champion women
to apply for buy-side
trading jobs
#buysidewomen
T
he #buysidewomen campaign was launched
at the 7 th annual Alpha Trader Forum Global
Summit in London on the 6 th and 7 th February
2019. This initiative was spearheaded by Anita
Karppi, MD, whose career in the financial markets
has spanned over 20 years. It is evident that the ratio of
buy-side women to men is very low in buy-side trading
positions and Anita’s belief is that more women need to
apply for roles to be more equally represented within the
trading community. With initiatives such as State Street
Global Advisors’ #Fearless Girl campaign, there was no
better platform for Anita to launch The Buy-side women
campaign.
Over the 2-day summit, which was attended by 160
global heads and senior equities, fixed income and FX
Cathy Gibson, head of trading at Royal London Asset
Management and Vernita Exum, head of equities (Europe)
at Vanguard. Day 2 saw Louise Drummond, deputy global
head of execution at Aberdeen Investments and Sharon
Ruffles, head of fixed income trading at State Street Global
Advisors taking centre stage.
Discussion over both days resulted in frank and open
dialogue as each of the panellists shared their personal
experiences of how they organise their desks, cope with
the challenges of managing a team and how to get a work
life balance. The panellists engaged with the audience
which stimulated further topics of discussion ranging from
paternity leave for fathers to suggestions of childcare at
work for traders and coping with ‘burn out’. The closed-
door environment allowed the audience to
open up, respond and ask the panel questions
on topics that have previously been viewed as
taboo.
“When girls see other women
doing this job, they feel that
they can do it too”
Xian Zhang, world renowned orchestra conductor
buy-side traders, Anita was joined by ladies who currently
run buy-side trading desks at their firms within these asset
classes. The afternoon session on both days headlined ‘A
head trader’s perspective – organising the trading desk and
managing staff careers’ was led by an all ladies panel which
was a huge success. The first day kicked off with Anita being
joined by Eden Simmer, head of global trading at PIMCO,
18
The discussion also allowed for the audience
to air views, with some responding that the
initiative might be perceived as a “feminist
campaign”.
The initiative, is however about introducing
and encouraging more women to apply for buy-side
trading roles – rather than an employer choosing a
candidate because they are a woman.
Why are there so few women in buy-side trading?
There were a lot of thought-provoking comments that
came from the 2-day discussion on this topic and with the
www.buysideintel.com
Spring 2019