Maria Jelescu-Dreyfus
“Culturally, we’ve made a lot of changes in the last 15 to 20 years in terms of the ability to integrate women into an appropriate business environment. But in terms of promoting women and paying women, there’s a lot of catching up to do. When you look at the executive management teams of all the big U.S. banks, you’re lucky to find even one woman—there is a handful of women at best in such senior roles. We want more women on boards, but no one really gave it a lot of attention until the analysis came out that said it’s actually good for business—it creates better company performance. Reports show that the very few women who manage money actually on average do better than men.”
How to do better: “It all comes down to mentorship and sponsorship. It’s critical to get women to support junior women but also to get the men to do it; they should want to create a better working environment for their own daughters. It’s going to take time, but all we can do is keep pushing.”
—Maria Jelescu-Dreyfus founded Ardinall Investment Management in New York in 2017. Previously, she was a portfolio manager at Goldman Sachs for 15 years. ardinall.com
