The Wall Street veteran, whose illustrious career has spanned nearly three decades, recently told<\/a> Fortune<\/em> she still remembers sitting on a panel in the mid 2000s. Then Citigroup\u2019s chief financial officer, Krawchek sat alongside C-suite executives from other Fortune 500<\/em> giants including IBM<\/a> and GE. But while her male counterparts were asked about \u201cbalance-sheet management,\u201d Krawcheck was asked about how she balanced her responsibilities while being a working mother.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI remember thinking, \u2018it\u2019s not enough that I made it to this table as a CFO,\u2019\u201d she told<\/a> Fortune<\/em>.<\/p>\n Krawcheck, who took the reins as CFO at Citi in 2004 at just 38 years old, has held a variety of top jobs at Wall Street titans like Sanford C. Bernstein, Smith Barney, Merrill Lynch, and Bank of America<\/a>. Dubbed the \u201cLast Honest Analyst<\/a>\u201d by Fortune<\/em> reporter David Rynecki in 2002, Krawcheck solidified her ascent to the C-suite by shepherding Sanford Bernstein through the murky dot-com bubble burst of 2000. Her strategy? To tell the truth\u2014unlike peers who hyped stocks while privately trashing them.\u00a0<\/p>\n Fortune<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Yet during her climb<\/a> to the C-suite, she says she was the \u201conly woman, or one of the only two women\u201d in the room.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think my gender was always a factor,\u201d she said. \u201cI think it was a factor in my success, and I think it was a factor in times when I stumbled.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere were times in my life, when I just went, \u2018go, go, go, go\u2019 with the career, and did a perfectly adequate job as a mom,\u201d she said. \u201cBut [I] was not that perfect mom with the homemade cookies.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Likewise, Krawcheck said, \u201cthere were times in my life where my kids needed me when the career took the backseat.\u201d<\/p>\n Now 59, Krawcheck is the founder and CEO of Ellevest, an investment platform she launched in 2016 that was \u201cfounded by, funded by, built by, built for, investing in investing through women,\u201d she says. Under her leadership, the robo-advisor<\/a> has grown to over $2 billion in assets under management and has enjoyed support<\/a> from backers like Melinda French Gates and Penny Pritzker.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n After spending years of her career at traditional firms \u201clooking to make change from the inside out,\u201d Krawcheck is now on a mission to break the \u201cboys club of Wall Street\u201d and help introduce women to investing.<\/p>\n \u201cEllevest is sort of the inverse of Wall Street in terms of the make-up of our company; we\u2019re about 85% women,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Ellevest<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Krawcheck\u2019s company is now fully remote, and not commuting is an \u201cenormous perk\u201d for working parents, she said. When asked about her thoughts on work-life balance and whether she\u2019s achieved it, Krawcheck says she has \u201cso many thoughts\u201d on the goal.<\/p>\n \u201cI just don\u2019t love that we sort of put this question down almost as a gauntlet for women as another level of success that needs to be achieved,\u201d she said.\u201cYou\u2019ve been successful in business, lady, but that\u2019s not enough, now you need to also have balance.\u201d<\/p>\n Between team meetings, Krawcheck gave Fortune<\/em> an exclusive look at her daily routine that kicks off as soon as she exits sleep.\u00a0<\/p>\n The art of the afternoon cookie\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n 5:30 a.m.: <\/strong>If she\u2019s not attempting to catch some shut-eye on a red-eye flight\u2014which happens \u201crelatively often\u201d\u2014Krawcheck typically rolls out of bed when the sun comes up. She\u2019s immediately greeted by her cats, Newcomb and Meekum, the latter of whom is \u201cvery demanding.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe first thing is, she needs to get a rub down, and I mean like a deep-tissue rub down to start her day and my day.\u201d<\/p>\n Once Meekum is satisfied, Krawcheck brews a decaf oat milk latte and challenges her younger brother to a virtual game of spelling bee.<\/p>\n Ellevest<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n 7 a.m.:<\/strong> The next hour is spent exercising, whether it\u2019s walking around a park near her New York City apartment or cycling on her Peloton bike.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI love to get a really good sweat in, love to get a little bit of light weights in, and I love to get a stretch in,\u201d the CEO said.\u00a0<\/p>\n 9 a.m.:<\/strong> After a quick shower, Krawcheck starts her commute\u2014a brief walk through her bedroom and living room to her home office.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I\u2019m blow-drying my hair, when I\u2019m putting on my makeup, in that first hour at the desk tends to be absolutely my most creative,\u201d she said. \u201cI learned a long time ago that I\u2019m my best thinking self in the morning; in the afternoon, my brain is mush.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Sallie-Krawcheck-The-Last-Honest-Analyst-cover.jpg?w=1440&q=75\"\/)
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