M&G Investments' Richards: I think there are some behaviours which just need time to evolve

No silver bullet

Lawrence Gosling speaks to M&G Investments' CEO Anne Richards about the diversity challenges facing the investment industry and the role of firms and government in bringing about change.

Anne Richards, chief executive at M&G Investments, has considerable experience working in industries where women are under-represented. Engineering was her first career choice, which was a path that took her all the way to nuclear research organisation CERN. But she decided it was not for her. The next ESG? 'Diversity becomes increasing part of manager selection' "I was surrounded by people who really were proper researchers and I was not," she explains. "We talk about long-term investment horizons (in asset management); but these guys were working on an infinite investment hori...