Stephanie Ruhle finds the challenge of being a news personality even more intense than her previous jobs dealing with hedge fund clients for global financial giants Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank.
The 35-year-old Ruhle is the new co-anchor of Bloomberg Television's morning show, "Inside Track," having started on the job last month. She joins Bloomberg TV vet Erik Schatzker, Sara Eisen, and Scarlet Fu.
"Working in television and television news, it's a double-edged sword in that you're constantly involved in world markets and every piece of news that hits is important to you," Ruhle told Hedgefund.net in a recent interview. "It's an exciting part of the job but it also makes you basically work 24 hours a day."
Ruhle also sees this as a "new chapter" in her life, one she didn't envision until last spring when she told an audience at an event for a woman's leadership organization about pursuing an interest in the media, if given the opportunity. Her revelation caught the attention of one of the organization's board members sitting in the audience, a Bloomberg employee who approached Ruhle after her speech.
"It's hard to pursue something you want to do when you have a life to live," Ruhle says. "But the more we started to talk about this philosophically, the more it turned into a reality."
That soon set in motion Ruhle being in the spotlight rather than in the corporate arena. Ruhle would continue working for Deutsche Bank until September when she moved over to Bloomberg.
While she sees this as a "big leap" for both her and her new employer, Ruhle points out that it was made easier by her past experience of speaking at corporate functions as well as being well-versed in the markets, especially developing expertise in the complex world of credit derivatives.
Ruhle also credits the mindset she developed during her childhood in northern New Jersey and carried over as a student at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, when she found herself switching over from engineering to being on a trading floor.
"Growing up, I never had one specific interest but I have always been highly competitive," Ruhle says. "So it was less relevant what the game was but what I wanted more than anything was to win it."
What has also gotten Ruhle acclimated to the broadcasting world were her new co-workers, whom she describes as "very smart" and "generous."
So what is it like being a Bloomberg anchor?
For Ruhle, it's starting work at 4 a. m., leaving behind her husband and two small children at their Lower Manhattan home. Then it's meeting with staff and others to prep for 6 a.m. show opening. After the program ends at 8 a.m. Ruhle and her colleagues are already preparing for the next day.
Working daily in the news business has allowed her to not only bring her knowledge of the markets to the general public but also to explore topics as wide ranging as Occupy Wall Street and the European debt crisis.
And it is a job that she sees herself staying in for quite awhile.
"What chapter two will be, I don't know yet?"
Stephanie Ruhle is the new anchor on the Bloomberg Television morning show, "Inside Track". Photo provided by Bloomberg Television.
No comments:
Post a Comment