Lulu Chow Wang ’83 knew she wanted to become a leader in the investment field even prior to attending Columbia Business School. She had a liberal arts background from Wellesley College but also a passion for understanding business and the intersection of human behavior and economic activity. So, while working as a securities analyst at Equitable Capital Management, she entered CBS’s Executive MBA program, graduating in 1983.
That decision helped kick off a successful career for Wang, who rose to senior vice president and managing director at Equitable Capital Management, eventually assuming responsibility for portfolio management, research, and trading. She then joined Jennison Associates in 1988, where she was the first woman portfolio manager and then advanced to become executive vice president and board director.
In 1998, Wang founded the successful investment management firm, Tupelo Capital Management, LLC, which managed funds for institutions and families. Her work with the latter motivated her to evolve Tupelo into a family office in 2008, where she currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer. She spoke with CBS to reflect on her time at the School, its role in her career, and to offer advice to today’s students.
CBS: What made you decide to pursue a business degree at CBS specifically?
Lulu Chow Wang: I sought my MBA degree at CBS because of its outstanding reputation, excellent curriculum, its location in New York City, where my family resided, and its proximity to investment firms, an area of interest to me. Its well-regarded EMBA program was especially attractive to me, as I was employed then at a firm that would support my participation in an executive program.
CBS: What inspired you to pursue a career in your current field?
Wang: My studies at CBS further convinced me of my deep interest in investing, especially in actively managed public equities. It aligned my lifelong interest in how things worked and the intersection of human behavior, economic activity, and commercial enterprise. My liberal arts education at Wellesley College had fed this curiosity, and now CBS could help hone the management skills that would enable me to manage and eventually start my own investment firm.
CBS: How did CBS fit in with your professional goals during the time you attended the school?
Wang: CBS’s EMBA program permitted me to formalize my understanding of business structures and processes, as well as capital markets, while still working full time. This integration of business theory and case studies with practitioner perspective provided invaluable insight into real-life business problems and opportunities. In one paper I wrote for an EMBA class, I used an actual situation I encountered at work to illustrate how the management skills I learned at CBS enabled me to resolve a challenge involving complex operational and personnel issues and to convert them into a growth opportunity for the firm.
CBS: Reflecting on your time at CBS, how did the curriculum prepare you for your current role or your career in general?
Wang: While a student, my courses in marketing, strategic planning, organizational management and capital markets related very well with my work in an investment firm. They helped me to evaluate managements on their near-term and then more strategic grasp of their businesses, their ability to understand their own strengths and weaknesses, and their acumen in tapping into the capital markets important to their company. What I studied at CBS was even more helpful as I planned out my own long-term plan to start my firm.
CBS: What skills should current CBS students have if they want to be successful in your field?
Wang: When advising students on whether they should enter the investment field, I always say, “Never enter to just make a lot of money. Enter because you are absolutely passionate about the work [and] bring to it the curiosity and stamina that will always make the work fascinating and which will sustain you through the inevitable bad times.” It will also help them to succeed if they see how their work actually impacts human lives. Their performance is not just figures on a client report but the wherewithal with which their clients — pensioners, patients, students, teachers — will be able to meet their current and long-term needs.
CBS: If you could go back in time and give your younger self professional advice, what would it be?
Wang: If I were advising a young person on how I might have proceeded differently at their age, I would always emphasize the need to pursue a passion, one which intellectually challenges and holds them. At the same time, the caveat I would offer now would be to prioritize more carefully, to focus on the passions that are the deepest and most compelling, so your time and attention will be focused on your highest priorities. Despite the success that I‘ve been fortunate to have achieved, I often regret not having had the time to pursue more deeply and perhaps with even more success those interests which had the greatest appeal for me.
CBS: What is the most important lesson you’ve learned during your career?
Wang: The most important lesson that any of us could learn is to accept and gain wisdom from our mistakes. We often forget our triumphs, but it is our disasters that inform our better choices in the future. By valuing them, learning from them, and sharing the lessons learned with others, we can benefit ourselves and build strong, more personal bonds with colleagues and mentees. The lesson of humility is a critical one. To admit to a mistake is humanizing but also reflects an ability to be transparent, to hold oneself accountable, and to register an awareness that will make future mistakes less likely. Denying an error hurts trust in a team, especially if fingers are then pointed at others. Taking ownership of a mistake is particularly important for a leader, as it sets the tone that mistakes will be made, but letting it be known helps the leader and others to learn from it.