LEGAL & FINANCE
STOCKBROKERS, RANKED BY ARIZONA EMPLOYEES
Top 10 CHARLES SCHWAB & CO. 6350 N. 24th St., Phoenix, 85016 // 800-308-1486 // schwab.com AZ EMPLOYEES 3,200 PRINCIPAL Don Bakhaus, regional vice president HIGHEST-RANKING WOMAN Angela Birmingham, senior vice president EDWARD JONES 8640 S. River Parkway, Tempe, 85284 // 314-515-2000 // edwardjones.com AZ EMPLOYEES 1,653 PRINCIPAL Dave Long, principal, operations HIGHEST-RANKING WOMAN Diane Vanderburgh, principal, client strategies group training and support MORGAN STANLEY 14850 N. Scottsdale Road, Suite 600, Scottsdale, 85254 // 480-922-7800 // morganstanley.com AZ EMPLOYEES 300 PRINCIPAL Robert Gaines, executive director, complex manager HIGHEST-RANKING WOMAN Laura Ladrigan-Cobb, executive director, wealth advisor WELLS FARGO ADVISORS 8777 N. Gainey Center Drive, Scottsdale, 85258 // 480-425-4873 // wellsfargoadvisors.com AZ EMPLOYEES 219 PRINCIPAL David Kistner, market manager HIGHEST-RANKING WOMAN No designee, UBS FINANCIAL SERVICES PHOENIX 2555 E. Camelback Road, Suite 600, Phoenix, 85016 // 602-957-5100 // financialservicesinc.ubs.com/ branch/phoenixux/ AZ EMPLOYEES 195 PRINCIPAL James Van Steenhuyse, branch manager, complex director HIGHEST-RANKING WOMAN Susan Bailey, senior vice president, wealth management UNITED PLANNERS 7333 E. Doubletree Ranch Road, Suite 120, Scottsdale, 85258 // 800-9668737 // unitedplanners.com AZ EMPLOYEES 169 PRINCIPAL David Shindel, president HIGHEST-RANKING WOMAN Sheila Cuffari-Agasi, vice president, partner development FIDELITY INVESTMENTS 15445 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale, 85254 // 480-483-2490 // fidelity.com AZ EMPLOYEES 84 PRINCIPAL AND HIGHEST-RANKING WOMAN Jolene Ignarski, vice president, senior branch office manager RBC WEALTH MANAGEMENT 2398 E. Camelback Road, Suite 700, Phoenix, 85016 // 602381-5300 // rbcwm-usa.com AZ EMPLOYEES 83 PRINCIPAL Glen Hatch, director of the Phoenix complex HIGHEST-RANKING WOMAN Kathleen Lipscomb, vice president and assistant complex director FIRST FINANCIAL EQUITY CORPORATION 7373 N. Scottsdale Road, Suite D-120, Scottsdale, 85253 // 480-951-0079 // ffec.com AZ EMPLOYEES 80 PRINCIPAL George Fischer, president and sole director HIGHEST-RANKING WOMAN no designee ROBERT W. BAIRD & CO. 14648 N. Scottsdale Road, Suite 175, Scottsdale, 85254 // 480-6242300 // rwbaird.com AZ EMPLOYEES 44 PRINCIPAL Mark A. Peterson, director, Arizona market HIGHEST-RANKING WOMAN Sharon Zeidler, managing director, senior investment consultant
MUSIC KEY TO CAREER If things had gone differently, Angela Birmingham could have been a classical pianist or a music teacher today. She might even be living and working in China. Instead, she oversees all of the banking operations in Phoenix for financial services company Charles Schwab. And she wouldn’t have it any other way. “I am very happy with what I have,” says Birmingham, senior vice president of Charles Schwab Bank. Birmingham grew up in a small town in Oklahoma, where she was a classical pianist and played pipe organ at her Baptist church. That led to her being offered a music scholarship at Oklahoma Baptist University. “But I knew I didn’t want to be a music teacher, and I wondered what I would do with a degree in music,” Birmingham says. So she also took courses focusing on television advertising and wound up graduating with a bachelor of fine arts degree in music, telecommunications and art. “I pretty quickly figured out that telecommunications wasn’t my cup of tea,” says Birmingham. She moved to China for 18 months, taught English as a second language and studied Chinese culture and the Mandarin and Uyghur languages. At the time, she looked around and realized that business made the world go round, so she enrolled in the MBA program at
Oklahoma State University. “That set me on the path I’m on today,” she says. That path involved banking from the start because, as a musician, Birmingham has an affinity for math and numbers. She started her career in financial services with a regional bank in St. Louis and held various positions with Bank of America. She joined Charles Schwab in 2006 on the brokerage side of the business, leading sales, service and operations activities for broker-dealer branches across seven states in the Midwest. When she moved to the company’s banking side in 2010, she relocated to Phoenix, the primary location for Charles Schwab Bank. Birmingham says the financial services industry in general, and Schwab in particular, are great career choices for women, although the industry currently is about 60 percent male and 40 percent female. “As a woman working in the financial services industry, I think it is a great place to be,” she says. “There are huge opportunities for women in financial services. I see no reason that it stops at 40 percent.” Birmingham still plays piano, but no longer in public. “I do find it to be very therapeutic,” she says. “It’s a big part of my life. I am fortunate to be able to tickle the ivories a bit.”
ANGELA BIRMINGHAM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, FINANCIAL ADVISER BY HAL MATTERN
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