BNY Mellon Wealth Management Hosts "Game Changers" Boston Event

BNY Mellon Wealth Management, a global investment management and investment services company, hosted Girls Who Invest Founder and Chair Seema R. Hingorani for an interactive discussion as part of its “Game Changers” speaker series. At the event, held on November 2 at the BNY Mellon Wealth Management offices in Boston, Hingorani discussed Girls Who Invest’s mission to increase the number of women in asset management. The discussion was moderated by Vicary Graham, BNY Mellon Wealth Management president, New England.

While fields such as academia, medicine and law have become increasingly more diverse, asset management has lagged behind. In fact, over the last six years, the number of female investment managers in the U.S. has fallen. Today, diversity in asset management worldwide is at a startling low, with women and minorities running just 1.1% of the industry’s $71.4 trillion of assets[1]. Hingorani is committed to increasing both the supply and demand sides of the issue, with a goal of having 30 percent of the world’s investable capital managed by women by the year 2030.

When Hingorani was CIO for New York City Retirement Systems ($160 billion in assets), she recognized the dearth of women and minorities on investment teams, as well as the pipeline problem holding the industry back. She founded non-profit Girls Who Invest in 2015, in order to provide more college-aged women with the education, experience and community they need to launch a successful career in the industry. To date, Girls Who Invest has empowered 382 young women, sending a total of 90 undergraduates through their flagship 10-week Summer Intensive Program and another 292 through two additional online learning programs which launched this summer.

In her remarks Hingorani highlighted why it is critically important to bring diversity to the stewardship of capital and the solutions needed to change the face of the industry.

“We were honored to offer our guests a glimpse into the important work Seema is doing to inspire more girls and women to choose a career in investment management,” said Graham. “Her work to grow the pipeline of talented and motivated young women and prepare them with the knowledge and experience necessary to succeed is crucial to the future of our industry. We are pleased she was willing to share her insights and perspectives with BNY Mellon Wealth Management clients and guests.”

“During my time with the New York City Pension Funds, I heard from the leadership of many asset management firms that they wanted to diversify their investment teams, but they weren’t getting resumes from women. So I decided it was time to fix this issue. And that is what we have been doing through Girls Who Invest. We find and train the best and brightest young college women from diverse backgrounds across the country and secure for them paid internships at leading asset management firms around the world. It’s a simple approach and it seems to be working well which is very exciting,” said Hingorani.

Now in its second year, the “Game Changers” series explores women’s entrepreneurial and leadership successes through conversations with exceptional women who have forged their own paths and have insights to share.

[1] From the Bella Research Group, Diverse Asset Management Project Firm Assessment, May 2017.