The Business and Social Case for Leadership Diversity in Alternative Investments is Clear

The Business and Social Case for Leadership Diversity in Alternative Investments is Clear

In the space of two days, I've been asked to speak about Diversity in Management Roles at the Impact Investment Forum on May 4, 2016 and was interviewed by an online tech magazine about women in venture capital. I am by no means an expert on diversity in alternative investments, but I am deeply, deeply interested in diversity and am personally impacted.

The lack of diversity at leadership levels in the careers I chose (public accounting, investment banking and corporate finance, alpine ski instruction, and alternative investments and venture capital) is something that was noticed, but generally went unspoken.

The Dutch bank I worked for in the mid-2000s made the most effort and was fairly inclusive as far as commercial and investment banking institutions go. There were luncheons with female senior leaders for us middle-managers to learn from and aspire to be like. I remember a small group meeting with 4 or 5 of my female colleagues to talk about diversity within our team. But whenever our female outside legal counsel invited their female banking clients for a evening out, my male colleagues booed and hissed, wondering why they were being excluded.

It wasn't until I relocated to Vancouver, Canada in 2011 (and by this point, I was knee-deep in the impact investment industry), that I felt I could possibly do something about the lack of female senior leaders, influencers, and decision-makers within the finance and investment industry. In Vancouver, there is a strong community of people and organizations committed to supporting entrepreneurs who are women. There isn't such a substantial community to support women leaders in alternative investments.

In 2014, I launched an angel fund (or micro-VC fund) that has so far invested in four ventures - all led by women CEOs. The fund itself is women-led - me and Lally Rementilla (lead investor in the fund) comprise the Board and make investment decisions. And out of 17 investors currently, 14 are women representing 80% of the capital. It is a small evergreen fund - intentionally so because I launched with startup principles in mind. I found my early adopters (the founding shareholders), raised capital, deployed it, and went back out to market to attract more investors with a portfolio in hand and confidence around execution of the vision and strategy.

It is a success so far because I have found mission-investor fit and am executing on the intended vision. Another metric of success is that I had a baby 25 days after the first close happened. To one audience, I speak about this proudly - they are amazed and inspired. But there is still an audience that doesn't understand this achievement, this balance I've struck, and if anything may doubt the effectiveness of the fund because the fund is not the only thing I'm focused on. If anything, the portfolio of things that get my attention is very intentionally crafted. Time is precious and finite. So I make sure that I'm spending time on things that I am committed to, where I can make a difference, serve others, and deliver value. I prioritize what matters and that bodes well for my investors, the people I partner with, and my family. The truth is, practically every woman I know is juggling. They are juggling work, life, family (with kids or without), self, and their causes. There is no right or wrong to this, but rather I believe in making space for people and their aspirations and that it's great when people are empowered enough to make choices.

I shared the following links with the writer from the online tech magazine. I thought I'd make a list and keep a running catalogue of resources about gender diversity in alternative investments.

The research ranges from:

  • women are woefully under-represented at partnership levels of venture capital firms to
  • more female representation in VC will lead to more female entrepreneurs getting funded (although others would challenge this finding) to
  • women-led alternative investment funds outperform for their investors to
  • ventures with diverse leadership teams (including a female founder) outperform their male-led peers.

The business and social case for diversity is clear, yet many are still debating these issues. I wrote about ways companies can build more diverse technical teams and many of these ideas apply to other business areas including leadership and including the investment industry.

I'm a firm believer in leading by doing. Pique Fund was not created just to invest in any ventures led by women. We wanted Pique Fund to demonstrate that business culture within the investment industry itself could benefit from diversity and to demonstrate the type of success a female-led fund and strategy could deliver. Pique Fund was created to deliver financial returns and to help people through the products, services, and business cultures of the companies we invest in. As a business and investment strategy, we believed investing in promising women-led ventures could deliver outcomes that please our investors.


And now for the research:

  1. The first comprehensive study on women in venture capital and their impact on female founders (TechCrunch, 2016)
  2. Wall Street has a problem with women. Here’s why you should worry (Meredith Jones, World Economic Forum, 2015)
  3. http://www.babson.edu/news-event... (Babson College, 2014)
  4. Gender and Investing: Where Are All the Women (Pique Ventures, socialfinance.ca, 2013)
  5. First Round: 10 Year Project (First Round Capital, 2015)
  6. White Paper: High Performance Entrepreneurs (Illuminate Ventures, 2010)

Pique Ventures is an impact investment and management company. We help leaders and CEOs make investment decisions confidently, particularly in high-stakes situations.

Pique Fund is an early-stage venture fund, investing in impactful BC-based businesses, focusing on women-led ventures. Contact me to learn how you too can diversity your investment portfolio and invest in diversity.

Bonnie Foley-Wong is the author of Integrated Investing: Impact Investing with Head, Heart, Body, and Soul - coming to an online book retailer near you in Fall 2016.

Alexandra T. Greenhill, MD

Physician CEO innovator | Author and speaker | TEDx | Focused on 10x impact | "AI in Clinical Medicine"(Wiley, 2023)

7y

So true! And a great round up of articles worth reading.

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