Episode summary
Iryna Halubkova discusses her investment career, adaptability and trends in finance.
Key takeaways
- Her career spans private equity, venture capital and impact investing.
- The discussion covers AI, automation and sustainability.
- Mentorship and networking can support women in finance.
About this episode
Join RTSWS CEO Ashley Leftwich in conversation with Iryna Halubkova, an accomplished investor with over 15 years of experience across private equity, venture capital, and impact investing. Iryna shares how she built her career from the ground up, the importance of adaptability in a changing world, and the key trends shaping finance today—from AI and automation to sustainability and ESG.
She also discusses the power of mentorship and networking for women in finance:
“Your network stays with you throughout your life. It can become your clients, investors, or even your next team.”
Listen now to hear Iryna’s insights on building confidence, staying curious, and thriving in the evolving world of finance.
Follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter for more career insights.
Learn more about Rock The Street, Wall Street and our mission to bring the M in STEM to life: https://rockthestreetwallstreet.com
Disclaimer: All financial and investment information contained in this podcast is merely for educational and informational purposes. It is not intended as a substitute for professional advice. Should you decide to act upon any information in this podcast, you do so at your own risk.
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Transcript
Transcript supplied by Riverside; it may contain transcription errors.
speaker-0: Welcome to Rocking Finance, the Rock the Street Wall Street podcast. Real stories, real access, real passion to finance. Join us for candid, high impact conversations with industry leaders sharing the insights, experiences, career pivots and journeys that can help young women advance through the financial industry with great confidence. Rock the Street Wall Street equips high school and university students, especially young women, by bringing the ⁓ in STEM to life through financial and investment fundamentals. We provide direct industry access and guidance supporting students and young professionals on their journeys from classrooms to careers while expanding participation in the capital markets. Through cohort-based learning, mentorship, and individual career connection, we help students build confidence, capabilities, and networks that open doors. Our goal is clear. Expand participation in the capital markets and strengthen the future of finance one cohort at a time. Today I'm your host Ashley Leftwich, CEO of Rock the Street Wall Street. Now let's rock finance. Thank you so much for joining us. You've built an impressive career now working with a single family office and helping companies originate investments to kick things off. How did you first step into finance?
speaker-1: First of all, thank you so much for inviting me. It's my pleasure to share my experience and hopefully my journey can be of any help for students and future finance professionals. I was born in the Soviet Union that actually had a centrally planned common economy. The government dictated what was produced, how it was produced and how resources were allocated. And when I was a teenager, the Soviet Union collapsed and the borders opened and new opportunities for business appeared. So I got interested in international economics and international relations as I wanted to understand the causes and consequences of economic interactions between countries and how the market could influence supply and demand. I got my bachelor and master's degree in international economics and after a couple of years working for a Swiss company in economic department, I decided to apply for an MBA program in the USA. as they wanted to learn from the best professors, to have an opportunity to network and study with people with different cultural backgrounds and to enhance my global career opportunities. And while at business school, I actually got very curious about investing and entrepreneurship. After graduation, I was able to land a bi-sci investment job and Honestly speaking, never looked back because I find investing intellectually challenging and it provides me with the opportunity for constant learning, innovation and creativity daily. I also admire long-term nature of this business.
speaker-0: Wow, careers are rarely a straight line. What are some of the key points and moments that changed your path or opened a new door?
speaker-1: I totally agree with you because you never can predict a career and it's hard to know what might happen with your career in five, 10 or 15 years. So it's important to be mentally prepared for unexpected turns and build resilience, adaptability, be creative and keep constantly learning, practicing new skills, stay updated with new trends and expand your network. as this really can help you to be relevant in the future with any unexpected change. And I'll bring one of examples from my career, one of such unexpected turns while working for a New York based private equity firm. I decided to move from New York to Moscow was the time of a huge global hype for Russia. Everything changed when CREME events happened in 2014. The first sanctions were put in Russia blocking fundraising from US investors and the local currency drop three times in one day. Our global and exit strategy and my future career too, as I needed to switch countries and switch companies in the future. And it's only one example, looking forward, some years forward after that event, we got some other changes, we got COVID and many other things that you could not predict. Potential artificial intelligence with David, you should keep learning and be open.
speaker-0: Yeah, be willing to change the path and sometimes it opens new doors that are really exciting, right? So as you might imagine, our students would be very interested to learn about what a day in a life is like for you. So you're at a single family office. Share with us what it looks like.
speaker-1: I totally agree with you. Yeah, I spent more than 15 years in investments and working for a venture, private equity, impact investing, as well as like family office business. And to be honest, there is not the same day through all my investment career. And it's really depends on the stage of what deal we are working on and current priorities. And it might change very quickly several times per day. However, if to sum up, I had to my desk and Sort emails, look at current news to stay aware of what's going on. And then major part of the day going to be split between research and analysis, some deal sourcing, evaluating potential investments, doing the diligence structure and working with advisors, working with portfolio companies, as well as some strategy discussions, board meetings, and weekly team updates, team town halls, as well as conferences, client events, mentoring, and learning.
speaker-0: I really like that you highlighted how you work with other people and even spend time to, you know, catch up with others that are your colleagues. And you mentioned that no two days are the same. So how do you even set priorities in a role like that?
speaker-1: think extremely important is to have good project management skills. Also, it's critical to set goals and plan your day properly. Stay focused, stay organized, but in the same way, be open, flexible for potential change. And it's also very important to understand long-term priorities versus immediate. needs to be done and to be able to multitask when necessary. In the same way, despite any workload you have and priorities, you should stay focused, positive and engaged.
speaker-0: Yes, I feel like the passion behind roles is just so key. you know, if you were to look back, what do you wish you knew in your very early career days?
speaker-1: First of all, I wish I could start building my network and start working with a mentor early because I think your network is what stays with you through all your life. But customer base, client base, also service providers and people whom you trust stay with you through all your life and become your investors in the future or maybe your future colleagues or… help you with building startups and something else you never know where it can bring you. So I think it's very important. And also I think in the early days in your career, it's critical to ask questions and to learn from your colleagues and from industry professionals, from your mentors and be open to learn, be open to grow and be like open to make a mistake. And if you make it to a demited and learn from this mistake. to build confidence and also I think to know what your value proposition is at every stage of your career and to be able to articulate it as well as to try to polish your communication presentation skills because any job in the end has a part of sale.
speaker-0: So you shared about different parts of the business for the students who may not know what does originating investments mean and why is it such a key part of the financial.
speaker-1: Origination refers to the process through which investors identify and select potential investment opportunities. And so you can create a funnel of potential opportunities coming through very different sources. Might be spontaneous awareness of your search by a suitable company. The deal can come through bankers, lawyers, consultants, or other service providers who can bring it to you. or you can go and reach out to potential company directly. That means you need to go to different conferences, you need to network, you need to not only just connect with people, but keep these relations alive because it's a long-term journey, long-term investments, what we call marriage and private equity or adventure. And it's crucial to have this relationship with potential companies that you invest in. Also, it's very important to know current market trends, what are customer demands and what's new markets and so far, and evaluate value creation potential and exit options properly.
speaker-0: So you mentioned trends. What trends in finance are you paying close attention to right now?
speaker-1: First of all, would say some geopolitical tension that's happening. Unfortunately, we have some wars and some hotspots globally. have some tariffs, have some sanctions in place, and you should really stay aware of what's going on. Secondly, I would say in general, like microeconomic trends, we have pretty high interest rates, inflation and some… economic slowdown and with indexes, with bond stocks, with direct investments in any part of finance. Sadly, it's a big trend that goes with technology. Here I'm talking about automation and artificial intelligence and finance. Could be AI powered automation, autonomous finance, agent, AI co-pilot. Another trend would be sustainability investment, ESG reporting because more and more LPs, want to see investments with focus on these parameters and younger generation more and more want to have companies that address sustainability issues. And it becomes pretty big trend in direct investments that it's one of main requirements. Same with the reporting, we're getting more and more standards, we're getting more and more compliance globally on these metrics. ⁓ Next one would be in general regulatory development and compliance. think every day we have more and more things happening. Risk management and fraud is big.
speaker-0: Earlier in our conversation, you were talking about networks and the importance of those networks. I have where students have submitted questions and one of them is, was there someone along your journey who guided you? What role did mentorship play in helping you grow?
speaker-1: think that I was pretty lucky through all my career having amazing mentors and it happened that many of mentors being actually my direct supervisors who whom I can even sometimes name my friends because of building very good reports and trusting each other so they helped me with understanding the corporate culture of the company and giving me very good career advices on area, what to learn, what to work better, how to strategize my future growth, how to raise awareness about my potential and kind of stress my value proposition and so far, and they always been a great role model for me. But additionally to these people, I also had mentor at different women organization, being partner of many women organization who actually helped me a lot with brand-leading, with brand awareness and through that I got to know a lot of professionals in the industry and built very good relations.
speaker-0: So you were just sharing with us about women networks. So how do you support and encourage women and the next generation of finance today?
speaker-1: Yeah, I would say that I was pretty big supporter of women movements from my early university ages. we had, I've been a member of several student women clubs during my bachelor and master MBA. And also I joined several organizations like Forte Foundation, 100 Women Finance, Global Female Investment Network, ⁓ capital markets that became Versafi, it's a Canadian. organization for women in finance and also Bloomberg, Biscite, Women Network, Women in Private Equity and several others. And all this organization, tried to have to raise awareness in the market and mentor younger people. And in beginning of my career, I learned from my mentors and they always tried to encourage people. share knowledge and if I can I refer women to other people in my network trying to open doors for them for their future career step or sometimes trying to refer someone for board position and so far I'm looking for good percentage number of having women candidates and for potential board positions and etc.
speaker-0: That's wonderful. For our students watching, what's one step that you would recommend for them to do today?
speaker-1: I think I would suggest them to look at events hosted by Rockford Street, Wall Street and build their interest. Select a company or leader and learn about them as well as the trends of the industry to stay curious about what's going on and follow up building their knowledge.
speaker-0: Thank you so much for the conversation today. I think it's wonderful that you are encouraging and giving great advice to our students of building their reputation, building that trust, and then of course keep learning and growing. Thank you.
speaker-1: Yeah, thank you so much and I wish everyone who is listening lots of success and their future career in the awards.
speaker-0: the conversation. Visit rockthestreetwallstreet.com to learn more. Make sure to follow and join us for the next episode. Until next time, let's keep rocking
