Over four hundred of the most progressive and inspirational leaders and advocates of the asset management sector gathered at the Women in Asset Management Awards held at the Cipriani in New York this month to celebrate the achievements of some remarkable women.

The awards aims to shine a light on females who are paving the way for gender parity. The 99 finalists out of 200 nominations of awards came from a broad range of disciplines within asset management, including bonds, equities, ESG, analytics, real estate and high yield.

Recognising the strides made by exceptional women across these fields, the event provided a new way to identify much-needed role models in mid-to-senior roles in asset management, promoting further dialogue around diversifying the talent pipeline and tackling the sector’s notorious pay and promotion gap.

Organised by DiversityQ and consumer investment magazine What Investment, the awards has already set a precedent as a large-scale diversity-first event in this sector.

The Women in Asset Management event received overwhelming support from trade associations and asset management firms of all sizes. Presenting the ceremony Lawrence Gosling, editorial director, Bonhill Group, said: “Globally only one in five mutual funds is managed by a woman, and in the US this number drops to only one in ten. These headline numbers do not reflect the enormous achievements and progress made by women in the mutual funds industry.

“These awards are designed to recognise achievements to date but hopefully create role models and inspirations for future generations of women in the industry and those considering coming into it.”

This year’s Women in Asset Management Awards New York were supported by SEI, Nuveen, Wincrest Capital, Unicef USA and Indus Capital Partners.

Women in Asset Management: gender diversity exchange app tracks inequality

The Women in Asset Management New York 2019 winners were:

Women in Asset Management: proving gender is no longer relevant