As a young girl, Lauren DeMore watched her mother put on a suit every morning, grab a paisley scarf and head off to work for Xerox.
At the time, DeMore didn’t know about finance or asset management, “but I just knew that I wanted that,” she said. “I was so inspired by that. I just knew that I wanted to be a professional.”
The irony is that DeMore wears jeans to work and hates getting dressed up, but, she says, “I love being able to leave the space where I'm a mother and come to the space where I'm a professional.”
She landed at Putnam Investments because when she was deciding between that job and another offer, she flat-out told the woman she was talking with, Pam Holding, who’s now at Fidelity Investments, that the other job was offering her more money.
According to DeMore, Holding said, “‘I can fix that.’ And she got me a better offer to go to Putnam. And it was just such the perfect start to my career at Putnam that this woman, who was a portfolio manager, was like, ‘You need more money, you deserve it, I will make that happen for you.’”
The perspective she gleaned from that interaction — knowing her worth, making sure she wasn’t paid less than her male peers, thinking about taking care of her future self, and encouraging herself and others — are all insights she’s carried throughout her more than two-decade career in finance and in mentoring others.
“I like hyping people up, not just the women, the men, too,” she said.
“I love saying, ‘I see that you are feeling maybe a little vulnerable or insecure. Investing is a very, very hard job. I'm here for you.’ Whether you're a man or woman, sometimes you have just a tough run of stocks. And it's really visible. I am here for you, you will get to the other side. I will tell you times when I felt like an idiot and wanted to hide under my desk; we will get through this together. Being a portfolio manager gives me the platform to connect with people that way, and it's made my job even more fulfilling.”
At year-end, Putnam had about $178 billion in AUM.