There's a perception that the finance sector is a male-dominated industry. In fact, M&G wants to remove that barrier so they asked two insightful women to address an audience of female university students.They discussed their roles, the organisation and to share their comments regarding women working in the finance sector.

An audience of over 120 talented women

At M&G's Women in Finance Insights Afternoon event, co-Fund Manager of M&G's Episode Growth Fund, Jenny Rodgers, provided great insight to the 120 strong audience of talented women. Jenny's a member of the Macro & Multi Asset Investment Team at M&G and joined Prudential Portfolio Managers (now M&G) in 1994, initially analysing European equity markets and acting as a Portfolio Manager for external clients. She has been part of the Macro Investment team led by Dave Fishwick since it was established in 1999, and is a Chartered Financial Analyst and has a BA Honours in Economics from Exeter University.

Her M&G colleague, Catherine Ross who also spoke at the event, joined M&G Leveraged Finance in October 2005 and is an Assistant Fund Manager on the open-ended market value loan funds. On leaving university she joined NM Rothschild & Sons on the graduate training programme, following which she joined the Banking Advisory team which specialised in providing UK government advice for project and infrastructure finance transactions. She joined M&G in 2001, initially focusing on Fixed Income product development (working on the launch of M&G’s European Loan Funds and Episode) before joining the Leveraged Finance team. An impressive woman, she holds an MA from Cambridge University.

Demystifying fund management

M&G has also been keen to demystify Fund Management and to raise awareness about the industry in general, so they were involved in another impressive event to explain how careers in Fund Management are open to people with varied backgrounds, including those not from a Finance background. M&G's presence at the Bright Network event helped educate and inspire women about working in finance. It was a great success and saw around 100 university students attend. The audience was also advised of M&G's investment programmes because they're seeking their 2016 cohort of interns, placement students and graduates.

“It was really inspiring to have a chance to speak to so many successful women in a field I thought was dominated by men,” one audience member told us. “I was pleased to see how M&G investments was trying to show women the finance world is not just for men but for women too,” said another. “I think M&G is one of the few buy-side firms that has hosted student events not only to raise awareness, but also to pass on leaders' knowledge about their work and the industry's future development,” was another comment we received.  

Increasing presence of women in finance

M&G is keen to play its part in increasing the presence of women in the finance sector and they're actively encouraging women to apply for their investment programmes. They see their role as to provide the right environment for talented people to do their best work - and to respect and value individual differences - so diversity of talent is key!

So why not explore the vast range of roles available at M&G and be asssured you'll enjoy a dynamic respectful culture where the work is exciting and the rewards immense.

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