Kristen Robinson Darcy, EMBA '13

So I said, well, I'm only going to do it if I can go to MIT or if I can go to Harvard. And um, it just so happened that the new enba program was starting and I was able to do that and continue working, which was ideal for me

And I've been there for about a year and I lead , um, service operations and marketing and I'm learning a lot. But you've been at fidelity for over 10 years prior. Yeah . But in a different, different, I was, I was in the personal investing business unit, so the retail side of our business. Right . And so, so did Sloan get you to change your direction towards a nonprofit and the side ? Yes , yes . So I initially had an oral path for people to do.

So it's very unusual, although the more you talk to Sloanies I think even more the more you do see that actually at least at a minimum giving back. So for me, I went to Sloan originally because I really didn't want to change the way that I was thinking in particular. I really want it to become a much more data-driven decision maker.

And so MIT obviously was the obvious choice, but as I was here and really had an opportunity to reflect on my leadership and reflect what was really important to me, I knew that I ultimately wanted to come out and help people. And in particular, actually when I applied to slum and my essay, I wrote about how ultimately I want to help veterans. And so I come from a very big military family. I, that's why I had a southern drawl.

I grew up in for 10 years, my first 10 years of my life in North Carolina and then moved to Massachusetts. Had to travel a lot as a child. I did when I was, yes, primarily in the south. So a marine, marine brat. Yes. Yes. And so for me, I really do think that we as a country need to do more for our veterans, that they really give us ultimate sacrifice. And I've seen it with my own family and my brother actually just retired , um , from the military after 25 years and he's now a jet blue pilot.

So you'll have to look for him if you're flying out of Boston. Um, but I just think that that is what really motivated me and as I was here in Sloan , it just became clearer and clearer that I needed to somehow get there. Right. And so in the marine community, well , I guess that's really the question is, was there community as you shifted around that you , uh, that you find at Sloan as well that in other words, the draw towards creating community or nurturing a community?

I think that I was too young at that point in time, so I moved back to Massachusetts when I was 10. When your father retired? Um , no, actually my parents got divorced. So my father is from North Carolina and my mother is from Massachusetts, so you know where I ended up. Right . And , um, she raised me and you know, single mom and myself and two other children. So how's it gonna go? You've essentially gone home right to North Carolina? I have, yeah ,

We're five years in, you know, I think that we have just, we've done a lot of really great work, but we're not done and I'm really excited about the future because I think that, you know, where we're headed, we're partnering now with the Student Senate , so we're really trying to bridge that gap between our students. All right . MIT Sloan students as well as our alumni.

And I think that's something that we need to do, that we need to really help these individuals who are graduating and help them leverage this network. And we have a tremendous opportunity to be a much more cohesive network.

What we do is we're not just sitting in an advising, we actually have projects that we work on and we have specific deliverables and recommendations that we give to the office of external relations. So that's the structure that we have. Typically in the past we had one project that a team would work on and we had three different teams and they would work on it really the entire year and then come back into Cambridge in June and share their findings and plan with OER what we are doing next.

But what we heard, and really the way the world is evolving is that a year is too long. And so we need to make sure that the work that we're doing is not only timely, but it's also relevant and that OER is ready to actually leverage it. And so , um , we've been working really closely and we've tried a lot of great things and we really have a wonderful foundation to build on. But now we're changing that just a little bit.

What we're doing is we're getting the organization to come together and really aligned to a division. So it could be the, let's see, the executive education we're partnering with and then the CDO office. And like I said, the Senate. So what we're doing is we're really trying to change this from being a long process to more short type of sprints. And really addressing real problems that there and being alongside them.

So that's the part of the structure is that we're becoming kind of like advisors to these different units, business units or divisions. But then MIT Sloan, and then the other thing we're doing are these 90 day sprints. We have a problem that we're trying to solve and we're going to have teams that really aligned to those. And then lastly, we have what we call ad-hoc . And these are items that just come up.

And so a lot of times we're tapped on the shoulder, maybe one of us, maybe two of us, and maybe it's fundraising. So for all these Sloanies who are listening , uh , Dean Circle is where it's at. But I would just say that , um , it could be a lot of different things, but the other driver of changing the structure is because the individuals on the board really wanted to , um , spend more time with each other. And so we'd come into Cambridge once a year.

And with this new format, we're able to have these teams that are the advisory teams. Then we have these sprints and we'd have this ad hoc work and what it's done and what we believe that we'll do is really get a more integrated community at the board level.

I mean it wasn't that long ago. So I guess a few I'll share with you. Um, one is professor John [inaudible]

And that's really when you take the time to understand and, and analyze the behavior of people, of individuals. And because I develop a lot of experiences, whether it's digital or whether it's customer experiences or even product, it's really important that we understand our clients and not just on the surface, not just from a survey, but we need to observe them and really understand what matters to them and look at them as human beings.

So that's one of the things that I've taken with me and really all facets of my life is to step back sometimes . Really observe your surroundings, see what's going on around you and make decisions based on a lot of different inputs. What about , um, if you could have a do over at Sloan , we'll go with school be , is it a class system, dynamics, system dynamics? Did you take that class or not? I did, of course. Which is you wouldn't take it again ? No order it .

No, actually I saw on Nelson Repenning, he was here today as you know, who's speaking with us on, on leadership. I actually grabbed him afterwards and I said, I would really like to retake system dynamics. Two reasons. One is I don't think I probably did as well as I could have done it. And it's a really difficult subject. It's like a big puzzle. Right. And also I think they would do better now. So I told them that I would like to do over and he did tell me that would be fine.

And did he bring up a certificate ? He did not give me , no, but he said I may have right turns . He said that with my volunteerism that I may have earned , uh , you know , uh, maybe a free class with him. Right. Good. As you work as tear the board. Right. He can guess. That's right. That's right. So what's the difference between the fidelity charitable side and the customer needs that they have versus maybe sort of the more, I guess commercial side?

Yeah, so with the commercial side but I was responsible for is really building digital experiences. So it was on.com it was our mobile app. It was really developing smart chatbots and things like that. And so we were really looking to deliver a guidance to all of our clients but knew that we , we needed to do it in a scalable way. Right. So that's on the personal, on the , on the , on the personal investing. Yup . The commercial. Yup . Exactly, exactly.

And you know, they are very much digitally led. Um, most of our customers, they prefer that. And so we needed to make sure it was a really great experience for them and frictionless and that we gave them everything that they needed. Whereas on the charitable side, it's very different because we are a nonprofit and we have what we call a donor advised fund. Think of it as a platform essentially where people can go ahead and donate money and their money can grow.

They can pick their investment strategies and then their money grows over time, but then they also have the opportunity to grant out their money. And so for us, it's really, we granted out over $5 billion last year. That's a huge fund that you're drawing from as a huge fund that we're drawing from. And so it was our biggest year yet as far as granting. So our goal is to take this money and make sure that we're granting as much as we possibly can.

And also that we're helping people with their philanthropic strategies because that's what we've found as well, that people don't always know they might want to give to a veterans or they might want to give to food insecurity, or there might be something that they're really passionate about, but they don't really know where to start. They don't know how to look at different nonprofits and so forth. So we also do a lot of education. We do a lot of webinars and have a lot of content.

So that's sort of the pipeline. That is why they would invest with fidelity verses other donor advised funds. Definitely vehicles . Yes, absolutely. I mean, we, we definitely help people figure out a strategy. Some people know exactly what they want to do, but many don't. And so this is a really good vehicle that they can put their money in and then they can determine what is their strategy. They've always been curious.

Is there a time period where it's allowed to grow without distribution or does it have to be pretty much immediately distributed there ? No, there's a, there's a time period. So you basically have four years that you can go ahead and grant it and it's a minimum amount that you need to give a percentage, a percentage circular principle . Well, it's actually a dollar amount. Yep .

Yeah. But you know, we're constantly, I mean, our , the thing about our donors are they're very generous and um, you know, that's actually our payout rate is higher than foundations which have a mandatory 5% payout . That's the number that I've heard, right ? Yes. And so we're at about 20 , uh , over 20% pay out. We'll have one day to be able to join. Good . Well we would , we would appreciate that always to go on that. What's your definition of success?

I think personally I have two daughters, so I'm , part of my definition of success is making sure that I'm raising two children who are going to make a very big impact in the world and make a difference. So that's, that's probably my biggest job. And then , um, I think career-wise, it's really making sure that I path my career. So obviously I'm in the nonprofit sector. As I said, I'm on a very big learning journey, which I love and thrive, which of course all slow do .

But for me it's really getting out and at some point just making a bigger difference to either children who have food security or for veterans. Excellent. Um, what's the last thing you kicked out about? Oh my gosh. Well, I did watch game of Thrones. I mean, that was, that was just horrible, horrible ending. But I shook out all the time. I'm a very curious person.

And so I guess one of the things that I did last week was I , um, have prime now and I'll send, I saw that you can actually get wine and beer delivered in two hours. And I thought there's no way that you can get that. Can you try it ? Of course I did . So my husband was home and I went on and I said , um, and then I thought it's kind of funny that I just, you know, all of a sudden have this wine show up.

So I did, I actually ordered some wine and they knocked on the door and had him signed as close . Closest 21. Yeah, like within an hour. They really quick. It was during the day, so I knew it was urgent. They must have known was before five o'clock show us . But I really wanted to see, I mean, you know, I've had the wine of course, but I think that more importantly I was just really curious to see like does this really work and how they actually do it.

And so I think that I'm just naturally a very curious person. So I do things like that all the time that I really, I'd like to see how things work. Great . And any parting advice for prospective Sloanies or even alumni? Oh, I would say just do it. Don't ever think at , if you're thinking about coming to MIT Sloan, you should just look and talk to people, potentially attend some of the admission sessions that they have where you can learn more.

But for me it was, I came on campus and I knew the moment I stepped on. So I'm , I would say just come and for , um , alumni, I would say that get connected. That's what this MIT Sloan Alumni board is all about, is really making sure that we're engaged as a community and we're connected. So if you're not, there's so many opportunities for you and I would just say connect with their class. If you haven't reached out for awhile, connect to us.

We have plenty of work, some volunteer work that you can do. So we would just love to connect with all of you. And again , a stronger community ultimately.