Building bonds, getting job done

LEADING AND LISTENING: Samantha O'Neil is credited by colleagues at Fidelity for a leadership style that engages others and moves the organization forward. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY
LEADING AND LISTENING: Samantha O'Neil is credited by colleagues at Fidelity for a leadership style that engages others and moves the organization forward. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

It’s who you know.

That phrase is often tossed around when it comes to succeeding in business – usually in a derisive way, as if it was mutually exclusive of talent or merit. But for Samantha O’Neil, senior vice president, head of marketing for Fidelity Clearing and Custody Solutions, both the saying and the reality are about building bonds, networks and ultimately teams that get the job done.

“Over the years, I’ve honed my leadership principles,” she said. “First and foremost is acting as one team and encouraging folks to sort of walk in somebody else’s shoes.”

It’s a focus one might not expect from a manager in a financial-services firm. But O’Neil’s background was very much about building a toolkit centered on understanding people’s motivations and behaviors.

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A sociology major at Bryn Mawr College, she went on to work in advertising, and then, after business school at Georgetown University, did strategic consulting for the telecom industry. “But it was always from a marketing perspective,” she said. A supervisor and mentor at Kelly Habib John – a Boston-based strategic branding firm – eventually brought her over to Fidelity and financial services.

In the 18 years that she’s been at Fidelity, O’Neil has incorporated ideals of connectivity and team building in all that she’s done. “[My successes] have been about bringing different groups together, aligning against a strategy, and being able to execute the heck out of something,” she said.

Perhaps that’s why she was tapped to lead a brand-new business unit at Fidelity, said Tom Corra, chief operating officer for Fidelity Clearing and Custody Solutions, under which O’Neil’s division operates.

“She’s someone you’d want to work with – she brings that interpersonal quality, the willingness to partner with others – but at the same time, when it comes time for it, she knows how to influence the organization. It’s a combination of moving the organization forward by working with partners and at the same time being … someone people look to within the organization,” said Corra.

In a phone interview, O’Neil said, “You have to find the right space and take it, versus waiting for permission. I’m big into the idea that leaders can come from anywhere. … All of us are leaders and should have the courage and feel empowered to lead from the front.”

It’s hard to narrow down the places where O’Neil has taken charge over the course of such a successful career, but one of those moments came with Fidelity’s “Green Line” advertising campaign. Though she was careful not to take credit for the idea by any stretch, she named the awareness-raising 2009 campaign as a feather in her cap, resulting from working closely with the CMO at the time. “It really broke through both from the business perspective and an awareness-in-the-market perspective,” she said.

Fitting, coming from an industry standout herself. Candy Race, executive vice president of marketing for Fidelity, said that O’Neil brought “insight, courage and tremendous energy” to her role.

“You can have each of those, but to have all of them and have it all work together?” Race said. “You don’t find that in just anybody.”

Race has worked with O’Neil in a variety of capacities over the last 18 years, but said that one of the places the pair has gotten to connect the most is within Fidelity’s Women’s Leadership Group. The 11-years-running initiative comprises the company’s largest enterprise resource group. Race was one of the founding members, and O’Neil joined not long after, eventually serving as its co-chair for two years starting in 2014.

“I went to a women’s college, and I grew up thinking I could do anything. … I never really thought about, ‘Oh, I’m a woman.’ I wasn’t aware of it or felt different. But I will say the numbers are not in our favor,” she said. “And so it’s really important for me to pay it forward, and advocate for women who are coming up behind me.”

Outside of the office, O’Neil gives back in spades. She’s on the board of directors of the Greenwich Odeum, a nonprofit performance space in East Greenwich, and she and her husband are raising a young family of three boys. “If you want to talk about my North Star, it’s my family,” she said.

A leader’s life holds many constellations, it seems. •

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