Clare Scherrer, Investment Banker, CFO, Public Board Director

92-179.Clare Scherrer

SPEAKERS
Will Bachman, Clare Scherrer

Will Bachman  00:02
Hello and welcome to The ’92 Report. Conversations with members of the Harvard and Radcliffe Class of 1992. I’m your host Will Bachman, and I’m delighted to be here today with Clare Scherer. Clare, welcome to the show.

Clare Scherrer  00:17
Thank you, Will. Great to be here, and right back at you on the thank you; because we should all be thanking you that you had the vision and you’re putting the time against creating the ’92 report.

Will Bachman  00:29
That’s very kind of you to say. So, Clare, tell us about your journey since graduating from Harvard.

Clare Scherrer  00:36
My journey after Harvard has three main chapters. The first chapter is a 25-year career at Goldman Sachs in Investment Banking, both in New York and in London. The second chapter was a number of years that I served as a public company Chief Financial Officer for a global engineering company, and the third chapter I’m writing right now, where I am sitting on two public company boards of directors:  One is a leading integrated energy company, and the other is a leading electrical infrastructure company. But before we talk about the main chapters, I think it might be helpful to give a little prologue, which is what did I do right after we graduated?

Will Bachman  01:28
Great, and that is like a prologue chapter.

Clare Scherrer  01:32
Exactly. So a few weeks after you and I graduated, I got married. So I met my husband on a blind date in 1991 at Harvard, and we waited until I graduated to get married. So that is the first thing I did after graduation.  And then the second thing I did a few weeks after that, is I started at the analyst program for McKinsey in New York City. And what’s interesting about both of those things is the point that my life — and I think probably many others’ lives — is a real mixture of planning and serendipity. So when I transferred in to Harvard — and I came in and did only my last two and a half years at Harvard –because I started at another university.  But when I transferred in, I had a plan.  And my plan was to be a government major and to join the Foreign Service. And then that blind date caused us to get engaged nine weeks later, and that’s where serendipity came in; because then I had to find a job in New York City, and so I pivoted, and I did two things. One is that I started interviewing for any and every job in New York City, because I hadn’t ever thought about the need to find a job in NYC.  And I just wasn’t sure where I would fit, what I could be good at, you know, where I would be an attractive candidate. So I was just interviewing like crazy. And the other thing that I did was I pivoted and put in an application to Harvard Business School. And to apply to Harvard Business School, as you know, Will, you need to have job experience. I did have some.  Because I took five years to complete university in total, I had one and a half years at the university I started with; I had a year of work experience; and then I had my two and a half years at Harvard. So I wasn’t sure if it would be enough; because it was only a year.  And I was really lucky because I got a deferred admission. Harvard Business School said, “We’ll welcome you in the incoming class of ’94. Go do some meaningful work for two years, and subject to you doing well at your meaningful work, we’ll take you into the incoming class of ’94.” So, when I graduated from Harvard, it was a very different path personally and professionally than I thought I would be setting off on when I came to Harvard in January of 1990.

Will Bachman  04:07
Okay, I want to hear. There’s a lot of dimensions here, a lot of directions, but I do want to hear about this first date. I mean, get engaged in nine weeks. Tell us a little bit about that before we move on.

Clare Scherrer  04:17
Well, firstly, I have to give credit to one of my classmates of class of ’92 for setting us up on the blind date. So at the time when I came in as a transfer student — and I came in in the spring semester– there were a very small number of us who came in as transfer students. I think it was 10 to 12.

Will Bachman  04:36
Oh wow!

Clare Scherrer  04:36
And so we didn’t have the Harvard Yard experience. We didn’t have the same formative core class experience that you know and that you and others did.  And so we were a really tight group of students, because we were coming in and finding our way in a different way, and we were also in off-campus housing. So Anna, one of the other transfer students, set us up on a blind date. Because we were put in off campus housing, we weren’t in the houses.  I think you were in Lowell, Will.  We weren’t in houses like that. We were in other little off campus housing units with the graduate students. And so my husband was at Harvard Business School, and Anna was living in his little off campus unit, and she set us up on a blind date.  And it was a great blind date. And I wasn’t thinking that nine weeks later I would be engaged, but that’s where serendipity comes in.

Will Bachman  05:31
Wow, that’s very decisive.

Clare Scherrer  05:34
Yes, it was very decisive. And interestingly, I joke that obviously I didn’t understand the concept of proper due diligence. All right, but 34 years later, it actually was a great match.  And we’re just celebrating our 34th anniversary next month. So it was actually a really great initial partnership, and it became a great life partnership.

Will Bachman  06:01
Amazing! Congratulations. So yeah, you guys track our our reunion years.

Clare Scherrer  06:09
Our first date was just like a classic first date. The real clincher was the third date, because he said, “How would you like to go to Martha’s Vineyard for clam chowder? And I said, Well, I know I’m new to Boston, but isn’t that an island? And he said, “Yes. Why don’t we fly there?” Because his stepfather was an amateur pilot, so he called in a favor from his stepfather to impress me on our third date.  And we flew to Martha’s Vineyard and had clam chowder.  And that’s when I knew it was it was the start of a special relationship.

Will Bachman  06:49
Wow. Okay, that’s pretty awesome. It’s pretty awesome. All right. So totally unrelated, but well, I just saw someone tweet the other day, like that for the longest time they thought Martha’s Vineyard had something to do with like Martha Stewart, like it was her, her island. You know, apparently a lot of people have that misimpression, but you did not. Okay, so you um you many people at least today I’m not sure about our day uh you know are like desperate to get into McKinsey from you know the the minute they start freshman year, but you were kind of casting about applying to whatever job, and you land at McKinsey. Okay, so tell us about moving to New York City. You’re married a couple years. This is the prologue again before business school. You’d already been accepted, so you’re just chilling. You’re like, okay, I’m going to learn consulting. Tell us about that formative piece of your prologue.

Clare Scherrer  07:45
Well, it was a amazing two years, and the thing that I learned, which is subtle but significant, is really critical thinking. When I look back on the time, I remember a really important conversation with one engagement manager.  And I was a green bean, right? Everything was new to me. I was learning so much, lapping it all up, and I was asking him a lot of questions. And he said to me, “You can ask me anything so long as, after you ask the question, you tell me what you think the answer is and why.” And it was as I said — It can sound very simple, but it was really quite profound.  Because from that moment on, in our engagement, and I worked with him quite a bit and that was the way he trained me.  And it gave me that mindset for everything I’ve done since.  And even to today, when I’m sitting on a board and I ask a question, I already have in my mind what I think the answer is, even though I don’t say it out loud. And of course, the obvious thing is that then you really learn when you get a different answer back.  Either you learn the error in your thinking; or you learn there isn’t an error in your thinking, and you have a different idea to put forward, and you can start a debate. So, when I look back on the McKinsey years, they were great because, of course, I was just lapping it all up, learning everything, and that’s really what I took with me. That served me well at HBS, and then it served me well beyond. But then, when I went back to HBS, that’s when I pivoted to investment banking. So when I was at HBS, the pivot was really driven by two things. One was there was a missing piece to the puzzle. What do I mean by that? One of the big projects that I worked on at McKinsey was looking at the competitiveness of a company and how it could have more sustained growth and financial returns, and just its overall competitiveness. And one of the issues was scale. And so, at the conclusion of the engagement, the recommendations were all around how they should acquire or be acquired and be part of consolidation to have greater scale. And so the consultants then finished their project, and Goldman Sachs was hired to do the next part of the project. So I sort of had in my head that I wanted to understand what it was that the bankers did when the consultants were finished with their part of the work. So a little bit of it was sort of scratching that itch.  But the more profound part was that I really enjoyed my finance classes, because I had grown up in a farming community in Iowa, and no one in my family or my you know immediate friend set had any association with finance. So, they’re obviously very different than micro and macroeconomics at Harvard or at the university that I started at. I just found it really interesting and enjoyed the classes, and that’s also what had me make the pivot. So I had a summer internship at Goldman Sachs, and that was the start of 25 years at the firm.

Will Bachman  10:55
Well, tell us about that journey.

Clare Scherrer  10:56
So 16 of the 25 years were as a partner. The first 14 were in New York, and then in 2011, I was asked to move to London for a new opportunity — which I said yes to on the spot, and then went home and explained to my husband that we’d be looking for a house in London next week. And he was a good sport and went along with that. Part of why it was a good life partnership. So the last 11 years were in London, and I had a really interesting portfolio in my senior years. I did three different things. One is I looked after my own clients. My clients were large cap industrial companies. So at the time, if you think about what GE was in 2000 or 3m — so industrial but also diversified companies. The second thing I did was I co-led the team who covered industrial companies globally.  And then the third thing that I did was I co-chaired the IPO committee. So any time that the firm was taking a company public in any sector around the world. It was a quality control committee where the transactions had to come to the committee to be signed off on first to make sure that the right due diligence had been done.  That the company was truly ready to be a public company. That they had an appropriate board of directors. So it was a very interesting portfolio. I know some people go into investment banking or finance, and they’re very narrow because they have something that they’re a black belt at, or they’re very specialized in. And for me, it was what the appeal was always this very interesting portfolio. And I have to say that 25 years went by very quickly.

Will Bachman  12:46
Now, many people want to get into investment banking. Still, it was quite popular then. Many people enter, but not many people who enter, you know, stay for 25 years and achieve the kind of level of prominence and you know years as a partner that you did. What do you think were your distinctive skills or things that made you successful over such a long period at such a you know an elite investment banking firm?

Clare Scherrer  13:19
Well, you’re very kind to describe it that way. I would say that when you start as a junior associate, work ethic is important, and the critical thinking that I had learned at McKinsey was important. And then, as I got more mid-level, it was about accumulating experiences, because experience gives you the ability to have good judgment and look to recognize patterns and apply that. But to be senior and really impactful, it’s about building trust and about having influence. And so, two things that I learned-one younger and one more mid-level-that really have always stuck with me.  The importance of running toward problems is the first one. Let me just say a word about that. So when I was a young associate, whenever there was a hard client that had a reputation for being a difficult client, if you raised your hand and said, you know, I’d like to be a part of that, you really distinguished yourself internally as someone who was always of the mindset, “How can I help? And the interesting thing is that you learn more from the difficult situations, and you just get more exposure because what you learn carries you forward to help you be better equipped for other more difficult situations. And then what I learned, when I was more senior, was the value of trust. So when anyone is selecting an advisor, many people will have the skills or experience, but not all of them will have a truly trusted relationship. And I say that trust is very hard to gain and very easy to lose.  And I think that the very best, very senior advisors appreciate that and really work hard to build trust with individuals.  You know, companies are people. And so, how do you really build that trust with people? And I think that over time, what I had was resilience.  And I think I also had empathy.  And obviously the experience.  And then you roll that all together; and what it created is, I had a number of clients who trusted me–which gave me the commercial side of the equation, and then trust with your team –which gave me the internal leadership side of the equation.

Will Bachman  15:36
Yeah. In terms of that client relationships and building trust. What specifically did you learn in your years as partner? So when you were, you know, after 16 years of partner, what did you know that you did not know in year one or year two of being a partner? I mean, certainly, you know, clearly it’s important to build trust-based relationships, but in terms of specifically how to do it, were there mistakes you made along the way that you learned from, or tell us a bit about you know what you knew at the end of that period that you didn’t know when you were getting started?

Clare Scherrer  16:12
I think communicate, communicate, and over communicate, because when there’s a lack of communication, people can infer or assume something that isn’t the right inference or assumption.  And so if you just think about every moment when not every situation goes well, or correctly, or the way you anticipate it will — and that’s when over communicating is even more important. That you guide people through it.  And when I say guide people through it, there’s the second dimension to that, which is how decisions are made. Which is there is always a decision owner, but there are a lot of decision influencers, and including if your client is a CEO or a CFO, it’s the board of directors. So the other thing was to understand on the importance of over communicating, in addition to doubling down on that when things were not perfect — but also having the sophistication or anticipation to understand that you need to bring a group of people along, not just the decision maker.  Because everyone has other people whom they need to convince or respond to.  And so having the IQ and the EQ to bring a whole group of people along, especially if it’s more complex or longitudinal. So I would say the main thing that I got better at over the years was communication. And if I ever had any mistakes along the way, it was always that I should have picked up the phone one more time.  And with more recent generations, when I would say call the client, and of my team would email the client. I would say, “Did you see my email? Did you hear me? Call the client.” Because, of course, one of the things that, with more recent generations of bankers that I’ve been working with, is for them to understand that no one ever says anything heartfelt or risky on email. That real trust is built in conversations.  And of course, the really, really trusted relationships are built in person.  And that’s something that I really always have tried to explain and emphasize with my teams.

Will Bachman  18:28
Yeah, so easy for emails to be misinterpreted, the tone and so forth. Is there is there one or two deals that you’re allowed to talk about that you’re particularly proud of, and from your years at Goldman that kind of stand out that you were came up with a clever solution or was particularly impactful?

Clare Scherrer  18:50
It’s an interesting way that you phrased the question, because I always thought that the deals were not my deals. I always thought that they were my clients’ deals.  And I realize that’s a different phraseology.  But having then been a CFO, I realize that for all the work the advisors do, the company does 10 times more work. And so, interestingly, what I remember more than deals is that I remember people. So now, you know that I have retired from Goldman Sachs, what do I look back on? I look in my contacts. It’s the 25 or so clients that are going to be friends for life.  They were clients for a period, but the the relationship that we have is one that’s going to continue. You know, continue for decades going forward.  I can think about people whom I learned a lot from. I can think about one client, where the project was on and off for eight years, and the the resilience that we showed, but also that the client showed. You know we’re going to be friends for many years and that subsequent friendship time will dwarf the eight years that we worked on a project together.

Will Bachman  20:06
Let’s turn to chapter two. You talked. You were a CFO. Tell us about that.

Clare Scherrer  20:12
Well, in 2022, one of my longtime clients approached me and said –and I’ll never forget how he phrased it– he said, “How about something new, Clare?” And I smiled, as it was a client that I had been working for at the time, you know, at least 15 years, if not longer. So someone I knew very well.  And he, the chairman, and the CEO thought it’d be a great idea if I stopped advising the company and served as their CFO.  And I initially said no. Initially, my gut reaction was that I really liked what I do at Goldman Sachs.  And I went home, and I talked about it with my husband. And it’s always good to have people around you who remind you of the truth. And he said, “You know, Clare, you are not getting any younger. You really could add value in this particular situation, and it’s a very special opportunity. Opportunities like this don’t come along that often, and it’s very close to where we live. You don’t need to relocate.” So he said, “I really think you shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss.” So I texted my client and said, “Could we have a do-over on the conversation?” And after discussing it with my client, then I took the leap, and it was a super interesting company. Maybe just to say a minute about what they did, and and then I think you’ll understand why what they did was very interesting. It is a company that made products and provided services for energy efficiency, safety, security, and connectedness. So let me explain what I mean. Their products were in 90% of the world’s largest airports, doing explosion screening for your carry-on bags and your checked bags. Very important. They also provided engineered seals for 80% of the world’s carbon capture projects, so helping with energy efficiency and reducing emissions. And then the third point is they were on 70% of the satellites launched in the U.S. and Europe, which is part of promoting connectivity, which you and I and we all demand for our personal and professional lives. So I thought the product suite and how they were positioned was very interesting and gave a lot of opportunities for a growth in the future. And I thought the skills that I had developed set me up well to really contribute to what the company was aiming to do over the years that I was CFO,

Will Bachman  22:47
And we could say the name of the company, right?

Clare Scherrer  22:49
Oh, for sure. It’s Smiths Group.

Will Bachman  22:51
Smiths Group, yeah, like over, I mean, more than 10,000 employees, big big company. Yeah, that’s right.

Clare Scherrer  22:57
That’s right, and we had about 15,000 people when I was the CFO. They’ve since you know narrowed the portfolio, but yes, it was really it was really a terrific experience. It’s one of those things that I’m really grateful for. I’m grateful that my client thought of me. It was very out of the box thinking. I wasn’t out looking for a different opportunity, and it’s another example of serendipity.

Will Bachman  23:22
So you have 25 years of investment banking experience when you go into this. So you have deep understanding of finance. What was what was the hardest thing about taking on a CFO role? There was probably some aspects of that role that were that were kind of new to you. Maybe you were overseeing cybersecurity or the IT department or some kind of piece of it. Tell us a little bit about the transition.

Clare Scherrer  23:49
So I think it’s always important to know what you don’t know — or where you may have blind spots is a better way to say it — because you don’t really know what you don’t know. And I knew that I was not a CPA.  And I knew that I also hadn’t overseen IT with cybersecurity being a part of that. So it was very important to me that I de-risked those areas. That I felt that there were strong people as part of my team looking out for that.  And there was an excellent controller, whom I had known.  And I got to know the head of IT.  And it was really important that I had confidence in them.  And they were top rate, and so that was an important part of my feeling comfortable making a move like that because I viewed it as an opportunity. I think if you don’t de-risk, it could be risky.  But I sort of viewed that from a team perspective–that I had de-risked what I would say what was different.  And you called out right the things that were really in my sweet spot, in terms of what I had years of experience doing. I would say one of the things that was a real privilege was — with 15,000 employees — it was a real privilege to be able to take the microphone at the end of each quarter and talk about the results. Because any time you have a good set of results, everyone contributes.  You don’t get great results without an awful lot of people doing an awful lot of things right. But yet, there’s still one or two people who have the privilege of being able to discuss that with external shareholders, and so that was a new piece. To it was a new piece for me, and one that I really enjoyed very much communicating about the company, because I thought the company had a lot to be proud of. I thought it had a more focused investment thesis, and so that was a part that I really enjoyed.

Will Bachman  25:45
Tell us about your third chapter being a director on public boards.

Clare Scherrer  25:50
Well, I was not only the CFO of Smith’s Group, but I was also on the board of directors. That gave me a taste for the importance of governance, and also it was a unique board structure where the directors sat on all of the committees. So I also had a real sense for how governance played out across all of the committees. So while I was in that role, I also joined a board of directors in France for a company called Legrand. This is the electrical infrastructure company, which I just thought had a really interesting, super capable management team, and again, an interesting set of products. Most people think of them as supplying residential and commercial markets, but they were also starting to supply the data center market. And today, more than a quarter of their sales are to support data center build out and operations. So I thought that was very interesting. So it it gave me, when I was in chapter two, line of sight to what could be a you know a third interesting chapter for me, which is to have a portfolio of boards. So when I wrapped up my mandate as CFO, I had the choice around thinking about another executive role or pursuing a portfolio.  And because I really enjoyed my time on the Legrand board, I decided to pursue a portfolio. And the other board of directors that I joined is Shell, which is a large integrated energy company, a very household name that many people know, especially from their retail operations. And I just joined the Shell Board in January of this year. So those are my main commitments: the two boards of directors that I sit on.  And then a very small amount of my time I’m also working with a newish CFO at a completely different company in the US.  I like to say that even an Olympic athlete doesn’t coach herself or himself, and it’s very different when you’re CFO of a company. Unlike when you’re in professional services, where you have a number of people who have done what you’re doing, and you can look up to, and you can seek advice, and there is lots of camaraderie and partnership. But in a company, you don’t have the same thing. And I’ve had the opportunity to work as a coach with a newish CFO, and it’s actually been very fun.  And it really takes me back to the days at Goldman Sachs when a big part of what we were doing was developing and retaining and helping people reach their potential. So that’s also been a lot of fun.

Will Bachman  28:27
Amazing. Tell us about you know being not having a full time executive role and being on two big public boards doing coaching. Tell us about your typical kind of Monday through Friday. Some weeks I imagine you’re traveling for board meetings, but what are kind of the range of things that you’re doing on the typical work week?

Clare Scherrer  28:53
Yes. So first, it’s the obligation to be current on what’s going on with the company and the industry, just as a general matter. So all of the macro reading, the industry reading, just being a really up to speed.  And then being a board member, there are periods where there’s less activity and periods where there is more activity.  And so what I’m doing right now, when I have downtime in between my board meetings, is actually getting ready to move home base back to the U.S.

Will Bachman  29:22
Oh, what’s that entail?

Clare Scherrer  29:23
Now is is the first time we can really think about that, because I’m not having a full time executive role. So we’ve been in the U.K. for 15 years. We both became dual UK citizens.  When we moved here, I’ll never forget the head of investment banking said, “It won’t be for a year, and it won’t be forever. Can you work with that?” And so here we are at 15 years, and it feels like the right time to put home base back in the US. So I’ve been busy getting us organized for the move back. We’ll be headed back to the Boston area, in New Hampshire.  And when I was just back getting us organized, I went by Harvard.  And I also went by Harvard Business School, and it was was really nice to be reconnected, because I haven’t made it back to any of the reunions.  And it was really nice to walk through campus because it was reunion week and graduation week.  I went to the Harvard Museum and I went to the Harvard Development Office and thought this is a really sort of a call to action — to get plugged back in.

Will Bachman  30:23
Well, okay, 35th reunion. The dates have been announced for next June. I hope you put those. So no excuses.

Clare Scherrer  30:29
No, no excuses.

Will Bachman  30:31
I mean, you know, no excuses. All right. So next June, yeah, the dates are published. So for the 35th that’s right.

Clare Scherrer  30:40
That’ll be fun.

Will Bachman  30:42
Yeah, your 30-fifth wedding anniversary coming up, and 30-fifth Harvard anniversary. So, moving on from the career stuff, tell us about just one habit that you have intentionally adopted sometime in the past five to 10 years that has really worked well for you.

Clare Scherrer  31:02
So one habit that I adopted when I was in investment banking was a monthly growth audit. So once a month, just have a pause–block it on your calendar — and have a pause and think: Did I do anything this month where I was out of my comfort zone? And if the answer was no, then ask yourself, What am I going to do about the fact that I haven’t been out of my comfort zone this month? Am I going to do something differently? Am I going to talk to someone to open up some new opportunities? You know, what am I going to do with this feeling? And I mentioned that when I started co-leading the team I was doing this for myself and the team. But then, as I was co-leading the team, obviously there were different periods of time, like COVID or Brexit, where I amended it. And what I asked all of my team was to ask themselves, “Have I felt underchallenged OR  have I felt overwhelmed? Because I thought there are two sides to the coin.  And I wanted people to never feel underchallenged, but I also didn’t want the other side — which is for them to feel overwhelmed. And then I would say, because people are not mind readers– it’s really good that you pause to reflect on this–but then either way, talk.  Some things you can solve through your own actions, but most things you need to talk to people and make a plan together with others. And so that’s also became a habit about how I led the teams that I was responsible for.

Will Bachman  32:35
I like that question. I think that’s a good one. I think I’ll adopt that when I do my periodic reviews with my with my colleagues. That’s good.

Clare Scherrer  32:45
I have one other to add, which I just learned last month. I went back for my 30th Harvard Business School reunion. So I’m getting back on the reunion program, Will.  And this was just last month, there was a talk by one of the HBS professors, and he said that he has this habit of when he wakes up not turning on any devices for one hour.  And you’re nodding your head, right? The obvious point is that when you have an hour without any distraction, you concentrate more fully. Your brain can explore more creatively. You kind of just go in a different direction.  Because once you turn your device on, we all, to some degree, are distracted — or we’re thinking about what’s getting crossed off the list or what’s coming ahead.  And and so just for the last month, I started to do that, and I think it’s a really interesting habit that I thought I would share, because it’s a newer one. Having tried it, I do relate to what he said about how your mind functions differently once your device gets turned on.

Will Bachman  33:53
So how are you spending that hour?

Clare Scherrer  33:55
Well, because I have so much planning to do with thinking about the move to the US, it’s recently really been thinking about getting networked in with people and community and getting things going with the new house. But I think the other thing it has caused me to do is think about the fact that the most valuable thing you can give someone is your time. So the other thing that it has caused me to do is to think, whom should I be spending time with today or this week? Which is different than if you turn on your email, and your time is spent with whatever is in your inbox.  And that has been interesting, because it’s caused me to reach out to people with a slightly different priority proactively than just reactively.

Will Bachman  34:46
Okay. Oh, I wanted to ask you when you’re talking about your, you know, have I done a growth? Have I challenged myself, or I’ve done done something that that was. A growth, you know, opportunity this this month. What are some examples? Give it give us some examples of of things that you did when if you said yes, okay, this month I did do something that was challenging.

Clare Scherrer  35:12
They don’t have to be profound. They can be incredibly personal. We have switched our workouts. My husband and I used to do a lot of running together. We used to do the marathon distance, and as we’ve gotten older, we’ve changed that distance. Well, the truth is, we adopted a dog, and we are the only people who got a dog and then became less healthy! Because normally people get dogs and they walk more.  But we got a dog, and the dog couldn’t run that amount of miles to keep up with us, so we’ve switched our distance. So recently it was just having a goal for the next half marathon that I do.  You know, a little bit quicker than my last half marathon–which can sound easy, but is actually very challenging! I know you, Will, do a lot of walking and working out from listening to some of your other podcasts.  So you know that.  They don’t have to be longitudinal. Sometimes they can just be sort of in the moment and personal. And then longitudinally, back when I was thinking about what my second board would be, it was really a question of: How can I really find a board that has a really meaty set of opportunities and challenges on the on the horizon.

Will Bachman  36:21
Yeah, yeah. That first hour of the day, to your point, there is is so is so important because it’s if you get up early, you can kind of control it and sets the tone for the rest of the day. Tell us about any courses or professors that you had at Harvard that continue to resonate with you in some way.

Clare Scherrer  36:42
The course that I remember most is Russian, and I took two years of Russian. And the reason why it resonates with me, is that when I had transferred into Harvard, I had already done a German minor at the university that I started with.  So I was looking to try a new language, and when I arrived –and I’m sure different people will have different points of view on this — I heard that Russian was the toughest language.  And I thought, why not? That sounds fun, like the toughest language. So, what I liked about it was the fact that it was a challenge. I also liked learning the structure of language; because I had learned German, I liked learning the structure of Russian. And then mostly what I liked, was that it was purely elective. There’s no reason I had to take it. And because I took five years to complete university, I always had a little bit of room — that there was something that didn’t lead to something else. It wasn’t related to directly to my work. I haven’t used my Russian since graduation, but it was just so different and so much fun. And I remember carrying around my flashcards with all the Russian words written out. But I think it illustrates the point of having some time — in whatever busy life you have — to pursue some things that you enjoy doing for no reason other than the joy of doing that.  Not because it’s linked to something else or something that might come after.

Will Bachman  38:07
Wow, I love that. Yeah, just doing something just for the intrinsic. Yeah, not because I’ve got to know and understand the news of Russia or read Tolstoy.

Clare Scherrer  38:27
I think there’s also value in doing something you’re not that great at.  I think we all live in a world where we’re overachievers; we’re wired to kind of always be thinking about what’s next.  But there is a joy in doing something that you like, even if you’re not great at it.  It’s sort of a different kind of satisfaction. And so, for me, that’s tennis. I will never be great at tennis, but I really enjoy the physicality of getting out and hitting the ball hard and getting stress out. And so that’s a different point. I mean, it’s not related to Harvard, but it speaks to making time for things that give you energy, and that don’t always just take your energy, especially when you’re a highly scheduled person.

Will Bachman  39:11
Yeah, have the courage to be bad at things. So, Clare, for listeners who want to follow up with you, or kind of keep in touch, or you know, sort of just follow find out what you’re doing. Where’s the best place for people to find you online?

Clare Scherrer  39:28
Best place to reach me online is LinkedIn.