Jane A. Western, managing director, risk management and trust operations at Boeing Co., was named “trailblazer of the year” by Women Investment Professionals.
Ms. Western — who works in Boeing's investment group that oversees $56.2 billion in defined benefit assets and $36 billion in defined contribution assets — “probably is one of most hard-working people in the institutional marketplace,” Anne Lundberg, WIP president and Chicago-based head of U.S. consultant relations at Man Investments Inc., said in an interview. “She is very well known in the industry and ... forward thinking.”
Ms. Western founded in early 2008 and continues to co-lead the risk task force of the Committee on Investment of Employee Benefit Assets, a group representing some 115 corporate pension plan sponsors, whose combined defined benefit and defined contribution assets total $1.4 trillion.
“Jane has been a tireless pioneer in establishing best practices in the pension management industry,” Andrew Ward, Boeing's chief investment officer, said in an e-mail. “She has always been dedicated to creating innovative solutions for pension plans.”
“Most of my career has been with plan sponsors” and has benefited from learning to be a fiduciary, Ms. Western said in an interview. She has been in the pension investment business since 1979.
“There are a lot of very experienced women” in investment management profession who can share their experience and knowledge with younger women to help advance their careers, Ms. Western said.
The Chicago-based WIP, founded in 1997, has 276 members predominately from Chicago but also across the country. It seeks to promote networking and career development for women involved in institutional investing, including at plan sponsors, investment managers and consulting firms.