Gabriela Franco Parcella: From GC to CEO, Leading Mellon Capital

The global financial crisis that began in 2007 sent shock waves throughout the world, jolting the financial industry. • “This was a time of great uncertainty, particularly after Lehman failed,” says Gabriela Franco Parcella, JD ’94, who played a pivotal role navigating the crisis for Mellon Capital as its chief operating officer (COO) from 2007 through 2011. “I had to quickly figure out what it all meant for an organization like ours, how it would impact us, the effect on the company, and how to advise our clients.” • Parcella helped to steer the company through the crisis, working closely with the CEO, Charlie Jacklin (PhD ’85), a former professor at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business who had become her mentor.

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Gabriela Franco Parcella, JD ’94, in her office at Mellon Capital in San Francisco (Photo by Timothy Archibald)

And, rather than shrinking, the business grew. When Jacklin announced his retirement, he recommended Parcella as his replacement. In 2011, she became CEO—only the third in Mellon Capital’s three-decade history. Since her appointment, Parcella, who was also named chairwoman in 2012, has focused on the company’s global presence, emphasizing securing new clients in Latin America and adding staff in India, Hong Kong, and the U.K. In just four years, assets under management have almost doubled, growing from $229 billion to more than $400 billion.

Lawyers are not typically found leading multibillion-dollar institutional investment management companies—particularly women JDs. But for Parcella, becoming CEO and chairwoman of Mellon Capital was the logical next step in a career marked by good timing, thorough preparation, and ever-widening expectations.

Her parents immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico before she was born and chose to settle in the border town of El Paso, Texas, for its proximity to the old country. Parcella straddled the two worlds—speaking Spanish and enjoying the close-knit Mexican community at home, while immersing herself in American culture at school. She excelled academically and attended the University of Texas at Austin, where she studied accounting and received a master’s degree. She found that she enjoyed the regulatory side of accounting most, so set her sights on law.

Parcella arrived at Stanford Law School clear about her goals, if somewhat hesitant. “When I first got to Stanford, frankly it was pretty intimidating,” she says. “Coming from a big state school and having this idea that I was going to be a tax lawyer, which wasn’t that common, I really wasn’t sure how I would fit in.”

Two professors helped ease the transition, says Parcella. “Barbara Babcock was so welcoming to new students; she made us feel like we were going to be fine and we could succeed in this challenging academic environment. And when I met Barbara Fried, who is a tax lawyer, I thought, ‘Okay, I can do this too.’ ”

Law degree in hand, Parcella followed her planned career path, accepting an associate position with Orrick, LLP, where she practiced tax law for three years. She might have stayed on that course, but was intrigued by an invitation to join the in-house legal team at Mellon Capital. What she found there didn’t fit neatly into the popular notion of the financial industry.

“I was impressed with the diversity of the leadership team,” she says. “Out of the six people I interviewed with, three were women. I couldn’t believe it. That was in 1997, when there weren’t that many senior women at law firms, particularly in tax. And I liked the team-oriented culture at Mellon Capital. I could see myself a part of it.”
She dove into her new job, developing a deep understanding of the details of deals and regulatory risks. But she also went further.

“From the start, as a junior lawyer, I took a real interest in understanding our clients and their investment strategies—perhaps more than some lawyers. I would sit with our portfolio managers and ask them to explain the investments to me,” she says.

Parcella also saw an opportunity to learn something new—investment law.

“When I first started at Mellon Capital, it was a much smaller company and no one felt really constrained by a job description, so I probably did more than what you would consider typical for a junior lawyer or general counsel—more in terms of making sure that I understood the business side of the work, which I found was very enjoyable,” she says.

There were, though, key adjustments Parcella had to make regarding the way she thought through things as an in-house attorney.

“At a law firm, you’re talking to lawyers all the time, so there are lawyer-to-lawyer conversations with everyone getting the jargon, even in shorthand. But when you’re in-house, you have to understand how the law applies to the facts and how to talk about it with people who don’t know the law,” she says. “I’ve found that this is the hardest transition for lawyers to make.”

She rose through the ranks of legal and was appointed general counsel in 2001. This was a time when Mellon Capital was building out its offerings and exploring different investment vehicles for its strategies. Here, Parcella’s knowledge of the law continued to serve her, and the company, well.

“We have found it important to offer our investment strategies through many different fund structures, such as bank collective funds, mutual funds, hedge funds, and UCITS funds. There are many different rules that apply depending on the structure and also restrictions on which types of clients can go into which types of funds,” she explains.

The story might have ended there but for Parcella’s due diligence. She had learned so much about Mellon Capital’s clients and investments that she felt confident about moving to the business side when the chief operating officer position came up.

“One of the biggest responsibilities you have as a lawyer is to give a thorough risk assessment to the business people, so that they can weigh the pros and cons and decide how best to move forward,” she explains. “I felt I was ready to make those decisions, to be in the business seat and decide if we should go in a certain direction, and then help make it real by building the operational process around it.”

She was appointed COO in 2007—just as the Great Recession and financial crisis were hitting the world economies. Her legal skills helped her navigate a very tough business environment.

“Lawyers learn how to think critically about problems—how to debate them, how to look at them from many different perspectives, and how to solve them,” says Parcella. “These are skills I use every day as CEO and have used in all of my other positions.” Her knowledge of the business, and key contracts, came in handy as COO and when she was appointed CEO in 2011. “I can still remember the details of contracts that I worked on years ago and can still talk about those details with our clients.”