Carin Julsgard

Senior Vice President, Bank of America Business Capital

40 Under 40 Category: Portfolio Management

Biography:

Carin Julsgard is an asset-based senior portfolio specialist in the Business Capital group at Bank of America’s office in downtown Los Angeles where she manages a large diverse portfolio of clients with asset-based loans.  Bank of America Business Capital is one of the largest asset-based lenders across the globe and provides loans to middle-market and large corporate borrowers in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia Pacific. Carin has over 10 years of banking experience, with the past five years working at BABC.

Prior to Bank of America, Carin spent seven years at Wells Fargo in both the commercial finance group (Wells Fargo Capital Finance) and the institutional investment management group (Wells Capital Management).

Carin graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with a B.A. in economics. She resides in Santa Monica, California with her husband, Daniel.

Is there a piece of professional advice that you would give yourself if you could go back in time?

Know the difference between complaining and being part of the solution. There will always be parts of your job you are not satisfied with and there will always be organizational challenges that you will be faced with. Be selective and thoughtful when voicing your criticism. Rather than adding to the problem, be part of the solution and help come up with how things could be improved.

When there are not good solutions, you have to make the conscious decision to either accept and adapt to the situation or be prepared to move on. Moving on is not necessarily a failure and one of the best career decisions I ever made was the result of not being able to adapt to and accept a frustrating situation.

What is the best professional advice you have been given and how have you implemented it?

The best professional advice I have been given was from my manager, Matthew VanSteenhuyse. One of the first things he ever told me when I started working for him is: “Always under-promise and over-deliver.” This advice is particularly applicable in any client-facing role. It’s much easier to satisfy clients when you are able to manage and beat their expectations.

When I communicate internally or externally on what can be delivered by a certain date, I always make sure to select a date I know I will be able to make. I’ve worked with many professionals over the years who have overpromised and then inevitably come up short. Not being able to deliver on your word will unnecessarily hurt your professional reputation and will damage your credibility.  

How do you think the commercial finance industry can attract more young professionals?

Automation and work-life balance will be critical in attracting younger professionals to commercial finance.

In order to compete for the best talent, commercial finance needs to offer jobs that are not bogged down by the administrative and compliance requirements that are the reality of commercial finance today. Automating processes will allow more time to be spent working on the value-add, educational parts of the job.

Work-life balance and a flexible work schedule will also be critical for attracting younger talent to commercial finance. By focusing more on the end result versus office seat time, employees are able to decide when they complete work more on their terms. We need to keep in mind that, even though many of us did not have the benefit of this flexibility early on in our careers, most recent college graduates expect to have this option made available to them.

What do you know now that you wish you knew when you first started your career?

Credit, credit, credit…You will never go wrong by taking a job that will teach you credit skills. Even if commercial finance is not your ultimate goal, a credit background is a very valuable skill set across a multitude of industries. The earlier on you’re able to obtain this skill set, the more flexibility you will have in regards to career progression.