What A Global Financial Crisis Taught Me, With Citi’s Sophia Bantanidis

After more than four years of meaningful conversations, In Her Ellement is taking a pause. We’re so grateful to everyone who listened, shared, and grew with us. While we reflect on what comes next, we invite you to explore other BCG podcasts—like Imagine This, a show that helps leaders think about possible futures for our world and their businesses. Explore all of BCG’s podcasts here. About In Her Ellement: In Her Ellement highlights the women and allies leading the charge in digital, business, and technology innovation. Through engaging conversations, the podcast explores their journeys—celebrating successes and acknowledging the balance between work and family. Most importantly, it asks: when was the moment you realized you hadn’t just arrived—you were truly in your element? About The Hosts: Kamila Rakhimova is a fintech leader whose journey took her from Tajikistan to the U.S., where she built a career on her own terms. Leveraging her English proficiency and international relations expertise, she discovered the power of microfinance and moved to the U.S., eventually leading Amazon's Alexa Fund to support underrepresented founders.

What happens when the support you need comes from someone you least expect? For Lisa Caswell, that moment came with an invitation to a surprise meeting halfway across the world. Today, Lisa is a Partner at Spencer Stuart, where she helps companies attract top Silicon Valley talent. She’s also a former CEO of eMeter, which was acquired by Siemens, and has held leadership roles at Ariba, Apple, and IBM. In this episode, Lisa opens up about the hidden trade-offs of AI, why the best leaders sometimes come from unexpected places, and how to navigate the hard pivots in a career. She also reflects on what it takes to let go of a role you once saw as your calling. 1:47 A Mysterious Call to Munich 4:34 Gary’s Recommendation 5:49 Sailer or Entrepreneur? 8:11 A Major Pivot 10:45 Embracing Tough Feedback 12:49 The Importance of Vulnerability and Growth 14:56 Finding Leaders in Unexpected Places 16:36 Missed Opportunities and the Value of Titles 18:03 From the Front Lines: The Rise of the Chief AI Officer 21:07 The True Costs and Benefits of AI in Business Links: Lisa Caswell on LinkedIn Suchi Srinivasan on LinkedIn Kamila Rakhimova on LinkedIn

What happens when you’re suddenly asked to lead the very people who used to be your peers? For Carolynn Smith, that moment came with her first big promotion. It taught her lessons about courage, discomfort, and how leadership often begins by stepping into the unknown. Today, Carolynn is Head of U.S. Service and Enterprise Process Excellence at Prudential Financial. She oversees large-scale transformation efforts and shapes how customer care is delivered at one of the country’s leading financial services companies. In this conversation, guest host Karen Lellouche Tordjman sits down with Carolynn to talk about seeking discomfort, the role of AI in reimagining customer experience, and what it really takes to grow into leadership. Along the way, Carolynn reflects on raising a family while rising through the ranks, and why leaning into discomfort has been her best teacher. 1:59 Core Values and a Promotion 3:13 Business vs. Personal Relationships 4:50 Surround Yourself With People Smarter Than You 8:18 Seeking Discomfort 10:15 “Work-Life Blend” 14:03 AI and Customer Experience 17:45 Managing Customer Expectations Links: Carolynn Smith on LinkedIn Suchi Srinivasan on LinkedIn Kamila Rakhimova on LinkedIn Karen Lellouche Tordjman on LinkedIn About In Her Ellement: In Her Ellement highlights the women and allies leading the charge in digital, business, and technology innovation. Through engaging conversations, the podcast explores their journeys—celebrating successes and acknowledging the balance between work and family. Most importantly, it asks: when was the moment you realized you hadn’t just arrived—you were truly in your element? About The Hosts: Kamila Rakhimova is a fintech leader whose journey took her from Tajikistan to the U.S., where she built a career on her own terms. Leveraging her English proficiency and international relations expertise, she discovered the power of microfinance and moved to the U.S., eventually leading Amazon's Alexa Fund to support underrepresented founders. Suchi Srinivasan is an expert in AI and digital transformation. Originally from India, her career includes roles at trailblazing organizations like Bell Labs and Microsoft. In 2011, she co-founded the Cleanweb Hackathon, a global initiative driving IT-powered climate solutions with over 10,000 members across 25+ countries. She also advises Women in Cloud, aiming to create $1B in economic opportunities for women entrepreneurs by 2030. Karen Lellouche Tordjman is a Managing Director & Senior Partner at BCG. She has spent over 2 decades in the firm supporting clients across Europe, the US and Latin America. She leads the Customer Experience topic globally for BCG, and is an expert in omnchannel & AI transformation. Subscribe to In Her Ellement on your podcast app of choice to hear meaningful conversations with women in digital, business, and technology.

What does allyship look like when you’re leading a company? For Bhavesh Dayalji, it often means being honest about the challenges of balancing work and family, and choosing to show up as a husband and father first. This is a throwback episode, but Bhavesh’s reflections on leadership and allyship remain just as powerful today. Bhavesh shares how vulnerability can build trust and create cultures where people feel safe bringing their full selves to work. It’s a principle that extends to how he approaches innovation in AI. Bhavesh is the CEO of Kensho Technologies, an AI solutions provider, and also serves as Chief AI Officer at S&P Global. 1:34 Meet Bhavesh 4:46 Seeing inequality in tech 6:17 AI at Kensho and S&P Global 9:21 Lessons from the CEO seat 11:26 Why diverse voices matter in AI 15:41 Being real at work 17:43 Advice for newcomers in AI 19:43 Family and balance Links: Bhavesh Diyalji on LinkedIn Suchi Srinivasan on LinkedIn Kamila Rakhimova on LinkedIn About In Her Ellement: In Her Ellement highlights the women and allies leading the charge in digital, business, and technology innovation. Through engaging conversations, the podcast explores their journeys—celebrating successes and acknowledging the balance between work and family. Most importantly, it asks: when was the moment you realized you hadn’t just arrived—you were truly in your element? About The Hosts: Kamila Rakhimova is a fintech leader whose journey took her from Tajikistan to the U.S., where she built a career on her own terms. Leveraging her English proficiency and international relations expertise, she discovered the power of microfinance and moved to the U.S., eventually leading Amazon's Alexa Fund to support underrepresented founders. Suchi Srinivasan is an expert in AI and digital transformation. Originally from India, her career includes roles at trailblazing organizations like Bell Labs and Microsoft. In 2011, she co-founded the Cleanweb Hackathon, a global initiative driving IT-powered climate solutions with over 10,000 members across 25+ countries. She also advises Women in Cloud, aiming to create $1B in economic opportunities for women entrepreneurs by 2030. Subscribe to In Her Ellement on your podcast app of choice to hear meaningful conversations with women in digital, business, and technology.

While we’re busy working on new episodes, we wanted to revisit one of our favorite conversations from Season 3. When we first spoke with Hayete Gallott, she was Corporate Vice President at Microsoft. Today, she is President of Customer Experience at Google. We thought this was a meaningful opportunity to revisit her reflections on career choices, change, and growth. How do you find the right career path when so many possibilities are in front of you? For Hayete Gallot, the answer has always been experimentation—trying new roles, seeing what sparks energy, and learning just as much from what doesn’t. That curiosity has shaped her eclectic journey. Hayete has moved across engineering, product management, marketing, sales, and business planning—always following the thread of what felt meaningful at the time. Behind that drive is a lesson she learned from her mother: independence matters, because life can change in an instant. 2:10 Lessons from Mom 5:58 Being an Information Sponge 6:14 The Value of Curiosity & Lifelong Learning 10:24 Day-to-Day Leadership at Microsoft 14:42 You Probably Won’t Be Working on What You Studied 17:13 Confidence, Resilience, and Self-Belief 18:24 Prioritize and Protect Your Time Links: Hayete Gallott on LinkedIn Suchi Srinivasan on LinkedIn Kamila Rakhimova on LinkedIn About In Her Ellement: In Her Ellement highlights the women and allies leading the charge in digital, business, and technology innovation. Through engaging conversations, the podcast explores their journeys—celebrating successes and acknowledging the balance between work and family. Most importantly, it asks: when was the moment you realized you hadn’t just arrived—you were truly in your element? About The Hosts: Kamila Rakhimova is a fintech leader whose journey took her from Tajikistan to the U.S., where she built a career on her own terms. Leveraging her English proficiency and international relations expertise, she discovered the power of microfinance and moved to the U.S., eventually leading Amazon's Alexa Fund to support underrepresented founders. Suchi Srinivasan is an expert in AI and digital transformation. Originally from India, her career includes roles at trailblazing organizations like Bell Labs and Microsoft. In 2011, she co-founded the Cleanweb Hackathon, a global initiative driving IT-powered climate solutions with over 10,000 members across 25+ countries. She also advises Women in Cloud, aiming to create $1B in economic opportunities for women entrepreneurs by 2030. Subscribe to In Her Ellement on your podcast app of choice to hear meaningful conversations with women in digital, business, and technology.