Diversity for the long-term: A discussion around retention in the investment industry
Thursday 13th February 2020: 7pm onwards
The Conduit, 40 Conduit Street, Mayfair, W1S 2YQ
Kea Consultants will be hosting a panel discussion and networking event with the Kea Clusters, introducing:
Luciana Lixandru, Partner at Accel
Luciana Lixandru is a Partner in Accel’s London office, which she joined in 2011. She focuses on consumer internet and enterprise software companies. She currently holds board positions at Deliveroo, UiPath, Framer, Tessian and Vinted. Luciana also helped lead Accel’s investments and ongoing work in Avito, Wallapop, Algolia and Doctolib. Prior to Accel, Luciana worked at Morgan Stanley and was also an investor with Summit Partners. She grew up in Romania, and graduated Magna cum Laude in Mathematics and Economics from Georgetown University.
Linda Voggenreiter, Research Analyst and Head of People at Builders Union
Linda Voggenreiter is currently Research Analyst and Head of People at Builders Union, a London-based long/short hedge fund. Prior to joining Builders Union in April 2018, she was Chief of Staff at Southeast Asian online grocery delivery group HappyFresh, being amongst others responsible for Talent Acquisition and People Care. Further steps in Linda’s career include a Chief of Staff position at Berlin-based online tire retailer Tirendo and over a decade at Private Equity Group EQT, where she built and led the Research function.
Victoria Sigeti, Partner at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in the Private Equity Practice
Victoria Sigeti leads the London financial sponsors team at Freshfields. Her practice is focused on advising large cap private equity houses on investments, exits and equity arrangements. She takes a keen interest in Freshfields’ diversity and inclusion efforts and has been a sponsor to a number of women both within Freshfields and through the 30% club. She also sits on the BVCA’s Legal and Accounting Committee.
Kevin Crowe, Partner at Apollo
Kevin Crowe is a Partner in the Private Equity group of Apollo Global Management. Kevin joined Apollo in 2006 and is now based in London, having initially joined Apollo in New York and then spending several years in Apollo’s Hong Kong office. During his time at Apollo, Kevin has been involved with the firm’s investments in business services, transportation, media, leisure and financial services.
Kea Consultants has always been a champion of diversity in the workplace. We believe that in order to hire in a more diverse way, the first step is to create an environment where heterogeneous thought can thrive. This led us to create the Kea Clusters in 2018.
Kea Clusters is an initiative to help female investors foster meaningful connections with similar professionals outside of their firm. There are now 14 Clusters comprising over 100 female investment professionals in London meeting on a monthly or quarterly basis.
Seeking to understand the experience of female investors in more detail, we devised a survey to help us better identify the issues that women face within the investment industry.
Significantly, 15% of those surveyed believe that their firm is not committed to gender diversity, and almost 30% think it’s a PR exercise. Nearly 50% of those surveyed feel their experience at work differs from that of their male counterparts.
Despite the evident imbalance, Kea’s data indicates that the 2018-2019 cycle was the first year that a higher proportion of women were hired into investing roles than were in the investment banking pool. The focus on attracting more women to investing is welcome, however vital steps must be taken to not only attract, but to retain women in investing roles.
So what can be done? Kea Clusters hosts panellists Luciana Lixandru, Linda Voggenreiter, Victoria Sigeti and Kevin Crowe to discuss the findings of our study, providing insight into the investment industry. This will be followed by a Q&A and networking drinks.
If you are an Investment Professional who would like to attend the event, please get in touch with Emma McManus at [email protected] for more details.