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This week’s interview features MetLife Director & Head of Client & Business Management - Mexico Private Market Darryn Lee. In his many leadership roles, Lee inspires people to take action and use their abilities to make a positive difference.
A recent graduate of Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business — where he served as class president for two consecutive years—and a Temple University (Honors Scholar distinction) undergraduate, Lee’s proficiency in conversational and business Spanish is one of his many abilities that opened doors for him at BlackRock and now at MetLife, where he is now based in Mexico City.
Full disclosure: I immediately reached out to Lee after listening to his compelling Virtual Coffee Talk podcast with Christine Chang and he enthusiastically accepted to be interviewed... after we had a live conversation. In fact, since the lockdown, I’ve had the pleasure of talking to several EKMH Innovator interviewee before our written interviews. And in a recent EKMH Innovators post, I guest hosted Chang’s Virtual Coffee talk. While I prefer to write interviews, after talking to Darryn Lee and other EKMH guests, I can understand why interviewers prefer live interviews!
Not only a senior leader with 10 years of global experience across sales & client service, strategy, and analytics, within the asset management, insurance and venture capital industries, Lee is also an active Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion leader and advisor at the MetLife Digital Accelerator OfColor and Green D Ventures. While he worked at BlackRock, Lee established its relationship with America Needs You to improve the economic mobility of first-generation college students, in addition to supporting organizations focusing on children of incarcerated parents.
In our interview Lee discussed his experience growing up in and eventually moving from Compton and the opportunities his education and dedicated mentors led him to discover. He discusses the importance of learning how to best utilize networks and the rewards of acting on advice. We also discuss a range of fascinating topics including living and working abroad, learning another language as an adult, DEI in Mexico, next travel destinations (39 countries and counting!), virtual happy hours, team building and more. Our interview follows.
EKMH: How did and do you use your network and ecosystem to chart your career? Please share some advice about how jobseekers can learn to leverage their own relationships.
Darryn Lee: Since I grew up in Compton with a desire to change my circumstances, I learned early on that I had to get great at knowing as much as possible, especially knowing what my blind spots may be. With that in mind, I became maniacal about taking on opportunities that expanded my mindset, decreased my ignorance, and allowed me to develop a potentially life-changing friendship.
With that said, I have been able to leverage the diversity of my network to understand how to approach opportunities. My first consequential non-family mentor, Alex, was a hedge fund manager; he educated me a lot on asset management, professionalism, and how to think about the first employment opportunity in my career. His advice --“Make sure you start at a large firm so you can get a good training foundation” -- stuck with me throughout college. Knowing that I wanted to go into finance but was not know quite sure on which sub-sector to focus, I of course leveraged him to help me understand the landscape.
The key to utilizing your network for success in your career is two-fold: understand what you want and what you need from your network. Contacts cannot provide you a roadmap if you do not know where you are going. I usually use personal time to determine the path and come to mentors with an intended destination, as opposed to brainstorming the destination with them. This is key as it will show to your network that you are thoughtful about your career.
EKMH: In our call you mentioned the importance of “Acting on Advice.” With this in mind, how have mentors and mentees made a difference in your life? How have you benefited from acting on their advice?
Darryn Lee: When I think back, I was exposed to many mentors throughout my life, and they all took an interest in my development and success. One of my teachers in 5th grade told me to go to Jefferson Leadership Academies for middle school; I ended up being Class President in 8th grade and graduating with a 3.7 GPA. Given my performance, Mr. Michaels told me to go to the California Academy of Math and Science for high school, a nationally top 25 STEM-focused magnet public high school. That was my first real academic challenge in life, and set me up for success at Temple University, where my high school counselor suggested I attend. Lastly, my mentor Alex recommended that I pursue BlackRock.
I have been very fortunate to have had this assistance from these wonderful souls, because they saw something in me that made them pull me to the side from other students and say, “Hey, have you thought about ….?” Such assistance has contributed significantly to my career, ongoing development, and how I have always helped mentees.
EKMH: What have you learned about the value of being bilingual while working and leading teams in Mexico? What advice do you have for those also interested in working internationally, adapting to global/local standards, understanding cultural differences and mastering a language as an adult?
Darryn Lee: Growing up in Southern California, I was exposed to English, Spanish, Tagalog and Khmer. I took a specific interest in Spanish since one of my aunts is part Mexican and speaks Spanish, and because some of my closest friends growing up were Mexican American. I now see that practicing Spanish via the classroom and on-the-ground international travels was useful!
Mexico itself is a unique culture from what I have experienced. Mexicans prioritize family and enjoying life over many other things, including late work hours, which has been a new dynamic for an American like me. However, my experience in sales allowed me to transition a bit more smoothly culturally. What was tough and continues to be a developmental area is the language. I speak Spanish well and have for years, although it’s important to understand the nuances in language and Mexican Spanish specifically, so I continue to work with co-workers and others to ensure my tone and word usage is appropriate. I have become more comfortable asking people to repeat what they are saying and asking for clarification, as learning a language is a process and there is no reason to be ashamed.
For those looking to work internationally, be sure that you cultivate several experiences to strengthen your reasoning for securing an international opportunity. Many people may want such a role, but have not demonstrated interest in other ways, such as learning a language, taking personal trips abroad, studying a culture, etc. This is crucial because it shows that you are committed.
EKMH: As an extrovert, how have you adapted to Zoom? What’s the virtual equivalent of the water cooler chat? What recommendations do you have for increasing your and your team’s productivity while working from home and balancing competing priorities?
Darryn Lee: Zoom and WebEx meetings have been difficult for me because I prefer in-person interactions. One of my bosses has created virtual happy hours where we have had colleagues from around the region teach us to make mojitos via video, so those types of things have made it more manageable. I believe this culture really helps with making the best of the environment where we all are now. As for productivity and balancing competing priorities, we have begun focusing on not sending WhatsApp messages after 7pm, no communications on the weekends, and only having meetings no longer than 45 minutes between 8am and 4p. These parameters have received positive responses as people now do not believe they are expending too much energy on work outside of the workday.
EKMH: How have you addressed diversity, equity and inclusion while working and volunteering in the US? How does the race and diversity conversation and community outreach differ in Mexico? What steps can be taken to address these differences?
Darryn Lee: I have always focused on lifting as I climb, so I have been incredibly involved in diversity efforts at BlackRock and other professional endeavors. I established the relationship between BlackRock and America Needs You to improve the economic mobility of first-generation college students, in addition to supporting organizations focusing on children of incarcerated parents. Every organization I am involved with has a personal attachment to me because I was once the child they were focused on serving.
In Mexico, the race and diversity conversation is not as advanced as in America. There is acknowledgement about classism, but not much on racism, so I believe that is something that needs to be explored more as people better understand who AfroMexicanos are, for instance. Many of my co-workers do not even know that AfroMexicanos exist, so there is not even a realization that there is this marginalized group of 1.3M people largely in southern Mexico. The biggest first step to address these differences is clear acknowledgement that they exist.
EKMH: What are your thoughts on diversity, front-end recruiting and retention when interviewing potential new team members?
Darryn Lee: There has been significant investment on front-end recruiting of diverse talent, but the reason why there objectively seems like there has not been much progress since the 1980s is because there has been extraordinarily little focus on development and retention. There are barriers to promotions, whether they be not having the right country club relationships or not going to the right dinner after work, and that persists in many ways today. I always do what I can for people that I believe are talented and are not getting the right exposure because of this. It’s incumbent upon all of us to open doors for others where we can because people consistently open doors for us.
EKMH: Remember traveling freely and on a whim? You have visited 39 countries -- COVID-19 put your trip to the 40th country, Cuba, on hold. What are the next 10 countries that you hope to visit? How do you decide where to go next?
Darryn Lee: Yes, I do! I really do miss traveling. When I choose a country, I think first about regions where I have a personal interest and can stretch my language abilities, or have previously had a very warm welcome, so that puts Latin America, Africa, and Asia as the focus regions for the most part. With that said, below are the countries I have next on my list, all of which I have yet to visit:
Cuba
Chile
Ghana
Ethiopia
Australia
New Zealand
Denmark
India
Vietnam
Malaysia
EKMH: And finally, which books, films and/or podcasts will you bring on those vacations?
Darryn Lee: For podcasts, I consistently listen to The Tim Ferriss Show. For books, the next on my list after I finish Ray Dalio’s Principles are Morgan Housel’s The Psychology of Money and Richard Dawkins’ River Out of Eden.
*Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this series are those of the interviewees and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent.
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