Sometimes it’s hard to cope and balls just fall. That’s OK.
Monika Nachyla is Partner at Abris Capital in Warsaw, with a focus on ESG, investor relations, communications – and monitoring portfolio businesses. She’s also Level 20’s Polish Chapter Chair. Thanks to a twenty-year tenure in the industry, Monika is well placed to discuss, candidly, life as a woman in private equity – from starting out as a solo act, to welcoming more female colleagues to the sector. Here she describes her secret weapon: learning to ask for help.
Please describe the various facets of your private equity job?
Whenever we are fundraising, I am sort of living on the plane and traveling around Europe and the US. But between fundraisings, I focus more on developing our ESG strategy and system because we are an ESG transformation specialist investor. And my favourite job of all is working in the portfolio, with the portfolio companies – with management teams and making an impact.
You’ve had a varied career – how did you end up in private equity?
I started out working for one of the big six auditing firms in Poland and then in France. This taught me to read a business through the numbers. Then I was a CFO – and this was the first time I had to build a team and manage it within a large organisation. Human skills, essentially. Then came banking at board level and a profound understanding of risk management. And in the meantime, I also had my own boutique jewellery businesses. This gave me enormous respect for entrepreneurs and how much effort, work and sacrifice they must invest to achieve success.
What do you consider to be the biggest challenges in your industry?
Private equity firms are mostly small organisations – with all the consequences of being small. So, for private equity professionals there’s little infrastructure or resources to help you grow, develop, rest, navigate. You are basically on your own. And also, being a woman, you have to figure out how you deal with your own personal challenges. For private equity organisations – there’s enormous pressure to regulate our industry; this requires additional resources – a lot of time spent with lawyers, auditors and advisers. This can take our attention away from developing our portfolios and making new deals. But it’s a wonderful industry – so it’s worth it.
What keeps you hooked?
Firstly, you can have a huge impact. During the years we spend on each investment, you can see a business and its teams grow – and flourish. It’s like watching your baby go from crawling to walking and then suddenly getting married! What’s more, you come across amazing people in the industry – both on the private equity side and the entrepreneurs who achieve incredible things. They tend to be very creative but intellectually challenging. And that’s a mutual ‘win-win’ situation; you develop just by sitting next to these kinds of people. I also relish the diversity of businesses I work with.
How much have things changed during your twenty-year tenure in private equity?
There is some harsh PR. And perhaps, with good reason. For many years, the industry was largely deserted by women. Changes have begun in earnest, and that’s great news for all of us. But if you don’t have role models – if you’ve never heard about women in private equity – it can be intimidating. When I started in private equity twenty years ago, I had no role models. I had to figure out for myself how to behave and find my own answers. It puts a lot of pressure on you, and it can feel discouraging. It does require a certain mindset – an ability to make tough decisions and be assertive. But I do believe that if women ask for help and communicate why they need it, support will come. A lack of support is rarely malicious; it’s more likely to be a lack of awareness.
Can you ‘have it all’ as a woman in private equity?
It depends on how you define ‘all’. I don’t feel I’ve missed out on anything. I always worked at full speed and was still able to spend a lot of quality time with my daughter. Of course, you need to prioritise and make some strategic decisions. But that scenario is not just limited to women, don’t you think? Once you’ve set your priorities, you can build your lines of support communicate the areas you need help with, fight for yourself – and fight for your dreams. It’d be a waste to procrastinate or give up on your dreams just because you’re afraid to tell people that the load is too heavy. People won’t ask you. But you can ask. With just a little bit of help, we women tend to figure things out – and fly. We shouldn’t fool ourselves that our professional lives will always be perfect. Sometimes it’s hard to cope and balls just fall. And that’s OK. If this happens to me, I turn to my hobby for some calm: sailing on the ocean.
You’re the Chair of Level 20’s Poland Chapter. How important are role models and mentors?
In Poland, Level 20 research shows that only 8% of senior positions are taken by women. This is too few. The stats get better in the middle and junior positions; in private equity we’re getting to close to 18% and in venture capital, it’s almost 30%. Mentoring in Poland is a special situation. I must express my gratitude to our German colleagues because our junior female professionals are mentored by them. It’s a great cross border cooperation! And it is so important. Junior women in private equity understandably have so many questions, and such a solution creates a safe space for them.
What do you tell women considering a career in private equity?
It’s a very interesting, and intellectually challenging industry. You can work with CEOs, CFOs, COOs, HR people. You can discover what your thing is. You are surrounded by a community of extremely bright individuals; that means you have to learn fast. It’s not always easy. It is demanding. But if you find strength within yourself and the right place to develop, you can truly make a difference.
