New York City pension fund Chief Investment Officer Seema Hingorani was baffled. Performing her due diligence on the investment firms managing the city’s $160 billion in pension assets, she found that only 5% of the firms and 15% of the funds were managed by women. Detailing her findings in a September 2014 op-ed for Bloomberg, she wrote, “Investment firms say they receive few resumes from women and are resigned to the lack of diversity on their teams. This isn’t going to change unless we work harder to recruit women into the investment business — and strengthen the rationale for doing so.”
The article sparked a movement. A year later, Hingorani founded Girls Who Invest, an organization dedicated to increasing the number of women in portfolio management and executive leadership in the investment management industry. The organization recruits college freshmen and sophomores to participate in an intensive, four-week investment management boot camp, followed by a seven-week paid summer internship with some of the world’s largest investment firms. Today, more than 2,500 alumnae have completed their programs; of those who have graduated from college and are now working full-time, 3 out of 4 are in finance.
In March, PGIM Private Capital managing director and partner Dianna Carr-Coletta was the latest PGIM executive to join the Girls Who Invest Advisory Board
“I’m honored to join an organization that is bringing much-needed change to our industry,” Carr-Coletta says. “I’ve seen the power of Girls Who Invest at PGIM, through working with the talent coming into our business as a result of our partnership.”
Since 2017, PGIM has hired 70+ GWI Alumni as interns or full-time employees.
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A mutually beneficial partnership
PGIM, the global asset manager of Prudential Financial, Inc., first signed on as a sponsor to Girls Who Invest in 2017. Since then, the firm has hired more than 70 Girls Who Invest alumnae as interns or full-time employees. PGIM created its own internal Girls Who Invest advisory board who help screen applicants for roles at the firm.
“PGIM is one of our top partner employers of Girls Who Invest alumnae, for which we’re incredibly grateful,” said Katherine Jollon Colsher, president and CEO of Girls Who Invest, who spoke on a panel at an International Women’s Day event for PGIM employees last spring. “We’ve learned so much from PGIM. It’s an exemplary partnership in every way.”
The partnership is an integral part of PGIM’s larger diversity, equity and inclusion talent strategy. Over the last five years, the percentage of senior roles held by women and people of color globally at PGIM rose from 36.8% in 2018 to 41.5% at year-end 2023.
“PGIM is deeply committed to a creating a workplace that leverages our different backgrounds, experiences and viewpoints – where each of us feels valued, with opportunities to advance and thrive,” said Kathy Sayko, chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer for PGIM. “Our partnership with Girls Who Invest highlights our role as an industry change agent and helps drive our robust talent pipeline, both of which are essential to our long-term success.”
A program that works for all
According to Jollon Colsher, more than two-thirds of the women in the Girls Who Invest program are people of color, coming from 200 different colleges and universities, with over 100 distinct majors.
“We’re not looking in the world for somebody who has a cookie-cutter resume of a finance person,” Jollon Colsher said. “Instead, we’re looking for incredible talent.”
Nathanya McCalla, an alumna of Girls Who Invest and now an investment analyst in the Portfolio Analysis Group at PGIM Fixed Income, says the program influenced her decision to go into asset management.
“Girls Who Invest showed me what a career in finance could look like,” McCalla says. “It taught me the fundamentals, gave me the firsthand experience that helped to kickstart my confidence, and equipped me with the technical skills and knowledge to excel. Most importantly, GWI introduced me to PGIM and a strong network of peers and mentors who I am always learning from.”
Girls Who Invest learns from its interns’ experiences and shares those lessons with their partners — such as the importance of work-life balance, the visibility of role models in leadership, and access to professional development opportunities.
“People want to stay at an organization when they have the flexibility and ability to navigate their own day,” Jollon Colsher said. “Looking up and seeing diversity in leadership comes up a ton, and we hear from our alumnae that it’s important to see people thriving in leadership roles.”
The partnership with Girls Who Invest also provides insights into the emerging needs of a new generation in the workforce.
“We work exclusively with Gen Z students, who have a higher comfort level talking about mental health,” Jollon Colsher said. “That’s something that the corporate world writ large has not yet prepared for. There isn’t often manager training to support that.”
To that end, PGIM launched its Mental Health Champions initiative in 2020, training volunteers from each of its asset management businesses who will listen to peers in need of someone to talk to, validate their experiences, and refer them to the appropriate resources. In November 2022, PGIM launched the first of its “Wellness Weeks” — a series of speakers and discussions meant to address common stressors and support the well-being of employees.
These initiatives and others, Carr-Coletta points out, help all employees regardless of gender.
“When you create a work culture where everyone feels supported, valued and empowered, it allows you to attract and retain the best talent,” Carr-Coletta says. “That’s especially important in asset management, where competition is fierce and the variety of viewpoints and experience you bring to the table can be an important differentiator for clients.”
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