Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Verus believes that diverse perspectives lead to better decision making. We are committed to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in our workplace and the institutional investment consulting industry as a whole, and to improve utilization of underrepresented groups in our process for sourcing investment products and strategies.

DEI Committee

Our Pillars

Diverse & Emerging Manager Diligence Days

Contact the Research Team

DEI Committee

The Verus DEI Committee was established to guide, inspire, and foster a culture of diversity, fairness, and inclusion within our firm. The Committee leads in the creation of initiatives and best practices to integrate DEI into our consulting practices, outreach, and overall mission as a company.

Eileen Neill
Managing Director | Senior Consultant

Marianne Feeley
Managing Director | Public Markets

Samantha Grant
Senior Consultant

Kin Lam
Director | Private Markets

Anneke Meulblok
Office Manager

Mike Patalsky
Managing Director | Senior Consultant

Amanda Schroeder
Director | Marketing

Warren Spencer
Chief Compliance Officer

Our Pillars

Verus believes that diverse and inclusive viewpoints enhance decision-making and improve outcomes. Our dedication to DEI is reflected in our three foundational pillars:

1) Maintaining an inclusive Verus
2) Expanding access to diverse and emerging managers
3) Leading diversity in the institutional investment industry

These pillars guide our actions and decisions.

Pillar 1: Maintaining an inclusive Verus

Ours is a diverse and multi-cultural world; the ideal workplace should be representative of the community it belongs to and serves. Verus is committed to further promoting diversity through our recruitment, retention, and inclusion efforts. As a result, our staff composition includes a higher number of individuals from underrepresented groups than industry average, according to the DAMI survey.

Pillar 2: Expanding access to diverse and emerging managers

Many of our clients aim to increase their exposure to diverse-owned firms or investment strategies managed by diverse teams.

To meet this demand and uphold our responsibility to drive change, Verus seeks to broaden and deepen our coverage of diverse managers through outreach programs such as our annual Emerging & Diverse Managers Diligence Days.

We are always looking for new and innovative investment opportunities. Managers from diverse-owned firms or with diverse investment teams are invited to submit their information to the Verus Manager Research team.

Verus collects manager data via the eVestment global database. We understand eVestment can appear daunting to complete for smaller or newer firms. At minimum, please include the product name, its benchmark, and any track record regardless of length. Verus also collects private markets data based on the ILPA framework.

Most industry studies support the idea that the alpha-generating ability of emerging and diverse managers is at least no different from that of other managers in the universe, and may provide a broadening of the opportunity set of skilled managers available for selection.

Our definitions

Emerging:
- Private markets: Fund I and Fund II
- Public markets: Less than or equal to $3 billion in AUM (traditional markets)
Diverse ownership: More than 30% from underrepresented groups
Diverse characteristics: More than 30% of investment team from underrepresented groups*

Integrated as part of our everyday research

Diverse characteristics noted on all managers
Diversity data and practices reviewed in all manager diligence
Formal annual “Emerging & Diverse Manager Diligence Days”

*Diverse characteristics can manifest in an investment process in many ways, and as such, we are not strict in our application of this minimum if the principle is met

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

Verus employs a disciplined framework for evaluating investment strategies. The key elements of what we’re looking for are listed below.

Alignment

Organizational structures to attract and retain talent

Describe how your firm’s recruiting and retention policies contribute to ensuring your investment process continues to evolve?

Edge

Willingness to be different than the benchmark and peers

How do you bring diverse points of view to your idea-generation process?

Implementation

Sensible and repeatable

Describe the interactions of your investment team. How do you incorporate views of members at various levels of experience?

Optimal Use of Risk

Self knowledge and making active bets where there is skill

How do members of the team challenge their own and each others’ thinking?

Understandable Performance

Explaining performance headwinds and tailwinds

What types of market conditions favor or don’t favor your approach? How do team members reinforce the ability to stick to your approach in markets that don’t favor it?

Pillar 3: Leading diversity in the industry

We support numerous organizations that promote diversity within the institutional investment industry—whether it be through sponsorships, mentorship programs, or speaking roles.

Verus is the founding member of the Institutional Investing Diversity Cooperative (IIDC), a collection of some of the largest and most prominent institutional investment consultants in the industry. The IIDC aims to promote greater diversity in the institutional asset management industry by aligning the consulting industry around DEI data standards.

Some of the organizations we support: