Feature – Diversity


DEFINING DIVERSITY There is much debate about diversity, but how do invest- ment professionals define it?


“For us, it is about cognitive diversity,” says Clare Payn, Legal & General Investment Management’s (LGIM) senior global ESG and diversity manager. “Diversity has become synonymous with gender, which is where it started, certainly within the investment and financial space. But we are looking beyond just gender. We are looking at ethnicity, socio-economic back- ground and LGBT+ and sexual orientation. All those different streams, if you want to call it that.


38 | portfolio institutional | April 2022 | issue 112


“So, for us, diversity is holistic,” she adds. “It comes down to lived experiences, as we all have different lived experiences depending on who we are. And those lived experiences are going to be different,” she says. “And that is what we are talk- ing about when we talk about diversity: it is the cognitive piece. It is about diversity of thought, rather than anything else. We are using gender, etc, as proxies to try to quantify that diversity of thought.” Aon’s head of ESG, Meredith Jones, focuses on the mecha- nisms of investment. “Because I am focused on the cognitive and behavioural alpha component, I tend to look at who’s man- aging the portfolio. Are women and minorities integrated and/


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