Janice Bryant Howroyd

The common perception that women in positions of power have to choose between their career and the joys of motherhood is history. “We’re moving past the idea that the woman’s place is in the home,” says organizational psychologist Dr. Debra A. Major. “Women don’t have to make an either/or choice. You can be both [a mother and executive].”

Currently, there are 12 female CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, 11 of which are mothers, according to a recent WSJ.com article published last month. Xerox Corp. CEO and mother of two, Ursula M. Burns, is the only black woman on the list. BE women of power such as Rosalind G. Brewer, Sheila C. Johnson and Debra Lee are all mothers. So, how do these exec moms do it?

“I don’t recall a day of my career when I felt that the balance was 50-50 in relationship to being a mother versus businessperson,” says Bryant Howroyd, who attributes motherhood with sharpening her business perspective and temperament. “What I have done is made sure that the sum is right, and forgive myself when I don’t get it exactly as I would want it.”

Her children, Katharyn and Brett, who are in their mid-twenties, attribute their mother’s style of parenthood—the business trips, nighttime prayers via phone and all—with their independence and value of homecoming.

The CEO-mom-turned-author (of The Art of Work:How To Make Work, Work For You!) offers three tips to managing exec life and motherhood:

• Me, myself and I time is essential.“Whether we’re talking about faith, work or personal relationships, taking care of yourself is so important,” says the devout family woman.

• It takes a village to raise a child. She credits her close-knit family with providing mental, physical and spiritual support.

• Always be yourself. “Never compromise who you are personally to become who you wish to be professionally,” adds the business and community leader.

Bonus: Face it, you’re not superwoman.“A lot of women get stressed out wanting to do everything in all their roles perfectly,” says Old Dominion University professor, Dr. Major.  Now, we all know that is impossible.

Richmond S. McCoy, president and CEO of UrbanAmerica Principals III (No. 3 on the BE Private Equity firms list with $1.1 billion in capital under management), felt good about the deal. His firm invests primarily in commercial real estate in urban areas and currently has a portfolio of nearly 30 properties collectively valued at $1.1 billion. “There were a number of hotel-condo projects planned that were new developments that we didn’t think would get off the ground,” McCoy recalls. “So we thought we had an asset that we could get to the market very quickly and be able to take advantage of the appetite in the market.”

Sure, it was a fixer-upper. The bar, an important revenue stream for most hotels, hadn’t been renovated in years. Only 180 of the 1,094 rooms had been modernized, and rates were discounted to less than $60 a night to attract bargain hunters. Since the hotel had fallen into disrepair, its reputation suffered. With the abundance of social media and review sites, the bad news spread like wildfire.

On the plus side, however, the property was literally next door to SeaWorld and Aquatica, two popular tourist attractions. McCoy’s rationale was that with enough investment it could be upgraded, converted into condos or “flagged” under a prominent hotel brand, and sold at a profit. But what he could not have anticipated was a housing bubble that would burst and lead to some of the sharpest declines in prices ever recorded, the steepest increases in foreclosure rates, and an economic downturn that’s lasted three years and counting.

This environment led James Reynolds Jr. and his team to put on their strategic thinking caps. The chairman and CEO of Chicago-based Loop Capital Markets L.L.C. (No. 1 in taxable securities with $2.248 billion in lead issues and No. 2 in tax-exempt securities with $4.961 billion in lead issues on the BE investment banks list) saw an opportunity as large, global investment banks—which were involved in the subprime market—downsized, merged, or went bankrupt, leaving scores of talented banking professionals jobless or disenchanted. “The collapse of behemoths Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, in addition to the acquisition of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America, presented a unique opportunity for Loop Capital Markets to expand,” recalls Reynolds.

All told, Loop Capital hired more than 25 people from large Wall Street companies that downsized their bond departments and global equity divisions. The larger staff enabled Loop Capital to service not just the largest institutional bond and equity investors but second- and third-tier institutions often overlooked by big Wall Street firms.

Loop Capital was not involved in the subprime market, in which financial institutions created highly leveraged mortgage-backed securities. While large, global firms were jumping into this once lucrative market, Reynolds and company focused on one of their core businesses: municipal bond underwriting. Although such bonds are not as profitable as some of the more creative securities that trade globally, they helped spare the boutique firm from the bloodbath that ensued when the housing market plummeted and banks found themselves unable to meet their capital requirements.

As a result, Reynolds and his team were the calm within the financial storm, pressing the advantage by retaining individuals who would help grow the business. Among them was former Merrill Lynch banker Michael Jang, who became critical in a David versus Goliath deal where Loop Capital beat out multinational investment banks on a structured underwriting of nearly $1 billion of general obligation refunding bonds for New York City—the largest underwriting deal completed by a minority-led syndicate in the city’s recent history.

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The rankings were compiled by The Bond Buyer, a New York City-based trade publication that covers the municipal bond industry.

Ranking ahead of Wells Fargo and Morgan Keegan, SBS participated as senior manager in public financings worth $100.9 billion. According to the company, most of the bond financings were used to fund the next generation of airports, roads, bridges, highways, water and sewer facilities. SBS, based in Oakland and New York City, was BLACK ENTERPRISE’s Financial Services Company of the Year in 2010.

According to The Bond Buyer, the top 10 for 2010 as ranked by volume is as follows:

1. Citi
2. Bank of America Merrill Lynch
3. JP Morgan Securities LLC
4. Morgan Stanley
5. Goldman Sachs & Co.
6. Barclays Capital
7. RBC Capital Markets
8. Siebert Brandford Shank & Co.
9. Wells Fargo & Co.
10. Morgan Keegan & Co. Inc.

Napoleon Brandford, chairman of SBS, sees the firm’s accomplishments as the next step in the evolution of African Americans on Wall Street–one that started with the likes of Travers Bell, Willie Daniels and Jim Cartwright. “They’re the ones that blazed the trail for the second generation of African Americans on Wall Street, who focused mostly on municipal bonds,” Brandford says. “To see how far we’ve come is really a humbling experience.”

The historical significance isn’t lost on Brandford. “What we accomplished is on par with what Reginald Lewis did with the acquisition of TLC Beatrice in the sense that this is something no other small firm has done,” he says. “We’re hoping that this achievement puts us and other [black-owned] firms on a different level with regards to clients.”