Greeting from the CEO Solange F. Brooks
Dear NAA Family,

This has been an auspicious Women’s History Month. Earlier this month, the Honorable Patricia Guerrero was confirmed to the California Supreme Court.  Justice Guerrero is the first Latina to be appointed to the state’s highest court.  

On the national scene, Ketanji Brown Jackson is the first African American woman nominated to the US Supreme Court.  We celebrate and are thankful for all the women at NAA – members and advisers – that make our organization vibrant and insightful.  

All these women are making history in their own distinct way. For a man’s perspective on this celebration, we turn to Gerson Guzman and his insights in the article below under NAA Voices

We are starting with strength. Three top leaders in the institutional investor world
– all women are helping us launch the Spring Session of the NAA CIO & Asset Class Connection Virtual Tours with their solid endorsement.  We are fortunate to count CIO Johara Farhadieh, CIO Angela Miller-May, and CEO Marcie Frost as part of the NAA Familia.  Below you can find the 8 upcoming meetings in April and May and the calendar is filling up quickly.  

Please make sure you mark your calendar on April 13 for our first Dealmakers Forum of 2022.  We will have a candid conversation regarding diversity trends among investment consultants and the 2021 Annual Investment Consultant Survey conducted by DAMI (found below).  It has been reported that institutional allocators have been more attuned to diversity in the management of investments in the last few years. It will be interesting to find out if and how this has resulted in changes among investment consultants.  

Our own Jasmine Richards, from Cambridge Associates, provides us with an insiders’ view in the Best-in-Class section.

I leave you with the heartfelt hope that a peaceful resolution can be found in the Ukraine war so that all the families caught up in the conflict may no longer be in harm’s way.

Paz y amor,

Solange F. Brooks

2022 NAA National Tour
NAA Voices
Gerson R. Guzman, Ceiba Capital Partners
Building a Better Future for Our Daughters and Preparing Them for It
Ceiba Capital Partners with daughters
Justin T. Crane, Cyle A Williams, and Gerson R. Guzman from Ceiba Capital Partners with their daughters. (Photo courtesy of Gerson R. Guzman).
In our letter to NAA members last year celebrating Women’s History Month, Solange F. Brooks and I noted that our organization is committed to making the issue of female advancement, not just a topic for 30 days out of the year, but rather a year-round focus.  This is not just altruistic on my part - it is rather self-serving.  See at our firm, Ceiba Capital Partners, we are all the proud fathers of young girls, and we want to help build a better world for our daughters and prepare them to achieve their full potential.

In the last two years, one of these girls arrived into the world in the midst of a global pandemic and the other two had to contend with how that same pandemic rewrote the societal playbook.  All are now growing up in a world of increased economic and geopolitical uncertainty.  Many of the demographic and economic trends we discuss regularly as we underwrite to new investments represent tectonic shifts that will impact not only the world they are growing up in but the one they will enter as young professionals.  These include the impact of technological innovation, demographic trends, workforce automation, business process outsourcing, and artificial intelligence, among others.  

In many ways, we are no different from our own fathers - worried about securing the future of our children, but we also recognize they will face a more uncertain social, political, and economic environment.  As parents, we hope to provide them with the education and economic opportunities to thrive in this constantly changing world.

However, as modern finance professionals, we are particularly situated to know the challenges they will encounter. From our own experience, we know that women disproportionately carry the dual burden of holding down jobs and being the primary caregivers at home.  At the same time, women make less than men, a fact that sadly has not changed since we were young boys.  According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2019, full-time, year-round working women earned 82% of what their male counterparts earned.  Men are generally employed in jobs with higher median wages and even at the top, gender disparities exist.  According to a 2019 report by the McKinsey Global Institute, 5% of women in mature economies work in the highest-paying legislator, senior official, and manager occupations versus 8% of men.

We see this imbalance day by day in our own industry as alternative asset managers.  A 2018 study by McKinsey and Lean In found that 1 in 5 professional women is frequently the only woman in the room.  Most of us in the industry don’t need a survey to tell us how true that is.  We can simply look around the room in mandate pitches, investment committee meetings, and industry conferences.  The lack of women in leadership roles or simply not being in the room has cascading effects.   Female entrepreneurs face daunting challenges to get their ideas off the ground and scale their businesses.  In the same year as the McKinsey study above, less than 10% of decision-makers at venture capital firms were women and 74% of U.S. venture capital firms had ZERO female investors.  That translates into a funding gap.  In 2018, all-male founding teams received 85% percent of total venture capital investment in the United States, gender-diverse teams received 13%, and all-women teams received a paltry 2% percent.[1]

So that is the current state of affairs in which our daughters are growing up.  My daughter will turn 18 in 2031 and the workplace will be different in many ways.  I hope that as a society we will have made great strides in addressing the challenges and gaps noted, but I am not foolish enough to think we will have achieved parity or equity on all of these issues.  According to the McKinsey Global Institute, by 2030 workers are likely to spend more time using social and emotional, higher cognitive, and technical skills, and less time on physical and manual, and basic cognitive skills.  As such, it is up to us as professionals and fathers to take a leadership role in addressing these issues and preparing our own daughters for their future. 

For the former, at our own firms, we need to have policies and procedures to deliberately hire, retain, and promote women into leadership roles.  Let’s evaluate what barriers exist within our own firms and portfolio companies that are impediments to greater equity.  In a world where we all constantly hear you can’t find and keep good people; this is a business imperative for success.  After all, women represent close to half of the total labor force in the United States at 47%.  I’m hopeful that the rise of more flexible and hybrid models of work will empower women to find the balance they often seek in their professional careers and personal aspirations.  Additionally, involve yourself in organizations like the New America Alliance that have made it their mission to provide access to women and elevate them into leadership roles within their industry. 
 
As to the latter, it happens in ways big and small.  I encourage my daughter to embrace technology.  For those of us who saw our kids seamlessly transition to remote learning and give us a few tips on how to use Zoom, we know they are now digital natives.  To me, it is not about screen time, but about teaching her some of the skills she will need to thrive in a future that will be driven by using more technical, social, and emotional skills. Whether it is learning about coding or exposing her to STEM programs, I hope she gains a level of comfort with the tools and technology that will drive tomorrow’s world.  

When she asks, I let my daughter listen in on my calls and take notes.  She’s picked up a few things.  When I launched Ceiba, she made notebooks for me to prioritize those areas she thought I should focus on, including Investor Relations, Portfolio Management, and Employee Management – that last one came with lots of hearts and smiley faces drawn on it.  She even read the investment memorandum on my latest deal.  Talk about realizing you need to spend more time on a deal when your daughter asks you about product attributes you cannot answer!  She’s taken an interest, but my real hope is that she builds the confidence to pursue any endeavor she sets her sights on.  More importantly, that she is in the room when the decisions are made about which program to advance or which projects or companies to fund.

[1] Kate Clark - https://techcrunch.com/2018/11/04/female-founders-have-brought-in-just-2-2-of-us-vc-this-year-yes-again/
Best in Class
Jasmine Richards, Head of Diverse Manager Research at Cambridge Associates
Interview with Susana G Baumann, NAA Marketing & Communications Adviser

In a perfect world, we wouldn't be celebrating Women's History Month or Black History Month. We wouldn't need policies such as the Rooney Rule or Affirmative Action because all sorts of diversity would be "normal." What do we mean by "normal"? 

In the last decade, companies have focused on increasing programs to address obstacles diverse employees face, especially women and minorities. However, these efforts have proven little results with a hindering problem: opportunities for these employees look like a wide triangle, in which the base is very diverse, but the top is still unachievable. 

We spoke with Jasmine Richards, Head of Diverse Manager Research at Cambridge Associates. Jasmine leads the firm's ongoing initiative to identify and research institutional-quality investment managers across public and private asset classes with underrepresented owners or leaders, including women and people of color. She is also a new Board Member at New America Alliance. 

While much of her job is focused on closing the opportunity gap for diverse fund managers, Jasmine also believes in the power of her firm's own diversity. "Half of our executive team are women at Cambridge Associates," said Jasmine. "So here it is certainly at the senior ranks," Jasmine explained.

So what is the concept that Cambridge Associates grasps that other companies do not? "We know that pursuing diversity within our firm is essential as our success depends on our talent, and the best talent exists in the broadest pool of candidates. Increasing the broad diversity of our community allows us to interact and relate to our clients in different ways that will also have diversity reflected in the team they hire. And these actions perpetuate over time, leading to enhanced problem-solving and decision-making abilities and improving client output," she explained.

Jasmine believes that this practice also allows the company to recruit different talent and make people feel like they belong, not just for the company to look diverse. "Having a leadership that is diverse, not just 'looks' diverse, it makes someone coming in feel more welcome at the company as well," she said.

"And then finally, I think it also creates that standard as 'normal.' When you add one candidate to a board, for instance, it is not normalized. That person is seen as an 'Other.' As the only woman on the Board, it's not uncommon for a company to tokenize that individual, for example, only consulting them on gendered topics like our maternity policy but not on the company's 2022 strategic vision," Jasmine explained.

And she continued, "But having that level of diversity on a management team like Cambridge Associates does signal that this is normal, and everyone is capable, and everyone can progress at the firm. And so I think that's really powerful."

Jasmine's background did not start in the financial industry. "I was studying mechanical engineering and got selected to go to a full day' Open Office' event at Goldman Sachs while I was in college. Working through that day and seeing all the options, I was attracted to how I could apply structured thinking to a different industry that was certainly faster-paced than mechanical engineering. Also, being able to work on multiple projects, in terms of the pace and the context of the work, really interested me," she recalls.

Jasmine then started to look at different options. "Finally, I was able to find a team at Bear Stearns in the Private Client Services division that needed someone to program a database for them, which I knew from my undergrad studies. And I agreed to create this database for them if they taught me everything else. And so it was a great entryway into the industry," she shared.

And Jasmine concluded, "My own experience teaches me why we as a firm need to support programs like the NAA Pathway Fellowship Program because you don't know what you don't know. And when you can provide early exposure to the young generations, it opens up different paths for all people for their personal and professional advancement, engagement, and any company's business performance."  

To contact the firm: cambridgeassociates.com
WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH - OUR NAA MEMBERS
WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH - OUR NAA ADVISERS
Upcoming Events
2022 NAA Dealmakers Virtual Forum 
Investment Consultants: Diversity Trends 
 
Consultants and investment teams are the principal engine of success for their clients’ investment portfolios but they must understand that multi-dimensional diversity is essential to achieve desired results. 

Join us on April 13, 2022, from 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm ET when our panel will discuss how consultants, as well as investment teams, can benefit from diversity trends and
best practices. 

We welcome our Board Member Avinash Amin, MD, Manager Partner at Madryn Asset Management, LP; Angela Outlaw-Matheny, Director of Investment Staff & Diverse Manager Equity at Crewcial Partners, LLC; Robert Raben, President & Founder, Raben Group; and NAA Board Member Jasmine Richards, CFA, Senior Investment Director, Head of Diverse Manager Research at Cambridge Associates. 
Panel Moderator: Avinash Amin, MD, Managing Partner, Madryn Asset Management, LP
Avinash Amin, M.D. is the Founder and Managing Partner of Madryn Asset Management, LP, a New York-based private investment firm that provides debt and equity solutions to healthcare companies specializing in innovative, and transformative products, technologies, and services.

Panel Speaker: Angela Outlaw-Matheny, Director of Investment Staff & Diverse Manager Equity, Crewcial Partners, LLC
Angela Matheny joined Crewcial Partners in July 2016. She is an integral part of Crewcial’s research team. Angela and the firm’s CIO co-manage the investment team to ensure internal processes are efficient while overseeing the firm’s systematic process for identifying the best ideas for portfolios.

Panel Speaker: Robert Raben, President & Founder, Raben Group
Robert Raben, and the eighty or so people who have joined him in the unique public policy firm he created in 2002, works to drive public policy in a humane and sensible direction; to bring diversity and equity to the boardrooms and think tanks and corporations of America; to create a fair judiciary and to influence legislation that will broaden civil rights, reform our criminal justice system, and improve education for all our children.

Panel Speaker: Jasmine Richards, CFA, Senior Investment Director, Head of Diverse Manager Research, Cambridge Associates
Jasmine joined Cambridge Associates in 2018 as Head of Diverse Manager Research to lead the firm’s ongoing initiative to identify and research investment managers in all public and private asset classes that have underrepresented owners or leaders, including women and people of color. 
NAA Strategic Partners
DAMI Report
As we reflect on 2021, we are heartened by the progress that has been made but also concerned by the pace at which it is occurring.

On the bright side, it is becoming harder and harder for firms to ignore diversity. Over the past year, we’ve seen more pressure from lawmakers to improve diversity, new research about the importance of diversity, and more clients pushing firms to release detailed demographic data.

But as this study confirms, real progress is moving at a snail’s pace. Many firms, endowments, foundations, and other institutional investors are still reluctant to release their data. And while there have been commitments to diversify, the actual demographic figures have barely budged. What’s more, research shows that most asset owners believe they must choose between financial gains and incorporating diversity -- a misconception that has been debunked by studies time and time again.

We have hurdles to overcome, but change is happening -- and it cannot be stopped. We would like to extend a thank you to the firms who have participated in our survey this year. But we remain disappointed by the firms that didn’t respond. Diversity is a priority, and it’s not going away.

Robert Raben,
Executive Director

To download the report, click HERE
Upcoming CIO & Asset Class Connections
San Diego City Employees' Retirement System
April 5, 12:00 - 1:00 PM ET
Aksia LLC
April 12 from 12 pm - 1:30 pm ET
Muller & Monroe Asset Management LLC
April 14 from 3 pm - 4 pm ET
Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
April 28 from 12 pm - 1 pm ET


New Jersey Division of Investment
May 3 from 1 pm - 2 pm ET
StepStone Group
May 10 from 2 pm - 3:30 pm ET
Invesco Private Capital 
May 12 from 12:00 - 1:30 PM ET
Callan LLC
May 17 from 12:00 - 1:30 PM ET
Career Opportunities
NAA supports matching high-quality professional talent with institutions across the United States. SEE CAREER OPPORTUNITIES HERE. Interested candidates, please reference New America Alliance in your application and notify Jodi Towner at jtowner@naaonline.org once submitted so we may be aware of your candidacy.

Employers, you may submit information on current high-level and high-impact job vacancies to Jodi Towner at jtowner@naaonline.org.