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By Anjuli Davies and Sophie Sassard
LONDON, March 7 (Reuters) - A bee sting nearly killedNatalie Blyth in 2012 but the HSBC investment bankerdidn't take fright from the experience - she took inspirationfrom it.
Blyth is one of the highest ranking female bankers at HSBC.In between advising the likes of Diageo and Kraft on acquisitions, she also sits on the strategy andmanagement committees which decide the future direction ofEurope's largest bank.
Downtime for the 47-year-old, who is fatally allergic to beestings, is tending to her beehives at home in Oxfordshire.Despite coming close to death once, she says maintaining thehives and watching the co-operation among their inhabitantsoffers a model to follow in business life.
"Beekeeping has become part of my soul; for me it's aboutrisk. Risk, efficiency and productivity", she says.
Blyth applied this attitude to risk and reward when she tookon HSBC's underperforming consumer M&A group in 2007, buildingit into a unit that in 2013 advised on $30 billion worth oftransactions including Unilever's $5.4 billion deal toraise its stake in its Indian unit and China Mengniu Dairy Co's $1.6 billion acquisition of Yashili InternationalHoldings.
DUTY TO OTHER WOMEN
Blyth originally had her sights set on becoming a vet aftergrowing up surrounded by animals.
She studied biochemisty at St Andrews University inScotland, but then trained as a lawyer and then switched fieldsagain, into banking.
Initially, she thought little of being a woman in the worldof finance.
"The environment I grew up in, there's never been womenversus men. It never mattered. You just need to be good," Blythsays.
Blyth's first job was at Kleinwort Benson, where she spent11 years. While there she had four children - and took only twoweeks off after having the first one because she felt that sheneeded to make a point to her male colleagues.
She regrets that decision now, and at HSBC - where only 23percent of senior roles are occupied by women despite themmaking up over half of its 262,000 staff in total - Blythmentors younger female staff.
"I do feel it is my responsibility and duty to spot talentedwomen, and get a great satisfaction reaching down, pulling themup fast, trying to help them avoid all the mistakes I've made."