As CFO of Fidelity Brokerage, Kristin White plays a key role in driving growth, innovation, and financial stability in a rapidly evolving industry. In an exclusive interview with Traders Magazine, she reflects on her unique career journey—from working in her family’s Italian bakeries in Massachusetts to navigating corporate roles and ultimately leading the finance division at Fidelity.
Please tell us about yourself. Can you share some key milestones or turning points that helped shape your path to the role you have today?
I grew up working in my family’s business (Italian bakeries in Massachusetts). I worked there as a kid, going to the bakery early with my dad, and continued working there during holidays and weekends throughout college. I ended up spending 6 years there after I graduated college. During that time, we grew the business from 1 store to 4 stores with 150 employees. I also pursued my MBA at night while working at the bakery during the day.
I had a few corporate roles between my time at the bakery and coming to Fidelity, where I’ve now been for about 18 years. I’ve had the great opportunity to work across many of Fidelity’s business units, including in our insurance business, enterprise strategy and retail distribution before becoming the CFO of Fidelity’s Capital Markets division. This was a fantastic learning experience – it was an area that I didn’t know much about prior to taking the role, and it is a fascinating business. It also helped provide a great foundation for my current role as CFO of Fidelity Brokerage.
Coming from a small business, I really adopted an owner mindset which includes an end-to-end way of thinking. When you’re working in a small business, you touch all aspects, from the leasing to HR to benefits to the customer experience, and it instills in you a culture of accountability and ownership. And Fidelity has that culture and really reflects those same principles of maintaining an enterprise perspective and a long-term view of what success looks like.
What experiences or lessons from your career have had the most impact on your approach to leadership and decision-making in your current role as CFO?
As a leader, it’s critical to remember that people can (and do!) change, and they deserve the opportunity to demonstrate that. I’ve found that we tend to remember only certain parts of our interactions with somebody, whether negative or positive. But your original perspective of someone shouldn’t be something that clouds your future interactions with them. Especially as a leader, you should give people the opportunity to show that they’ve grown or changed. I’ve certainly been given that opportunity and I’ve always appreciated it. As a result, this is something I prioritize in my own interactions and as part of coaching and mentoring others.
Fidelity Brokerage has grown significantly in recent years. What key strategies have you implemented as CFO to support this growth, and how do you prioritize long-term financial stability?
When it comes to decision making, it’s so important to make sure your teams understand the overall business strategy and how their work aligns to and supports that strategy. By doing so, your teams will be better positioned to help drive your mission and priorities if you take the time to explain where you’re headed and why.
I believe my role as CFO is to help the business make good, fact-based decisions by clarifying the objective and outcome we want to achieve, as well as the “countermeasures” – the potential unintended consequences of any decision. At the core of our decision making is always our customers – how can we support them, deliver an exceptional experience and help meet their evolving financial needs.
As a female leader in a traditionally male-dominated field, what has been your experience navigating your career in finance, and what advice would you give to other women aspiring to leadership positions in the industry?
I’ve been fortunate to have built my career at Fidelity, which is a place with a diverse group of leaders and plenty of opportunity. I would suggest to anyone looking to be a leader to find a company that shares your values and has a culture that fits your goals and leadership style. Fidelity has a long history of innovation, customer obsession, doing the right thing, and maintaining a long-term view – all things that are important to me.
My advice to women looking to be leaders in the financial industry is to set goals and make a plan to achieve those goals. Don’t be afraid to pursue new areas if they could help you get closer to your goals. Throughout my career, I’ve looked for opportunities that have allowed me to leverage my strengths, but also allowed me to learn and do something new.
Don’t be afraid to take risks- but make sure you’re taking smart, intelligent, and calculated risks. Especially when you’re early on in your career, take advantage of the opportunities that will give you a chance to stretch and grow.
Last, make sure to advocate for yourself. Actively manage and seek out your next move, looking for the opportunities that will help you grow in order to achieve your next goal. A great way to do this is by reaching out to colleagues in different roles or other areas of the organization that may interest you – you never know what might come from a conversation!
Fidelity’s reputation for employee culture is strong. How do you, as CFO, contribute to cultivating a culture of innovation and accountability within the organization?
Innovation and accountability really go hand-in-hand. With a strong cultural foundation where associates feel pride of ownership for their work, we can think bigger and look forward to identifying opportunities to innovate and improve our business.
Because the finance organization is deeply embedded within the business, we are uniquely positioned as a partner to help our business leaders make strategic decisions that capitalize on opportunities for innovation and growth, with customers and their needs always at the center of our strategy.
It helps that Fidelity leaders regularly spend time with associates throughout the organization, building a shared understanding of how our individual work connects to the broader business strategy. We also see a strong connection between our client-facing teams and our business leaders, which helps us ensure our work is prioritized to meet current and future customer needs.
Looking ahead, what do you think the future holds for the brokerage industry in the next 5-10 years? What steps is Fidelity taking to stay at the forefront of these changes?
I’m energized by the opportunities ahead in the brokerage industry, and feel privileged to be a part of Fidelity’s journey supporting self-directed investors through the changing landscape. The pace of change in how traders access markets and invest over the last two decades has been unparalleled, and I expect this will only continue. My colleagues and I at Fidelity will continue to listen to and understand the needs of our customers as they navigate new investing opportunities, faster access to information, and near-instant reactions by the markets to global events.
How does Fidelity support investors throughout different phases in their financial journeys?
We know that every investor’s journey looks different, and that insight is really critical to how we design our offerings. Fidelity is uniquely positioned to support all investors, no matter where they are on their journeys, thanks to the breadth of our business. Whether someone started out investing with their workplace retirement plan and are now ready to save and invest outside of a retirement account, or they’ve been trading for years and need the next best platform for advanced charting, our retail teams are dedicated to meeting those needs.
As you continue to grow in your career, what are some areas you’re focusing on personally to continue evolving as a leader and CFO?
I always want to be learning and listening. I’m a big advocate of developing a personal learning agenda that helps deliver what you need to be successful, which can be helpful both in your personal and professional life.
In the near term, I’m focused on remaining customer obsessed. It’s so important to find ways to stay close to the customer, whether spending time directly with customers or customer-facing associates to make sure we’re delivering value for them. I personally spend a few hours every month joining calls with customers so I can hear directly from customers about what they want and how we can help them, and I encourage my team to do the same.
I’m also committed to mentoring and coaching associates throughout the organization. I’ve been fortunate to have great mentors throughout my own career and this is something that I think is critically important as a leader – taking time to invest in the development and growth of future leaders.
People work hard and bring so much energy to their work – it’s critical to recognize and share appreciation for their contributions as often as possible.
