Are Women Entrepreneurs Changing How We View Wealth?

Are Women Entrepreneurs Changing How We View Wealth? Jacoline Loewen asks how investing is changing?
https://www.ubs.com/microsites/global-visionaries/en/visions/analisabalares.html

Are Women Entrepreneurs Changing How We View Wealth?

Xenia Bogarad, Lally Rementilla, Jacoline Loewen,
Leslie Gouldie, Elizabeth Suske, Maira Milanetti

Imagine my surprise when I looked at the UBS Unlimited social networking site and found the leading article was about my friend Vicki Saunders featured as the UBS Wealth Question – Are women changing the way we see wealth?  I was surprised because UBS has the choice to feature any successful woman around the world through the UBS  supporting women initiatives. They chose to shine the spotlight on a great Canadian entrepreneur - Vicki Saunders.

Vicki and I are on OCAD University's business catalyst advisory board together and we share a common interest in being passionate about supporting entrepreneurs. I have always admired Vicki's ability to get traction for female entrepreneurs. Just as UBS discusses in this article, Vicki is changing the definition of wealth with VC investing. Here is the UBS article talking about wealth and VC investing:

Vicki Saunders came to start the SheEO because she saw that current funding models for young women entrepreneurs were broken––not only were women receiving just 4% of venture capital, but economic models optimized for growth at the expense of everything else disadvantaged women. Here is an excerpt from the article:

“What I have seen is that from a VC [venture capitalist] point of view we look at women and see all the things that are wrong with them,” said Vicki when I spoke to her, before listing many of the gendered criticisms she’d heard while working in Silicon Valley: “women aren’t bold enough; women aren’t confident enough; women don’t take enough risks…” Vicki, however, turned the meaning of these insults upside down; what she heard instead was that women don’t overpromise on what they can deliver, that they do what they say they are going to do. Studies have shown that women often extract more value and profit from capital than men, giving Vicki the confidence to pursue SheEO.

Surveying the state of our economic system, Vicki argued it was time for a change. “What if we were optimizing for wellness, or for quality of life? We made up this current model, and it is no longer working for us, so we need a new one. Providing women with funds and a network is the best way to bring that about.”  

In my view, Vicki Saunders took the criticisms of women entrepreneurs and understood there is a flip side to look at women’s qualities. She had seen the perspective of many women entrepreneurs and this experience gave her the confidence. She is now helping women across the world create wealth. Women need to be the change they want to see and Vicki shows that my favourite saying is true - action speaks louder than words.

UNLIMITED* is a new venture powered by UBS, bringing together – from across geographies, sectors and backgrounds – a unique, global network of people in search of the answers to life’s big questions. By working in partnership with innovative content partners including Monocle, The Future Laboratory and VICE, UNLIMITED* will provide a completely fresh perspective on topics that are truly significant, through our distinctive curious approach.At UBS, this is what we do everyday. We work with an extraordinary group of entrepreneurs and investors, and we use our scale as the world’s largest wealth manager to help answer life’s big questions to ensure our clients succeed. You can also join Jacoline Loewen on Twitter @jacolineloewen

The Atmospheric Fund invests in Sustainable Businesses

TAF Board of, Directors: Jason Kotler, Susan McLean, Jacoline Loewen, Keri Diamond, Mik Layton 

The impact of investing in sustainable business is now asked about by investors. This has been the mandate for The Atmospheric Fund (TAF)  and its investments. The TAF mandate is to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions in Toronto and GTA, supporting the City of Toronto’s target to reduce city-wide emissions by 80 per cent by 2050. TAF invests its endowment based on a Council-approved investment policy overseen by a blue-chip volunteer investment committee.

"Now celebrating its 25th anniversary, TAF was the brainchild of a City Council led by Mayor Art Eggleton which created the agency in 1991 and endowed it with $23 million from the sale of surplus City property. TAF has invested the capital ever since, using the returns to seed innovative projects, advance game-changing policies, and demonstrate and de-risk low-carbon solutions to help the City achieve its ambitious climate targets. The endowment has been invested three times over supporting over $50 million in community grants and investments and shaving $60 million off the City’s operating budget. All this at no cost to the taxpayer.

What are the two lessons Canada’s senior governments can learn from TAF’s success?

First, a strategic focus is essential. TAF produced Toronto’s first GHG inventory which revealed waste as a key source of emissions. As a result, Toronto became one of the first cities in the world to capture methane leaking from landfills and turn it into green power, simultaneously shrinking a major GHG source and creating a new revenue stream.

Second, seeing is believing. The adoption of new green technologies or programmatic approaches carries inherent risks that are more appropriately advanced by an independent innovation group like TAF. If a new initiative fails, municipal staff who champion the innovation may fear being sidelined. Pilot projects designed at TAF to test and verify results de-risked new technologies. Thus, a wide variety of advanced technologies have been adopted across the city, from industrial wind and solar electricity generation at Exhibition Place, to LED traffic signals, to electric vehicle adoption in Toronto’s fleets." Read the full article here.

Julia Langer, CEO of TAF, said it was wonderful to have so many current Board members of The Toronto Atmospheric Fund attend the TAF@25 celebration.  There were about 400 people in the room from the business, technology, finance, environmental and government sectors demonstrating TAF’s broad network. 

Sandra was an excellent emcee, and thanks to gamesmaster Mike Layton for making the carbon poker game a hit.  

Above all, thank you to the CEO of TAF, Julie Langer, who leads with passion but also great organizational ability.

Please find our TAF celebration press release here and see highlights from Twitter here. 

Why private equity appeals to wealthy families

There is a growing interest in investing into private equity amongst wealth families with over $10 million, particularly those who made their wealth through running operating businesses themselves.

"We’ve noticed that private equity typically resonates very well especially among those families who generated their wealth by running operating businesses themselves," observes Martin Pelletier, Portfolio Manager and OCIO at TriVest Wealth Counsel Ltd, in the Financial Post, 27th September, 2016.

Pelletier goes on to quote from the most recent UBS Global Family Office Report: "We are not alone in this observation as the 2016 Campden Wealth-UBS Global Family Office Report highlights that the average family office has a 22% portfolio allocation to private equity. Approximately two-thirds of this is done through direct and co-investing rather than private equity funds. This makes some sense as it provides more control over the investment process and families can better utilize their previous hands-on business experience." (Read the whole article here.)

Wealthy families who have run their own operating companies have a comfort in understanding the due diligence required to get a grasp of the business and why capital needs to be tied up for a long time period. They also understand why there is also a higher risk premium for illiquid exposure expected to generate higher returns over the long run.

One caveat for those interested in private equity is that access to quality private equity deals is the critical requirement to achieving the returns to cover the higher fees.

Jacoline Loewen, UBS Bank (Canada), author of Money Magnet: How to Attract Investors to Your Business, (Wiley). You can follow Jacoline on Twitter @jacolineloewen

Boring the way investing should be

Mawer Investments Jamboree 2016 and Jacoline Loewen

What a great evening hosted by Mawer Investment Funds who ran a Calgary style jamboree for the Make a Wish Foundation. Mawer have as their tag line for their business: be boring, make money. It is true that Mawer funds are rated well but their style of entertaining for a good cause is far from dull.

Boring: The way investing should be

Before I got into the wealth management business, I was working in corporate finance and trying to get companies to sell to private equity. That was definitely exciting, and the returns were double digit or zero - really exciting. Now that rate of return sure is thrilling to vision but the downside is not as attractive.
I have since learned that keeping a large pool of your investments in safer pools of investments is actually the main target of wealth management, which does mean lower returns than Venure Capital investing. Those private investment,double-digit returns can still be attained by using small capital investments which will not break ou if you lose the entire deal. You can still have the excitement of investing in early stage entepreneurs without betting the house.

Short term combined with long term

It is sort term and long term thinking combined.
So think about what is exciting as a potential investment - go ahead. Discuss it with your friends at the golf course. Then think long term. Do you have an income stream from your investments until you are a 100 yars old? After that, by all means, beat on the next business investment your buddy shows you. Your family will thank you for sticking to that long term outlook though.