Boston’s Asset Management Industry Celebrates Third Year of Partnership with UNCF
August 2, 2024 – At a reception held at the Seaport Hotel on Thursday evening, twenty Boston-based investment management firms marked the conclusion of a third successful summer serving as partner organizations for the UNCF Lighted Pathways Program.
The UNCF Lighted Pathways program seeks to address the disparity and lack of diverse talent in asset management through providing scholarships and internships to undergraduate students from historically underrepresented communities interested in the field or pursuing related courses of study. Through this initiative, UNCF Lighted Pathways aims to create a career pathway to attract, develop, and retain diverse talent for the asset management industry while also creating a pipeline for Massachusetts.
According to the 2022 Investment Company Institute (ICI) US Asset Management Diversity & Inclusion Survey, representation from historically underserved or underrepresented communities in the industry is 34.4%. The Survey found only 7.1% representation from Black/African Americans, even though Black/African Americans comprised 14.4% of the country’s population in 2022.
In addition to matching Lighted Pathways scholars with a host company in investment management for a meaningful, hands-on work experience, the Lighted Pathways program offers summer housing at Northeastern University, curated industry and networking events and connections to the diverse communities and culture Boston has to offer.
Said UNCF Vice President of Development for the Northeast, Diego Aviles, who leads the initiative, “When we set out four years ago to create UNCF's Lighted Pathways program in Boston, the goals were to help increase the number of African Americans in Asset Management, while helping the City of Boston develop a robust pipeline of diverse talent coming from HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions.
We believed that to truly create a lighted pathway, students must have access to opportunity, a sense of belonging and community, and to see others who are like them in the industry thriving. The other unsaid goal was that, in turn, these students would “pay it forward” and “light a pathway” for other students from their schools to follow.
One participating firm, Acadian Asset Management – a global, systematic investment manager based here in Boston – has welcomed interns from Lighted Pathways each of the past three summers and recently hired a program alum to its full-time professional staff.
Said Acadian CEO Kelly Young, “We are all too aware of the vast representation gaps in our industry. We see the UNCF Lighted Pathways program as a way to put our DEI values into immediate practice, translating our strategy goals into meaningful action. It’s our belief that one opportunity at a time, every firm like ours can move the needle and help shape the future of our industry into a more representative and inclusive space to do the important work that we do.”
Olivia Broussard, UNCF Lighted Pathways alum who interned at Income Research + Management and The Baupost Group before accepting a full-time position with Acadian following her graduation from Xavier University earlier this year, noted that the program “opened the outlook of my career projection to include the asset management industry. I gained a vast and supportive professional network and multiple learning opportunities that grew my passion for this industry. Partner firms like Acadian who are participating in UNCF Lighted Pathways are delivering on the mission of providing opportunities, seeking out early career talent, and diversifying the asset management industry, and I am very excited to be part of that.”