t initially looking to change jobs.

“I had been at Goldman Sachs for 18 years,” Finan told American Banker. “I had lots of different experiences and lots of doors that continued to open for me there. I took the call, which indicates something, but I wasn’t really looking at the time.”

One call turned into another, then some introductions, then an offer.

“I joined as the head of self-directed investing within J.P. Morgan Wealth Management,” Finan said. “That’s the role I still hold, three and a half years later. Having an impact on helping people create wealth, I thought, was something I couldn’t turn down at that point and I was super excited to reuse skills that I built over time.”

Finan’s journey to J.P. Morgan had several stepping stones — first as an associate at Brown Brothers Harriman out of college, then working her way through the ranks at Goldman Sachs for 18 years.

Finan described her work at Brown Brothers Harriman as “gritty, real work” that helped her prepare for the next steps in her professional journey.

“I ended up moving into corporate treasury there, but that opened the door to Goldman,” she said.

At Goldman Sachs she started as a funding controller, where she gained expertise in the funding and liquidity space.

“I became an expert before liquidity and balance sheet usage was a hot topic, before the crisis hit,” she said.

This fell in line with one of Finan’s main career goals, which she described as being “the person that was needed in the room.”

“I pride myself in becoming an expert and really understanding the details, even if it’s not super glamorous, to roll up my sleeves and get into the gritty details,” she said. “With every job that I’ve done, I needed to have those raw skills and core fundamentals to feel confident in my decision making.”

Finan’s career path wasn’t a straight shot to the top, as she herself can attest.

“It wasn’t like a straight line trajectory. There were lots of zigs and zags, and I had to be comfortable with that,” she said.

The assortment of different roles Finan took on while at Goldman — from starting as a funding controller to client services to digital solutions to consumer wealth management — prepared her for her current position at J.P. Morgan, she said.

“I didn’t know exactly where my end point was going to be, but I definitely was comfortable to take risks,” she said. “When I look back, I was always grounded on, ‘Does it have enough of the core that I know I’m good at, and does it have a sprinkle of new things that allow me to keep growing?’ I’ve always been comfortable being curious and trusting that others I’ve surrounded myself with have my best interest in mind.”

Finan believes that surrounding herself with people that believed in her helped with her career growth the most.

“They were stretching me to use things they saw in myself that maybe I didn’t,” she said.

Before her professional journey even began, Finan credited her Division I sports experience at Rutgers University — first volleyball, then lacrosse — to teaching her critical skills for the workplace.

“Sports are super critical to who I am,” she said. “It has taught me so many life skills when I think about how I operate, how I treat people, how I deal with failure, how you’re sometimes the star player, and sometimes it’s OK to be the best practice player to make your team win championships. Teamwork has always been at the core.”

Finan is still a “total team player,” according to Lemkau, her boss.

“Andrea is a powerhouse, helping drive our self-directed experience from good to great to industry leading,” Lemkau told American Banker. “Since she’s joined, we’ve ranked #1 in customer satisfaction by J.D. Power three years in a row and launched new capabilities at warp speed.”

When Finan thinks about her legacy, she wants to have “been part of the best teams.”

“I want to leave a business and a great product for J.P. Morgan to keep helping clients,” she said. “I also want to help next-generation leaders, female or male, make great decisions and navigate their own career. If I had a magic wand, hopefully all of my actions would lead up to that.”