Find Your Voice Showcase 2022: Speaking up and out and finding your brave

Speaking up and out, and finding your braveFind Your Voice Showcase 2022Read about the Find Your Voice Showcase at the IMpower FundForum 2022.Contents

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Mental health, happiness, stereotypes, game theory and agriculture. These were the diverse topics presented by the five speakers in the Find Your Voice Showcase at IMpower FundForum 2022. Their brief was to speak for two minutes on a topic about which they are passionate. The session was introduced by public speaking expert Alison Campbell, who had coached the presenters during April’s Finding Your Voice event in conjunction with Women in Asset Servicing. She explained that most of the speakers had never presented publicly before, but they used this platform to gain confidence and learn to ‘own the room’.

Read on to get a snippet of what our Finding Your Voice participants spoke about in Monaco >>

Mental health struggles: The 'silent pandemic'

The taboo around talking about mental health is thankfully diminishing. In a speech that coincided with Mental Health Awareness Week, Ridhima Bhasin, Principal Consultant at PA Consulting, opened up about her own mental health struggles. She joked that she ticks three diversity and inclusion boxes: “I’m brown, I’m a woman, and I live with depression.”

She explained that one in four people have a mental health condition.

“This is a silent pandemic and we need to talk about what, how and why. But we only talk about the ‘cold and flu’ of it – depression and anxiety. We don’t talk about bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, we don’t use the ‘s’ word – suicide.”

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Bhasin called for people to think about mental health with empathy, and try to understand better how sufferers are feeling. For those who are struggling with their mental health, she urged them to be brave and ask for help when they need it.

Stereotyping women in finance

Andrea Acimovic, Investment Associate at Elston Consulting, talked about some of the stereotyping she had faced as a woman from Eastern Europe working in finance. She explained that she has often faced assumptions and prejudice, along with stereotypes about her home country of Serbia. “People tend to think that women in finance are more cold because it’s a masculine industry,” she said.

Or they think women are too emotional, they’re not risk-taking, they will take ages to make a decision. These are complete polar opposites, you’re either too emotional or you’re too cold, you can’t be a normal person in finance if you’re a woman.

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She asked the audience to try to overcome their own biases and try to be more open towards other people.

Game theory and climate change

What does game theory have to do with climate change? Sophie Williams, ESG Data Analyst at Impact Cubed, talked about game theory as a mathematical tool that can be used to analyse strategic decision making and assess the outcome of various scenarios. “What does this mean for climate change?” she asked. "Climate change is a global issue, not a local one, which means it matters how much we emit and not where we emit. So, the influence we can pull from game theory is that there is an incentive to free ride on the mitigation action we perceive others to take. We would rather not incur the cost ourselves and instead benefit from another country implementing renewable energy. As a result of this, we may end up in a scenario where no-one wants to take any action.” To foster collective action, what will be needed is good communication, trust, and better access to climate finance, such as public private partnerships, she suggested.

Climate change is a global issue, not a local one, which means it matters how much we emit and not where we emit.

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‘Without agriculture we’d all be hungry, naked and poor’

Deyana Mincheva, Marketing Manager at Agri Resources Group, told the audience of delegates why she is so passionate about agriculture, without which “we would all be hungry, naked and poor”. “Agriculture provides us with the basic necessities we need to survive, but I also believe it holds the key for us to meet our social, economic and environmental objectives,” she said.

She argued that agriculture provides employment and livelihoods for around 30% of the world’s population. “It contributes to GDP and exports, and it’s the backbone of any country’s economy.” However, she conceded the industry also “contributes to some of the biggest threats we are facing: climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution of our land and water.” As someone who wants to work in agriculture in the long term, Mincheva argued that it must be made more sustainable, and this is what her company is trying to do. But she called on the financial services sector to help. “We can’t do it alone. We need financial instruments which are more adapted and accessible not only to an international agricultural company but also to the individual farmers.

Together all of us can build a better agricultural tomorrow.”

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Why happiness matters in investing

The last speaker to take to the stage was Gabriele Hartmann, fund manager at Perspektive Asset Management, to talk about how happiness can feature in stock selection.

“Most people think that outperforming the market is only possible by choosing good financial aspects, analysing the balance sheet, but this is not true,” she said. “It’s also about social factors, it’s about happiness factors that matter.”

She said there are four key factors to consider: GDP per capita, freedom to make life choices, healthy life expectancy, generosity and reliability in society. “If you take these aspects into consideration and not just focus on bottom-up stock selection, you end up with an overweight in Scandinavia, Finland and Norway, and this leads to better results, lower volatility and better returns,” she argued.

Hear from the Finding Your Voice winner 2022

What a session… going into the boot camp I had a couple of topics I thought I would talk about. I didn’t speak about a single one of them.

Alison brought me completely out of my comfort zone and gave me the confidence to talk about something personal. Something I didn’t think I would ever have the confidence to say to a room of complete strangers. In the short period of time we had, I can’t believe how comfortable I felt and how much I got out of it. Not only did we learn how to deliver the content, but we were also coached on how to craft the words to make it impactful.

Since that, new opportunities have presented themselves that I have been able to comfortably say yes to.

All in all, it was a completely safe space to learn, to gain confidence and to find our voices.

Harriet Shepherd, Financial Wellbeing Manager, St James Place Wealth Management

If you get the opportunity – please take it – you won’t regret it.

My self-confidence was seriously boosted after this day mainly thanks to the people I had the chance to meet.

Noemi Kieffer, Product Strategy Manager, T Rowe Price

Alison gave me the confidence to deliver my story with just enough emotion to connect with the audience and take them on my journey but ensuring that they were left with succinct and powerful messages. It was incredibly empowering but also cathartic.

Sascha Calisan, Senior Vice President, Head, Distribution Support, Northern Trust

That short pitch gave me bundles of confidence and helped me recognise that there is a place for me in this industry, to be in the exact role I want.

Abbie Wright, Investment Development Manager, Rowan Dartington

I’ve since had more belief in myself and been asked to speak at multiple events, ultimately growing my profile in the industry. Being able to say ‘I’ve done it before’ to my employers also gives them confidence that I can represent them well externally.

Laura Bampfylde, Director, Global Assets – Wealth, Redington