Closing the gender power gap

Thursday 02 March 2023 | 17:00 - 18:15 | Webinar

This session has been organised by CFA UK’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee.

Despite advancements in the amount of women being brought into the workforce of top companies, gender inequality is still present at the decision-making table. Within the S&P 500, there is approximately a 25 to 75% split between men and women in top executive positions.

Even more discerning, when moving beyond solely headcount to actual decision-making power via share ownership (The Gender Power Gap), the data reveals a gender imbalance of 10:90. The UK is comparatively doing better, with a current Gender Diversity of 25% and a Gender Power Gap of 16.7%.

In this webinar Pei-Chun (Bess) Hsieh and Professor Andreas Hoepner from ExecuShe the world’s first gender data space will conduct an in-depth discussion on corporate female empowerment and values-based investing driven by content from ExecuShe’s Live Gender Data Space.

Learning objectives to include:

• Exploring Live Gender Data across countries and industries
• Understanding Gender Imbalance beyond headcount (Gender Power Gap)
• Learning about Data-Driven Results for Values-Based Investing

Timings

Registration: 16:55
Event: 17:00 - 18:15

Speakers

Pei-Chun (Bess) Hsieh, Head of Financial Data Science, ExecuShe

Pei-Chun is an experienced data analyst, leading financial analysis projects about gender share and gender power gap. She received her MSc in Finance and Financial Technology from ICMA Center, University of Reading in Sep 2021.

Before joining ExecuShe, Pei-Chun had 6-year industrial experience in Finance and Tax.

Professor Andreas G. F. Hoepner, PhD, Scientific Advisor, ExecuShe

Andreas is ExecuShe's scientific advisor. He currently focuses his advice on advancing the underlying technologies as well as designing powerful SDG measures such as gender share. He is a Full Professor of Operational Risk, Banking & Finance at University College Dublin and is serving as an independent member (in personal capacity) of the EU Platform on Sustainable Finance (2020-2022), where he is heading the data subgroup.

Previously, he served on the Technical Expert Group on Sustainable Finance (2018-2020), where he was scientific lead for benchmarks. In this role, he co-invented EU Paris-Aligned Benchmark & EU Climate Transition Benchmark. Andreas is also the sole investor of US patent investment performance measurement (No. US8751357B1). His research has won several awards including the 2019 (with Oikonomou, Sautner, Starks & Zhou), 2015 (with Adamsson) and 2010 PRI best paper awards.

He received his Ph.D. from the University of St. Andrews in June 2010 and served as lead academic advisor for the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) from 2009 to 2016.

Helen Thomas, CEO, Blonde Money

Helen has twenty years of experience in banking, fund management and politics. She was an adviser to George Osborne, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, during 2008 and helped Matthew Hancock MP write his book on the financial crisis, Masters of Nothing. She was a board member of CFA UK, is a Freeman of the City of London, and she has a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Christ Church, Oxford University

Maria Gordon, Independent Non-Executive Director, Capricorn Energy PLCCapricorn

Maria has strong governance experience, having served as chair, senior director and committee member of various public companies. She currently serves as Non-Executive Chair of Constellation Oil Services, a deep-water drilling oil services company based in Brazil and a NED on the board of Capricorn Energy, FTSE250 energy company. She has two decades of direct investment experience in senior roles, including as Head of Emerging Markets Equity Strategy at Goldman Sachs and PIMCO.

Arun Kelshiker, CFA, Vice Chair, CFA UK DEI Committee

Arun Kelshiker was the former Head of Asset Allocation and Portfolio Strategy at Standard Chartered Bank and a senior portfolio manager and country Chief Investment Officer with Allianz Global Investors / Allianz Group. He brings close to twenty years of multi-asset & ESG career experience, having managed institutional assets and provided investment advisory with leading international asset managers and banks.

Arun has an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, US and a Masters in international economics and management from SDA Bocconi University in Milan, Italy. He volunteers as vice-chair of CFA UK’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee and is an Ambassador for Reboot and the Diversity Project.

Sylvia Solomon, ASIP, Director of ESG & Business Development at Equitile Investments

Sylvia is an active board member with a strong volunteer track-record at CFA UK on several committees and working groups. Her past commitments include the Membership Committee, as Vice Chair, the Volunteer Steering Committee, and the IMC panel. 

Sylvia currently serves on the Examinations and Education Committee, the Sustainability Working Group, the Certificate in Climate and Investing panel and is Chair of the Certificate in ESG Investing (ESG) panel - instrumental in leading practitioners in the design, development and launch of the Certificate in ESG Investing. 

Sylvia has over 30 years of investment industry experience on the buy-side, in equities and sustainable investing. Sylvia is a member of the PRI Global Policy Reference Group, which aims to inform and strengthen PRI’s and its signatories’ public policy engagement on responsible investment topics. She is also a member of the Alternative Investment Management Association’s (AIMA) Global Responsible Investment Committee (GRIC).

Jo Roy, Global Head of Regulatory Developments and Engagements for Payments, JP Morgan

Jo is currently the Global Head of Regulatory Developments and Engagements for Payments at JP Morgan. She has over 20 years experience in the financial services sector where she has held numerous leadership roles. 

Her areas of focus includes Regulatory Strategy, Governance, risk management and sustainability, with current and prior services on boards. 

She is passionate about advancing social equality and is an Ambassador for the Diversity Project. She is an alumni of City University and holds a certification on sustainable finance from the University of Cambridge.