Alumni Spotlight: Charmaine L. Slack '91

"You Can Get There From Here"!

At Lubin, we pride ourselves on getting our students to where they want to go. Charmaine L. Slack '91, a member of the Lubin School of Business Advisory Board and an attorney in private practice in New York and her hometown, the US Virgin Islands, demonstrates that a Lubin education can help you turn your dreams into reality!

Slack attended Pace as an undergraduate student and majored in Management Information Systems. She graduated summa cum laude and also graduated with the distinction of having the highest GPA in her major.

It was her connection to Pace that served as the foundation upon which she would craft a career trajectory that afforded her opportunities to work in different places around the globe and uniquely positioned her to work with and advise international business leaders throughout the world.

As a freshman she worked part-time at the Internal Revenue Service. Commencing in her sophomore year until graduation, she participated in Pace's Co-Op program and was able to gain additional real-world experience that would prove invaluable. As a Co-Op student, she worked part-time at JP Morgan on Wall Street while attending Pace full-time. During this time she was also receiving a number of offers from well-known global companies due to her participation in the program. She developed a multiplicity of competencies in different areas during her time at JP Morgan. Overall, Pace's proximity to the Financial District made her Co-Op experiences even more remarkable.

Slack recalls that the year she graduated from Pace the motto for her class was "You Can Get There From Here"! This line resonated with her and remains with her to this day. She worked for six years for JPMorgan in New York City, initially as a systems analyst for foreign securities trading, and later was promoted to an associate officer. She supported interest rate derivatives trading, traveling to the company's London and Tokyo offices in connection with the creation and implementation of a related global mark-to-market scenario and pricing system for exotic options and other derivative products developed for the traders in the company's New York, London, and Tokyo offices. Everywhere she went employers, clients, and people in general were impressed with her resume, thanks to the experience she gained as a Co-Op student at Pace.

Eventually she would resign from JPMorgan and attend Harvard Law School, where she earned her juris doctorate. Later, she would go on to New York University to earn a master's of law degree in taxation.

Slack had the opportunity to work after her first year at Harvard Law at a local law firm in Bangkok, Thailand. She then worked as a summer associate and associate in the Atlanta and New York offices of the international law firm Jones Day, where she was promoted to partner in the New York office in its Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation practice. She practiced with the firm for almost 20 years prior to ultimately launching her own private practice. Throughout her legal career she has advised senior executives, as well as boards of directors and compensation committees of public and private entities on a wide variety of executive compensation and equity arrangements. Her counsel includes corporate governance advice and technical guidance on tax and securities rules affecting compensation and benefits.

Slack has spoken on cutting-edge executive compensation matters; she is a past chair of the Federal Securities Law Issues Subcommittee of the American Bar Association's Employee Benefits Committee, Taxation Section; she serves on the board of Girls Incorporated of New York City; she is a former member of the Leadership Advisory Committee for the National Women's Law Center, former chair of the firm's New York Diversity Committee, and is a member of the New York City Bar's Committee on Recruitment and Retention of Lawyers.

Pace is a Launchpad...Pace is also the 'Best Kept Secret'!

"Pace is a Launchpad," Slack has said, referencing that the university launches careers. "Pace is also the "Best Kept Secret"! Slack places emphasis on the fact that Pace students gain access to first-class career and ivy league opportunities.

Charmaine Slack is the embodiment of what we work toward instilling in Lubin students as it relates to having an entrepreneurial mindset. She has never placed herself in a box or rested on her laurels. Her life has been full of positive career outcomes and the Lubin School of Business is proud to claim her as one of its own.