Where did we go?
Global Atlantic Financial Group
Global Atlantic Financial Group offers a broad range of retirement and life insurance products for individuals and families throughout the United States. GA has over $75 billion dollars in assets, over 2 million clients and over 1,000 employees across 10 offices in the U.S. and Bermuda.
WHO did we meet?
Whitney Sparks
Vice President on the Corporate Development team at Global Atlantic - a privately held insurance and reinsurance company, founded after spinning out of Goldman Sachs in 2013. She has worked in various capacities across: investor relations, capital markets, financial projections & analysis, rating agency management and M&A/strategy. In general, the team on which she works is charged with developing and executing a strategy for the CEO. Prior to Global Atlantic, Whitney worked at Goldman Sachs in the securities division. Whitney graduated from Brown in 2011 with a degree in Commerce, Organization and Entrepreneurship.
Logan Marshall
Assistant Vice President at Global Atlantic Financial Group, as a member of the Corporate Development team. She joined Global Atlantic in 2016, after having worked for the Gartland & Mellina Group, a financial services consulting firm. Logan graduated from Georgetown University with a degree in Government.
Stephanie Lowenthal
Stephanie joined Global Atlantic as Vice President, Public Relations, with responsibility all media engagement for the company. Prior to Global Atlantic, she served as head of communications for NASDAQ’s Listings Group and MarketSite, where she worked with companies to coordinate and promote their initial public offerings.
Barrie Ribbet
Head of Asset Origination. She joined Global Atlantic in 2015 and is responsible for overseeing the origination activities across the Global Atlantic portfolio. She currently sits on the Finance and Capital Committee and the Benefits Committee. Prior to joining Global Atlantic, Barrie worked at Goldman Sachs in Structured Finance for nine years. Her responsibilities included coverage of and structuring transactions for mortgage companies, mortgage REITs and Single Family Rental companies. She began her career in 2004 at Fannie Mae. Barrie earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania in economics and history.
Courtney Kaita
Vice President on the Asset Origination team at Global Atlantic which she joined in 2016. The team focuses on transaction sourcing, structuring, and execution across a variety of structured products for the company’s general account. Prior to joining Global Atlantic, Courtney worked at Morgan Stanley where spent two years on the ABS structuring team with a focus on structuring new issue student loan transactions as well as restructuring legacy FFELP auction rate trusts and two years on the new issue CLO syndicate team. Courtney graduated with a Bachelor of Science in applied mathematics and a Bachelor of Music in cello performance from the University of Michigan in 2012.
What did we do?
Travel
G4B traveled from Ridgewood, NJ into NYC via the train and the path. The girls learned how to commute and travel with efficiency.
Breakfast
Upon arriving at Global Atlantic Financial Group, the company graciously provided us with complimentary breakfast snacks. Members of the club situated in the conference room, looking like girls ready for business!
Logan & Whitney from Corporate Development
G4B first met with Logan and Whitney from corporate development who first gave background on their career paths and then explained their task for us. The girls were then split into 3 groups to work on a case study.
Next up, Stephanie Lowenthal from Public Relations
Stephanie explained how she arrived at Global Atlantic and then shared her technique for problem solving: an idea web. The group came up with various topics and worked together to solve the problem using her technique.
The CEO, Allan Levine
We took a brief break from meeting with these amazing women to hear from the CEO, Allan Levine, about his company, the background, what they do and how these women have impacted his company.
Barrie & Courteny from Investments
Barrie and Courteny also gave us a run down on their career paths, but they gave us advice that resonated with everyone in the room: You never know where your career might take you, so be open to trying new things and don't be afraid to take risks.