Barron\'s - 09.03.2020

(National Geographic (Little) Kids) #1

24 BARRON’S March9,2020


Mixed Progress

Among financial companies in the Russell 3000, banks have seen the largest increase in the past decade


in the share of women among the five highest-paid executives. There has been almost no change


in the asset-management industry.


30%


Banks-Diversified


Insurance-Diversified


Asset Management


25


20


15


10


5


0


2010 ’11 ’12 ’13 ’14 ’15 ’16 ’17 ’18 ’19


Source: Equilar


incoming class of new bank employ-


ees atCitigroup(ticker: C). “It’s really


the ability to attract the proper in-


bound talent and retain that talent, to


create role models and mentors to look


up to,” says Citi CEO Michael Corbat.


Three top Citi executives are on


our list.


Greater gender diversity is good for


men, too, not least because it tends to


result in better investment returns. In a


study of 3,000 companies globally,


Credit Suisse found that companies in


which women hold 25% of decision-


making roles generate 4% higher cash-


flow returns on investment than the


overall MSCI All Country World In-


dex. Where women accounted for half


of the senior managers, the companies


produced 10% higher cash-flow re-


turns on investment than the index.


T


he lack of racial and ethnic


diversity among women in


finance is even more glaring


than the gap in gender


diversity. According to McKinsey’s


2019 Women in the Workplace study,


conducted in partnership with


LeanIn.Org, women of color account


for a mere 5% of senior vice


presidents at financial companies in


the U.S. and Canada, and 4% of C-


suite occupants. White women, in


contrast, fill 21% of senior-vice-


president roles, and 18% of C-suite


jobs.


Goldman Sachs Group(GS) re-


cently said it won’t take companies


public as of June 30 unless they have


at least one diverse board director; the


bank plans to focus on women. The


numbers help to explain why. Compa-


nies with one diverse board member


saw a 44% increase in their share


price, on average, within a year of


going public, according to Goldman


research, while those with no board


diversity had only a 13% increase.


Says Alison Mass, one of our hon-


orees, who chairs Goldman’s invest-


ment-banking division: “This is a


business imperative, not diversity for


diversity’s sake....This isn’t just about


women. It’s about diversity of


thought, of background, of ethnicity,


of gender....We’re at a moment where


people recognize the business impera-


tive of diverse thinking.”


Our list includes numerous suc-


cessful women in asset management,


among them three of the four women


panelists on theBarron’sRoundtable:


Meryl Witmer of Eagle Capital Part-


ners; Rupal J. Bhansali, who oversees


international and global investing at


Ariel Investments; and Sonal Desai,


head of fixed-income investing at


Franklin Templeton, a unit ofFrank-


lin Resources(BEN). The fourth,


Goldman Sachs advisory director and


senior investment strategist Abby


Joseph Cohen, joins the list in recogni-


tion of her enduring influence and


pioneering career that paved the way


for other women to climb Wall Street’s


ranks in recent decades.


Also on the list are two (unrelated)


Johnsons—Abigail Johnson, CEO of


FMR, the parent of Fidelity, and Jenni-


fer Johnson, President and CEO of


Franklin Resources. Muriel Siebert,


the first woman to hold a seat on the


New York Stock Exchange, in 1967,


died in 2013, but she might have liked


that Stacey Cunningham, president of


the NYSE, and Adena Friedman, pres-


ident and CEO of Nasdaq, are on our


list.


In addition, you’ll find women like


Carla Harris, who have held promi-


nent roles in the private sector and the


public arena. Harris, vice chairman of


wealth management at Morgan Stan-


ley, chaired the National Women’s


Business Council during the Obama


administration. “I was very proud of


having gotten that appointment by


President Obama,” Harris says, add-


ing that she feels “very strongly that it


is your responsibility [to give back] at


every stage.”


We’ve also included women who


advocate tirelessly for investors, such


as Barbara Roper of the Consumer


Federation of America, and Suze Or-


man, an expert in personal finance.


And we’ve honored leaders in


environmental, social, and corporate


governance–focused investing, such


as Anne Simpson, director of board


governance and strategy at the Cali-


fornia Public Employees’ Retirement


System, the nation’s largest pension


fund, and Mindy Lubber, CEO and


president of the nonprofit Ceres. Both


are key architects of the influential


investor group Climate Action 100+,


which seeks to ensure that companies


disclose climate-change risk.


WhileBarron’sselection process


focused mainly on the professional


achievements of the women on our


list, we also learned much about their


outside interests through nomina-


tions and interviews. Not surpris-


ingly, in view of their own experi-


ences, many are active mentors of


other employees, and involved with


organizations that promote financial


literacy among young women and


encourage more women to seek ca-


reers in finance.


“I did not realize that my experience


of having intuitively understood money


from a very young age wasn’t the expe-


rience of other women out there,” says


Ariel’s Bhansali, who speaks fre-


quently at universities in the hope of


steering students to careers in finance.


“We all need to do more.”


Y


oudon’thavetogobackto


Hetty Green’s era to find a


time when women were rari-


ties on Wall Street—and of-


ten unwelcome, at that. Just a few


decades ago, it wasn’t unusual for


young women starting their careers to


be advised to remove their engage-


ment rings, to increase the likelihood


of a job offer. When Joyce Chang, the


chair of global research at J.P. Mor-


gan, started as a sovereign credit ana-


lyst in the 1980s, she says, “I’d see a


look of complete dismay from govern-


ment officials that they’d been sent


this young woman to write about


their country.”


And when BlackRock Vice Chair-


man Barbara Novick began her career


on Wall Street in the early 1980s,


prior to co-founding the firm in 1988,


“there were zero women who were


partners, managing directors, or prin-


cipals, and no role models to look at,”


she recalls. “It wasn’t uncommon to


be the only woman in the room.”


Novick, who played a critical role


in guiding BlackRock through the


post-financial-crisis regulatory envi-


ronment, recently announced that


she’ll be stepping down from her cur-


rent role, and will become a senior


advisor at the firm. She says she still


encounters bias, but that “my ap-


proach has always been to stay fo-


cused on results.”


That seems good advice in any in-


dustry, and especially pertinent to the


influential women on our list. After all,


that’s how they made it to the top.B


“I did not realize that my


experience of having intuitively


understood moneyfrom a very


young age wasn’t the experience


of other women out there. We all


need to do more.”Rupal J. Bhansali, Ariel Investments

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