The "Madame Figaro" list of finance responsible for rewards 10 women who upset the codes

It all started with a discussion with Sophie Vernay, founder of honor of Finani’elles, the association which promotes women in the banking and insurance sectors, and which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.Madame Figaro had accompanied her launch in her pages.At the time, the memory of the financial crisis and the collapse of 2008 was still lively in the spirits, and Christine Lagarde, then Minister of the Economy, had pronounced this famous sentence: "would he have happened the sameSomething if Lehman Brothers called himself Lehman Sisters? ”

In 2021, things changed… too slowly.Finance remains an essentially male world, where women represent only 18 % of portfolio officials, and less than 13 % of partners or management of management companies.The tacit rules have hard skin, and that of maximum profit - at all costs?- Continue to reign as a master.However, from climatic disruption to social anger, everything shouts the vital urgency to promote a more virtuous system, where capital becomes a more than a end in itself.And, little by little, a fundamental movement is essential and countering the system, to put the investment at the service of sustainable growth, more respectful of the men and the world of tomorrow.

To read also "The ten women of the" Madame Figaro "list of sustainable finance

Because, scoop: sustainability and profitability are no longer incompatible!One of the first to have demonstrated it is called Laurence Méhaignerie.Raised in the idea of social justice and integration, themes dear to his father, the former Keeper of the Seals Peter Méhaignerie, and to Claude Bébéar, a striking figure of his visit to the Montaigne Institute, she creates her fundCitizen Capital on this conviction."We were in a world where the only investment criterion was the maximization of financial value.But I draw up two observations.First, companies have never been so powerful - for better and for worse.We will not be able to note the major planetary issues without them.Then we are convinced that those who have not clearly thought of their contribution to the world will not be able to register in sustainability.Basic needs are today completely linked to environmental issues.Preserving them becomes a vital issue, therefore a significant market with huge growth prospects.»»

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Unexpected profiles

Animated by the same conviction that the short term can no longer be the norm, that the committed revolution is irreversible and must accelerate, we have decided to present in our special Green issue our first list of women in responsible finance.The idea: to highlight ten directors or founders of investment funds (private equity) or managers in the Asset Management sector each year;10 women who innovate on the basis of ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) criteria in the service of a better world for all.

In this area, of course, large figures have opened the way.We often relay their action.From Christine Kolb to Sycomore Asset Management in Virginie Morgon at the head of Eurazeo, passing by Clara Gaymard at Raise or Marie Ekeland and her Fund 2050, their names are references in the turn of the sector to ESG.Dozens of others could have appeared in our record.But our idea was also to show those who are not always on the front line, because they act with passion at the service of their cause but often forget to talk about them.We wanted to present you different, unexpected profiles.And, above all, to evoke the action of these women, the projects they defend, which perhaps summarize better than everything they are.

On video, relive the Business With Attitude 2021 award ceremony

A planetary impact

Pour les choisir, puisque «in the beginning is everything»», nous nous sommes donc appuyés sur l’expertise de Sophie Vernay, fondatrice d’honneur de Financi’Elles, cofondatrice du cabinet Confiance & Croissance et du Siècle des femmes (lire l’encadré ci-dessous).Hand in hand, we went from a first list of 100 names to a second sieve of 60, then from 30, 20, 15.To be sure not to forget anyone, we have involved the two federations in the sector, namely France Invest (for the Private Equity) and the AFG (for Asset Management).Then we estimated in each its reforming power, its innovation force, its impact and its ability to school.

Finally, to proceed to the final selection, we brought together a committee formed for Madame Figaro de Laura Pelouard, assistant editor, Jean-Sébastien Stehli, deputy director of the editorial staff, and Morgane Miel, Deputy Editor-in-Chief Business, as well asby Sophie Vernay (opposite), Nicolas Bouzou, economist, author of Homo Sanitas (2), Élisabeth Laville, founder of the Utopia consulting firm, specializing in sustainable development and positive impact companies, and Jacques-Olivier Martin, editor -in -chief of Figaro Economy.

The transmission

Here are the ten names selected by this committee.We are very proud to present these women to you, ambassadors of another financial system in the service of a more ecological world, more ambitious in the responses to the major challenges of the planet and in the values it serves.At the head of several hundred million - even several billion - euros in investments, they impress by their strike force as by the sincerity of their commitment, their courage.Their obsession is not power but what they do with it.

Several have raised this point in interview: "Few men would have had the strength to fight our fight.»The observation engages only those who formulate it, but still. Cette force qu’elles évoquent les habite-t-elle parce que, minoritaires dans ce milieu, elles se doivent d’aller «plus loin et plus fort»» pour se distinguer ? Parce que, marquées par les dérives de leur profession, elles ont à cœur d’en être réparatrices ? Ou encore parce que leur responsabilité de mère – qu’elles évoquent d’elles- mêmes en entretien – place la transmission au cœur de leurs valeurs ? Nous vous laissons découvrir leurs réponses, en paroles et en actes.