EP 01 | Molly Breen on Building a Career You Can't Plan

Molly Breen got her first finance job by inviting a room of bankers to a White Russian party during a D.C. snowstorm. The interview answers didn't land her the offer. The invitation did. Molly, Head of Capital Markets at Permira, joins Jenny Bain on the very first episode of People You Should Know, season two. She walks through the rotational program that taught her to learn fast (04:34), the senior woman who took one look at her and said "you belong on a syndicate desk" (05:59), and the cliff-jump from equity syndicate into leveraged finance that almost broke her (10:48). She also gets into raising the debt that helped acquire Octus, the boardroom seat she now holds, and why she still picks up calls at 3 a.m. (24:20). A first guest worth starting with.
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Hosted by Jenny Bain.Featuring Molly Breen, Head of Capital Markets, Permira.Produced and edited by two-time Emmy Award-winning producer Tanya Hubbard.People You Should Know is presented by Octus and part of the Octus Podcast Network. Find us at octus.com.
 

Show Notes

Molly Breen got her first finance job by inviting a room of bankers to a White Russian party during a D.C. snowstorm. The interview answers didn't land her the offer. The invitation did. Molly, Head of Capital Markets at Permira, joins Jenny Bain on the very first episode of People You Should Know, season two. She walks through the rotational program that taught her to learn fast (04:34), the senior woman who took one look at her and said "you belong on a syndicate desk" (05:59), and the cliff-jump from equity syndicate into leveraged finance that almost broke her (10:48). She also gets into raising the debt that helped acquire Octus, the boardroom seat she now holds, and why she still picks up calls at 3 a.m. (24:20). A first guest worth starting with.

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Hosted by Jenny Bain.
Featuring Tanya Hubbard.
People You Should Know is presented by Octus and part of the Octus Podcast Network. Find us at octus.com.

 

• (00:00) - Cold open
• (01:30) - Meet Molly Breen
• (02:09) - The snowstorm that started a Wall Street career
• (04:34) - Rotational program and the value of learning fast
• (05:59) - The syndicate desk prediction
• (07:43) - A front-row seat to how management actually thinks
• (09:35) - The leap from equity to leveraged finance
• (15:32) - The Permira call, twelve days postpartum
• (18:09) - Investing in Octus and earning a board seat
• (21:21) - Chaos as a personal operating system
• (25:55) - Wrap and credits

Creators and Guests

Host

Jenny Bain

Jenny is Senior HR Business Partner at Octus and host of People You Should Know, where she sits down with people across Octus and the broader credit and finance world for conversations about the paths that got them there and the parts of life that have nothing to do with work. Before pivoting into HR a decade ago, she spent five years as a divorce attorney in California, where she also co-hosted a divorce finance podcast in Sacramento. She then moved into HR at Paul Hastings, followed by three years at Twilio. She has spent the past three years at Octus. Jenny holds a J.D. from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law, and a B.A. in Psychology from UC Santa Barbara. Originally from California, she now lives in New York, where two corgis and a habit of traveling the world for EDM shows keep her busy outside work.

Producer

Tanya Hubbard

Tanya Hubbard is Director of Podcasts and Social Media at Octus. She built the Octus Podcast Network from the ground up, runs social strategy and oversees production across two studios, one in New York and one in London. Her team took ownership of the company's podcast and social channels, rebuilt them and changed how Octus tells its stories. She came to Octus from CBS Sports, where she spent more than three years running the SportsLine division. Before that she spent three years at The Ringer leading preproduction for NBA Desktop. She's won two Emmys, one for NBA Desktop and one for her work with the TNT crew in Atlanta. Earlier in her career she produced Fair Game for Fox Sports, worked on Mostly Football for Yahoo and Complex and spent two years freelance editing highlights for Comcast SportsNet. After 17 years making shows people choose to watch, she runs the Octus studios with that same show business discipline. Tanya holds a broadcast journalism degree from Temple University and is based in New York. She helped start two employee resource groups at Octus, OWN for women and SERG for sustainability, and still helps lead OWN. Outside work she volunteers at VillageCare supporting elderly residents, is a Big Sister with Big Brothers Big Sisters and spends her downtime with her dog, Lady.

What is People You Should Know?

Everyone has a story worth hearing. People You Should Know sits down with people from inside and outside Octus to talk about how they got here, what they got wrong and what they'd tell themselves if they could start again. Hosted by Jenny Bain and presented by Octus.