Undiversified: The Big Gender Short in Investment Management  
 

Ellen Carr ('99)	Katrina Dudley
Barksdale Investment Management	Franklin Mutual Series

Diversification is a core principle of investing. Yet money managers have not applied it to their own ranks. Only around 10 percent of portfolio managers—the people most directly responsible for investing your money—are female, and the numbers are even worse at the ownership level. What are the causes of this underrepresentation, and what are its consequences—including for firms’ and clients’ bottom lines?
 

In their new book Undiversified: The Big Gender Short in Investment Management, experienced practitioners Ellen Carr and Katrina Dudley examine the lack of women in investment management and propose solutions to improve the imbalance. The authors explore the barriers that subtly but effectively discourage women from entering and staying in the industry at each point in the pipeline. At the entry-level, the lack of visible role models discourages students from considering the field, and those who do embark on an investment management career face many obstacles to retention and promotion. Carr and Dudley highlight the importance of informal knowledge about how to navigate career tracks, without which women are left at a disadvantage in an industry that lionizes confidence. They showcase a diverse constellation of successful female portfolio managers to demystify the profession.
 

Drawing on wide-ranging research; interviews with prospective, current, and former industry practitioners; and the authors’ own experiences, Undiversified makes a compelling case that increasing the number of women could help transform active investment management at a time when it is under threat from passive strategies and technological innovation.

Ellen Carr is a high yield portfolion manager at Barksdale Investment Management, a boutique institutional fixed income management firm. She has two decades of leveraged credit research, analysis, and portofio management experience through several credit cycles.

Prior to joining WCB in 2013, Ellen was a high yield analyst and portfolio manager at The Capital Group/American Funds from 1999-2012, wer she was responsbiel for the $4 billion AUM across Capital's high yield strategies, including a sleeve of its flagship high yield fund (ticker AHITX).

Additionally, Ellen is an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School, where she teaches courses on the credit cycle and cash flow forecasting. She received her MBA from the Kellogg School of Management in 2002. 

Katrina Dudley is co-lead portfolio manager of the Franklin Mutual European mutal funds, overseeing approximately $5 billion of assets. She has been a manager of these funds for the past 10 years and has been a member of the Mutual Series team for 14 years. 

Wednesday, October 13th

Time:  6:00 pm ET

Virtual Meeting 

**All are Welcome**