Women of Achievement – paving the way for future women leaders in the industry.

On Tuesday 4 August, the Allan Gray retail team were delighted to host the first Women of Achievement Forum at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Sydney. This was the very first national Allan Gray event specifically for women. The aim of the day was to recognise and support women leaders within the financial services industry and to provide tools to the attendees – all successful business leaders – to continue building on their business achievements.

JD de Lange, chief operating officer, kicked off the event with his welcome message: ‘We believe there is a changing dynamic in how women are represented as consumers and business owners and we want to lead that journey and be part of the conversation’. All speakers were specifically chosen, as they addressed a core issue for most successful women and could provide solutions to enhance the journey.  Discussions of the day revolved around what it means to succeed in the financial services industry and how to pave the way for future generations of women to join the industry.

Doing things differently in business can put you ahead of the crowd

As contrarian investment managers, Allan Gray has a history of doing things differently. It is this conviction in challenging the status quo that also provided the underlying theme for the Women of Achievement event – equipping women with the tools to view their business and clients differently. In this spirit, each attendee received a copy of ‘Daring and Disruptive’ by Lisa Messenger, which captures the challenges and lessons of becoming a successful entrepreneur.

Dr Anna Lapotnikova, investment analyst from Allan Gray, was first to present, laying the groundwork for discussions on how to do things differently if you want different results. She offered the group a view on why economic forecasting does not work and gave a word of encouragement in an uncertain world: ‘Instead of fighting uncertainty, we should embrace it.’ Anna also shared her thinking when it comes to how she applies the Allan Gray approach to filtering and selecting stocks, including some great examples of contrarian stock selection.

Against the backdrop that women will represent 85% of future consumers, founder of No Shrinking Violets, Georgie Morell talked about how to market directly to women. She made specific reference to brands that are already achieving this, combining each example with a lesson that the attendees could apply in their day-to-day business.

Vanessa Bennett, CEO of Inside 80 Performance Australia, talked about how everyone has their own natural work pace at which they can optimise their efficiency. ‘Knowing what times of the day best suit your natural pace, you can structure your diary to work with your natural rhythm and achieve more each day’, was her advice.

Lastly, style and image specialist Colette Werden explained the art of authentic self-packaging: ‘People make 11 decisions about you in the first 7 seconds of meeting you, so how you dress and present yourself is more important than you think.’ According to Colette, this type of image development is not about being fashionable but being true to yourself and knowing how you would like to be perceived in the marketplace.

This group of women are committed to promoting women

In light of the free flow of discussions and ideas amongst the women who attended, this was definitely not the last event of its kind.This group of women will continue to challenge the status quo, continue to learn and succeed, and develop a new support network to promote women in the industry. Allan Gray hopes to continue being part of the discussion and support more women as they play an increasingly important role in an industry that can truly make a difference to someone’s life.


Marietta Gibbs is a Relatiobship Manager at Allan Gray. Marietta holds a Bachelor of Arts in Behavioural Science and is currently completing her Diploma of Financial Planning.