Women in Investment Management, Gender Diversity: One Practitioner’s Perspective

Nicola Ralston, FSIP, an investment management professional at the pinnacle of her career, spoke recently with Josina Kamerling, CFA Institute head of regulatory outreach in the EMEA region, about her views on gender diversity and women in the investment management field.

Ralston, director and co-founder of PiRho Investment Consulting, and chairman of the board for Henderson EuroTrust PLC, said she’s not been disadvantaged over the course of her nearly 40-year career, but there have been times when she’s felt isolated, and often been the only woman in the room, a “novelty.” What’s surprised her most during her tenure is that the industry has “changed less than I would have expected,” she said.

Ralston, a past CFA Institute governor and now Capital Markets Policy Committee chair, said she doesn’t favor quotas. Still, she is concerned that today, less than one in five in the investment management profession are women.

“More research is needed” to understand why, and “case studies of successful women who choose paths that don’t lead to the upper echelon” are also needed.

More on our Women in Investment Management Initiative.

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