In our fast-moving times, we need good role models more than ever. People and companies who not only jump on a bandwagon for a short time, but who put their believes into practice, day after day. For the second time, Fondsfrauen honoured successful women in the financial sector with their Fondsfrauen Award 2020; Companies that campaign for gender diversity in the financial sector; as well as men and women who are role models for others.
This year´s winners are:
- Raiffeisen Capital Management (Company of the Year)
- Michaela Krahwinkel (Role Model of the Year (M/F)
- Edda Schröder, Invest in Visions (Woman of the Year)
Congratulations to all the winners!
This is what Handelsblatt says about our winners
The winners and nominees were honored at the Fondsfrauen Award ceremony on the evening of October 22nd. Due to Covid-19, the ceremony took place virtually and was broadcast live. Here's a look back:
Beforehand, the Fondsfrauen, together with media partner FONDS professionell asked men and women from the industry to nominate individual people and companies for the three categories Company of the Year, Role Model of the Year and Woman of the Year zu benennen. Insgesamt wurden über 100 Nominierungen eingereicht. Dabei wurde auch beschrieben, inwiefern diese Person oder das Unternehmen Herausragendes für Gender-Diversity geleistet hat. Aus den Nominierungen wurden von einer unabhängigen Jury pro Kategorie drei Top-Kandidat*innen ausgewählt. Auch dieses Jahr sei die Auswahl wieder schwergefallen, weil eigentlich alle Top-Kandidat*innen in den drei Kategorien den Preis verdient hätten, meinen die Fondsfrauen.
Find out more about the winners from our media partner FONDS professionell.
And these were the nominations and the winners in the three categories:
Company of the Year
- Raiffeisen Capital Management (Gewinner)
- BlackRock (nominee)
- Fidelity (nominee)
Role Model of the Year (M/F)
- Michaela Krahwinkel, Union Investment (Gewinnerin)
- Katherine Starks, BNY Mellon (Nominiert)
- Christa Geyer, Raiffeisen Capital Management (Nominiert)
Woman of the Year
- Edda Schröder, Invest in Visions (Gewinnerin)
- Anja Mikus, Stiftung KENFO (Nominiert)
- Sonja Laud, Legal & General Investment Management (Nominiert)
Both the winners and the nominees show that gender diversity is no longer a 'nice-to-have', but an important aspect for good corporate governance and visible success. “We want to show committed, positive women, and also introduce best practice companies that advocate gender diversity with meaningful measures. They have an important signaling effect in the financial sector, ”says Anne Connelly, one of the three founders and managing directors of Fondsfrauen. The following categories arose from this idea:
Company of the Year
Here, the company was sought from the industry, which has been most concerned about women’s advancement in the past year – whether through in-house programs, targeted trainings, promotion of young talents, changed job advertisements, change in corporate culture, etc.
Role Model of the Year
Male and female role models who campaigned for the advancement of women in the past year could be nominated here. Whether encouraging / promoting women, introducing special programs in your own company, mentoring, public appearances, articles, support at events, etc. Someone who takes their role model seriously and has actively made their contribution to promoting women and more Getting women into leadership positions.
Woman of the Year
In this category, women were sought who achieved outstanding professional achievements in the past year. For example, portfolio managers who have achieved very good results with their funds and / or who have generated a high inflow of funds. Or women who, as managers, have entrepreneurial successes such as expanding assets under management, successful mergers or similar achievements.
Independent jury
The jury consisted of the three founders of Fondsfrauen, Hans Heuser, publisher of the media partner FONDS professional, 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 Fondsfrauen could neither submit candidates nor stand for election themselves. For next year the industry is called upon to nominate its favorite candidates, because only those who are nominated can be elected.
Fondsfrauen would like to thank everyone who nominated their candidates, the jury and our media partner FONDS professional, who made the award possible in the first place.
Photographs:
Marlene Fröhlich / FONDS professionell
Christioph Hemmerich / FONDS professionell
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.