08 Mar 2019 1 min read

Where women work COVER

By Emiel van den Heiligenberg

On International Women’s Day, we look at how a diverse team can help create diversity of thought.

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A diverse, team-based approach is part of the LGIM’s investment philosophy. This is not only backed up by academic research but also confirmed by my own experience. Moreover, our team-centred process makes our investment process more repeatable, creating the potential for better and more sustainable outcomes for our clients.

We believe that the most optimal teams are meritocratic, built on collaboration, humility, mutual respect, independent thinking and cognitive diversity. A way to stimulate cognitive diversity is to assemble a team with different backgrounds in social class, education and modes of thinking. Ample research shows that different perspectives and analytical approaches on average produce better outcomes. Diversity of gender, race, nationality and cultural background is a reasonable starting point to achieve cognitive diversity.

"Across the world, more women participate in the formal labour market than ever before. But as the quality of women's employment varies widely, what can be done to reduce international differences?"

Read the latest blog from Magdalena and Hetal on the participation of women in the labour force and the future of women's work: A woman’s work is never done.

Emiel van den Heiligenberg

Head of Asset Allocation

Emiel is responsible for the overall strategic direction of the team’s investment and business strategy. He claims to have been a promising lightweight rower at university until French fries got the better of him. Reflecting his love for rowing in a team, he firmly believes that excellence can only be achieved by a great team made up of motivated individuals that are also eager to work together. To this end he is the self-proclaimed inventor of the verb 'teaming' to acknowledge that shaping a top team and culture of excellence is an ongoing process. Outside of work-family obligations, Emiel’s spare time is filled by a passion for shark diving and skiing. Prior to dedicating his career to portfolio management in 1996, Emiel worked as a policy adviser in the Dutch Ministry of Finance and he graduated from Tilburg University in the Netherlands ages ago. When not glued to his Bloomberg screens, this Dutch man is hooked on computer games, peanut butter and his favourite dark beer made by Belgian monks.

Emiel van den Heiligenberg