Women and minority asset managers are being excluded when independent consultants hired by pension funds and other institutional investors are asked to identify with whom to put their money. Garcia presented his findings to SEC commissioners on July 7. His committee gathered data, took testimony, interviewed experts and has now produced a report with recommendations. He decided to do something about it and agreed to chair an SEC advisory subcommittee examining institutional and systemic racism in asset management. He’s been watching this discrimination for 20 years, first from his desk at Solomon Brothers in New York and now from his firm’s C-suite in Houston.
Sign up for the HouWeAre newsletter here. We want to foster conversation and highlight the intersection of race, identity and culture in one of America's most diverse cities.
“I’ve been told point-blank by a consultant that they would never hire us because we don’t have enough white, male partners,” Garcia said. That proportion has not changed in two decades. Minority and women-owned firms, as a result, handle only 1.3 percent of the $71 trillion in assets under management, according to the Knight Foundation. But some players have used those rules to justify discrimination. The SEC imposes a lot of rules to protect people and institutions from cheats and idiots. The job entails convincing clients to trust you with millions and then providing a reliable return. Garcia is one of the cofounders of Garcia, Hamilton and Associates, an asset management firm that makes money by investing $15 billion in pension funds, university endowments and family trusts in bonds. TOMLINSON’S TAKE: Racial wage gap remains stubborn, but trends are promising He’s approaching the finish line, and he’s cautiously optimistic. The work is technically complex, fraught with politics and rarely successful, but his experience reflects what is necessary to create a more just world.įrequent readers know I’ve been tracking Garcia’s year-long quest to bring equity to his corner of the financial services industry. Yet Gilbert Garcia has enthusiastically hoed the long row at the Securities and Exchange Commission to open the asset management industry to those historically relegated to the sideline. Melissa Phillip, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer Show More Show Lessįixing decades-old, institutional systems that were designed to benefit incumbents and block newcomers - particularly women and people of color - is awfully hard work. Gilbert Garcia, founder of Garcia Hamilton & Associates, is shown Tuesday, Oct. Zach Gibson, Bloomberg / Bloomberg Show More Show Less 5 of5 MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Zach Gibson. Signage is displayed outside the headquarters building of the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C., on Dec. De Jesús, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer Show More Show Less 4 of5 partner Gilbert Garcia, left, and Children's Museum of Houston director of educational technology and exhibit development Keith Ostfeld talk about the exhibition Sights Unseen at the Children's Museum of Houston, Friday, May 21, 2021, in Houston. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File) Seth Wenig, STF / Associated Press Show More Show Less 3 of5 Nasdaq filed a proposal with the Security and Exchange Commission to adopt new listing rules requiring companies to publicly disclose their board diversity statistics. But in the two preceding years, progress on increasing racial diversity on boards stagnated, a new study revealed Tuesday, June 8, 2021. companies have rushed to appoint Black members to their board of directors since racial justice protests swept the country last year.
Melissa Phillip, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer Show More Show Less 2 of5įILE - In this Mafile photo, a United States flag is reflected in the window of the Nasdaq studio, which displays indices and stocks down, in Times Square, New York.
0 kommentar(er)
