Despite advances in hiring and pay practices, women working in financial services in the US are paid less on average than their male counterparts and are underrepresented at the senior leadership and board levels. The statistics are even bleaker for women of color. As the stories below illustrate, pervasive gender based discrimination still exists.

When women in financial services shared their experiences of harassment and assault with me, I immediately noticed how many of the incidents took place at industry events and conferences. Unchecked bad behavior runs rampant at many financial services conferences. Below are stories of harassment and assault incidents at conferences as told by the women-in-finance who experienced them.

When women in finance meet for the first time, stories of assault, harassment, and discrimination, often come out quickly, sharing notes on pay inequity, degrading experiences at conferences, and inappropriate touching from colleagues and bosses. We share these stories privately, and it’s a relief to be able to talk about it.

In the wake of the #MeToo movement, we’ve seen many articles about why there are so few women in financial services, as well as surveys and statistics about sexual harassment and discrimination. While statistics and surveys are helpful for measuring the issue, I want to share real stories of sexual harassment and gender discrimination.

A letter to my readers about why I broke the media policy at an industry conference to speak out about Ken Fisher’s awful remarks.

I spent the first part of 2019 interviewing different industry leaders about whether indexing and impact investing can coexist. Kristin Hull, CEO of Nia Impact Capital read the series and shared her thoughts with me. I asked her if I could interview her for my readers. Enjoy!

I’m often asked how I started in public speaking. I’m certainly naturally drawn to it as you can see from the photo of me prepping for one of my first talks. It also takes diligence to create and deliver engaging, relevant content. One of the ways I got started speaking at industry conferences was by moderating panel discussions. It’s a great way to get used to being on stage and presenting content to an audience. I did well at moderating which led to being asked to take on larger roles. But if you’re new to moderating, the task can seem daunting. Here are my top tips for moderating a panel. I’ve added notes specific to impact and ESG investing, but the format works for any topic.

So you’ve seen study after study showing that investors are overwhelmingly interested in sustainable, ESG, and impact investing, but you think it might just be hype because your own clients aren’t asking about it. Right?

When I first heard about OpenInvest a few years ago, I was intrigued by their combination of a digital platform for customizing portfolios to investors’ unique ESG desires while also letting those investors vote their shares via their smartphones. Since they are based in San Francisco, I went to meet them in person. It’s been a pleasure getting to know Josh Levin, Co-Founder of OpenInvest over the past few years. Just as fun has been watching them open up their platform to RIAs so that advisors could take advantage of the values customization technology. Though we agree on almost all of the big picture items, we don’t always agree on the details. I hope you enjoy this spirited conversation as much as I did.

The social side of financial services conferences is rife with harassment and sometimes even assault. These are my six requests of men conference attendees to help make financial services a better community for everyone. All of the requests are based on incidents that have actually happened to me or to friends.

I sat down to chat with Geeta Aiyer, President & Founder of Boston Common, a recognized leader in the impact investing space (rated A+ for governance and strategy by PRI), and one of my personal impact investing heroes. This interview is part of an ongoing series on the topic of whether index investing in public equities can be impactful.

Over the past 5 years I’ve watched with interest as TruValue Labs has grown from startup to well known ESG data provider. Their approach to gathering data is unique and has always interested me, so I was thrilled when they asked if I would help them with their 2019 US Conference. I had a dual role of emcee and an unusual role of being an extra pair of eyes and ears for attendees. I watched each presentation and panel closely, then at the end of the event, summed up all of the themes, key takeaways, and action items I saw for attendees. Below is a recap of those themes and takeaways along with some photos. If you want more photos and highlights, there’s a Twitter moment here; if you prefer a short video wrap up, you can see that here.

This year, I’ve been exploring the intersection of indexing and impactful investing in public equities. Can we have our cake and eat it too? I wrote my thoughts here and interviewed Jon Streur, Calvert CEO. After I saw that Garvin Jabusch, CIO of Green Alpha, wrote about a similar topic in this Financial Times piece, I sat down to get his thoughts to share with my Connected Investing readers.

Highlights, photos, and my take on FPA Retreat 2019.

Highlights and Photos from Morningstar’s 2019 US Conference.

May 8-10, 2019 Chicago

Years ago, I was attending the SRI Conference. I hosted a small reception in my hotel room. To keep in their good graces, I invited the conference guests staying adjacent to my hotel room to join in the festivities. One of those guests was Leslie Samuelrich, President of Green Century Capital Management. We had never met before, but she came right over, and we’ve been friends since. Recently, I was able to interview her about one of her recent impact success stories. I hope you enjoy hearing the story as much as I did.

This article was originally published on CNBC on April 22, 2019.

Donald Trump’s surprising ascent to president of the United States has brought many unexpected effects to the financial markets. Ironically, one has been a rapid increase in interest and adoption of impact investing and other types of values-based investing.

Values-aligned investing is called by many different names, which are commonly misused or misunderstood by investors.

Let me decode the lingo, because a shared understanding of the terminology makes this type of investing more accessible to advisors and investors alike.

Earlier this month I featured some of my favorite impact investing “a-ha” moments from impact investing interviews I’ve written. Some of my Connected Investing readers shared their “a-ha” moments with me and I’m sharing a few here, with their permission.

Whenever I have the pleasure of interviewing an impact investing leader, I love to ask if they have an “a-ha moment” that led them to impact, ESG or SRI investing. It's one of my favorite things to ask, and it's one of the things my readers tell me they most enjoy. Below are some of the highlights, with links back to their interviews.

Sonya explains ESG, SRI, and Impact Investing- each in under a minute, on captioned video.