TXWSW salutes its all-volunteer staff of women who are leaders in their field and make the time to contribute to our collective success. They lead by example and are generous with their time and resources in helping others. They are truly Limitless Leaders.

Please join us in recognizing Gabrielle Levin, a Limitless Leader. We are grateful for all that she does!

Gabrielle Levin, PIMCO, Vice President, Social Media
TXWSW Status: Member, Austin Chapter

Why did you choose to become a member/volunteer?
When I moved to NYC at 27 years old, two accomplished women took me to dinner and opened my eyes to the fact that if I kept limiting myself to what I knew – in terms of work, dating, everything! – I’d have a better shot of winning the Lotto than achieving my goals. The positive impact those generous women made on me with their tough love continues to echo through my life today. If I can make a similarly positive impact on other young women, it’d feel criminal not to.

How have networking groups like Texas Wall Street Women helped your career?
Generosity isn’t uncommon, but following through on generous intentions often is quite uncommon. People who choose engage in groups where the aim is to lift each other up tend to be people who have both generosity AND follow-through, and those are precisely the sort of people you find in networking groups like TXWSW. I’m not going to say every fellow networker I’ve met has become a power partner or lifelong friend, but these groups create space for at least some illuminating conversation, and they sometimes open the door – or your eyes – to new possibilities.

What future change would you like to see in the finance industry (or your industry) and how will you contribute to that change?
Bit of back-story here. Bear with me.
A million years ago, my then-boyfriend took me on my first trip to Napa. I knew virtually nothing about wine and I was mortified to be caught out as an neophyte oenophile, so I researched classes and booked us into something called Tastes & Aromas at Robert Mondavi. It was a small group, and we were treated to an elaborate experience that involved sniffing samples of the things you might smell in wine – fresh cut grass, caramel, cherries, tobacco – next to the types of wine in which you might smell them. It was a Dorothy entering full-color Oz revelation. Suddenly those word salad-eque tasting notes made sense! Suddenly I had the words to access what had seemed like an exclusive club!

I proceeded immediately to their shop to buy a case of my favorites, of course, at which point it occurred to me that Mondavi had cleverly figured out that an educated consumer is a consuming consumer, because knowledge helps people recognize that imaginary barriers are just that: imaginary.

Fast forward to my accidental entry into financial services social media. It very quickly became clear to me that there are a lot of people out there whose imaginary barrier is the belief that investing is intimidating and out of reach for them. We can all benefit from more individuals feeling empowered to take charge of their financial future, to take the step of finding an advisor, to confidently max out their 401k contributions, to stop stuffing money into savings and start taking part in the markets. So what I’d like to see change in this industry and what I strive for every day is creating investing content that helps people feel empowered to knock over their imaginary barrier and take the wheel of their financial life.