[ T H O U G H T L E A D E R S H I P | B N Y M E L L O N ' S P E R S H I N G ]
Leading the charge :
Women-led funds galvanising change in the alternative investment industry
While the trend of women-led funds is not a new one , increased visibility and demand in the last two years has helped to drive further diversity in the market . Lisa Lewin , director , prime services at BNY Mellon ’ s Pershing , explores this trend in a discussion with Global Custodian .
How do you view the current landscape of women-led funds ? What ' s been really great is the focus we ' ve seen on women in key senior investment roles over the last 18 to 24 months . Some launches by female hedge fund managers have received a lot of great attention . They ' ve been high profile launches , both because of the pedigree of the women launching the fund and also their ability to raise assets , which gets attention for any new fund manager , but particularly when it ' s a woman leading the charge . The other thing we ' re seeing is a lot of demand being driven by the investor community to make sure there ' s more diversity amongst the managers that they ' re allocating to . That investor interest and demand has really been very positive in helping to carry the momentum for this particular trend .
Does a more diverse team attract investors and allocators when selecting a fund ? Absolutely - the feedback we ' re hearing from investors and allocators is that they ' re really making D & I a more central part of their due diligence process . Obviously , any investor still wants to make sure that it ' s sound from an investment and operational perspective and having diversity doesn ' t preclude that . Some of the feedback that we ' ve heard from different allocators is that , if they ' re in a situation where everything is apples to apples , they might go with a manager that has more diversity .
� . ,
BNY MELLON I PERSHING
On a panel at our annual INSITE conference , one of the things we talked about is that women-led funds or teams led by diverse investment professionals tend to have more diversity in the team than maybe some of their male counterparts .
How could the industry do more to improve and encourage diversity ? And how is Pershing approaching this ? First , it ' s still a very male-driven industry . With that , firms are taking action to foster young female talent - whether it ' s starting women in junior analyst roles and nurturing their career or showing them a potential career path if they stay in the industry . That ' s really important , because it takes time to grow into a senior role . You don ' t become a portfolio manager overnight . At Pershing , we ' ve been really focused on this . As a firm , we have a minority business council , the goal of which is to really help provide diverse clients , of all walks of life , with an opportunity to get exposure and resources .
How do you see diversity in the space developing over the next five to 10 years ? I hope that the focus on this continues and builds momentum . We , as an industry , need to continue to recognise the value of fostering young , diverse talent , help to attract women into the field and help them grow into these roles , giving them exposure . If you ' re a university student , and you ' re a woman , you might not think that you could be a portfolio manager at a hedge fund . It ' s providing exposure around the different opportunities that you can have in this field , and then helping foster their growth if they decide to pursue that .
What would be your message to younger female colleagues and students who might be potentially looking to start a career in this industry ? My advice would really be : if you ' re at all interested , ask questions and explore . I was a history major in college - I never thought I would work in finance , that was probably the farthest thing from my mind . Even when I joined the industry , I was in prime brokerage sales - what does that do ? Am I going door-to-door selling vacuums to people ? There are so many different types of career paths that you could take . It ' s really a great industry that provides a lot of opportunities to meet interesting people , to learn , to be challenged , with lots of benefits that can be exciting to young people . Finally , don ' t allow yourself to be intimidated . It can be intimidating to walk into a meeting and be the only woman in the room , but that also provides you with a great opportunity to flourish and show how you add differentiated value .
Fund Services Annual 2022 globalcustodian . com 27