The student from Ireland is in the United Kingdom working toward her PhD in atomic and molecular physics. She learns about an upcoming public forum that will discuss where to locate Diamond Light Source, the United Kingdom’s national synchrotron science facility. Her interest is piqued, and she marks her calendar.
At the forum, the experts are at odds: Scientists marshal evidence about the need to locate it near a skilled workforce, but policymakers are more concerned about where the facility would best stimulate the economy. It’s clear to the student, Anita Sands, that the two groups are “speaking completely different languages,” and she is bewildered that the experts don’t comprehend their common ground.
“It was then and there,” she says, “that I realized my calling.” She would bridge the gap between people who understand science and technology and people who make business and economic decisions.
With that in mind, she decides to pursue an education in public policy after she earns her PhD from Queens University of Belfast. Heinz College seems like a perfect fit; soon after enrolling as a Fulbright scholar, she knows she made the right decision. “Carnegie Mellon was one of the few places where they didn’t think it was weird that someone with a PhD in physics was walking around in the public policy department,” says Sands.
Today, she is group managing director and chief operating officer of UBS Wealth Management Americas, where she directs 2,000 technology and operations professionals. Her leadership has helped make the company’s technology readily accessible.
Registered Rep magazine recognized her “upbeat, practical leadership” by including her among its 2012 “Ten to Watch” list of retail investment professionals for her success in “orchestrating the massive undertaking of transforming, upgrading, and generally reshaping the technology platform at UBS Wealth Management Americas.”
—Janet Jay (DC’07)
