On May 15th, 2024, Commonfund held its 5th annual Diverse Manager Day. While Commonfund investment teams meet with hundreds of diverse managers each year, this one day is dedicated to due diligence on diverse managers for potential inclusion in client portfolios. This year, Commonfund investment teams met with 26 managers, the largest group of managers invited since inception.
Managers were selected from a universe of approximately 670 diverse managers, based on a combination of submissions to Commonfund’s dedicated Diverse Manager Portal, referrals from organizations such as the National Association of Securities Professionals (“NAIC”) and the New America Alliance (“NAA”), as well as investment team databases and other sources.
The distribution of diversity varies from year to year, depending on manager submissions. This year, manager diversity included firms led by women, Black/ African American, Latino/ Hispanic, Asian and those identifying as 2 or more races. The largest cohort was Black/ African American-led with 10 of the 26, or 39 percent of managers identifying as such. This was a substantial increase in number and percentage terms relative to 2023 when only 3 Black/ African American or 17 percent of the managers attended. Conversely, in 2023, 9 of the managers, or 50 percent of all invitees in that year, were women-led, whereas in 2024 only 7 were women-led, comprising 27 percent of managers. (There is some overlap between gender and racial/ ethnic mix with some women-led firms also having racial/ ethnic diversity).
Also, in contrast to prior years, this year 15 of the 26 managers were private equity or venture capital focused. This increase over past years is a product of a ramp up in focus on private diverse managers by these investment teams. In addition, the Resources and Sustainability team did extend 2 invitations to managers but failed to get responses ahead of Diverse Manager Day.
Excluding this year, in the prior four years of annual Diverse Manager Days, in aggregate, 62 managers were invited. These invitations led to investments in 6 diverse managers, an extraordinary 9.7 percent hit rate for investment. Diverse Manager Day therefore has been an important source for building Commonfund’s diverse manager roster to 45 managers, who comprise approximately 12.4 percent of total firm assets under management, as of March 31, 2024.
Find out more about Commonfund’s commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
