WATCH: Women in Private Equity

How do we “mind the gap” and fix the mix when it comes to gender and diversity in private equity?

Women are significantly underrepresented among the investment decisionmakers at private-equity and venture capital firms, as well as in the leadership of companies that receive this investment capital. The finance industry says it wants more diversity at all levels, but private equity has proved stubbornly slow to change.

Women hold only 10% of all senior positions in private-equity and venture-capital firms globally. Women made up about 12.7% of senior employees at North American private-equity funds last year, less than half the finance industry average, according to research by Preqin, and I can’t get my hands on the number for SA, but I’m sure it’s in the ballpark.

Even with junior levels close to gender parity, data show that few women move up the ranks. Firms are often tightly held partnerships with senior managers who oversee fund life cycles that can last more than a decade. And while strides are being made in SA, the pace is still quite slow.

Michael Avery is joined by Dinao Lerutla, managing partner at Maia Capital Partners (a debt-impact investing boutique fund manager based in Johannesburg); Daniella Keet, head of Private Equity at FNB Commercial; Janice Johnston, chair of 100WF in SA (and a private-equity professional) and Langa Madonko, board member at the Southern African Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (SAVCA).