Event report
On 11 November, in the heart of New York City, an audience of around 70 US asset owners and investment advisors gathered together for an event hosted by Morgan Stanley and the United Nations Capital Development Fund. The topic of discussion was how these asset owners could gender their portfolios and support women entrepreneurs through investing. Lionesses of Africa Founder and CEO, Melanie Hawken, was one of the guest speakers sharing her insights on the subject at this prestigious event.
The morning’s agenda for this impact-driven event started with words of welcome from co-host Sharon Cunningham CFP, Executive Director, Wealth Management at Morgan Stanley in New York. She spoke at a very personal level about her own career journey and her passion for investing in women. She also introduced the HER Way Initiative which was launched at Morgan Stanley in 2017. It was formed by a group of 13 women financial advisors and is a cross-platform community of women dedicated to helping one another achieve their personal and financial goals. She outlined the importance of filling the demand of values-based investing. She then introduced Esther Pan Sloane, her co-host for the morning, who is the Head of Partnerships, Policy and Communications at UNCDF. Esther shared with the audience a presentation on the MDGs (Millennium Development Goals) to the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), providing a historical introduction and illustrating the importance of Goal 5 on gender equality. Completing the session of keynote addresses was Lily S Trager, Executive Director of Investing with Impact at Morgan Stanley, who gave a passionate presentation on Impact Investing at Morgan Stanley and MSIQ.
Following a networking break, a panel of specialist speakers then took to the podium to share their own specific insights with the audience on how gender lens investment can make a huge impact on business and society. First to share her insights was Jenny Abramson of Rethink Impact, who spoke about the various ways to invest in women through private equity. Next was Bahiyah Robinson, founder and ceo of VC Include, who spoke about investing in women through female and minority fund managers. Next up was Lionesses of Africa Founder and CEO, Melanie Hawken, who shared some very practical stories and examples of how investment can help high growth women entrepreneurs in Africa to fulfill their potential and create game-changing businesses that create much needed jobs. Melanie also shared news of work currently underway to explore the creation of a new bond to support high growth women entrepreneurs in Africa, in partnership with the UNCDF. Final presentations from the panel members came from Vicky Lay of Artesian Capital who spoke about the fund management experience of investing in women; and Sarah Kunst of Cleo Capital, shared her insights of investment in women through a private equity fund model.
Speaking about the need to stimulate greater investment into women entrepreneurs, particularly on the African continent, Melanie Hawken said:
“The IFC tells us that large corporations spend less than 1 percent of their global procurement budget on women-owned businesses. This gender imbalance problem in corporate procurement is sadly the same for South Africa, as it is across Africa, as it is globally. So, having tackled gendering corporate procurement on Friday morning at an event we hosted in Johannesburg, South Africa, I’m now here in New York this morning ready to tackle the gendering of investment portfolios. And, I don’t need to tell you all that the size of the investment gap for women-owned businesses is an equally massive challenge.”
The morning’s event proceedings were brought to a formal close with final remarks from co-host, Sharon Cunningham at Morgan Stanley, who thanked everyone for their participation and encouraged further discussion and engagement on the topic of how to gender portfolios in order to make a real impact with future investment in women. The event closed with more networking over lunch.
