Mira Muhatidi, chief investment officer at the billionaire’s family office.
Nearly 90% of the world’s billionaires are men, according to Forbes. But when it comes to who they trust to manage their wealth, the gap between men and women narrows.
Not many people know that Google co-founder Sergey Brin has a family office called Bayshore Global. In January 2022, Marie Young, 35, from Goldman Sachs, was appointed Chief Investment Officer (CIO) of Bayshore Global.
Melinda Lewison, a graduate of Princeton University, has been hired to the investment arm of Bezos Expeditions, the investment firm founded by Jeff Bezos. The company’s portfolio also includes Insider and Airbnb.
Mousse Partners, a family office of Chanel with assets of 90 billion dollars (approximately 12.24 trillion yen, converted to 1 dollar = 136 yen), previously held unlisted shares in GIC, a Singaporean sovereign wealth fund. Suzi Kwon Cohen, who led the investment, is in charge of asset management.
Hedge fund billionaire Jim Simons, JB Pritzker and Tony Pritzker, sons of the founders of the Hyatt hotel chain, and founder of Walmart. The Walton family, which is said to be America’s largest wealthy, also entrusts the management of hundreds of billions of yen to women.
That is not all. According to a 2021 survey by industry publications Family Capital and Guernsey Finance, 20% of family offices globally will have a female chief investment officer or private equity officer or senior asset manager. We have a senior female investment professional with a title. Only 12.9% of senior positions at alternative asset managers are held by women, according to estimates from investment data firm Preqin.
It is not clear why there are so many female CIOs in family offices, and why they chose to work in family offices.
Mira Muhtadie, now CIO after nearly a decade at the family office of $4.5 billion hedge fund manager Dan Och, wonders why. She says she doesn’t know exactly why so many women hold the same positions as her.
But perhaps women are drawn to jobs involving family relationships that aren’t required in “hardcore finance,” Muhatidi said.
“I think there’s an emotional element to it. You’re dealing with family members, so this job is more about being able to connect with them on a human level than it is about making money. is”
Female CIOs are better suited for family offices
Wendy Craft, who runs the family office of American real estate mogul Kent Swig, also believes that working with family requires a personal touch.
“Many men are great performers, but many are less cooperative and have trouble getting along with their families. But many women are able to capitalize on the dynamics of the family office.” (Craft)
According to Kraft, regardless of gender, investment professionals, especially those at hedge funds and large investment banks, tend to prioritize potential returns when investing. So, he says, he sometimes struggles when, for example, he is asked to manage his family’s distaste for cannabis investments. However, she points out that female investors are generally more conservative, which makes them better accepted by families.
“Women don’t take as much risk in investing, so they are well suited to family offices that look at things on a time scale of 100 years rather than 10 years. (Craft)
Kraft said the family office noticed that women-managed hedge funds outperformed men-managed hedge funds during the financial crisis. A study by Hedge Fund Research found that funds run by men fell 19%, while those run by women fell only 9.6%.
“This was a shocker. It’s been a hot topic in family office meetings for a year,” says Kraft.
Another is Katherine Hill Ritchie, who previously served as investment advisor to eight billionaire family offices and is currently a director at family office Nottingham Spirk.
For working mothers, working in a family office is also good from a work-life balance standpoint, Ritchie says.
“The family office I used to work at had 55 employees and about $15 billion in assets. Functionally, it was like a mini-investment bank, but it had a family atmosphere.
It’s hard work, but it’s easy to take time off. I can adjust my work schedule by picking up and dropping off my children.” (Richie)
However, there is no change in the fact that it is a position that requires face-to-face contact with the representative. But unlike investment banks, he says there’s no pressure to be in the office until 11 p.m.
Nonetheless, the number of women in the CEO position has not progressed as far as the management team. A study by Family Capital found that 7.5% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women, compared to just 3.5% of family offices. According to Kraft, the reasons for this are the gender of family office owners and the unconscious bias of recruiters.
“Some of them are patriarchal figures who are 70 or 80 years old. These people came into society at a time when women could not have credit cards or get mortgages.” craft)
[Original: From Jeff Bezos to Sergey Brin, the world’s richest trust women to manage their personal investments. Here is why so many family offices hire female CIOs.]
(Edited by Sayuri Daimon)
Source: BusinessInsider
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