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September 9, 2024
Shannon O’Mara
Co-director, Credit research,
Loomis, Sayles & Co.
A decade ago, Shannon O’Mara was hiring for entry-level positions at Loomis, Sayles & Co. and noticed what she called “a distinct trend” in its candidate profiles: Only 18% of the candidates out of about 800 applicants were women.
She compared that to the senior analysts at Loomis Sayles, found that they had about 40% women, and she said, “I thought we were going to have a problem further down the line. So I wanted to do something about it and do something different.”
So, in 2015, O’Mara, co-director of credit research at Loomis Sayles, with $359.7 billion in assets under management, created the firm’s Undergraduate Women’s Investment Network program with the firm’s support to inspire, develop and recruit underrepresented groups into investment management. She started the program with 18 students from Bentley University in Waltham, Mass., then expanded it to the University of Massachusetts Boston, then to the Boston region, and now, to colleges all over the country.
“We really have been able to impact a lot of young folks who don’t necessarily know where they’re going or don’t necessarily see their pathway or know that they like economics,” O’Mara said. “They aren’t really sure how they can apply what they’re learning in school to maybe potential career paths. So that mentorship piece is a core component of just trying to help students figure out, ‘How do I connect my education to potential career?’”
More than 300 students have gone through the program, which runs through the school year and consists of mentorship, internships and six in-person and virtual workshops. In her latest tracking, O’Mara found about a two-thirds conversion rate for students who had gone through the program and into investment management and financial services careers. She added that Loomis Sayles has hired 15 students from the program, 13 of whom are still full-time staffers.
“This is really important work that we’re doing,” she said. “This whole program is about showing students this is an industry that exists. This is a place where you can leverage your strengths, that you can contribute, that you can be valued, that you are welcome to join.”
— ERIN CHAN DING
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