Women’s work: Investment banking

But what’s so remarkable about the recent promotions of Manjit Boual and Susan Kilsby to senior positions at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and Credit Suisse First Boston, respectively, is how unremarkable such gains have become for women in this traditionally male bastion.

But what’s so remarkable about the recent promotions of Manjit Boual and Susan Kilsby to senior positions at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and Credit Suisse First Boston, respectively, is how unremarkable such gains have become for women in this traditionally male bastion.

London-based Boual, who was named co-head of DrKW’s worldwide investment banking business, says she,ll be working closely with New York,based Robert Pruzan “to maximize our international investment banking franchise in today’s challenging M&A environment.” A former Coopers & Lybrand accountant and COO of corporate finance at DrKW, the 37-year-old Boual will find that one of her first chores is to help carry out Dresdner Bank chief Bernd Fahrholz’s order to cut up to 200 jobs in the investment bank, on top of 1,500 layoffs already announced.

Kilsby, 43, named co-head of CSFB’s European M&A group, has a similarly tough task awaiting her. Along with Carlo Calabria, she will be expected to help coordinate CEO John Mack’s aggressive cost-cutting program.

Kilsby’s promotion, however, is mainly aimed at enhancing revenue. A former head of the bank’s global food and beverage group, she’s an established deal generator who helped run a sales group that targeted middle-market companies worldwide. Among her clients are Brake Brothers, a U.K. food distributor, and the Swedish government. She represented Austria Tabak in its sale to the U.K. tobacco company Gallaher, and she handled both sides of Coca Cola Beverages, 2000 merger with Hellenic Bottling, creating the world’s second-largest Coke bottler.

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