The Bank of New York Mellon sponsors Women’s Bond Club event on “Women and Wealth”
As an active corporate sponsor of the Women’s Bond Club, one of the oldest professional organizations for women in finance The Bank of New York Mellon recently hosted a panel discussion and networking event at the company with the WBC, entitled “Women & Wealth: Driven to Succeed, Prepared for Transition.”
More than 150 women from The Bank of New York Mellon and financial services firms from around the New York metro area attended the event at the company’s New York headquarters at One Wall Street. The event was coordinated by the company’s Women’s Initiatives Network (WIN) and consisted of a panel discussion, networking and questions from the audience and one on one conversations with the panelists.
Debra Baker, MD, Performance Risk & Analytics, opened the evening, welcoming the crowd and emphasizing the importance of women professionals connecting and forming bonds through networking. She introduced Gerald Hassell, President of The Bank of New York, who noted how continually inspired he was by “the enthusiasm and energy” of the organization’s events and pointed out that “sixty percent of wealth today is in women’s hands.” He also reiterated the company’s commitment to diversity and inclusion and encouraged everyone to enjoy themselves and develop their networks.
Debra then turned the evening over to panel moderator, Stella Vanguestaine, MD, Global Strategic Sales, who introduced the panelists: Elizabeth Bloomer Nesvold, Managing Partner, Silver Lane Advisors; Patricia Ferrari, Partner and Attorney at Law, Fox Rothschild LLP; Maura Grimes, VP, BNY Mellon Wealth Management; and Suzanne Kline, Senior Director, BNY Mellon Wealth Management.
Stella opened the discussion by highlighting few recent stats about women and wealth, including: in the U.S, women make 80% of consumer spending decisions; between 1996 and 1998, the number of affluent women in the US with assets of $3M or more increased by 68%; and that investment clubs run by women earned a return of 17.9% in comparison to clubs run by men who earned 15.6%. “Not bad for a group that on average, still earns 81 cents to every one dollar earned by men,” Stella concluded. She then opened the panel discussion, where topics discussed included everything from how to find a good attorney to what to look for in a financial planner, how to consolidate your assets, and how to decide your asset allocation.
The evening concluded with a Q & A session with the attendees and a networking cocktail reception.
