Breaking Glass

Tales from the Witch of Wall Street

Patricia Walsh Chadwick

• Publisher: Post Hill Press
• Year: 2024
• Edition: 0
• eBook ISBN:
  9798888452851
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Business

Featured in Fast Company A "drama-filled...compelling memoir" from the "smartest woman on Wall Street." — Kirkus Reviews Kicked out of a cult at seventeen, Patricia Walsh Chadwick started on the bottom rung of the ladder in the world of business and worked her way to the top—breaking through the glass ceiling to become a global partner at Invesco. Patricia grew up in a religious community-turned-cult in the Boston area. At the age of seventeen, she was forced out of her home, leaving behind her entire family, and without access to higher education. From her first job as a receptionist at a brokerage firm, she clawed her way up the ladder—rung by rung—in that bastion of male chauvinism: Wall Street. By going to college at night, she achieved her degree in economics from Boston University, and from there, she headed to New York City. With a drive that earned her the moniker "Witch of Wall Street, " she rose from the ranks of research analyst to portfolio manager, where she was responsible for billions of dollars in pension and endowment assets. A turning point in her life was giving birth to twins at the age of forty-five, and she continued forward in her career, becoming a global partner at Invesco. At the turn of the millennium, she left Wall Street behind and embarked on a second career as a corporate board director.

Table of contents

• Copyright
• Contents
• Musings from the “Witch of Wall Street”: A Prologue of Sorts
• A Note to the Reader
• Chapter 1: Reflections on Things Past
• Chapter 2: Silence Is Golden
• Chapter 3: Where Do I Go from Here?
• Chapter 4: What Is This Thing Called Love?
• Chapter 5: A Bird in the Hand Is Worth Two in the Bush
• Chapter 6: Lessons in Grace from Sister Ann Mary
• Chapter 7: The First Rung on the Ladder
• Chapter 8: Learning to Fly
• Chapter 9: Hard Landing
• Chapter 10: The Five-Million-Dollar Challenge
• Chapter 11: Nightmare
• Chapter 12: Thank You, Edwin
• Chapter 13: Fast Friends
• Chapter 14: A Family Reunited
• Chapter 15: Behind the Iron Curtain
• Chapter 16: Twenty-Three and Free
• Chapter 17: Coming “Home”
• Chapter 18: Tongue on Rye at the Ritz
• Chapter 19: Good-Bye, Boston
• Chapter 20: “Sister Elizabeth Ann” Revisits New York
• Chapter 21: New York—Here I Come
• Chapter 22: The Big Apple
• Chapter 23: Footloose and Fancy-Free
• Chapter 24: Romance—A New Way of Life
• Chapter 25: The Maven of Wall Street
• Chapter 26: Machinery Woman
• Chapter 27: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Harvard
• Chapter 28: Time for a Giant Step
• Chapter 29: Peter Vermilye
• Chapter 30: Machinery—Japan vs. USA
• Chapter 31: For the Greater Good
• Chapter 32: The Year of Living Dangerously
• Chapter 33: No Stopping Me
• Chapter 34: I Do
• Chapter 35: Daughter, Mother, Grandmother
• Chapter 36: And Then It Crashed
• Chapter 37: Facing the Truth
• Chapter 38: Chasing Two Dreams
• Chapter 39: The Best Birthday Present Ever
• Chapter 40: The Countdown
• Chapter 41: The Present from Saint Valentine
• Chapter 42: Sabbatical and Then
• Chapter 43: Time for a Change
• Chapter 44: After Wall Street
• Chapter 45: Second Career
• Chapter 46: Reflection
• Afterword: In Praise of My Mentors
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author