How Do You Define a Good Company for Executive Women?

,

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Last week the National Association for Female Executives (NAFE) released its 2013 Top 50 Companies for Executive Women list. The annual list has served to continuously raise the bar on what it means to be a “top company.”

For example, Carol Evans, CEO of NAFE and President of Working Mother Media, explained that initially, to make the list, a company had to have at least one woman on its board of directors to even apply for consideration. But, as more companies elected women to their boards, NAFE bumped that requirement up to two women per board two years ago.

“We are hoping to raise it to three in the future,” she continued. “And you do get more points for having more than two women on the board now.”

Beyond the boardroom, NAFE also takes into account factors like advancement programs, the numbers of women rising to the top, the percentage of women running billion dollar divisions, the percentage of women reporting to the CEO, the percentage of women in the top 10% and 20% of earners at the company, and the percentage of women leading profit and loss functions.

All of these factors reveal whether a company enables women to take charge as leaders. But, Evans says, even though companies are evolving to be more female-supportive, it’s not time to celebrate just yet. There’s still a long way to go.

Read more

/by

Davos: Women and the Leadership Gap

,

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Two years ago, the World Economic Forum introduced a gender quota of sorts – to raise the percentage of women at its annual event in Davos, which I called “embarrassingly low.”

In 2010, only 17 percent of attendees were women, so the WEF decided that moving forward, for every four men each company sent to Davos, they’d have to send one woman. This year, after two years of the quota system at the elite gathering, well, not much has changed. The percentage hasn’t risen at all. In 2013, only 17 percent of attendees were women.

What’s going wrong?

According to The Guardian’s Jane Martinson, many companies are sending only four men, and forfeiting their last ticket rather than send a woman. And as Quartz’s David Yanofsky wrote, “Comparing the conference’s gender bias to that of the world population–49.7% women–means that one is 66% less likely to encounter a female participant at Davos than almost anywhere else in the world.”

But in truth, the 17 percent ratio is simply business as usual. As Barnard College President Debora Spar wrote last September:

“As of 2012, women accounted for only 16 percent of partners at the country’s largest law firms and 15 percent of senior executives at Fortune 100 firms. They constituted only 10 percent of the country’s aerospace engineers, 7 percent of its Hollywood directors, and 16 percent of its congressional representatives. And they still earn, on average, only 77 cents to every man’s dollar.”

The Davos gender gap is just a representation of a larger problem – a global leadership gap that leaves fewer women in charge of a world that sorely needs them. After all, if some of the best leaders aren’t making it to the top simply because they are female, that means some sub-par leaders are taking their place simply because they are male.

Apparently, our institutions would willingly withstand underwhelming leadership rather than do the hard thing and look beyond the “think leader, think male” stereotype – and this should call into question every other lazy decision these institutions have implemented.

Read more

/by

Is Executive Presence Sexist?

,

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

When we think of leaders, we usually have a few ideas in mind about what they look like and how they act. If you asked a random person on the street to imagine a CEO, they would probably think of a person who is male, white, tall, straight, decisive, genial, and a jumble of other traits that come together to form the CEO archetype.

Another trait most leaders share is executive presence. It’s a trait that’s difficult to define, but you either have it or you don’t, and we know it when we see it.

It is precisely that intangibility that makes feedback on executive presence so hard to process. How can people who don’t automatically conform to the leadership stereotypes above attract and maintain power? And when women receive feedback on executive presence at work, are they simply receiving advice on how to act more stereotypically male? In other words, where do the male leadership stereotypes end, and the executive leadership traits begin?

According to Lauren Leader-Chivée, Senior Vice President at the Center for Talent Innovation, it is possible to detangle executive presence from the cult of masculinity. By understanding the foundational components of executive presence, she believes, women and minorities can better navigate the often contradictory messages around what makes someone “leadership material.”

Read more

/by

Women Continue Outperforming in Alternative Investments

,

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

What’s one way to beat the market when it comes to alternative investments? According to new research by accounting firm Rothstein Kass, invest in women.

The new study, “Women in Alternative Investments: Building Momentum in 2013 and Beyond,” reports that hedge funds run by women outperformed the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index through the third quarter of 2012, producing a net return of 8.95 percent compared to a 2.69 percent net return.

Camille Asaro, a Principal at Rothstein Kass who contributed to the report, said she wasn’t surprised by the data. “We did expect women to outperform, and that’s something that has been the case for the last five years.”

The research can only help make the case for supporting initiatives to bring more women into the industry – and interest in doing so seems to be growing, Asaro said. “I really believe there is more traction for women in the alternative investment industry. This research confirmed what we’ve been seeing first-hand, that there is currently more interest in investing in women-owned and managed funds. This interest does seem to be intensifying although not as quickly as some have anticipated.”

Read more

/by

Women in the Boardroom: Focus on Solutions

,

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

In December, ION (the InterOrganization Network) released its 9th report on women on boards in the United States. ION is made up of 16 regional women’s networks, and this report used numbers from 15 of them. According to the research, the numbers haven’t moved much since the last report… or the one before that… or the one before that.

For example, larger companies tend to have more women directors than smaller companies, and there are fewer all-male boards at larger companies than smaller ones. In the Fortune 500, 16.6 percent of board seats were held by women. In the S&P 1500, 14 percent were women. In the Russell 3000, 11.7 percent were women. These numbers have shifted very little over time.

Obviously, this is frustrating – the slow pace of change here is the subject of lots of research and commentary. But instead of dwelling on the challenging numbers, ION’s leaders decided to instead focus on solutions. What are the companies that are getting it right doing? How can we convince other companies to do the same?

Sarah Meyerrose, ION’s President, explained, “I like the approach we took this year. We are focusing on the positives and saying ‘here are the companies doing a good job.’ We are well past the time when we are just talking about the numbers.”

In fact, she continued, “When we were putting the case studies together, I was pleased to see the number of companies we had to choose from that are moving the needle.”

Read more

/by

In the Boardroom, Diversity Begets Diversity

,

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

According to a new study by Ernst & Young, companies are more likely to hire female board members if they already have at least one woman on the board. That is – once they recognize the benefits that board diversity can bring, they tend to want more.

The study, which examined the board composition of S&P 1500 companies from 2006 to 2012, also showed that companies that had never hired a female board director weren’t likely to start anytime soon.

According to Ernst & Young, 30 percent of companies have added at least one woman director since 2006. About 60 percent of them already had at least one female director.

Karyn Twaronite, Partner and Americas Inclusiveness Officer at Ernst & Young said, “We were surprised that boards that didn’t have any women didn’t add many women, especially despite evidence that the benefits of having multiple women directors reach beyond the boardroom. For instance, a Catalyst study showed a direct cause and effect to having at least three women on boards — it resulted in more women in these companies’ executive levels.”

The study also showed that larger companies tend to have more board diversity than smaller ones. Today, about 14 percent of board directors on the S&P 1500 are female, an increase of three percentage points since 2006.

Read more

/by

Women Leaders Share Wisdom at Second Annual Toigo Groundbreakers Summit

,

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Last week, the Toigo Foundation held its Groundbreakers Summit for female leaders. While this was just the second annual summit, the Foundation has worked for over two decades to bring diversity to the financial sector.

That’s why Toigo Alumna Nicole Pullen Ross, Managing Director and Mid-Atlantic Region Head at Goldman Sachs, said with a laugh during her welcome remarks, “Stand back and be prepared for what is in many ways a homecoming. You may get in the way of a hug.”

Ross, the first African American to become a managing director at Goldman’s Private Wealth Management business, said she wasn’t sure where she would be without the Toigo Foundation’s guidance. “Outside this room, we’re very accustomed to being the first or the only. But today, we are collectively one of the many,” she said.

The goal of the summit was to share insight into how and why women break through to leadership in the financial industry and in the broader business community. Speakers shared their advice and experience with guests at the sold-out conference.

Here are a few key insights by leadership speakers Lisa Garcia Quiroz, Chief Diversity Officer at Time Warner; Gwen Ifill, Moderator and Managing Editor at Washington Week and Senior Correspondent and Co-anchor at PBS Newshour; Janet Hill, Principal at Hill Family Advisors; Abigail Disney, Filmmaker and Philanthropist; and Debbie McCoy, Director of the SEED Institute at Stanford University.

Read more

/by

Women Explore New Derivatives Landscape at First Annual WILD Symposium

,

By Jessica Titlebaum, President, Women in Listed Derivatives

The derivatives industry will come out stronger from the past year’s challenges. Dodd Frank legislation was keeping people up at night, MF Global failed, and then the industry was hit with Peregrine Financial Group. It’s enough to shake anyone in their boots, some of them even high heeled!

This was the backdrop of the first annual Women in Listed Derivatives’ WILD Symposium: Industry in Transition. Hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, the Symposium featured high caliber speakers like Carol Burke, the woman tasked with implementing Dodd Frank at the Federal Reserve, and Terry Savage, one of two women on the CME Group Board of Directors, who discussed how the industry was changing and how women could prepare for surfacing opportunities.

Women in Listed Derivatives, or WILD, was founded in 2009. It is managed by a group of women that work in an “old boys club” known as Chicago’s derivatives industry. Now a global community, the not-for-profit WILD organization is dedicated to helping women in the listed and over-the-counter derivatives space advance their careers, find mentors, and learn how to network effectively. This was the group’s first half-day conference.

Read more

/by

EU Quota Plan to be Revised

,

iStock_000010363335XSmallBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Earlier this week, the EU shelved Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding’s plans for a vote on boardroom gender quotas for European companies. Reding’s suggested legislation would require all EU companies with more than 250 employees or making €50 million per year to ensure their boards were 40% female.

Upon coming into office, Reding had threatened to enact the quotas if EU countries didn’t begin to take gender diversity more seriously and implement their own targets. When they showed little progress this year, she turned around with a plan to enact the quotas rule. If companies didn’t comply, they would face stiff penalties.

The rule was put forth for debate by the EU’s executive body on Tuesday, and when it was clear that the majority didn’t support the quotas, the vote was scrapped. But, according to Reding and her allies, they intend to come forward with a compromise plan for another vote in November.

As the New York Times reported:

“There is still 40 percent,” Ms. Reding said in Strasbourg on Tuesday. “But the way to arrive there has been looked at in a different way.”

“The debate was very intense,” she said, explaining that the discussion on the legality of any quota was one of the reasons the meeting took several hours.

A vote on a revised proposal has been set for November 14.

Read more

/by

Top Women on the Buy-Side: Finding Yield in a Volatile Market

, , ,

Women-on-TabletLast week, The Glass Hammer hosted its fifth annual Top Women on the Buy-Side breakfast for female leaders in the investment management industry. Our panelists discussed the risks and opportunities for the year ahead, as well as how and where they are finding yield in a volatile market.

Moderated by Wall Street journalist Heidi Moore, the panel included Gabriela Franco Parcella, Chief Executive Officer, Mellon Capital Management Corporation; Denise Higgins, CFA, Client Portfolio Manager, ING Investment Management; Anne Milne, Managing Director, Emerging Markets Corporate Research, Bank of America Merrill Lynch; and Judith Posnikoff, PhD, Co-Founder & Managing Director, PAAMCO.

The lively conversation ranged from dealing with the challenges of uncertainty, managing risk, and the bright spots ahead. Milne quipped, “What are we looking for? Returns. Moreover, we’re looking for risk adjusted returns. We’re looking for good ideas to generate risk adjusted returns. And we’re making calls to find analysts to generate ideas to generate risk adjusted returns.”

Read more

/by