Lipper Alpha Insight - Fund Manager Chat

Jul 25, 2018

The financial services industry is one often indicted for a lack of employee diversity. At the recent Lipper Fund Selector Forum, Jake Moeller moderated a panel which examined this issue. The full panel is showcased here.

Jake was joined by Bev Shah, founder and CEO of CityHive; Maike Currie, Investment Director at Fidelity; and Natalie Kenway, Deputy Editor at Investment Week. The panel outlined the importance and benefits of improving gender, sexuality, ethnicity, disability, and age diversity.

Key points included:

• “Group think” is a huge risk to companies; improved diversity reduces this.
• Cognitive diversity should be a broad objective of all working environments.
• Female role models in the financial industry are too few.
• Quotas and legislation are not always ideal but are important early in the formation of the diversity narrative.
• Diversity formulated as a box-ticking exercise can be counter-productive.
• Fund groups are now much more aware of diversity issues, and the narrative is becoming more popular with the readers of mainstream and trade press.
• Flexibility in the workplace is a strong foundation for improving broad diversity.
• Managers should consider their workplaces as a “community” and encourage networking among its different constituents.
• The fund selector has a key role to play in lobbying fund houses to improving diversity through the request-for-proposal (RFP) process.

Lipper is grateful to the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment for providing this footage.

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Disclaimer: 
This material is provided for as market commentary and for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment research or advice. Thomson Reuters cannot be held responsible for any direct or incidental loss resulting from applying any of the information provided in this publication or from any other source mentioned. Please consult with a qualified professional for financial advice.