Welcome to the Arena from ICR – Conversations with Today's Innovators & Business Leaders Sarah-Marie Martin, VP, Corporate Development & Capital Markets at Uber – Drivers of Growth: Changes and challenges from investment banking to early-stage companies
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:
Sarah Marine-Martin on LinkedIn
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.