Many people would probably say they’d never be able to work with their mother. But for Patricia Townsend, it’s exactly what she feels she was meant to do.
From childhood, Townsend watched her mother, Mary Ellen Garrett, build a team of financial advisers at Merrill Lynch called The Garrett Group.
Out of its offices in the Pinnacle building in Buckhead, The Garrett Group provides wealth management advice to clients ranging from Fortune 500 executives to business owners, attorneys and doctors.
Townsend grew up hearing her mother talk about the stock market and investing. Then about 10 years ago while Townsend was working at a nonprofit, the moment came when she decided it was time to join her mom at The Garrett Group.
In an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Garrett and Townsend share how their partnership came to be. The interview has been edited for length and style.
Q: Tell me about how each of you started off in your careers, and how that path led to where you are today?
Mary Ellen Garrett: I moved to Atlanta in 1980 and I started to work for Merrill Lynch in June of ’85. I just found an industry that I loved, and the firm was so inviting and opened so many doors. I worked really hard and am about ready to have my 40th anniversary here next month.
The business was so interesting to me. My husband and I got married in ’82 and he was working in a marketing firm at the time, but we talked about it a lot.
He was always interested in the markets, and so that’s what our dinner conversation was when I first started. And I guess that’s what our dinner conversation is today.
Q: And Patsy, can you share how you started off in your career?
Patsy Townsend: I think I need to go back further.
When I was at the dining room table, my parents would talk about the stocks or what companies were doing … just what was going on in the world, what was going on in the economy.
(After graduating Miami University in Ohio), I worked on the Hill for (Georgia’s then U.S. senators) Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson. Loved the speed of it all, loved the politics back then, and loved D.C. — but missed home.
So I came back home, got a position with Turner Broadcasting in sports commercial sales, kind of got my feet wet in how to sell and how to talk to people, how to make connections, build rapport.
Then … I ended up kind of listening to my heart. I had always been involved — thanks to my parents for instilling this in me — in giving back to the community, I ended up working and fundraising for the American Cancer Society.
Until one day, I was in a boardroom and one of the major executives on the gala board that I was running gave me a check for his donation. … I gave it right back to him. And I said, you need to talk to your financial adviser.
And he looked at me and he said, “You’re in the wrong business.” I said, Oh, man, it’s come full circle. I think I am in the wrong business.
Garrett: I used to tell all the kids, “You can work with me when you think the time is right.” And that’s what happened.
Townsend: I said, “If the spot’s still open, I’ll take it, if you’ll have me.”
Garrett: We sat down, and I said, “What is your biggest fear about doing this?” And she said, “I don’t want to disappoint you.” And I said, “I don’t want to disappoint you.”
When there’s a family member, it’s a different level of accountability. … You want to make your child proud of you.
I’ve watched her become very successful and very conscious of what’s important. She has learned and she’s become a leader on the team.
She didn’t want to be viewed as getting something that somebody else didn’t have, so she was always the first one in the office and the last one to leave.
Townsend: I can come in here (to Garrett’s office) and be very open and honest about things that I’m feeling and things that I’m seeing happening with the team and that we need to maybe change.
Q: Is there anything that’s more difficult about working with family?
Garrett: (smiling and nodding) Uh huh.
Townsend: (at the same time, laughing) Yeah.
I think for me, it’s hard to take off the (financial adviser) hat sometimes around my mother. When I go over for dinner with my husband and we just want to have a nice dinner, all I can think of is the checklist that I need to go through with her for work on Monday.
And I’m like, “OK, turn that off. Let’s just be daughter tonight, and we’ll talk about business later.”
Garrett: We were at Easter mass sunrise service and in the middle of father’s homily, I leaned over and I said something business-wise.
Townsend: Both my dad and my husband (were) shaking their heads.
Garrett: I shouldn’t have done that. But, you know, sometimes they cross over.
Q: It’s been a challenging time for investors. How do you deal with difficult periods at work, and does it help or hurt to be working together in those times?
Garrett: I think it helps to be working together during those times.
We have a plan of action for any market environment. When we had this recent downturn, all the partners took our client list, called everybody, and that’s what you have to do. You have to communicate quickly.
There’s been about five times like that in my career, where we’ve had some upheavals — “downheavals” — and I can tell you when they were. October 19 of 1987 (Black Monday) was the first one. There was September of ’98; it was the Russian devaluation of the currency. (Then) was the tech bubble in 2000. (Next) was the financial crisis in 2008. And then Liberation Day, which just started a few weeks ago.
When the clients know that they’re not by themselves, you’re holding their hand, you’re with them, you present a level of calm to keep them calm. And that’s nothing new to us.
Townsend: She’s been through it, she could tell us — she’ll tell all the team members what to expect and the approach we should take when talking to our clients.
Q: What has surprised you about working together?
Garrett: (To Townsend) I was so happy to witness your work ethic when you first started, and well, it’s been constant. And I sort of knew how you were working with the senators and with the other companies you were working with, but I didn’t really experience it.
Townsend: I would say my mother has a very warm soul, a very warm heart, and not just with me because I’m her daughter, but with every single person that she encounters.
I remember being in a couple of meetings at the start of my career, and you could just see how comfortable people are talking with her. And that’s something that I also try to embody when I’m talking to clients and making them feel comfortable.
Q: Patsy, since you are now expecting your first child: Do you envision having your own family working together in a business?
Townsend: I hope so. I really hope so. We’re expecting a boy. … He’ll make his own way, and we’ll be supportive of whatever he does in his life.
Mary Ellen Garrett
Career: 40 years at Merrill Lynch, where she heads The Garrett Group
Role: Senior vice president, wealth management adviser
Family: Husband Scott, three children including Patsy, two-and-a-half grandchildren
Residence: Sandy Springs
Patricia Townsend
Career: Worked on Capitol Hill, at Turner Broadcasting and American Cancer Society, before joining The Garrett Group at Merrill Lynch
Family: Husband Danny, baby on the way
Role: vice president, senior financial adviser, resident director for Merrill Lynch’s Galleria office
Residence: Marietta
AJC Her+Story is a new series in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution highlighting women founders, creators, executives and professionals with in-depth profiles and stories exploring important topics. AJC Her+Story is about building a community. Know someone the AJC should feature in AJC Her+Story? Email us at herstory@ajc.com with your suggestions. Check out all of our AJC Her+Story coverage at www.ajc.com/herstory.
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