Arlene Isaacs-Lowe

Senior Vice President
Moody's Investors Service
New York City

Arlene Isaacs-Lowe used smart risk taking, innovative thinking and mad math skills to fuel her ascent in the financial sector. A senior vice president with Moody’s Investors Service, Isaacs-Lowe develops financial methodologies to rate and monitor the credit quality and risk profile for a portfolio of financial institutions. She has created several ratings-based products and pioneered a global training for company analysts. Most recently, she oversaw construction of a cutting-edge assessment tool that addresses the current credit crisis in the mortgage industry.

Prior to joining Moody’s, Isaacs-Lowe was a principal and chief financial officer of Equinox Realty Advisors L.L.C., a role in which she secured record returns for her investment clients. She attributes this success to the experience she gained at MetLife Insurance Co., where she implemented an investor-driven financial reporting system for a $7.6 billion debt and equity real estate portfolio and administered an annual budget of $20 million.

Never far from numbers, even in her community service, Isaacs-Lowe works with The Moody’s Foundation to spearhead advances in microfinance for low-income and developing economies. She serves on the board of directors of Enterprise Community Investment Inc., the nation’s largest low-income housing tax-credit indicator that provides financing for affordable housing and community development, and leads its audit, finance and risk-management committees. She also chairs an advisory board of The New York State Society of CPAs and serves on the board of The Executive Leadership Foundation.  

Isaacs-Lowe has a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Howard University and a master’s in business administration from Fordham University. She offers this advice to professionals as a plan of action for today’s harsh economic environment: “Go ahead and do take some risk early in your career. The ability to recover from failure is a great indicator of future success.”