Championing a woman in a heavily male-dominated field could change her life and maybe change the world, according to Elizabeth Bloomer Nesvold, who sold her investment bank, Silver Lane Advisors, to Raymond James this year.

“I was very lucky to have had a mentor who opened the door to me to do whatever I could to better the firm. He’s the reason I stayed in this industry,” she said.

Hers was the only woman-owned investment bank in the financial services sector.

Ms. Nesvold’s firm is about 40% gender and culturally diverse, resulting from a recruitment process that looks not at candidates’ names or institutions or pedigrees, but whether they have “hearts, smarts and some humble pie,” Ms. Nesvold said.

Ms. Nesvold said she is gratified to see more female colleagues today than when she started.

“It took 16 years in the business before I saw a woman deal-maker sitting across the table,” she said. “It was stunning.”
— Deborah Nason