Goldman Sachs recently announced plans to hire more women and people of color. The bank wants to increase its representation in entry-level analysts and associates in the Americas to 50% for women, 11% for black employees and 14% for Latino employees, based on an email to employees from CEO David Solomon, President John Waldron and CFO Stephen Scherr to its employees, according to CNN.
Goldman Sachs, of course, is not the only major bank claiming to close the gender gap. Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, among others have all rolled out campaigns to promote diversity and inclusivity.
And yet, trying to compile a list of executive-level hires that consists of women and minorities for the March edition of Bank Innovation’s Movers and Shakers features was far from easy. This only goes to show that minorities, and especially women, are rarely hired at top level executive levels in the banking world.
Some large players, however, moved the needle – albeit just a little – in this direction. Here are three hires that caught Bank Innovation’s attention.
Lydia Jett will oversee SoftBank Group’s $100 billion Vision Fund
SoftBank appointed Lydia Jett as a partner of its Vision Fund. Jett will be the second woman to join the group that oversees the $100 billion fund, what the firm claims to be the world’s largest technology investments.
In a Bloomberg interview, Jett said of her promotion: “It puts another woman in the room. The work is the same work I’ve been doing for years, which is being laser-focused on finding the best companies and building and mentoring the team.”
Prior to this, Jett was a VP at the private equity firm M/C Partners before joining SoftBank four years ago. She’s a board member of some Asia’s largest online marketplaces such as Tokopedia and Coupang. She was also on the board of Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart before Walmart Inc. acquired it in 2018.
The appointment of Jett is significant because women are underrepresented in managerial roles, and more so in investment banking than retail banking. In fact, all Vision Fund’s current managing partners are men. A report by Catalyst shows only 17% of women held senior leaders in investment banking worldwide while, based on a Preqin report, that number is at 9% in the private equity world, according to CNBC.
SigFig hires its first female CFO
SigFig, a technology company focused customer experiences in financial services, appointed its first female CFO.
Earlier this month, SigFig announced Anne Morrissey will serve as the company’s Chief Financial Officer. She will also be responsible for overseeing the company’s growth strategy.
“Anne’s proven success in helping to scale startups and growth-stage technology businesses is a great addition to SigFig as we continue our mission of reimagining the financial services industry,” said Mike Sha, CEO and co-founder of SigFig said in the announcement. “Anne joins us at a pivotal moment in SigFig’s growth trajectory as we unveil new products, expand into new regions and grow our range of clients across the financial services sector.”
Morrissey’s experience in traditional finance, coupled with her significant accomplishments at technology startups in financial roles, uniquely positions her to deliver on SigFig’s business objectives. Over a 20-year-career, Morrissey was instrumental in the growth and scaling of startups Fitbit and LeapFrog, worked in Yahoo!’s investor relations division and has nearly a decade of financial services experience with JPMorgan Chase and Salomon Smith Barney.
Based in San Francisco, SigFig specializes in robo advice capabilities. It also provides UX and design services to its clients. SigFig is backed by VCs including General Atlantic, Bain Capital Ventures, Union Square Ventures, DCM, and Nyca Partners and is headquartered in San Francisco.
Fredrick Lee joins payroll provider Gusto
Online payroll company Gusto is scaling its security team, starting from the top. Earlier this month, the company hired former head of information security of payment company Square, Fredrick Lee. Lee will report to Gusto co-founder and chief technology officer, Edward Kim.
Prior to his two-year stint at Square, Lee was Bank of America’s security VP for five years. At Gusto, he will be exploring innovation opportunities around data security, consumer protection, compliance, platform security, and even the company’s privacy policy as it pertains to consumer data. He will also oversee Gusto’s security strategy related to consumer protection, risk management, and compliance.






