Wan Ling Martello
Founding Partner at BayPine

Background
Wan Ling Martello is a founding partner at BayPine, a Boston based middle market private equity firm investing out of their $2.2 billion inaugural fund. Wan Ling has spent most of her career leading executive teams and organizations in the consumer products and retail industries and has significant expertise in B2C technology-enabled business models and digital transformation. She has held senior leadership roles at Nestlé and Walmart. Among her career highlights, Wan Ling served as Nestlé’s global CFO, where she revitalized the global finance organization, established a new data-driven resource allocation and portfolio management framework for the entire company, and led numerous M&A transactions. She was then appointed as CEO of Nestlé’s Asia, Oceania and Africa (AOA) business and re-focused the entire business on driving growth and using digital transformation initiatives to drive greater consumer engagement.

You were one of the founding partners of BayPine in 2020. What inspired the decision to help launch a new fund? Can you tell us a bit about the experience of starting a fund?
When Dave and Anjan first approached me with the idea of BayPine, my initial thought was “do we have shared values?”. For me, doing well is not enough. Doing good and asking yourself what you are doing for the community is critical. I also recognized that my partners share a commitment to excellence. The decision to pivot into investing came towards the end of my tenure at Nestlé, where I found an interest in pursuing a more dynamic environment. Joining both a new firm and new industry was exhilarating. My background as an operator has been very helpful in working with our portfolio companies.

You’ve had several different roles throughout your career including at Walmart and Nestlé. What skills or lessons helped shape your career trajectory?
Having humility, intellectual curiosity, and being a clear thinker have helped me throughout my career. People often assume that big company experience does not translate well to BayPine’s investment focus on small to mid-size businesses. However, the big companies I used to work with are comprised of multiple smaller entities, each at different points of the business life cycle. This structure allowed for a diverse experience, which can be rare to find outside of larger enterprises.

Throughout my career, three key skills have been instrumental: the ability to think clearly, framing a question or issue to tie up solutioning, and developing a strong intuition for talent assessment. It is very powerful when analytical rigor allows you to cut through the noise. And developing the ability to match the right person to the right role is an invaluable skill. I am a believer in when you give people stretch opportunities, magic happens. You just have to have the courage to make unconventional choices.

Digital transformation and technology-enabled businesses have been a core theme throughout your career - what drew you to this strategy?
BayPine’s strategy resonated with me as I experienced first-hand at Nestlé that digital can unlock tremendous value. I have witnessed how leveraging digital opportunities can translate to outsized organic growth and unlock additional growth and innovation opportunities. If you can get digital right, you can increase not only topline but also increase efficiency and cut cost. Talent and digital transformation work hand in hand – without the right person in the right seat a company won’t get far. It requires exceptional talent to drive successful digital transformations and in turn, technology can empower talent to drive increased impact.

You serve on the board of directors for Alibaba, Uber, Penn Foster Group, and Stellantis - what are some lessons you have learned inside the boardroom?
My key takeaway is that it is important to find a company that aligns with your mission and values to be an effective board member. Chemistry amongst the board members is also very important. You want to be able to have candid and tough discussions in a cordial and productive way. Another learning is that the senior leadership plays a pivotal role by setting the tone of the firm. As a board member, you want to identify and back leaders who encourage collaboration and drive results.

What advice would you give to young female investors or aspiring executives early in their career?
My father taught me early on how important it is to develop a skillset that you can always fall back on – advice I have honored throughout my career and believe is very important. I believe it is important to gain as many skills as possible early on in your career and emphasize a diverse set of experiences versus prioritizing climbing the career ladder fast. Becoming a well-rounded professional will allow you to do whatever you want. And always stay intellectually curious and humble. Find people you can learn from and read diverse books and collect stories to broaden your horizon and contribute interesting perspectives to discussions.

Thank you for your time and insights, Wan Ling! To learn more about BayPine, click here.