March is Women's History Month and to help kick it off, I’m thrilled to spotlight how gender lens investing helped spur enormous progress in diversity of leadership at public companies over the past decade. 

Launched nine years ago, the Impax Ellevate Global Women’s Leadership Fund was the first mutual fund to focus on research and measurement of the advancement of women in the workforce at public companies around the world. The tangible results companies have experienced from engaging in this way create a virtuous circle that leads to greater leadership diversity and even better outcomes. The fund invests in many of the highest rated companies in the world.

In Money Conscious Episode 14: The Impact of Gender Lens Investing and Women’s Leadership Funds, my guest is Kelly Baldoni, Head of Global Women's Strategies at Impax Asset Management. Kelly has worked with the Impax Ellevate Global Women's Leadership Fund since its inception.

We explore many key areas such as:

• How Kelly and the Impax Ellevate research team identify the top publicly traded gender leadership companies in the world, and how their proprietary scoring system has evolved over time.


• Diversity efforts businesses implement, measure, and report on often result in greater innovation, better communication, higher employee satisfaction, and better understanding of clients.


• Academic research shows that companies that have implemented successful diversity programs and processes demonstrate improved growth and financial performance.


• How gender lens strategies combined with a greater number of investors aligning their investments with their values increased progress toward diversity during the heights of the #MeToo, Time's Up, and Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In movements.


• What goes into making the Impax Elevate Global Women's Leadership Fund such a tremendous success, reaching over a billion dollars in assets in 2022.

Guest:

This episode’s guest is Kelly Baldoni, Head of Global Women's Strategies at Impax Asset Management. Kelly also oversees national sales and marketing initiatives for the firm’s gender lens strategies particularly the Impax Ellevate Global Women's Leadership Fund. She joined Impax Asset Management in 2014, the Fund’ founding year. Kelly has honed and expanded the firm's practice management resources, which help financial advisors very effectively engage with and serve women investors as well as the next generation of clients. In addition, Kelly publishes articles in industry publications, and regularly presents at key industry conferences and events nationwide.

Show Notes:

• In every episode of Money Conscious, host Sacha Millstone talks with exciting, knowledgeable guests about what it means to invest our money consciously. The title Money Conscious reflects two priorities we’re passionate about at The Millstone Evans Group: putting your values where your money is, and raising consciousness about money matters in an easy, personal and relatable way.


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• Visit The Millstone Evans Group website for more information about the company.