It's pretty inspiring to hear from people who climb huge heights, and then go looking for even bigger challenges. And that's exactly what today's guest did.
On this episode we're sitting down with Sarah-Marie Martin, who joined Uber in 2022 as Head of M&A Investor Relations and Capital Markets, after a successful 25-year career in investment banking. At Uber, Sarah-Marie helps optimize and finance the company's portfolio of businesses. Before joining Uber, she was the first CFO of Yumi, a digitally native, organic children's food company. Previously, during her time in investment banking Sarah-Marie was a partner at Goldman Sachs, and also worked at Credit Suisse for 20 years.
In the early days of her career, Sarah-Marie worked in the high-yield and equity capital markets groups, as well as Latin American corporate finance. She earned a BA from Stanford in Quantitative Economics, graduating with distinction. And she got her MBA from Columbia Business School, where she was valedictorian of her class.
Sarah-Marie serves on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of The Door, an organization that empowers disconnected youth in New York City. She's a board member of Easy Point, a pre-IPO shipping software company. And in her spare time, she's the mom of five kids.
Sarah-Marie and I had a great conversation about her fascinating career, and the exciting direction that Uber is headed.
Highlights:
- Sarah-Marie's education, how she got into investment banking, and what led her to Goldman-Sachs (3:16)
- What it was like being a woman in such a male-dominated field (6:29)
- Why Sarah-Marie decided to pivot after 25 years in banking (8:19)
- What the transition was like going from banking to Yumi (10:45)
- How she ended up at Uber (12:43)
- Sarah-Marie's priorities (14:05)
- Sarah-Marie talks about Uber's situation when she joined (15:37)
- What Uber's focus is right now (16:41)
- Diversity and inclusion at Uber (18:59)
- Sarah-Marie's experience at the World Economic Forum in January 2023 (21:34)
- Corporate employees driving for Uber (23:58)
- Tips for getting your Uber rating up (25:14)
- Sarah-Marie's top product recommendations for Uber (26:11)
- How Sarah-Marie balances her career with having 5 children (26:44)
Links:
Feedback:
If you have questions about the show, or have a topic in mind you'd like discussed in future episodes, email our producer,
marion@lowerstreet.co.
What is Welcome to the Arena from ICR – Conversations with Today's Innovators & Business Leaders?
In the increasingly crowded and competitive corporate and financial ecosystem, it’s harder than ever for companies to break through the clutter and be heard. The media, investors, agenda-driven influencers, even customers and competitors, are defining your business story on their terms. Therefore, it is imperative that companies take control and proactively drive the conversation with stakeholders in an effort to build & maintain equity value.
In Welcome to the Arena from ICR, Co-Founder & CEO of ICR, Tom Ryan, interviews key business and financial players who influence the fate of public or aspiring public companies in the capital markets. As a former Wall Street Journal ranked sell-side equity analyst and the founder of one of the largest strategic communications firms in the world, Tom understands what it takes to navigate this complex environment.
This is a forum for CEOs, CFOs, institutional investors, sell-side analysts, financial journalists, private equity professionals and other financial community participants to share their stories and give advice in an open and candid conversation.
For more information, visit http://www.icrinc.com