What you see on LinkedIn:
Nine years in investment banking
Promoted from Analyst → Associate → VP → Director
Successfully executed over $40bn of deal volumes
Loves to pursue entrepreneurial adventures
Having completed Y-Combinator's start-up school
Founder, Wall Street Girls Club (WSGC)
What you don’t see:
That she chose finance deliberately not because it was initially her passion, but because she was smart enough to use it as the platform to build the life she actually wanted.
The girl who made a strategic bet on herself.
Polly grew up in suburban London. Private school, thanks to a family that sacrificed a lot to get her there, which meant she was always quietly aware of what she didn't have compared to the people around her.
That awareness didn't make her bitter. It made her hungry.
Her two best subjects? Maths and art. Her flow state? Filling sketchbooks, designing clothes, living in creativity. When fashion and finance both came knocking, she made a cold, clear call at 18:
"I knew the level of life I wanted. Finance could pay for it. So I chose finance and I'd feed my creative soul another way."
Climbing the ladder - her way
The early years were a steep learning curve. Analyst, Associate, VP - each level teaching her something new. How to delegate. How to own her work. How to walk into a client meeting and command the room.
She was always top quartile. Always moving forward.
But the Director promotion? That one was different.
Director is where the system starts to push back. Only 13% of IB directors are women.
She had her eyes on the prize, she wanted to increase that 13% and become a director herself. So she ran her own campaign. Built her case. Went directly to every member of the panel across the world. Sat down with each of them and told her story: her deals, her leadership, what she'd deliver at Director level. She made the yes easy before the room even convened.
The result? A unanimous yes.
"Promotions are campaigns, not waits. If you're not selling yourself, someone else is selling against you."
The rejection that changed everything
A few years earlier, Polly had been going hard after private equity. Final rounds, every time. And every time, they hired someone else.
She could have kept chasing. She didn't.
"Screw it. I'll build a business that one day they can buy."
That was the real turning point. Not the Director title, but the decision to stop trying to fit into rooms that didn't want to make space, and start building her own.
WSGC was born from that moment. Part creative outlet, part mentorship platform, part mission: proof that you don't have to make yourself smaller to succeed in finance.
Building the empire
The dream? Growing the WSGC into a full media company. Newsletter, podcast, docu-series - and long-term, a fund. Polly doesn't just want to help women get into high-powered jobs. She wants to help them get out when they're ready, and fund the next generation of women who are done settling.
She lives by seasons, not balance. This year? Career and business. She's all in.
"You can be feminine and formidable. You can have the high-powered job and still be fully yourself. You shouldn't have to sacrifice one for the other."
Polly’s advice for women on the climb
💡 Promotions are campaigns. Build your case, go to the decision-makers directly, own your narrative before someone else does.
💡 Confidence compounds. You build it by proving things to yourself - small wins, showing up, stacking your own evidence. It comes from within.
💡 Take care of the whole person. Body, mind, learning. You can't show up like a force if you're running on empty.
💡 You don't have to choose. Creative and analytical. Feminine and ambitious. Corporate and founder. In 2026, you get to be all of it.
💡 Live in seasons. Balance is a myth. Pick your focus, go all in, then rotate.
Follow Polly's journey through WSGC - mind of a Wall Street girl, looks of a Vogue girl, building an empire: @thewallstreetgirlsclub
💜 Role Models - the real stories. Because behind every big win is a moment where someone chose themselves.
