There is a lot to be done in the German-speaking fund industry, because the proportion of women in management is still far from where it should be. Fondsfrauen want to raise awareness of the still existing imbalance and therefore offer - this year for the fourth time - the Fondsfrauen Award.
Twelve financial experts or companies are honoured
Within the framework of a festive evening event, which was once again sponsored by FONDS professionell, Fondsfrauen shone the spotlight on a total of twelve female and male financial experts on 13 October. They have actively contributed to more diversity in the financial industry as role models, by motivating women in the industry or through their outstanding achievements.
In the run-up to the event, the Fondsfrauen, together with media partner FONDS professionell, had asked men and women in the industry to nominate individuals and companies for the following four categories - in each case with precise reasons.
2022 highest number of nominations
Apparently, the offer to make visible the many great women who exist in the market is gladly accepted. With a good 180 nominations, a particularly large number of people and companies were nominated this time, from all four countries in which the Fondsfrauen are active: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg.
The award honours: successful women in the investment fund industry; companies that promote gender diversity in asset management; and men and women who are role models for others. These people send a clear signal that women achieve a lot in the investment industry and that it is possible for companies from the industry to promote and live diversity.
Hier gehts zum Artikel und Fotos vom Fondsfrauen Award von FONDS professionell
Here are this year's nominations and winners in the four categories:
Company of the Year
- BlackRock (winner)
- Invesco (nominee)
- Fidelity (nominee)
BlackRock is the clear pioneer in the promotion of women worldwide, and also lives this promotion practice in the individual country offices. The company has good programmes and has verifiable figures that show that women at BlackRock do indeed reach leadership positions to a significant extent.
Women of the Year
- Sonja Albers, Union Investment (winner)
- Michaela Eshtewi, Bank 99 (nominee)
- Katja Müller, Universal Investment (nominee)
Sonja Albers is a member of the Board of Managing Directors at Union Investment and received a lot of nominations (15). She is considered to have great competence in the field of HR. She has also made great efforts to reshape the corporate culture in her company and to give diversity a space. She is also visible in the market outside Union Investment, for example on the BVI Board and at the Geno Association.
Role Model of the Year (M/F)
- Julia Pomer, ThomasLloyd (winner)
- Katja Lammert, MEAG (nominee)
- Veronika Lammer, Financial Experts Analyse und Training OG (nominee)
Juli Pomer, Director at ThomasLloyd, is one of the role models in the financial industry, as she embodies the future of the industry with her inclusivity and commitment to young women. In addition to her job, she is involved as a mentor with the fund women and thus passes on her experience and advice to young women. Julia is an inspiring personality whose ambition and sense of responsibility quickly bring issues and tasks to fruition.
Female fund manager of the year
- Carolin Preuß, HanseMerkur Trust (winner)
- Jeanette Bruns, Deka (nominee)
- Stella Ma, Vontobel AM (nominee)
Carolin Preuß has been managing the HanseMerkur Strategie Fonds fund family very successfully for many years. In doing so, she consistently delivers top values compared to benchmarks and peers (e.g. HanseMerkur Strategie chancenreich with five Morningstar stars). As the mother of a daughter, she demonstrates on a daily basis that fund management is also a suitable profession for women with families.
Read the Handelsblatt article about this year´s Fondsfrauen Award
Honour to whom honour is due!
The respective winners of the categories were on site in Frankfurt and were honoured, and the nominees were also pleased that they received so much support to be shortlisted.
After the award ceremony, the industry continued to celebrate at the after-work party of media partner FONDS professionell. Many thanks to FONDS professionell for supporting the award!
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Further information on the Fondsfrauen Award
Der Fondsfrauen-Award wird seit 2019 vergeben. Aktuell gibt es vier Kategorien:
Company of the Year
The search was on for the company in the industry that had done the most to promote women in the past year - whether through in-house programs, targeted training, promotion of young talent, changes to job advertisements, equal pay policies or a new corporate culture.
Women of the Year
This category sought women who had achieved an outstanding professional accomplishment in the past year, such as increased sales, mergers or repositioning of companies, implementation of strategically important projects, or the like.
Role Model of the Year
Nominations could be made for male and female role models who have made a strong contribution to the advancement of women in the past year. Whether public appearances, articles, support at events, the introduction of special programs in their own company, mentoring, etc., they were nominated. Someone who takes their role as a role model seriously and has actively made his/her contribution to promoting women and getting more women into leadership positions. Nominations could also be made for people who are an inspiration to the next generation and have been able to inspire more women to enter the finance industry.
Female fund manager of the year
This fourth category was added in 2021. The female Fund Manager of the Year is looking for a role model woman. She can demonstrate competitive and excellent performance, whether in a mutual fund or ETF, in managed mandates or other fund structures: she has successfully brought an innovative strategy to market or generated sustainable inflows for it.
Independent jury
The independent jury selects three top candidates per category from the nominations submitted by the industry. In 2022, the jury consisted of the three founders of Fondsfrauen (Anne Connelly, Anke Dembowski, Manuela Fröhlich), Hans Heuser, publisher of the media partner FONDS professionell, and Prof. Dr. Alexandra Niessen-Ruenzi from the University of Mannheim, who deals a lot with gender issues in her research. In order to maintain independence, the founders of the Fondsfrauen themselves cannot submit candidates or stand for election themselves.
Anke Dembowski is a financial journalist and author of various investment fund-related and other financial books. She is also a co-founder of the "Fondsfrauen" network.