Seema R. Hingorani’s Mission: Diversifying Wall Street by Investing in the Power of Young Women

Name 3 women who inspire you

My mom, Kamla R. Hingorani

Indra Nooyi

Hillary Clinton

What is one defining moment in your career or life that empowered you to create change, and how has it shaped the path you’re on today?

In 2015, I founded a nonprofit organization called Girls Who Invest (“GWI”) with a very clear idea of where I thought the business of managing the world’s money should go. I’d recently left New York City’s pension funds as chief investment officer, a job that put me in charge of a $160 billion portfolio designed to provide retirement security for 700,000 teachers, firefighters, police officers, and other city employees. I loved this impactful, thrilling work. However, I was frustrated that I had not been able to find enough female money managers, especially women of color, to ensure the expanded scope of thinking and perspectives it takes to maximize opportunity and minimize risk in the world’s $100 trillion of professionally managed assets. I had been an investor for 20 years at that point and I found myself asking: where were the other people like me? As an organization, GWI works to fill the financial industry pipeline with young women investors thanks to a program that includes intense training by leading academics, followed by a paid internship at a top investment firm. All of our programs are free of charge for all accepted candidates. As the daughter of Indian immigrant parents who came to the U.S. over 60 years ago with exactly $8 in their pocket, I never wanted money to ever be the limiting factor for any young woman to benefit from one of our programs. The majority of these young women come from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds; many are the first in their families to go to college. As a cohort, what these women bring is a tenacity and iron will forged by working two or even three part-time jobs to pay for college tuition, or by learning English alone at a public library after coming to the U.S. to study. This is a truly remarkable – and driven – group that I felt would flourish if only given the opportunity. In turn, they would enrich the financial institutions they would come to inhabit. The power of this kind of training now seems obvious. It is the purposeful, painstaking work necessary to bring an array of voices to the decision-making table. I’m thrilled with the progress we have made in these 10 years. Over 3,000 GWI alumni have now gone through our programs and nearly 600 more college women will complete our programs this summer. These talented young women come from over 200 different colleges and universities representing more than 100 different majors of study, and 30% are first-generation college students. And, importantly, 75% of them are choosing to stay in finance and investing and receiving multiple job offers from over 120 leading investment firms around the world. We are now helping over 1,000 GWI scholars currently working full-time in finance and investing prepare for that next stretch assignment and that next promotion.

I have been very encouraged by the leadership of our industry and in particular their collaboration in widening the aperture of skilled talent to succeed in investment management. Our collective GWI community (scholars, team, board, advisory board, partner firms, and supporters) is strong and growing but there is still more work ahead of us to ensure that we create lasting change. At its very core, the mission of GWI has been about recruiting and retaining the best investment talent to drive innovation and increase investment returns over the long term. The business case for this mission is more powerful and relevant than ever.