Ashley Drake is a Partner at HighCamp. Based in New Jersey, she joined the firm in May 2020.
Tell us about your career path.
My journey into regulatory compliance began in 2008 when I graduated from college – the very same week that Lehman Brothers collapsed.
I graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in creative arts, and I had always intended to pursue a career in a creative industry. But it quickly became apparent that my plans were going to have to pivot. It just wasn’t possible for me to start a creative career in the midst of a global financial crisis.
As I tried to figure out what my next steps should be, I realized how little I actually knew about the economy and about the critical role finance plays in global stability. I became fascinated with this topic and decided to switch gears entirely and to pursue an MBA with a concentration in finance. It was such a drastic departure from what I had imagined my profession would be, but I’ve always been motivated by a challenge and the opportunities that arise from heading down a new path.
While finishing my MBA, I began my career at a large regulatory compliance consultancy, ACA Group, where I was exposed to private fund managers of all strategies, and professional services. I fell in love with the range of challenging topics and issues faced by my clients, as well as the ways in which compliance allows firms to operate smoothly.
While I really enjoyed consulting, I also wanted some experience on the other side of the table. An opportunity arose to join Blackstone, and I was able to gain valuable in-house experience at one of the top alternative asset managers in the world.
How did you find your way to HighCamp?
HighCamp’s founder, Brad Burgtorf and I had worked together at ACA, so when he reached out in 2019, I was already somewhat familiar with HighCamp. I found myself really drawn to the company’s entrepreneurial spirit. At the time, HighCamp was quite new and small and presented a very different opportunity than my experience at large established companies. I knew that joining HighCamp was a risk, but I also saw it as a tremendous opportunity to continue to deepen my compliance experience and to be an integral part of building a company. HighCamp was in a place where I could roll up my sleeves and help build something great. The jump required sacrifice in the interim, but I knew if it worked out, there would be incredible upside.
What was the transition like from one of largest global managers in world to a scrappy start up?
I gave notice to Blackstone the first week of March 2020. Once again, I found myself at a pivotal point in my career right as a global crisis began to unfold.
Everything felt very uncertain as the pandemic took hold, but I tend to thrive in challenging scenarios. It didn’t take me long to realize that despite the chaos, HighCamp actually had a significant advantage over many others in our industry.
From day one, HighCamp has operated as a remote company, with employees based in different locations around the U.S. As everyone else was trying to figure out how to work remotely during the pandemic, we already had it figured out. We had the knowledge and the infrastructure in place to continue our work as normal. We were even in a position to be able to help some of our clients figure out remote work for their own staff.
Truly, I was extremely thankful to be a part of HighCamp during the pandemic and in the early days. Our situation felt steady and stable, and it’s during tumultuous market events where we can differentiate ourselves the most. We really focused on deepening our client relationships and building the infrastructure that would eventually become the foundation upon which our firm has grown since then.
You’ve been at HighCamp for several years now. What do you enjoy most about the job?
There are so many things that I love about working at HighCamp, but at the very top of my list is the fact that HighCamp provides me with the ability to balance my career with a young family. The financial industry is notoriously demanding, and I don’t believe I would have been able to achieve the work-life balance that I currently have at another firm.
Our senior team members all have young families themselves, and we all understand that things come up. We’re committed to providing our clients with a very high quality of service – and as long as we’re doing that, we have the freedom and the flexibility to be there for our families.
We also have an incredible group of clients. Our clients want to be working with us – and we want to be working with them. That mutual respect really makes for an enjoyable work experience, and I’m deeply grateful for it.
HighCamp continues to grow and evolve, and I’m so thankful that the twists and turns of my career path have brought me here.
Where do you see the next 5 years taking you?
Collectively, we’ve engrained HighCamp’s scrappy, start-up mentality into our overall approach, and we’re committed to refining, automating, and improving our service offerings to reach our goals.
Personally, I’m embracing the change and challenges that come with leading a growing company. The challenges today are very different than the challenges we experienced when it was just Brad, his cofounder Azra Korjenic, and me. The challenges we face today are also very different than those that we will face tomorrow. But as mentioned earlier, I’m motivated by continuing to set the bar higher for company culture and client service. I’m currently launching our NY Metro office, and building out a talented team in Morristown, NJ. I’m very excited to bring more in-person collaboration to the team with a hybrid approach to preserve the valuable flexibility of remote work on which we thrive.
