She forgot to hang up the phone — and what she overheard about herself in that boardroom became the seed of a Wall Street thriller twenty years in the making.
In this episode of Insight is Capital, Pierre Daillie sits down with Kristine Delano — Independent Board Trustee, fiction author, former Managing Director at Eaton Vance, and host of the We Talk Careers podcast (brought to you by Women in ETFs). After two decades inside Wall Street firms, where she helped win the first SEC approval on an active non-transparent ETF, Kristine walked away from the corner office and did the one thing nobody saw coming: she wrote a novel. Her debut financial thriller, The Lies We Trade, opens on the best day of a woman's career — ringing the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange — right up until the person she trusts most begins taking it all apart.
Kristine reveals how a neuroscience and engineering background became her career superpower, why "it's all active" when it comes to investing, and the visceral true story of the conference call she never hung up on — where she heard colleagues she trusted throw her under the bus. She unpacks the power imbalances hiding in every boardroom, the micro-expressions that tell you more than any agenda, imposter syndrome at the very top (including a moving story about the late Kathleen Moriarty, the "Queen of ETFs"), and the warning her novel carries for advisors and wealth professionals: process and trust aren't always enough. Plus, a first look at her second novel — two estranged sisters, a journalist and a Wall Street CEO, on a collision course of truth versus power.
Chapters
00:00 – Cold open: The executive who walked away
02:00 – Welcome, Kristine Delano
02:38 – From neuroscience and engineering to Wall Street
05:03 – Why thinking differently became her career edge
06:49 – Behavioral risk: the investor is the biggest risk
09:10 – Bicoastal career, family, and what advisors taught her
11:01 – Life after Wall Street: skiing, scuba, and board work
14:04 – The family emergency that changed everything
16:52 – The call she never hung up on: overhearing the truth
25:24 – Meredith: a protagonist who introduced herself
29:12 – Writing fraud and betrayal: invention vs. lived experience
32:04 – Kathleen Moriarty and imposter syndrome at the top
34:28 – We Talk Careers and amplifying voices in ETFs
37:22 – Power imbalances and micro-expressions in the boardroom
42:26 – The warning for advisors: when process and trust aren't enough
46:30 – Alter egos, courage, and the head of sales named Dave
49:34 – The second novel: two estranged sisters, truth vs. power
55:08 – Sisterhood, family strain, and writing what's real
01:01:08 – Where to find The Lies We Trade and We Talk Careers
Find Kristine Delano
The novel: The Lies We Trade
Kristine Delano on Linkedin
Kristine Delano's Website: KristineDelano.com
#KristineDelano #TheLiesWeTrade #FinancialThriller #WallStreet #WomenInFinance #WomenInETFs #ETFs #InsightIsCapital #BehavioralFinance #ImposterSyndrome #CareerAdvice #WealthManagement #FinancialAdvisors #BookTube #ThrillerBooks #CareerPivot #Leadership #PowerDynamics #FinanceBooks #Investing
