Jessica Kittay, Client Portfolio Manager at Lazard Asset Management, joined Julie Cooling, founder and CEO of RIA Channel, to discuss how companies with gender-diverse leadership can improve financial results while making an impact.
Lazard’s Minerva Gender Diversity Strategy manages a global equity portfolio with a quality tilt that also fits in an ESG or impact framework. The strategy invests in 30 to 50 quality companies working to improve diversity and eliminate the gender gap. Statistics on the gender gap are astounding, as less than 1/3 of board members, 1/5 of senior executives, 1/7 of CFOs, and 1/35 CEOs are women. The pay gap between men and women is the equivalent to women working for free from October 29 until the end of the year. At the current pace, the World Economic Forum estimates that it would take 131 to close the global gender gap.
Academic studies show that companies with greater gender diversity have better financial performance and that diversity of thought is additive to performance. McKinsey notes that more diverse companies have a 25% greater likelihood of financial outperformance.
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