The Diversity Challenge: How Will The Investment Industry Evolve Ten Years From Now?

Tineke Frikkee, head of UK Equities, Waverton Investment Management 

Right now, the 2029 intake of investment juniors is about 12 years old. Let's imagine these girls and boys equate their mother working with their father working.

Let's imagine these girls and boys are taught basic money management during secondary school by both female and male teachers.

Let's imagine these young women and men feel equally capable at investing their own money as well as pursuing an investment career. That's when these young adults join our industry.

In the meantime, it has become more common to have female chairs, CEOs and CFOs leading listed companies and investment firms.

We have more female investors managing their own wealth as well as larger parts of clients' money.

So, when a female investment professional is interviewed in 2029, it is no longer about "How does she balance this with her family?" but about "How did she become so successful?"

Charlotte Baenninger, head of fixed income, UBS Asset Management

In 10 years' time I would like to see more senior women in top positions. Women who have been promoted to leadership roles through systems that are fair and objective.

The strong women I know want to be recognised for their skillset, hard work, quality of work, persistence, performance, passion and compassion, not because of quotas or targets for promoting women.

At the same time, I want to see more invested from the industry to create an inclusive workplace environment, developing line manager capabilities to actively encourage employees to talk about and support career ambitions – especially for women.

Diverse teams better understand and relate to the needs of our clients and an inclusive work environment attracts high-quality people, factors that are be beneficial for the entire organisation.

In 10 years, my vision is for gender diversity in the workplace to be commonplace – such as the female voting rights in my beautiful country, Switzerland – it came late very late, but no one questions it anymore.   

Alexandra Jackson, manager, Rathbone UK Opportunities fund

In 2029, female investors will be household names. Women and minorities will receive their fair share of venture capital and no-one will assume they are the coat check.

Women will match men on boards and execs, and on the trading floor performance will be more important than facetime.

In 10 years, no one will wonder whether a woman can be as good as a man, success will be more than AUM growth or profitability and women will not have to work twice as hard to get half as far.

The gender pay gap will be passé, parents and carers will be appropriately valued, and we will never get asked what it is like to be a woman in investment ever again.

Victoria Hasler, head of research, Square Mile Investment Consulting & Research 

Since starting in the industry one of the things that I have genuinely enjoyed has been watching the diversity of the workforce grow.

Diversity to me means different ways of thinking and looking at things, different angles on problems and different insights into investments. I hope that in the future we will celebrate diversity more and more.

Women bring different views and ways of working and this should be valued, not because it is better necessarily, but simply because it is different.

We all know the diversification benefits that uncorrelated investments bring to portfolios, so why should we look at our teams any differently?

It is vitally important to always employ the best person for the job, but best seldom means the same as you already have.

Over the next 10 years, my hope is that women will not have to fit in with their male colleagues, but rather can be themselves, and in doing so improve the outcome for everyone.

Kate Elliot, senior ethical researcher, Rathbone Greenbank Investments 

I have been very fortunate to have spent my career as part of a team that was established by a woman and which has a fairly equal representation of men and women at all levels.

But this is not reflected in the world beyond my office, where I have come across too many signals that subtly or even explicitly reinforce the idea of women being outsiders in the industry. 

I would love to say that my vision for women in investment in 10 years' time is that they will hold half of senior management and board positions. But, despite areas of good progress being made, sadly parity will take more time. 

Instead, I hope that women beginning their careers in 2029 will never have to be the only woman on a committee or at an industry event, will never question whether to send an all-female team to a new business pitch, and will ultimately be in no doubt that the investment industry is a place for them.

Annabel Brodie-Smith, communications director, Association of Investment Companies

I may well be over-optimistic, but in ten years' time I hope we no longer need International Women's Day.  Perhaps it will be International Men's Day instead? (Yes, that may be going too far, but change is underway.)

Just over ten years ago at the end of December 2007 the headlines were, "AIC appoints first female chair", when Carol Ferguson became the organisation's chairman.

In 2017 the AIC appointed its current chairman, Rachel Beagles, and I'm pleased to say there was no mention of the word woman in the headlines, although the articles mentioned that she was the third female chairman of the Association.

This is progress and my vision is that in ten years' time, so many women will be appointed to high profile positions in investment, that the fact that they are a woman will not be worth mentioning. Roll on International Men's Day!

Emma Halley, head of portfolio management, Fulcrum Asset Management

By 2030, I hope there will be equal opportunities at every level, which means attracting women from an early age and breaking popular ideas about finance being just an industry for Wolf of Wall Street characters.

For that to happen, we need to ensure women are well represented in the right roles, and to not always focus on statistics.

I disagree with hard targets, which can end up pushing people towards less productive positions, and there is research from Norway which suggests it is unclear whether quotas are effective. 

Firms that do not champion equality are likely to become the minority, with flexible working hours and shared paternity leave being the norm.

However, I would like to see this change stemming from the business benefits following diversity, rather than PR brownie points which might be the case today.

There is evidence that gender inclusiveness has positive effects on a firm's value and financial stability. It is not just a good thing, but it is good for business too.

Helen Steers, partner at Pantheon and co-founder of Level 20

I would like us to have more than doubled the representation of women in all senior roles within private equity firms from the current level of around 10% to over 20%.

An issue already being actively addressed by a number of firms is that insufficient young women choose private equity in the first place.

Education outreach activities at schools and universities are tackling this: private equity as an industry is making strides and taking engagement initiatives to promote our industry as offering an enjoyable, sustainable and fulfilling career.

But to get there, private equity firms will need to understand and embrace the values and factors that attract, nurture and retain young talent, as well as develop a cross-generational culture where each can learn from the other.

In 2019, there is an encouraging-sized cohort of women aged under 35 working within private equity and in a decade, many of them should be ready for or have senior level responsibility.

Ashley Lynn, head of fixed income, Orbis Investments

This industry can be a fantastic place for women to work. It's not like Hollywood: it does not matter what you look like or what people think of you – if you can beat the market, you win.

Whether you do that wearing a three-piece suit and tie or a leather jacket and a mohawk – the numbers don't lie. That's incredibly empowering.

In an industry that is infamous for groupthink and homogeneity, being different can be a real competitive advantage.

At Orbis, we try to recruit people with diverse backgrounds and experiences because their unique perspectives can give us an edge.

Investment firms that embrace people with alternative experiences and mindsets can excel–but to attract and retain diverse talent they need to be prepared to think differently themselves.

For example, when it comes to gender diversity, successful firms realize that women often place particular value on certain benefits – things such as flexibility or on-site childcare. 

Firms should be open-minded and take a long-term view when crafting solutions that work for a wide range of people.

The real trick is getting non-traditional candidates exposure to the industry and getting them in the door. Once they are inside, the beauty of this industry is that it is extremely objective.

It doesn't matter if you look different than other managers. But if you think differently, that can actually generate alpha and make a real difference for clients. At the end of the day, that is what matters most.