Celebrating Women in Business: Part 2

In the second episode of our special series celebrating women in business, host Lubna Salim speaks with KBR’s vice president of Investor Relations, Alison Vasquez. Listen as they discuss the role of investor relations in building trust and credibility with the market, the importance of a strong company culture and measuring progress for improving parity, and Alison’s inspiring advice for women in business.

Don’t miss the final episode of this special miniseries in two weeks.

Transcript

IN ORBIT: A KBR PODCAST

Season 2, Episode 4

Celebrating Women in Business: Part 2

INTRODUCTION

John Arnold

Hello, I'm John.

Lubna Salim

And I'm Lubna, and this is In Orbit.

John Arnold

Hello, and welcome to the podcast, everyone. We're glad that you're with us.

Lubna Salim

This is a podcast for everyone inside and outside our business that talks about what's happening around the world and in our various industries, and that keeps us all connected and in each other's orbit.

John Arnold

If you're new to the show, we are glad you're with us. If you're tuning in again, we thank you as always and welcome you back. Lubna, how are you?

Lubna Salim

I'm very well. Thank you, John. You tell me, how was your birthday weekend?

John Arnold

My birthday weekend was great. We went out on a date. We had a very nice meal. My girlfriend got me a commemorative brick —

Lubna Salim

Wow.

John Arnold:

— at the stadium where the Atlanta Braves, my favorite baseball team, play in honor of their World Series victory, so that was very, very cool. A very thoughtful gift, but yeah. It was good weekend.

Lubna Salim

Lovely.

John Arnold

How are you? How is everything going over there?

Lubna Salim

It's amazing, John. And we just had a very, very beautiful Women's Day celebration. I think it was across KBR offices everywhere. And in India, we were joined by Doug Kelly, president of Technology at KBR, and it was lovely. How about yourself? Did you take a round to the Houston office, or?

John Arnold

No. Well, so I'm in Atlanta, but I really, really enjoyed seeing all of the pictures. I saw a bunch of pictures of you and Megha and other team members there and was happy to see that Doug Kelly was joining you all in India, but yeah. It was really inspiring, especially given this year's theme, which is Break the Bias for International Women's Day. So we celebrated that a couple of days ago on March 8th, and you had the interview that we're listening to today a couple of days before that, on the eve of International Women's Day —

Lubna Salim

That's right.

John Arnold

— with Alison Vasquez.

Lubna Salim

Yes, John, it was amazing. And I will tell you a little behind the scenes this time in this episode. I really liked that Alison was highly accommodative. She squeezed this in on a weekend. She even learned how to pronounce my name correctly, which I was so happy about. And I think she's a very positive person. I'm sure, when you listen to the podcast, you will realize the way she perceives things, and that really reflects in where she is in life today. So I would urge everybody to just listen to the episode now. Shall we get started with that?

John Arnold

I think we should just dive right in.

TRANSITION

Lubna Salim

On this episode, we are being joined by Alison Vasquez, Alison serves as KBR's Vice President of Investor Relations and FP&A [financial planning and analysis]. She joined the company in 2016 in the corporate audit group before assuming her current role in 2018. Alison began her career in public accounting, and she's a graduate from the University of Texas at Austin. She is passionate about the community in which she lives, and so she serves on the board of the Regis School of the Sacred Heart.

She has served as an adjunct professor at Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University, and Alison has also served of as a member of the Board and Audit Committee of Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Greater Houston. Alison spends her free time with her three kids, Claire, Maryn, and Juan Tres, and enjoys action movies, great books, and singalong drives with her kids. So welcome, welcome, welcome to the podcast, Alison.

Alison Vasquez

Oh, thank you, Lubna. I'm happy to be here. It's an honor to be here. I'm really looking forward to the conversation. I have really enjoyed the work that you and John produce in this... I mean, this fantastic podcast, really showcasing the awesome things that KBR does, so I'm super excited to get started.

Lubna Salim

Alison, my very first question to you is to request you to tell us, all the listeners, about your experience in KBR.

Alison Vasquez

Great.

Lubna Salim

How you ended up in this crucial role that you currently hold in Investor Relations. Please tell us.

Alison Vasquez

Sure. So I've been at KBR for about six years. I come from a very traditional finance background. I spent 11 years in public accounting at Arthur Andersen and PWC, and then I moved about, I guess, about 10 years ago, I moved into industry. I went to a domestic U.S.-based midstream company, so it's just really a pipeline transportation company. And then I spent a few years there, and then I moved on to an ultra-deep water offshore drilling company, which was fantastic. It was really cool the things that we did, but great when oil was $150 a barrel, not so great when the oil fell through the floor.

Alison Vasquez

So I left there in 2016 and I arrived at KBR. I joined in the audit group to really turn around the Audit Department. So I have been here since then. I moved into the IR and the FP&A role in mid-2018. So I have been here for about three and a half years in this role.

Lubna Salim

Wow. That was an amazing, amazing start to this interview, and I'm already excited to get to know more about you. So Alison, what is investor relations? If you could tell us about the importance and intricacies of maintaining a relationship with the market.

Alison Vasquez

Sure. So really what I do, I mean, it's all about building that relationship, building the relationship with the market, building trust and credibility with investors and analysts, with whom we want to create just really long, enduring relationships. So it's really all about just telling people what the company does, explaining to them kind of what our strategy is, what our mission is, how we ... I mean, how we make money, how we convert it to cash. What this strategy is. How we are disciplined in terms of how we go about executing that strategy. And it's a lot about — I mean, just in any relationship — it's about being transparent. So that's kind of the main part of my role is really just kind of opening the door, bringing people into our house, introducing them to our family, showing them around and trying to see if it's a place where they want to create a long-term relationship and stay with us for a while.

So it's really all about giving people a real picture of what the company is, who we are. We're probably not a fit for every investor, but we are a fit for many investors. And I think that just kind of based on where the organization is, where we're going, kind of the exciting path ahead that we have. It's really — it's my job to kind of bring people in, introduce them to Mark [Sopp, KBR chief financial officer] and Stuart [Bradie, KBR president and CEO] and Byron [Bright, KBR president of Government Solutions] and others to know within the organization to really kind of see if that relationship is there. You have that trust and that credibility across the management team with the investment community, and you just hope that you're attracting kind of the right on-strategy, on-target investors.

To do that, I spend a lot of time actually talking with our own people, just with our — I learn a lot from people like you and people like Natalie [Kiser, vice president of Refining Technology at KBR], who you had on last week. And I spend a lot of time learning from those people so that I can make the right introductions and explain business in the right way. So, I mean, it's a pretty neat role because you do get to see so much of the organization and how it actually operates, and you get to touch so many people and learn so much. I mean, that's just the most amazing thing is I just spend a lot of time learning about our business, learning about our markets, understanding kind of how we fit into the greater landscape. And so, I mean, it's a pretty fun role.

Lubna Salim

That is super, super insightful. Thank you, Alison. And now, we will move back to you. We will turn the focus on you and ask you to walk us through a day in your life.

Alison Vasquez

Well, it starts early. I usually wake up pretty early — usually at 5 or maybe a little bit before. I usually spend some time reading the news, just to see what I'm going to get calls on that day. So my son — I have three kids. So I have a senior in high school, I have a freshman in high school, and then I have a 13-year-old, the seventh grader.

And my 13-year-old, he and I, we try to beat each other in Wordle every day. So I try to do my Wordle before I'm with him because he will — I can't control myself actually when I'm with him, and I might look at his screen and get some unfair advantage. So I try to do my Wordle before he wakes up, but then we just kind of have our normal routine. We get up, we get ready, we get out of the house. We stop at Chick-fil-A every morning. That's like a place where my son likes to get breakfast. So it's kind of part of my parental guilt that I just, every day — "Yes, we can go to Chick-fil-A on the way to school." Then, like, that's kind of — drop them off at school and then I start my day. And it's really all about doing those business primers with the operational folks, doing research on the market, meeting with investors — new investors, and then investors that have been with us for, who know us really well, have been with us for a long time. Anytime there's something in the news or their current events, or we have a press release or we win a big project like HomeSafe Alliance or things like that.

We get lots of questions and inbound calls. I spend a lot of time on the phone and in emails, just answering questions and making sure that people have the right information that they need so that they can make good decisions. So I also have FP&A. So in addition to invest relations, I also do FP&A. So I have to smoosh FP&A in there somewhere. Then I also have to find food usually during the day. Sadly, most days, many days — I won't say most days — but many days I usually am foraging for lunch at the vending machines. A Coke Zero and a box of Chex Mix for me. So it's an interesting, it's very fast paced. I like it. It suits me really well, but it's busy. I mean, there they're busy days. We get a lot of things done in a short amount of time. So just always a lot of things to do and to learn about.

Lubna Salim

So KBR, as we are aware, has earned a place on the Forbes list of the most female friendly organizations. We have just celebrated a very, very successful International Women's Day here at KBR offices across the globe, the theme for which was “Break the Bias.” So why do you think this theme is so important, and how have you seen KBR doing what it takes to actually break stereotypes, inequality, and bias, also? If you could just turn the spotlight on some of the improvements that you've noticed, Alison

Alison Vasquez

It's a really good question, Lubna. It's something that we see every day, whether we actively see it or whether we see it and we don't see it. I mean, it's something that basically is staring us in the face every day. I'll start with like, maybe just a little bit of history. The department of education tells us that since 1981 — 1981 — majority of college graduates have been women. So the majority of people graduating have been women, with the female male graduation gap widening almost every year since. So 1981, I mean, that was 40 years ago. That was, like, you know, before you were born. So one could reasonably conclude that from a pure quantitative, theoretical perspective, a growing majority of leadership roles would also be filled by women today, but that's not the case. You've got, like, a majority of women graduating 40 years ago and expanding every year since then. But today only 13%, 13% of S&P 500 and Fortune 500 companies have female CFOs, so finance flavor for myself, and only 9% have female CEOs.

So, I mean, there's a big disparity there. There's definitely a lot of work to do. We've made progress. We have made progress just generally, but there's a lot of work to do. So I can't really speak for what other companies are doing, but I can tell you about a couple of things that I think that we're doing really well at KBR. First, I would say — super, super important — it really all starts with culture and values that are modeled by our leadership team and that permeate through our organization. Lubna, you've heard this a lot, but at KBR, our values are, “We value our people,” “We deliver,” “We are people of integrity,” “We empower,” and “We are a team of teams.” As Jenni [Myles, KBR chief people officer] says a lot, like, these aren't just words on a poster. They live and they breathe in our organization, and they demand that we see beyond our own boundaries and that we reach across a diverse playing field to assemble the amazing teams that are doing the incredible things that we do every day for our clients.

So this is a playing field that values, and I mean, it actually demands idea generation, passion, creativity and teamwork, to deliver those innovative solutions that our clients need to really tackle their most complex issues. So I know Natalie talked about some of this last week, and as an organization, we won't stay ahead of the curve if we settle. So we all have to work to break the bias, first, to understand it, then to recognize it in ourselves, challenge it when we see it in one another, and then to have the courage to really go beyond together. So I've seen the power of these values at KBR, and I'm incredibly grateful to work in a company where we can bring our whole selves to work. Where we make inclusion a priority across the diversity spectrum, whether it's gender or race or ethnicity, LGBTQ plus, I mean, et cetera.

We often say at KBR, “We do things that matter,” as it pertains to the work that we do for our clients. But I think really that the importance that we place on inclusion and diversity within our organization is an equally important pillar in doing things that matter. So culture and values, I think super important. And I think the second big thing is what gets measured gets improved. So our friend, Peter Drucker, tells us that, so, gathering data, reporting on like actual information and statistics — whatever gets measured, gets improved. So our leadership team has gone on to great lengths to collect and gather data, demographic data, employee, engagement data, promotion, and fairness data — all kinds of data sets. To their credit, much of the data has been shared, and not just the rosy bits that make us feel good about working at KBR. They've shared pieces of information and data that spotlights where we are so that we can know where we're starting from and hold ourselves accountable for progress.

So right behind culture and values, I would say data and measurement are critical. I mean, I think that culture, data gathering, knowing where you are, knowing where you want to be … but I'm glad that you mentioned the Forbes ranking and that KBR was among the world's top female-friendly companies, because it really is a fantastic recognition. It's awesome. As a professional woman, and especially as a mother of two daughters myself, it's truly inspiring to work alongside some of the most amazing, fantastic women I've encountered in my 20 plus-year career. We have great representation at the board. We have great representation through the leadership team and across the organization of women who are like really bringing it. So it gives me great hope for the future on kind of where we're headed as, as an organization. So summary, I'll say culture and values, they matter, measuring progress that matters. While we're not all perfect, we are making great strides.

Lubna Salim

Awesome, awesome, lovely. That was very insightful information. you are a mom of three, Alison. Does the clichéd question then of balancing the home front with commitment too passé now, or do you think we still have work to do there?

Alison Vasquez

I think we have a lot of work to do there and … So I have three kids. I never want to leave out my son. So I've got my two daughters who are incredible. My oldest is Claire. She's 18. She's a senior this year. Well, she's going to be 18 next week. She's a senior graduating from high school. I have Maryn, who's a freshman, who's just starting in high school. Then I have my son who's in kind of the height of all that middle school weirdness. He's a seventh grade 13-year-old. My path has been a little bit different.

When I started in public accounting had a traditional public accounting and I went, worked all the time, learned a lot, did a lot, saw a lot of clients. Just had a lot of different experiences, both on the audit side and the consulting side. So pretty interesting public accounting background, but kind of, maybe I would say, well, when I had my first, when I had Claire. So 18 years ago, I took a slightly different path. So I stayed in public accounting, but I went on a part-time schedule. So I just took a step back cause I said, "Hey, you know, I have small children.” At one point I had three very small children for a span of time, and I really wanted to spend time with them and to be with them. And so I did make a choice that it's a hard choice to make as a woman with a professional career track. And we all want to be all that we can be and do all that we can do, and we all want to be on that track. But at that time in my life, it was something where I just, I thought, I want to spend some time with my kids when they're little, everybody says, oh, it goes so fast.

Now that my kids are older I realize that it really does go so fast, but I wanted to spend some time with them. I wanted to be a parent volunteer. I wanted to pass out cookies and cupcakes and do art projects with them and read books with them. And I wanted to do all those things in a way. But I also did not want to put my career on hold. So, I was lucky enough to be in an organization that valued that, and that enabled me to really have a very full productive, professional track. I feel like I did not step backwards by going apart on a part-time track when I was at PWC.

And then also, have a very fulfilling family life. And as my kids got older, my situation's changed. All my kids are teenagers now. They want to see me for food and money and rides. That's basically when they want to see me. So it's easier now to step back into that fast paced. My kids know, they see me, they know that I work a lot. I think they admire that, they recognize that, they understand that they don't have the same traditional mommy that maybe some of their neighbors have. But at the same time, I think all women's experiences, they look different. When I look across my friends that I have from my kid's school, it's an amazing collection of women who are all contributing in different ways.

When I look across the women that I work with at KBR, it's an amazing collection of women who are all contributing in their way. And I think if we, as people — if we recognize that women have a lot to give, women have a lot of capability and potential. And if we don't exit them at life moments, along the career path, then we have a real opportunity to retain talent, continue to develop talent. You're not just retaining talent, I do believe that you continue to develop on your path and you can give people a more balanced situation so they feel like they can have it all, I do feel like I have had it all.

So, I feel like I'm a little bit lucky in that way. It wasn't easy when I decided to go part time because you don't know when you make those choices if you are going to be on a track where you get pigeonholed into something that leads to nowhere, which it sometimes unfortunately happens. But I think that as we think about those decisions that we're making and the path that we want to take, you have to really advocate for what you want and what you want to do and what your long-term goals are. Not, “This is my goal for this year,” but “This is my goal for where I want to be in five years, so can you help me get there?” And if you can't, there are other places where I know that they can help you, but you have to be able to articulate and say what you want, you have to advocate for yourself.

Now in the role that I'm in, now I know I have to advocate for others and make sure that others feel empowered to really be able to go and make those choices and know that they will be supported and know that they will have the same opportunities because it's all about what you're willing to give. And if you're willing to give and contribute and work hard — stay engaged on both fronts, on the home front and on the work front — I think you can have it all. But as a professional, as the person, you also have to give yourself a little bit of grace and know that you can't do everything. So, there are just things that you just have to choose, like, “Okay, what am I going to do today? What am I going to do this week? What do I want to do this year?” And you have to pick and choose what's right for you at the time.

Lubna Salim

That's great. And what would your advice to aspiring women be who are wanting to take up investor relations as a career?

Alison Vasquez

I would say — so investor relations is a little bit tricky. But I would say, just from a general finance or from a leadership perspective, I think ... or from an investor relations perspective, really across all fronts, it's probably similar advice. I would say that I've probably been best served when I have been courageous and I've taken a chance, because there is always that thing that … when I stepped into this role it actually was a little bit terrifying because I'm, like, I don't really, like... I don't know, it just made me ... because I'm somewhat of an introvert actually and so just thinking about putting myself out there and talking to people and because I'm an audit background, so I'm used to asking questions and people giving me information, I'm not used to talking to people and giving them information.

And so I had to think through what that would look like or figure out how to develop those new skills. So … but I think that as I reflect on the career that I've had, I think the times where I have been most challenged, that I've been most nervous about stepping into something but I've persevered through, are the times when I've grown the most. And so I would say to be courageous and to take chances. But also when you're being courageous and taking those chances, make sure you advocate for yourself. Make sure you raise your hand when you need help. That first year when I was in this role in IR, which I had no background in and probably no business doing it, I leaned on Mark a lot. So, Mark Sopp, our CFO, he helped me tremendously in that first year.

And so, and I think anytime you raise your hand and you ask for help, people will help you, especially if someone wants you to take an opportunity. They're not going to set you up to not be successful. So, but you do have to advocate for yourself, advocate for others, encourage and empower others to really advocate for themselves. And so I think that those things are really important. I think that from a ... just people generally, women also, but just in general, I think networking within the organization, outside of the organization, is really, really important. Last year was, over the last two years, it's been a little bit tricky to maintain networks because we spent so much time just on a screen. So it's hard to maintain those connections, those true actual connections with people. You get things done and you do your work but it's hard to actually stay connected to people over Zoom.

So last year I made a point to form … I made this little group within KBR of just women that I think are really incredible. And I was like, “Hey, you know what? We should go to lunch.” I don't know, once a month or once a quarter we'll just meet, we'll connect, we'll have lunch, we might have a drink or two. But it's just a really fantastic time to connect with other women who are going through a lot of the same things that we're all going through these things together. And so I think those connections and nurturing those networks, it requires someone to say, and usually it's me, because I'm like, “Hey, let's go do something, let's have lunch, let's plan this.” But I think that's so important because it just makes you feel part of a team.

And my job is bringing people into the company and showing them around and making sure that they like what they see. I also need that too — to know people and to understand in a really fundamental way, what we do, the people who make it all happen so that I can properly portray that to the people that I'm talking to. So nurturing the network is super important I would say. Be curious, listen, listen more than you speak. I think that especially when I'm in all those learning sessions with people just understanding programs and projects and challenges, just trying to really listen and understand so that you can think about, "Okay, how can we either solve, how are we going to tackle this? How are we going to move around this? Or how are we going to seize on this to create greater opportunities?" So that curiosity, I think, is always something that has served me well. And then I would say, probably the last thing because I've probably been talking too long ... probably the last thing I would say would be, I think, it's really important just to be positive. And it's easier said than done, but I think just choosing positivity and just making that choice is important.

I mean, if you choose to see things in a positive way, it really just shapes your experience, both with whatever interaction that you're in, or within your organization, or just in life in general. I just ... I find that for me personally, I do try to choose positivity and to assume positive intent, and when people ... and I get frustrated, I mean, we all get frustrated. I get frustrated too. It helps me sometimes to sit back and think, "Okay, I may be interpreting this in this way, but this is probably really what they meant." And so I just assume that they've meant something that's nice and that's positive and constructive, even though I might be really offended in the moment. It does, it does. I think that it's really helpful. Be courageous, advocate, be an advocate and advocate for yourself, nurture your network, be curious and choose positivity. I think those are the things that I try to live by.

Lubna Salim

And this brings me to the final question of the podcast, Alison. Tell us a secret behind staying top of things, your secret behind staying top of things always.

Alison Vasquez

Well, I'll say that I have a fantastic team, so I don't do anything alone either at work at KBR or on the home front. I do have a really amazing team that works around me. When things really heat up at work, then on the home front, it kicks into high gear on the home front too, and people have to pitch in different ways. And the same — if something happens on the home front and I need to be away for some period of time and things kick up at the office and across my team and we all just were a system, and we work together. I think that helps a lot, is just working around people who you really trust and understand the things that you're going through both professionally. And then if you need help from a home front side or to fill in the gaps, I think it's just really helpful to work in a really connected team. That's probably the biggest thing.

I think the other thing is ... I don't know if this is good or bad, but I have this belief that things just always work out. I don't know if it's faith or confidence or if it's just luck or what it is, but I do. Yeah, maybe it's the optimism, it's that positive intent. I just truly believe that things are going to work out. So I try not to get too stressed out about anything because things always do work out. Things always get done. Yes, knock on wood. I'm knocking on a lot of wood right now. But I think that that is important, is just knowing in your mind that things are going to work out, things are going to get done, this is not the end of whatever. And just being able to frame things in a way where you can actually see clearly the challenge that's in front of you and you can tackle it, I think is really critical.

Lubna Salim

Well, I'm feeling extremely optimistic after talking to you, honestly. Whether it's your half glass full theory ...

Alison Vasquez

Yeah.

Lubna Salim

… or “Ask and you shall receive” advice that you gave people.

Alison Vasquez

Yes.

Lubna Salim

I'm feeling really good about this, and I wish I could go on speaking with you. But we have to wrap this. Thank you so much, Allison, for agreeing to be a part of this, for taking time out on the weekend to do this. I have learned so many things by just speaking with you, so many insightful things, and I'm sure a lot of women are going to be listening to this and getting inspired. So keep inspiring us Alice, and thank you once again.

Alison Vasquez

Oh, thank you so much, Lubna. This has been fantastic. I've really enjoyed it.

TRANSITION

Lubna Salim

That was our second episode of the women's special series. And as the man on this podcast, John, I'm going to ask you once again as to how did you like this episode with Alison Vasquez?

John Arnold

Well, you've definitely kept the momentum going. The first episode in the series which, listeners, if you haven't listened to that yet, please go back and listen to that with Natalie Kiser, our vice president of refining technology at KBR — that was an excellent episode. This one also just did not disappoint. I am privileged every day to work with smart, intelligent, strong women. I've had the pleasure of working with Alison many, many times on different presentations that she does for investor relations and sharing with the market. I loved hearing more about her job as the gatekeeper, almost, to the market — the relationships that she builds with investors and with analysts, and how important transparency is, and opening the door and bringing people into our house, she said. I loved that quote. But then I also loved at the end when she was sharing her tips of being courageous, nurturing your network, being curious and staying positive. I thought that was a powerful message for anyone, really.

Lubna Salim

Absolutely, John. I think with respect to all genders, there have been a lot of takeaways from this episode. I learned a lot from Alison, and I think we all have so much, so much to get inspired through these leaders who are making a difference to our lives, to our companies. And I really, really appreciate Alison. As a mother of three, she's doing an amazing job of whatever she brings to the table at KBR, which is a lot. So with this, I think we will say bye to our listeners. Until next time. Stay safe, stay healthy, and as Allison says, stay positive.

John Arnold

Thanks everyone.