Spotlight Series 26
Tara Giuliano

Meet this month’s spotlight:

Tara Giuliano, Meet this month’s spotlight: Tara Giuliano, Chief Marketing Officer of Nuveen, a Global Financial Services organization.

What are some challenges you’ve faced and how have you tackled them?

Reaching this position has been very gratifying for me. I feel confident in my role. I know those I respect have confidence in me, too. And together with my team, we’re being recognized for delivering significant and improved performance for the business. As a result, I’m asking myself some new questions around how I can use my leadership platform to drive even more results and impact. My brother Luke, who died by suicide four years ago, is central to how I’m beginning to answer them.

Luke’s death and my desire to honor his legacy have ignited my passion for promoting mental health. For me, mental health is about cultivating an inner sense of stability: the ability to stay in the present moment, acknowledging, accepting, and addressing whatever is happening inside and around us. Living from this place of inner stability allows us to be and show up as our best selves.

Best piece of advice you've ever received?

It’s cliché, but the “work hard, play hard” mentality. With the sudden death of a loved one you realize how short life is and how much time we spend at work. Hard work, believing in myself and relationship building have paid off but I also make sure I make time to have adventure in my life as well.

Photo credit: Special Thanks to Sarah Kammerer for the beautiful photography for this spotlight.

What was your path to getting where you are today?

Innately curious, independent, and happy, I grew up in a very blue-collar town. I was determined to take care of myself and was driven to get educated so that I could have a different life than what I saw around me. With encouragement from my dad, I formed a conviction and began to build the life that I wanted. Perfecting some patterns that drove my earliest successes, I told myself, “fake it ’til you make it. Be scrappy. Work hard and achieve. Don’t let the people you care about down. Make money.”

These patterns helped me be the first in my family to go to college, and it was after college that my new life began to fall into place. Through hard work and consistently leveraging the same patterns that drove my earlier success, I climbed the ladder in the financial services industry, most recently becoming CMO of Nuveen.

What do you love about being a woman?

I love being a woman executive and getting to help educate on the importance of the role we play in the corporate world. I love that: Companies with more than 30% female executives were more likely to outperform companies that don’t. Diverse leadership can create a more inclusive culture, increasing employee engagement, job satisfaction and retention – contributing to the financial health of an organization. Gender diverse leadership ensures that the interests and needs of a broader section of society are considered in making decisions. We still have a long way to go with not enough women leading the world’s companies but we have made progress.

What are you watching, reading, and listening to right now?

Reading “The Creative Act: A Way of Being” by Rick Rubin.

How do you create a work-life balance for yourself?

Since Luke’s death, I’ve amped up my own mental health practices. Doing so has not only kept me energized in the face of the intensity of my work, it’s also allowed me to chart a different path for my life and my daughter Elle’s life as well. I rise at 5am to exercise, meditate, journal, learn and juice. I have a home in Covert, MI where I “nature bathe”. I refer to it as my “happy place.”

If you could live anywhere (and money is no object), where would you choose?

Paris (or anywhere in France).

Best gift you've ever received?

My engagement ring, my daughter, my ShiSchon Charlie – all the things that brought me my family.

How would you describe your personal style?

Classic, with a modern twist.

What is important to you when it comes to buying clothing?

Quality is the most important factor to me, but I also don’t want to feel like I broke the bank on any given piece. I love the Maria Pinto quality, ease of care, fashion-forward nature (especially the color that it brings to my wardrobe!) and also the price points.