For the third time in a row, the Fondsfrauen Awards have now been presented. The award goes to female members of the fund and financial sector who have been particularly successful in the past twelve months or to people who have made a special contribution to the topic of gender diversity. Companies are also awarded.
In addition to the three awards “Company of the Year”, “Woman of the Year” and “Role Model of the Year”, the fund women’s career network also chose a “Fund manager of the year” for the first time in 2021.
There had been 140 nominations in advance, and three people or companies had made it onto the shortlist in each category. In the “Company of the Year” category, the 2021 award went to Apo Asset Management. The fund provider prevailed against the also nominated companies Blackrock and BNY Mellon.
Sonja Laud, Head of Investment at Legal and General Investment Management (LGIM), was named “Woman of the Year”. Ann Richards (Fidelity) and Birgit Ludwig (Blackrock) were nominated with her.
In the “Role Model of the Year” category, Katherine Starks, Head of Asset Servicing at BNY Mellon, won the prize. She prevailed over the also nominated Isabella Seidl (Blackrock) and the only male nominee Daniel Llano (ING Germany).
Nina Stapf, fund manager at Deka, was named Fund Manager of the Year. In addition to her, Valerie Schüler, (DWS) and Karoline Rosenberg (Fidelity) were nominated.
The respective winners were on site during the award ceremony in the Hanau broadcast studio. Interested parties could follow the event live on the Internet.
The winners of the Fondsfrauen Awards are selected by a jury. In addition to the fund women founders Anne Connelly, Anke Dembowski and Manuela Fröhlich, the Mannheim business economics professor Alexandra Niessen-Ruenzi and the fund professional publisher Hans Heuser are also represented.
The fund women network started in 2015 with the aim of advocating more gender equality within the financial sector. One wants to work for mixed teams and work towards more female participation in all areas of the financial industry, it says on the related website. The financial sector is traditionally a profession dominated by male employees.
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