Rondure Global Advisors believes that diversification plays a critical role in reducing risk and enhancing return in investing. That belief carries over to our philosophy on human capital—that a team of diverse thinkers will lead to better investment outcomes. Wharton professor Adam Grant’s notion of cultural enhancement rings true to us: “Culture fit is a recipe for groupthink—it weeds out diversity of thought.” As global investors, we believe that varied perspectives make our team better.
As a majority-women-owned firm, we have always been a rarity in the investment industry. In 2022, we formalized our commitment to bringing the best and brightest to our firm, whatever their personal background, by setting out four principles governing our approach to team building. To do so, we drew on the CFA Institute’s best practices for attracting, hiring, promoting, and retaining talented professionals in the financial services industry.[i]
The ultimate goal of these principles is to build a team that will deliver excellent investment results for clients as their fiduciaries.
Our Principles
Principle 1: Pipeline—Rondure commits to building a broad and varied talent pipeline.
We are committed to finding and developing the rising generation of investors. Our founder serves on the board of Young Investors Society, an organization that promotes financial education among high school students. We have also provided internships for aspiring finance professionals from a wide variety of personal backgrounds, ranging in grade level from high school through graduate school.
Principle 2: Talent acquisition—Rondure commits to fair and welcoming hiring practices.
We want the best team possible at Rondure, whatever their background. The challenge we face is that many young professionals, in our experience, lack exposure to the asset management industry. To overcome that hurdle, we seek to cast a wide net in recruiting new team members. We also commit to collaborating with organizations that share our mission, such as 100 Women in Finance, where we are part of the CEO Circle. We share its Vision 30/40 goal of having women represent 30% of senior investment roles and executive committee positions by 2040.
Principle 3: Promotion and retention—Rondure commits to fair promotion and retention practices.
We want to give each of our team members a fair shot at promotion based on merit. Our goal is to distribute opportunities for training, mentorship, progression, and compensation broadly across the firm. Everyone’s potential should be maximized. Rondure has already surpassed the 100 Women in Finance’s Vision 30/40 goal, with women representing 66% of our portfolio management team and with majority-women ownership.
Principle 4: Influence—Rondure commits to promoting a meritocratic investment industry.
As investment professionals, we want to be a voice for bringing the best and brightest into the financial services industry, regardless of their personal background. At Rondure, we believe that building a world-class team of diverse perspectives and abilities, like the diversification of assets, is good for risk-adjusted returns in international investing.
Glossary
Diversification: An investment strategy based on the premise that a portfolio with different asset types will perform better than one with few.
Diversity: The full spectrum of human attributes, perspectives, and backgrounds.
Fiduciaries: A fiduciary or fiduciaries is a person or organization that acts on behalf of others and is legally bound to act in the best interest of their clients.
Sources
CFA Institute. “Implementation Guidance for Public Consultation, CFA Institute Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Code (USA and Canada).” July 2021
Grant, Adam [@AdamMGrant]. “Don’t let your workplace become a cultural museum. Culture fit is a recipe for groupthink—it weeds out diversity of thought. Hire, reward, and promote cultural contributors: the misfits, original thinkers, and disagreeable givers who stretch and enrich the culture.” Twitter, 19 June 2018.
[i] CFA Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Code (USA and Canada—2021 Guidelines).
