Brian Delaney

Future IM/Pact has announced the expansion of its wealth management partnerships with Morgan Stanley, Morgans Financial, Evans & Partners, and Canaccord Genuity joining the initiative. These firms join foundation private wealth partner, LGT Crestone, strengthening Future IM/Pact’s ability to inspire and support women and diverse talent to pursue careers in investment advice.

Future IM/Pact founder, Yolanda Beattie, said with Australia’s private wealth market projected to reach $3 trillion by 2025, the role of advisers in influencing investment decisions is increasing.

Moreover, female clients are set to be a growing proportion of this market with women forecast to inherit over 65% of the projected $5 trillion intergenerational wealth transfer by 2034. Women are also growing their own wealth at a faster rate than men, and have a preference for gender diverse advice teams1. Yet, Future IM/Pact’s Women in Wealth research found only 13% of senior advisers are women.

“Our passion has always been to bring more women into the capital allocation process, which has such a huge impact on the global economy and society. Australia’s private wealth market matches the superannuation sector for size and significance, and we’re thrilled to be enabling this career pathway for more talented women,” she said.

Five private wealth partners will provide greater scale to connect women at university and in their early-career with top wealth management firms, equipping them with the knowledge, skills and industry connections to pursue this rewarding and important career path.

Industry leader Brian Delaney joins Future IM/Pact

Former QIC executive and current chair of the Fund Executives Association Limited (FEAL), Brian Delaney, has joined Future IM/Pact as Chair of its Advisory Board. With over three decades of experience in investment management, Mr Delaney will play a pivotal role in expanding Future IM/Pact’s partner base and push into career and leadership development programs that target mid and senior level women in the investment sector.

Mr Delaney said he looked forward to drawing on his extensive experience working across a wide range of roles in Australia’s superannuation, investment and wealth management sectors – where he has witnessed first-hand the opportunities and challenges for women building front-line investment careers.

“I’ve long been frustrated with the lack of progress in improving the number of women in investment decision-making roles, and I wanted to play a more active part in the solution. Future IM/Pact’s model of bringing industry leaders together to build the pipeline from the grassroots through to more senior roles appealed as a way for me to make a tangible impact,” Mr Delaney said.

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Yolanda Beattie

Australia’s private wealth sector must deepen its commitment to attracting and developing future female investment advisers to meet the changing demands of clients, with women set to be the primary beneficiaries of the greatest wealth transfer in Australia’s history. Collaborating to address structural barriers will be key, according to a new report by industry initiative, Future IM/Pact.

Future IM/Pact’s report – Women in Wealth: The status of gender equality in Australian private wealth firms – finds that women currently make up 25% of roles in the advice career stream, with gender balance at entry level positions falling dramatically at the adviser levels, where women comprise just 19% of advisers and 13% of senior advisers.​

Future IM/Pact Founder Yolanda Beattie said that while overall gender parity is possible by 2030 if the industry appoints, promotes and retains women at equal rates to men, the key adviser levels are moribund with women leaving at almost the same rate as they’re joining, largely due to talent poaching across firms. At this rate, it will be 2047 before parity is reached at the senior adviser level.

“Increasing the number of female private wealth advisers will take bold leadership, a long term commitment, and collaborating across industry to tackle the barriers that stop women from successfully applying for these roles that in many ways are ideally suited to them.​

“Once they overcome the barriers to securing an advice role, female advisers love applying their intellectual curiosity, passion for markets and entrepreneurial ambition to developing deep and lifelong client relationships and making a profound impact on their client’s lives,” Beattie said.

As highlighted by JBWere’s 2024 report, The Growth of Women and Wealth, women are poised to inherit over 65% of the projected $5 trillion wealth transfer by 2034. Women are growing their own wealth at a faster rate than men too. Women’s preference to work with female advisers presents a compelling business case for the industry to tackle the barriers that women in wealth face on their path to advice roles.

Systemic barriers exist

The report reveals barriers exist at the level of system, leader and self, making it disproportionately challenging for women to thrive in comparison to their male counterparts.

Limited promotion of the profession at universities, long career progression timelines that collide with starting a family, male-dominated environments, and subtle practices that exclude or diminish women’s contributions combine to create environments where women are three times more likely than men to exit at the key client service associate level – the step before they move into an adviser role.

The challenges of balancing family responsibilities and navigating male-centric networking events further exacerbate the situation, often leading to a higher attrition rate among women, particularly at the senior associate levels.

LGT Crestone Chief Operating Officer, Michelle Inns, said her firm was committed to working across industry to tackle these barriers. “As an industry, we must recognise and validate the unique challenges women face, and support and incentivise senior advisers to develop future female advisers while creating the team environment where they can flourish.”​

Beattie explains shifting the mindset around parental leave is key.

“Having time off to have babies just as your career and responsibilities are ramping up is undoubtedly hard for the mums and their teams. But this is a very short period in what will be a multi-decade long career. Leaders and teams need to adopt a ‘we make it work’ mindset, with the support of the organisation via additional resources,” she said.​

Tailored training and development programs targeting confidence and career conviction, networking and sales must also be a priority.

“The nuances of how women network and cultivate connections differ from men, necessitating training and development programs that acknowledge and leverage these differences rather than attempting to fit women into a predefined mould traditionally occupied by men,” she said.

Promoting private wealth careers to young women, and supporting them to launch their careers through mentoring and advocacy is another key part of the solution. With the addition of new partners to working alongside current private wealth partner LGT Crestone, Future IM/Pact’s established platform is ideally placed to unite private wealth firms and amplify their efforts to inspire and enable the next generation.

Read the report: The Growth of Women and Wealth

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Yolanda Beattie

The industry initiative dedicated to building gender-balance within Australia’s largest investment managers continues to grow, as Future IM/Pact announces an exclusive recruitment partner, and signs three more influential local investors.

Future IM/Pact has announced an exclusive partnership with Platinum Pacific Partners, leading financial services recruitment specialists.

Set to increase the impact of both organisations’ efforts to boost the representation of women in investment management, the partnership builds on Future IM/Pact and Platinum Pacific Partners’ shared passion for helping women launch fulfilling front-office careers.

Future IM/Pact Founder Yolanda Beattie said this partnership will accelerate Future IM/Pact’s ability to build a pipeline of future female investors who are well-placed for entry level investment roles.

“Because few investment teams recruit graduates, these roles usually require 2 to 5 years’ work experience. This strategic partnership allows us to connect with more exceptional women in key feeder roles like investment banking and corporate finance, while sharing the career insights Platinum Pacific Partners have gained over decades to help early career women land sought-after analyst roles,” she said.

Victoria Biggs and Meredith Jordan, Platinum Pacific Partners’ Founders, welcomed the partnership to deepen their impact on gender diversity in funds management.

“We see first-hand the industry’s desire to recruit more women and we know we must deepen the talent pool over time to meet the challenge. This partnership allows us to amplify our current efforts to champion female representation in finance,” Ms Biggs said.

New partners, new pathways

Separately, Future IM/Pact has welcomed three new partners to the program, in the form of the $70 billion profit-to-member super fund Rest, $19 billion international equity manager Platinum Asset Management, and leading private wealth manager LGT Crestone.

LGT Crestone Chief Operating Officer Michelle Inns said the firm was delighted to join Future IM/Pact as the first wholesale investor investment advice business.

Ms Innes added, “Investing on behalf of family offices, high net worth investors and for- purpose organisations presents incredible career pathways for women. Future IM/Pact helps us grow our female talent pool so we can continue to build high performing and diverse teams.”

Platinum Head of Investments Douglas Isles added the partnership with Future IM/Pact will help Platinum support more high potential women to launch an investing career.

“Thinking differently is the cornerstone of our investment philosophy and gender diversity is one way we can bring new perspectives to find the best investment ideas. We’re excited to join Future IM/Pact and are eager to play a leading in role in helping young women to build an investment management career,” Mr Isles said.

Rest Chief Investment Officer Andrew Lill said the profit-to-member super fund would use its partnership with Future IM/Pact to provide further opportunities for young women aspiring to investment management careers.

“Rest represents more than one million women in our membership, and are dedicated to promoting greater gender equality. Our partnership with Future IM/Pact builds on our existing program of offering internships to women in actuarial studies, while also helping us source great female talent for our investment team. It’s also consistent with Rest’s commitment to contribute to five of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, including ‘Gender Equality’,” said Mr Lill.

“Widespread industry collaboration is essential for tackling the entrenched structural and cultural barriers that stop women from becoming professional investments. With 23 partners now working with us to address these issues, we’re better placed than ever to shift the dial on this issue,” Ms Beattie said.

Since launching in 2018, Future IM/Pact has provided over 350 women with experience working in investments through its virtual intern program, mentoring circles, investment competition and intern and grad placements with partners.

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Yolanda Beattie

Future IM/Pact has announced four new partners of its program to improve diversity in Australian investing: the $105bn UniSuper, $150bn Aware Super, $83bn Pinnacle Investment Management and $2bn TDM Growth Partners.

The announcements means six of the top 10 Australian asset owners are now backing the program (ART, Aware Super, UniSuper, QIC, VFMC and HESTA).

Founded in 2018 by Yolanda Beattie, Future IM/Pact connects Australia’s leading investment houses with women at university and in their early career, and informs them about a career in investing. Events, mentoring and investment competitions inspire and engage young investors, creating a talent pool for partners’ intern, graduate and analyst roles.

Aware Super Chief Investment Officer Damian Graham said as one of the nation’s largest superannuation funds, Aware not only acknowledged the link between diversity and stronger investment outcomes, but was committed to redressing the gender super gap through a holistic diversity strategy.

“To address imbalances such as Australia’s 14.1% gender pay gap and its resulting erosion of women’s retirement security, we recognise the need for a wide range of experience and perspectives to make the best investment decisions for our more than 1.1 million members.

“Currently we have around four times as many men as women apply for investment roles, and we are actively championing initiatives so our industry focuses on attracting women to front-line investment roles.

“It’s also why we are committed to working with our peers through Future IM/Pact.”

Better diversity, better outcomes

UniSuper CIO John Pearce said the fund’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) was a key component of its talent management strategy.

“Different perspectives, experiences and skills are key to high performing teams. With a significant amount of funds managed in house, we have a lot of scope to develop exceptional talent, which in turn ensures we best deliver for our members. ” Mr Pearce said.

Pinnacle Founder and Managing Director Ian Macoun said building a groundswell of female talent at the grassroots level had to be part of the investment industry’s approach to addressing its lack of gender diversity.

“Pinnacle has been supporting and inspiring great female talent for several years through scholarships and internships. There are so many exciting pathways a career in finance can take and the highly diverse nature of our global multi-affiliate business provides great opportunity for young professionals.

We have a responsibility to promote these pathways, particularly to up and coming female talent, and ensure students and graduates have the support they need for a long and successful career in finance. Our partnership with Future IM/Pact will help achieve this and ultimately promote greater gender diversity in Finance.”

Head of TDM Growth Partners Foundation, Roly Clifton-Bligh, said people and culture was a critical element of the fund’s investment process and joining Future IM/Pact was consistent with that philosophy.

“We only invest in companies that have a proven track record in attracting great people and building a strong culture that supports people to do their best work. We know DEI is a key ingredient of that recipe. Future IM/Pact helps us walk that talk by deepening the talent pool of great women working across our industry,” he said.

Future IM/Pact Founder Yolanda Beattie said momentum was clearly growing across the sector. “We’re seeing more superfunds and investment management firms recognise the importance of working across industry to build the pipeline of female investors,” she said.

“Having 20 industry partners on board gives us more opportunities to share with our growing pool of female talent, more mentors to support their career journey and more funding to inspire a passion among more women about a career in this hugely influential industry.”

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Kate Galvin

State-owned asset manager Victorian Funds Management Corporation (VFMC) and CFA Societies Australia are the latest organisations to join Future IM/Pact – an industry campaign building a pipeline of future female investors.

The new partners join as Future IM/Pact expands into the early career segment by nurturing a talent pool of women with two to five years’ experience in key feeder roles such as investment banking, management consulting and corporate finance. Called Accelerate, the new early career push follows four years of Future IM/Pact work focused on engaging women at university.

VFMC Chief Executive Officer Kate Galvin explained the partnership offered a valuable opportunity for her team to mentor the next generation.

“After years of targeted recruitment, we now have a breadth of great female talent not only in our investment and executive teams, but across our whole organisation. Our high- performing team is committed to supporting the next generation of diverse talent.

“Partnering with Future IM/Pact will help VFMC continue to grow our female talent pipeline and move even closer to our goal of being one of the first Australian fund managers to achieve gender balance,” she said.

CFA Societies Australia chief executive Lisa Carroll said partnering with Future IM/Pact would support their efforts to increase the number of women who undertake their Chartered Financial Analyst qualifications and thrive in finance roles.

“Supporting more women to launch their investing career is one way we can inspire more women to complete the sought after CFA designation and address the longstanding gender imbalance across the industry.

“Partnering with Future IM/Pact gives us a channel to both women at university and women in their early career who may not have considered this career path otherwise,” she said.

Program gathers momentum

Future IM/Pact founder, Yolanda Beattie, said the new partners bring critical support as the project expands its ambition to increase the depth of the female investment talent pool.

“The women we engage are motivated to build a career where they can impact big issues and apply their smarts towards purposeful outcomes. Investing for the benefit of people in their state is an appealing career proposition and we’re excited to be profiling incredible VFMC talent to showcase this opportunity.

“We’re excited to be working with CFA Societies Australia to take this message to their candidates and then advocate for their potential with our partners. I’m confident this collaboration will bolster both of our efforts to make a difference on this issue,” she said.

Since launching in 2018, Future IM/Pact has provided over 370 women with experience working in investments through its virtual intern program, mentoring circles, investment competition and intern and grad placements with partners.

In November 2021 Future IM/Pact released a White Paper Where are all the Women? How the Australian investment management industry is grappling with its lack of gender diversity and ideas to accelerate progress that outlined a range of structural barriers, as well as breakthrough opportunities, for women in one of Australia’s largest and fastest growing sectors.

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Yolanda Beattie

Australia’s investment management sector remains one of the most male dominated professions in the country – but changing dynamics are finally seeding change for women seeking a career as professional investors, according to a new paper released by female talent incubator Future IM/Pact.

According to the paper “Where are all the Women? How the Australian investment management industry is grappling with its lack of gender diversity and ideas to accelerate progress”, consolidation amongst Australian super funds and the trend for funds to manage assets internally is proving key to breaking down traditional structural barriers which has seen Australia lagging badly on the global diversity stage.

While this is positive news – Future IM/Pact founder Yolanda Beattie said critical structural barriers remained across the sector as fund managers struggled to both attract and retain women investors.

The white paper outlines a range of barriers preventing women entering and excelling in one of Australia’s largest and fastest-growing sectors. These barriers start at university where women are less likely to know about investment management as a career option; a perceived lack of confidence and passion in competing for roles; lack of mentors and sponsorship during early careers; and critical structural barriers due to fund managers having small front-office investment teams with low turnover and junior analysts requiring 2-3 years relevant experience.

Future IM/Pact founder, Yolanda Beattie said large super funds were able to offer a larger range and number of front-office investing roles across bigger investment teams, creating more junior roles and clearer career pathways that are key to attracting and developing junior female talent.

Super funds and asset managers support structural change

One of Australia’s largest superannuation funds, Sunsuper, managing more than $94 billion, has joined Future IM/Pact to help tackle diversity challenges faced by front-office investment teams.

In partnership with Future IM/Pact, Sunsuper aims to reduce the barriers to entry or re-entry for women wanting a future in investment management.

As a partner, Sunsuper plans to bolster its pipeline of female talent through mentorships and connections with women at university and related industries.

Sunsuper’s Chief Investment Officer, Ian Patrick, said: “We know that valuing and including diverse perspectives helps us make better investment decisions for our more than 1.4 million members, and attracting more women into the team is part of that endeavour. The collective effort of Future IM/Pact increases the visibility and reach we can have with young women who are exploring career options, making it easier for us to attract them to our Fund.”

Future IM/Pact launches early career program: Accelerate

Responding to growing demand from industry for help finding women with 2-5 years’ experience, Future IM/Pact is launching an early career program – Accelerate. Accelerate finds smart, numerate women working in traditional feeder roles and gives them exposure to industry leaders as well as development experiences that help them launch their front-office investing career.

Future IM/Pact also welcomes Munro Partners and Australian Ethical to its growing partner base.

“Too many funds believe they’re too small and their staff turnover is too low to have an impact on this issue. These are examples of funds who are determined to add to a collective effort that overcomes the issue of size,” Beattie said.

“Men are up to four times more likely than women to apply for junior analyst roles and when they do, they’re more likely to demonstrate the sought-after attributes of passion and conviction,” Beattie said.

“Because most funds only hire candidates with a minimum of 2-3 years’ experience, it’s not enough to just engage them at university. We need to be engaging women at scale in the traditional feeder roles of investment banking, management consulting, corporate finance and law, as well as at university,” she said.

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IM/Pact winners and judges.

Students from Australia’s leading universities have blown away industry veterans at the first national student investment competition run by Future IM/Pact – an industry initiative aimed at attracting more diverse talent into investment teams.

Held last night at Bloomberg’s Sydney headquarters, the final round of the 2019 National Investment Competition pitted teams of four students from Australia’s top universities who battled to solve investment problems across one of four topical themes: infrastructure investing, social impact investing, global equities and Australian equities.

Last night’s presentations saw teams from Monash University, Melbourne University, University of NSW and Macquarie University present their pitches to a judging panel comprising industry leaders from Cbus, QIC, Yarra Capital Management, Mercer, NAB Asset Management and Bloomberg.

Importantly, every team entering the competition needed to have at least two female members.

The winning team from Monash University presented a pitch on social impact investing, designed by industry super fund HESTA. Detailed modelling, a sound understanding of the investment risks and a clearly articulated impact on the fund were among the reasons the team took the top prize.

All four members won a paid summer internship with a Future IM/Pact industry partner based in their city (see partners p2). The four runner-up teams also won a private lunch with the investment teams from a Future IM/Pact partner.

Female students get on board

Future IM/Pact founder Yolanda Beattie congratulated all the participating teams and commended the University Network of Investment and Trading society (UNIT) for their outstanding support in building awareness of the competition. She said she was thrilled with the level of engagement from female students.

“Despite Australia’s large and thriving investment and superannuation sector, many of our most talented female university students do not consider professional investing as a career option,” Ms Beattie said. “Yet the quality of the thinking and presenting from these students was remarkable, even though many had not heard of investment management before Future IM/Pact introduced them to it,” she said.

The investment competition caps off a successful year for Future IM/Pact, which was launched in July 2018 with the aim of attracting more diverse talent into the heavily male-dominated investment teams of Australia’s super funds and fund managers. The project was launched following 2016 research that found women comprise just 24% of Australia’s investment professionals. It has since attracted support from some of Australia’s most high-profile super funds and asset managers.

Through concerted work with the university sector, Future IM/Pact’s subscription base has increased 200% to 350 highly engaged female students, in addition to over 100 women participating in thought-provoking and insightful industry roundtables and over 120 women registering their interest in the national competition.

“Our 2016 research found female finance students were almost 50% less likely than their male counterparts to consider a career in investments, mostly because they didn’t know enough about it or they felt they wouldn’t fit in.

“We are dissolving that barrier and I’m confident we will achieve our goal of 50/50 junior analyst applicants in the next five years,” Ms Beattie said.

Twenty-seven university teams across Australia made submissions to the national competition which held state heats earlier in October prior to the finals round last night. Seven of the teams were all female.

The program will expand its reach in 2020 with a virtual intern program in partnership with InsideSherpa, giving Future IM/Pact partners exposure to over 50,000 female students.

New partners are able to join the program at any point and contribute to the growth and expansion of the initiative.

Honner is a pro-bono media partner for Future IM/Pact.

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Yolanda Beattie

Diversity initiative Future IM/Pact continues to build support across Australia’s investment management sector, signing three major investment management firms to its growing partner community.

Launched one year ago, Future IM/Pact aims to attract more diverse talent into the investment teams of super funds and fund managers, with an initial focus on appealing to women at university. The project was launched following 2016 research that found women comprise just 24% of Australia’s investment professionals.

Vinva Investment Management, Schroders and Cooper Investments are the latest fund managers to join the campaign aimed. They join a collective of 14 super funds, fund managers and industry participants who are working together to build a passion for investing among young women.

Morry Waked, Vinva’s Executive Chairman and Managing Director, said the firm recognised the importance of attracting more women into the investment management industry, and that it requires a long-term commitment at the grass-roots level.

“We want to try and help more women pursue a career in finance. To be effective and sustainable, this requires us to start working with young women while they are at university.

“Partnering with Future IM/Pact extends, and complements, the existing programs we already have in place supporting young women at the undergraduate level. While we have a very stable and diverse team, we recognise that as an industry we need to do more to help attract and retain talented women. We will do whatever we can, internally and externally, to help make this happen over time,” he said.

Chris Durack, chief executive of Schroders, said building a diverse talent pipeline for the investments team needed an industry wide solution to complement what individual firms can do alone.

“We’re thrilled to be working alongside our clients to create pathways for diverse talent into our industry,” he said.

For Steve Schubert, chief executive of Cooper Investors, Future IM/Pact provides a meaningful opportunity for the fund to engage with the next generation of investors.

“We believe the best investors display the traits of humility and empathy. As these traits are often core strengths of women, we are frustrated so few women seek out this career path. We’re looking forward to having an active role in shifting perceptions and educating more women about the impact they can have on the world as an investor,” he said.

Campaign achieving strong engagement with young women

Future IM/Pact founder Yolanda Beattie said new partners bring funding and scale to grow the campaign, and work experience and employment opportunities to the tens of thousands of students who are engaging with content. The initiative this month released a report on the campaign’s performance in the first half of 2019 [see attached].

“Our active social media presence, on-campus events and industry roundtables are starting to have traction. Our engagement rates on LinkedIn are four times the company average, our subscription base has grown 200% and our Facebook content has reached more than 180,000 women at universities across Australia.

“While it’s still early days, the feedback we’re getting from the aspiring women we meet tells me we can solve this problem – at least at the entry level – in the next five to 10 years if we maintain momentum,” she said.

Beattie said the strong engagement and established relationships with various universities’ societies and faculties bodes well for Future IM/Pact’s upcoming initiative in October – a student investment competition being held in Sydney and Melbourne, where gender balanced teams solve an investment challenge and compete to win a paid internship with a Future IM/Pact partner.

As well as encouraging women to participate and challenge their investment skills, the competition will connect Future IM/Pact partners with a pipeline of much needed female talent who have demonstrated an interest in and understanding of the investment process.

In 2020, Beattie will be ramping up the reach even further with a virtual intern program and group mentoring sessions.

“None of this is possible without the incredible contribution of our partners. These are exceptional organisations who are not only providing much needed funds but also employment opportunities, role models and insights,” Ms Beattie said.

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Yolanda Beattie

Future IM/Pact has signed two new partners ahead of its first major student networking events for 2019 happening in Sydney and Melbourne this week.

Challenger Limited and Macquarie Securities are the latest organisations to join the campaign aimed at attracting more diverse talent into investment management with an initial focus on women. They join 12 other super funds, fund managers and industry participants who are providing a pathway for students and early career aspirants to build their career prospects in this high growth and hugely influential sector.

Chris Plater, Chief Executive and Chief Investment Officer of Challenger Life, said the firm’s decision to join the project reflects their ongoing commitment to building diverse teams.

“We realised that attracting women into our business requires grassroots education about what a career in investments offers. We’re delighted to be working alongside other industry leaders to raise the profile of this profession and provide meaningful opportunities for young people to get a foot in the door,” he said.

For Macquarie Securities Head of Research, Kristen Edmond, the opportunity to work alongside key fund manager clients across their Sydney and Melbourne offices to solve this entrenched issue was a significant drawcard.

“Addressing an industry-wide challenge like this requires collaboration across all aspects of industry. It’s refreshing to be able to partner with our clients to implement practical solutions aimed at building our future talent pipeline,” Edmond said.

Future IM/Pact founder Yolanda Beattie said new partners bring funding and scale to grow the campaign, and work experience and employment opportunities to the hundreds of students who are engaging with the campaign.

“We’re seeing overwhelming demand for our student networking events with over 250 students expected at our events this week and about the same amount having to be turned away due to venue capacity constraints,” she said.

Future IM/Pact will run events on 18 March in Melbourne and 19 March in Sydney aimed at helping students understand the impact that investors have on the economy and the opportunities for young women to build a thriving career in this sector.

The Melbourne keynote speaker is Mark Middleton, Group CEO of Icon Group, a QIC private equity investment. Gail Williamson, Chief Growth Officer for WiseTech Global and Yasmin Allan, Non-Executive Director at the ASX Limited and Cochlear Limited will headline the Sydney event. Panels of investors will also share their career stories at both sessions.

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Launched at an event in Sydney yesterday, Future IM/Pact is a collaboration between Mercer and project partners from across the industry, including AustralianSuper, Cbus Super, Future Fund, HESTA, Magellan, Mercer, NAB Asset Management, Pendal, QIC and Wavestone.

The centerpiece of the project is a website that aims to help university students from all backgrounds and walks of life to understand how they can impact the world as an investment manager, how to start their investing career, and provide specific opportunities to gain exposure to the industry.  Students will also gain access to mentoring projects, networking events, internships and graduate programs through the project partners.

Mercer’s Learning & Inclusion Practice Leader, Yolanda Beattie, said a growing number of industry leaders recognise their ability to build high performing teams depends on attracting and valuing diverse talent, but the majority of teams remain very Anglo-Celtic and male dominated.

“When Mercer started looking into this issue in 2016, CEOs would lament to me how hard it was to attract a diverse candidate slate for investing roles, particularly with respect to women. This initiative aims to change that status quo by taking the long view and building our future talent pipeline from the ground up,” she said

The initiative follows research conducted by Mercer in 2016 which found female finance students were almost 50% less likely than their male counterparts to consider a career in investment management. Not knowing enough about a career in investment management, and a sense they wouldn’t fit in were among the top reasons cited.

Because women are the largest underrepresented cohort in the industry, targeting efforts will initially focus on females. Diversity of thought is the ultimate endgame and so reaching students from different cultural, socioeconomic and educational backgrounds will become a priority over time.

Beattie said achieving diverse, high performing teams also required industry leaders to address the cultural issues that contribute to women feeling less valued and included.

“Through the support of our partners, we have the opportunity and the tools in place to make a real difference. We welcome the support of companies who want to be part of this movement to help shape and grow the talent pool of the future, while opening up new and exciting career opportunities for a broader range of students.

“Ultimately, we want to help organisations and industry leaders drive positive change, while ensuring their workforce thrives,” said Beattie.

Mercer’s 2016 research also found that:

• Three quarters (76%) of investment managers are male, and almost half (48%) are private school educated;
• Female investment managers are up to 30% less likely to be promoted through the ranks and are up to 50% more likely to leave than men;
• 77% of Anglo-Celtic male investment managers feel their manager supports their career ambitions compared to 59% of female investment managers;
• Flexible working is perceived as a career handbrake with 78% of women agreeing that this explains poor diversity.

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