Voice of Experience: Julie Gorte, Senior Vice President, Sustainable Investing, Pax World Management

This week we are profiling amazing women in investment management ahead of our annual career panel event on the 5th November for women in the industry who want to make it to the top.

By Michelle Hendelman

Julie Gorte, Senior Vice President of Sustainable Investing at Pax World Management is on a mission to save the world. Well, not exactly, but she does believe that by changing attitudes toward climate change and the environment on Wall St., she can make a significant difference. “I am interested in the intersection between climate science and investment,” said Gorte. “For a long time, portfolio managers and analysts did not see climate change as an issue they needed to be concerned with, but this is something I have been committed to changing since I entered the investment industry in 1999.”

Gorte completed her Ph.D. in Resource Economics while she was working full-time for the Office of Technology Assessment, a former government agency that advised congress on matters related to science and technology policy. When this agency was defunded in 1993, Gorte spent several years working for different non-profits before deciding to move to the private sector.

“I received a call from a recruiter about a position in sustainable investing,” said Gorte, “and it occurred to me that the guiding star in my career up until then in every position I held had some element of saving the world or at least doing something to help. I started working at Calvert Investments and then came over to Pax World several years after that.”

According to Gorte, she has been lucky enough to work with like-minded individuals throughout her entire career. She explained, “Calvert is one of the most prominent socially responsible investment firms and I also had the opportunity to serve on the board of Ceres, a non-profit that unites investors and environmentalists in pursuit of sustainability. Now at Pax, I continue to educate investors on how climate change and sustainability affect their portfolios.”

Sustainability is something Gorte feels extremely passionate about and being able to see her work in action is a major source of pride for her. “I had one of these shiny moments of clarity in 1986 when I was still working for the Office of Technology Assessment after completing an enormous study on the implications of workers losing their jobs due to no fault of their own because of technology.”

Gorte explained that the Advance Notice of Plant Closing and Mass Layoffs legislation had been introduced to every congress since the mid-1960s, but proved to be an impassable bill. Businesses argued that if employees received advance notice, they would leave, but Gorte’s study proved the opposite was true. She noted, “When people received advance notice, they were actually more productive because they wanted to leave their job with a sense of pride for what they had accomplished.”

This study conducted by Gorte was the primary catalyst for getting the Advance Notice of Plant Closing and Mass Layoffs bill passed over a presidential veto and signed into Law.

Women in Asset Management

“Investment management is a very male-dominated industry,” said Gorte, “and breaking into this culture presents a challenge for women, but not an insurmountable one.” She added that there was very little culture change between the private and public sectors saying that she was surrounded by great colleagues in both areas who were thoughtful and committed to their work.

According to Gorte, women may not realize the wonderful opportunity for creativity, critical thinking, and innovation available in an asset management career. She explained, “There is a perception that this industry is not very exciting, so we need to continue to educate women on how fascinating and rewarding a career in asset management can be.”

Gorte said that one aspect of asset management that might be very appealing to women is the opportunity to build great relationships and manage many different clients. “This is especially important in sustainable investing,” added Gorte.

Pax World fosters a great environment for women, which Gorte mainly attributes to the example set by the CEO, Joe Keefe. “He is completely committed to women’s empowerment and everything he does is consistent with that belief,” said Gorte. “I am lucky that my immediate boss is someone who understands that women are just as capable as men and need to be developed with just as much care,” she added.

Advice for Professional Women

According to Gorte, women should not feel the need to compromise who they are in order to rise up the corporate ranks. One issue Gorte pointed out is the work/life balancing act that many professional women encounter, especially as they become more senior within a company. “I don’t think women should have to choose between their family and their career,” said Gorte. “Women make that choice in so many little ways all the time, but when it comes to the really important things, putting emphasis on your family is not a bad thing to do,” she added.

Gorte advised young women to identify what they are passionate about and have an open mind about how they can best translate their interests and passions into a career. She explained, “I always followed my passion. This led me down a very non-linear career path, but I knew that I was always staying true to myself and doing something to make the world a better place.”

Establishing your career path does not necessarily mean planning what you are going to be doing for the duration of your career, said Gorte. “I received a valuable piece of advice from a former professor when I was deliberating between two very good job offers,” she said. “He told me I didn’t have to decide what I was going to do for the rest of my life in that moment; I only needed to figure out what I was going to do next.”
She added, “This was a very liberating piece of advice which sounds so simple now, but it was not apparent to me at the time.”

Outside the Office

In her personal time, Gorte enjoys creating art. “I make pottery and glass beads,” she said. “It is important for me to be a whole person, and art provides me with an outlet to create things with my hands instead of my head.”