| | CAREER OUTLOOK
capital investments that “bridge” or fill a gap in needed funding for a company. Her group’s clients are in Southern California, Hawaii and New Mexico. Before she joined Prudential in 2002 in San Francisco, Cheng held positions in a variety of areas including private placement, high yield and equity sponsor groups at CIBC World Market in New York. She also served as an assistant vice president at First Inter- state Bank in Los Angeles. She received a received a bach- elor’s degree in business economics with a minor in interna- tional relations from University of California Riverside, and a master’s degree in business administration with a specialty in finance and entrepreneurial management from The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.
Project Workouts, restructuring various distressed credits. In January 2006, Okaya returned to the New York office as a director and was promoted to vice president in June 2007. She received a bachelor’s degree in finance & international studies from the Carroll School of Management at Boston College in 1998.
Lisa Pickrum
Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer RLJ Companies
Delphine Jones
Vice President and Controller Prudential Capital Group
Jones, who joined Prudential five years ago, is always busy. She oversees the accounting, reporting and financial forecasting for Pruden- tial Capital Group and its various legal entities. Previously, she had worked for several other financial firms. These include time as vice president of fund administration for J. & W. Seligman & Co. and for JPMorgan. She was also the vice
president of accounting for Diversified Investment Advisors Inc. and the Financial Principal of Diversified Investors Securities Corp. The certified public accountant began her career at what was then Coopers & Lybrand. She was a senior audit manager at the professional services company, and provided accounting and auditing services to companies in the investment company industry. Jones earned a bach- elor’s degree in accounting from Syracuse University’s Martin J. Whitman School of Management.
Engin Okaya
Vice President, Corporate Finance Prudential Capital Group
In Okaya’s New York City office, she leads a team that is responsible for originating and managing private placements, or non-public offerings of securities, in New England and Eastern Canada. She joined Prudential in 1998 as an analyst, and three years later was promoted to associate and trans- ferred to the Prudential Capital Partners Mezzanine team in the Windy City. There, she also worked in Corporate and
44 WOMENOFCOLOR | SPRING 2011
It takes a cool head to work near the pinnacle of a diversified holding company that has portfolio companies in consumer financial services, asset management, real estate, hospitality, professional sports, film production and the gaming industry. Pickrum, who manages the divisions, has the experience to work with and oversee
strategic partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, and business strategy for uber-entrepreneur Robert L. Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television. Among her many credits, Pickrum helped form RLJ McLarty Landers Automo- tive and Harley-Davidson dealerships. The entity has annual revenues of more than $600 miillion and is the largest minority automotive dealership in the U.S. She was also instrumental in the development of RLJ Equity Partners LLC. The private equity fund was formed in association with The Carlyle Group. Before joining Johnson, she was a principal at Katalyst Venture Partners, a private equity firm, and a senior consultant at Accenture. Pickrum received her bachelor’s degree from Vassar College and her law degree from Stanford University Law School. She also has a master’s degree in finance and entrepreneurial management from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.
Valerie D. Lewis
Assistant Vice President, Assistant Secretary and Senior Corporate Counsel Safeway Inc.
The number of issues that Lewis is involved in doesn’t equal that of the items on Safeway store’s shelves, but it may feel that way. The University of Virginia undergraduate and law school graduate oversees “food, health, safety, consumer protection and labeling issues, environ- mental and other regulatory compliance
and litigation, as well as commercial, product liability and general litigation.” She also has responsibility for a number of
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