MARLENE PUFFER Partner Alignvest Investment Management Years in the industry: 27
Marlene Puffer’s career began in academia: The holder of a PhD in finance and applied statistics, Puffer taught finance at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. After leaving the education field, she brought her skills to the investment space, working for RBC Capital Markets, BMO Nesbitt Burns and PIMCO Canada before going on to start her own firm, Twist Financial, in 2005. In 2014, Puffer became a partner with the newly formed Alignvest Investment Management, and she also sits on the board of the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan. It’s an impressive CV, and Puffer is confident there are many more women who can follow in her footsteps. “Out of undergraduate commerce programs, more than half are women,” she says. “Where we see some bottleneck is with CFA and MBA candidates, where a minority are women – around the 25% to 30% level – so there is a challenge there. Overall, though, the talent pool coming out of undergraduate programs is plenty diverse.” In Puffer’s opinion, however, there has been a distinct lack of progress on gender diversity, especially in leadership positions, since she began her career. “On the wealth management side, when it comes to portfolio management and the actual decision-making on investments, there has been very little change,” she says. “Diverse candidates are small in number, and they tend to be in the non-revenue-generating roles – support functions like HR and marketing.” There are a number of factors that contribute to this disparity, she says, and companies aren’t entirely to blame. Clients have the power to influence change, too. “There are a lot
“It is only now happening that investors are beginning to pressure investment management firms to explain their diversity policies” of possible explanations, including hiring practices with a lack of mentoring and networking, which means women are not aware of opportunities,” she says. “There has been a lack of focus on the part of clients; it is only now happening that investors are beginning to pressure investment management firms to explain their diversity policies.” Both the regulators and the government have made efforts to
improve female representation in the boardroom; in 2015, the OSC introduced its ‘comply or explain’ model for all non-venture issuers, which requires them to make annual disclosures about women on boards and in executive officer positions. It was a step in the right direction, Puffer says, but it should be one of many. “In corporate Canada, the numbers are staggeringly disappointing,” she says. “The big banks and insurance companies have been leaders in this area, but when you get below the top handful of publicly listed companies, more than half of companies on the TSX don’t have a diversity policy, and around half have no female board members at all.” That’s not to say this issue is being ignored – organizations like The 30% Club, the Canadian Coalition for Good Governance, Catalyst and Women in Capital Markets are all working to address the problem. As such, Puffer is confident that change is happening, albeit belatedly. “There is an event coming up in the fall that will involve all those organizations, and the government is releasing a combined set of action points,” she says. “We are moving from talk to action in a very concrete way.”
www.wealthprofessional.ca
27