In early September, AMC Executive Search hosted a quarterly breakfast event for clients of the firm. These events are designed as focused, informal knowledge sharing and networking events for c30 attendees from across our client channels.

Our latest event focused on Diversity within the Private Markets industry. Over the last 10 years, financial services companies have increasingly focused their hiring and retention efforts on building a more diverse workforce. However, whilst these efforts have had some impact, more needs to be done.

Within Private Markets, allocators are viewing Diversity in their Investment teams as the vital plank of their ESG strategy. Firms need to respond to such business imperatives alongside the broader requirement to better reflect the societies we live in and ensure talent is being attracted into firms regardless of gender, background, sexual orientation or ethnicity.

We kicked off the event with a brief introduction from Navin Raina, Managing Director of AMC Executive Search. This focused on repeating the business imperatives for Diversity in the sector’s investment and fundraising teams, backed up with research findings highlighting key actions that can be taken to start to make a difference.

This was followed by a talk from Eleanor Bucks, COO of Legal & General Capital. Eleanor spoke fluently about the challenges she has faced managing an ever-expanding professional brief alongside personal responsibilities. She also talked through recruiting and retention strategies she has employed in building direct investment teams within Private Markets.

The second half of the event was dedicated to table-based discussions of the issues at hand. These were facilitated by Louise Jack, COO, Macquarie MIDIS (and a recent award winner for Leader of the Year at the Women in Finance Awards ceremony 2019) and Liz Codd, Business Consultant and Coach.

Participants shared their experiences as investment and fundraising leaders in driving diversity in their teams. Stories of success were shared as were strategies for success. There were striking similarities amongst the groups.

Topics for discussion included:

• How are senior leaders across Private Markets promoting diversity in investment teams?
• What are the success factors in managing career steps alongside life choices?
• What are the risks of deal teams remaining too “male, pale and stale”?
• To what extent are investors challenging fund managers on diversity across investments?
• Strategies for building truly diverse investment teams – attraction and retention.

Representatives from AMP Capital, Aviva Investors, Bluefield, Blackrock, Columbia Threadneedle, Edmund de Rothschild, InfraRed Capital, Legal & General, Macquarie, Muzinich, Neuberger Berman, Octopus Investment, Pension Insurance Corporation, SVP Capital, Tikehau Capital and others attended.

Alongside some spirited conversations, the event was also a valued opportunity for attendees to engage with their peers in an informal yet structured environment.

For further information on the event or AMC’s work in Private Markets recruiting, please contact Navin Raina.