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Sambhavi Lakshminarayanan, Medgar Evers College - City University of New York, USA
ABSTRACT
Wall Street has had few women in top leadership positions. Zoe Cruz was one of the highest ranking women in the financial services industry. She spent her career working at one firm where she rose to the rank of Co-President. However, soon after reaching the highest levels, Zoe Cruz abruptly left the firm after twenty-five years of service. Ms. Cruz's departure proved controversial and commentators had a range of opinions. There were at least three broad interpretations of the situation: one, that she had a moral obligation to leave; two, that organizational politics had forced her out; and, three, that many of the problems she faced could be traced to the fact that she was a woman working in a domain and culture dominated by men.
The case is aimed at identifying factors and forces that were at work in the situation. It also poses the question of deciding whether gender and culture related factors were at work against Ms. Cruz 's interests or whether what happened was post-gender and simply par for the course.
Keywords: Gender; Women; Leadership; Financial Services; Ethics; Career
INTRODUCTION
In 2006, Forbes listed Zoe Cruz at number 10 among the 100 most powerful women (Zoe Cruz Listed # 10, 2006). By the beginning of 2007, Zoe Cruz was Usted among the 25 highest paid women in business by Fortune magazine (25 Highest Paid Women, 2007); she had just taken home a pay check of $30 million as Co-President of Morgan Stanley. On December 1, 2007, Zoe Cruz left Morgan Stanley; it was her last day on the job.
In an official press release in November 2007, Morgan Stanley reported Zoe Cruz's leaving the firm as a "retirement" after twenty-five years of service (Huliq, 2007). Many had reason to doubt this announcement. There were questions whether this was, in reality, a case of voluntary departure or a forced one. In particular, speculation was rife that it was the latter since Ms. Cruz had shown no indications of wanting to leave. She had worked at the firm since her graduation with an MBA from the Harvard Business School and seemed to be on the fast track to the...