What a busy month May has been, with two Bank Holidays to compete with it seems to have passed by rather quickly!
Highlights from this month have included an inspiring talk at Investec from Taban Shoresh, who gave us an insight into the life of being a child genocide survivor, human rights activist, humanitarian and the founder of The Lotus Flower. If you were unable to make the talk please do visit The Lotus Flower website to see the wonderful work Taban is doing.
The Leverton Team recently spent an afternoon volunteering at Oasis Farm Waterloo, a charity that helps disadvantaged young people. We swapped our workwear for jumpsuits and wellies and had a fun yet rewarding time turning compost, mucking out the animals and planting cucumbers!
I hope you enjoy my pick of this months’ top articles.
‘Nominees revealed for the 2019 Women in Investment Awards!’
A big thank you to those who voted for Leverton, we are delighted to have made it on to the longlist for Contribution to Gender Diversity for a second year running. I enjoyed meeting other nominees at the drinks event earlier this week; as always it will be a tough competition with so many deserving women in the running.
‘Women-led hedge funds try to crack the boys’ club’
It is promising to see that for the first time ever, many of the highest-profile hedge fund launches this year are led by women. I found it frustrating however, that female Asset Managers still struggle to attract investments even as they outperform their male peers. This is possibly due to the ‘boys’ club’ culture that still remains.
‘Closing the gender wealth gap through investment’
This article is interesting as it points out that the gender wealth gap goes far beyond pay inequality. Apparently, women invest far less than men, and, compared with the average single man, the average single woman’s net worth is three times smaller.
‘Fidelity launches fund targeting firms with women in leadership’
It was encouraging to see Fidelity has started a mutual fund that invests in companies with a high percentage of women in leadership positions. The actively managed Women’s Leadership Fund was launched earlier this month and will invest in around 100 companies that have either one-third women board members, a woman on the senior management team or that meet gender diversity initiatives for hiring, retention, paid leave and promotion of women.