Why gender diversity can help portfolio management teams

Lewis R. Piantedosi,  Director of Growth Equity, and  Yana S. Barton, CFA,  Portfolio Manager,  Growth Team

Boston  - Only 30% of investors think gender diversity can help boost the performance of portfolio management teams, according to a recent Bloomberg report. It turns out the reality is different.

In fact, equity funds managed by mixed teams slightly outperformed their all-men and all-women counterparts over 3-, 5- and 10-year periods, according to a 2015 Morningstar study.

We recently sat down with Lewis Piantedosi and Yana Barton, co-portfolio managers of the growth products at Eaton Vance, to get their take on the potential benefits of gender diversity in asset management.

Q: How can diversity be important for portfolio management teams?

Lewis Piantedosi:  Gender diversity is one factor, but we tend to focus more on our differentiated co-portfolio-manager structure, with distinct emphasis on both alpha (outperformance) and risk.

Diversity of thought is one of the most important, yet elusive, inputs in our quest for alpha. We are in the business of investing, and diversification is one of the key tenets of sound long-term investment strategy.

Yana Barton:  Diversity of risk and return profiles of asset classes, styles and market caps has long shown to help deliver stronger long-term portfolio outcomes. Mixed-gender teams can help bring much-needed diversity of thinking, experiences and perspective to the investment process.

Q: What have you learned from your own experience as a mixed-gender team?

Barton:  We aren't different just for the sake of being different. We want to differentiate ourselves in order to outperform our benchmark and peers.

In terms of what makes us different, first and foremost is the considerable emphasis we put on both alpha generation and risk management. Our unique co-PM structure is a testament to this belief in practice.

Piantedosi:  We promote and welcome healthy debate from each other and our analysts. We can disagree at times, but respect each other's opinions and recognize that differences of opinion can ultimately lead us to the right decision. We believe that multiple perspectives are better than one. Sometimes we simply agree to disagree, yet challenging each other's assumptions is constructive and we believe it to be a strength of our team.