Forum Serves As a Key Opportunity to Reduce Barriers and Increase Participation for Diverse Financial Institutions
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NYSIF hosted its 14th annual Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprises (MWBE) Investment Symposium on March 7, 2024. The event featured keynote speaker Kneeland Youngblood, Founding Partner, CEO, and Chairman of Pharos Capital Group. Speakers and panelists included Tina Byles Williams, Founder, CEO, CIO, Xponance and Tammy K. Jones, Co-Founder & CEO, Basis Investment Group, LLC, as well as Kweku Obed, Managing Director for Marquette Associates, and André Rice, President, Muller & Monroe Asset Management (M²).
Topics at the symposium included NYSIF’s Investment MWBE Program, women entrepreneurs in financial services, and the benefits and performance of MWBE led asset management.
“Promoting fairness and economic opportunity for diverse MWBE firms is consistent with our public mission to support New York businesses and injured workers," NYSIF Board of Commissioners Chairman Kenneth R. Theobalds said. “The event is symbolic of our work and striving to do better. It provides an opportunity to showcase MWBE firms in financial services who are delivering strong performance and for them to pursue new opportunities and strategic partners. The symposium also provides NYSIF the chance to hear from industry practitioners and MWBE firms as we work to enhance our programs and performance.”
The forum has served as a key opportunity to reduce barriers, increase participation & stimulate job growth for diverse financial institutions.
"There is a lot of implicit bias in asset management, and we want to be intentional about recognizing that and doing something about it," said Gaurav Vasisht, NYSIF Executive Director and CEO. "Study after study shows that there is no trade off; the returns are just as good if not better. MWBE is not a compromise."
For State Fiscal Year 2022-23, NYSIF allocated more than 39% of dollars paid to asset management firms and financial institutions to MWBE-certified firms. In all, 38% ($1.4 billion) of the $3.8 billion in NYSIF’s externally managed assets were under the management of MWBE firms, including 100% of NYSIF’s public equities portfolio.
NYSIF’s efforts on diversity are delivering strong results, both in-house and with NYSIF’s business partners. More than 85% of the professionals on NYSIF’s investment team are minority or women. In addition, NYSIF has stepped-up recruitment efforts at New York-area colleges to uncover new talent and add to NYSIF’s diverse investment team.
“We actively recruit for diversity when seeking new investment professionals and support them at every phase of their career,” said CEO Vasisht. “When talented minority and women investment professionals are looking at potential employers, we want them to look at NYSIF.”