About
Future IM/Pact

Future IM/Pact is creating a more diverse and human-centred investment management industry through programs that inspire and enable fulfilling careers.

How we help

We unite the investment management industry in its efforts to attract and retain diverse talent, with a focus on women in front office investing. 

Our suite of programs engage people across their careers; from inspiring and enabling university students and women in their early careers to secure intern, graduate or analyst roles, to empowering entry-level, mid-level and senior professional investors build a career and life they love. 

Since our launch in 2018, we’ve partnered with many of the nation’s biggest super funds, fund managers and other industry participants. These partnerships help us to connect exceptional women to career-defining roles, support teams and leaders to create environments where everyone can do their best work, and inform the ongoing conversation about how we can work together to create a thriving, human-centred industry.

We do this through high-impact events, mentoring, immersive development experiences, inner game of leadership tools and frameworks, free online resources and by profiling exceptional talent. 

We believe that to create workplaces that work for women, we need to create workplaces where everyone can do their best work.

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Future IM/Pact is a key component of our talent development strategy. They do all of the heavy lifting and give our investment team great exposure to talented students.

Future IM/Pact is backed by:

Australian Ethical logo
Australian Retirement Trust logo
Aware Super logo
cbus logo
cfs primary colour logo png
LGT crestone logo
Fidelity International logo
Hesta logo
Jarden logo
Macquarie Logo
Mercer logo
Munro Partners logo
Perpetual logo
Pinnacle logo
Platinum Asset Management logo
Platinum Pacific Partners logo
QIC logo
Rest logo
Schroders logo
Tattarang logo
tcorp NSW Government logo
TDM Growth Partners logo
UniSuper logo
VFMC logo
Vinva logo

The problem we're solving

In Australia, women comprise less than 10% of key decision-making roles in fund management teams and less than 10% of portfolio managers are women.

Australia’s thriving $4 trillion investment management industry provides extraordinary opportunities for great thinkers to impact our economy and society.

Yet in Australia, women comprise less than 10% of key decision-making roles in funds management teams and less than 10% of portfolio managers are women. This is despite women entering into traditional business, economics and finance degrees at near equal rates to men. 

Research led by Future IM/Pact founder, Yolanda Beattie, when she was at Mercer found the lack of women in front-office investment roles can be explained by several deeply entrenched structural and cultural issues, including:

  1. Opportunities to improve diversity are limited—investment teams are small and turnover is low
  2. The industry doesn’t build grassroots talent from university; it mostly hires talent with 2–5 years experience for junior investment roles
  3. Building grassroots talent is too expensive and time-consuming for most organisations
  4. A lack of support, sponsorship and advocacy causes mid-level investors to leave their roles at greater rates than men

Future IM/Pact has been built in partnership with industry leaders to tackle these issues and build sustainable change.

Our values

Impact

We’re deeply motivated to impact the investment management industry. We know a more diverse, human-centred industry will be one where every person can reach their potential and where different perspectives lead to better decisions and outcomes for the clients, members and investors they serve.

Trust

We know leaders and teams who invest in building high-trust cultures enjoy higher levels of engagement, productivity and energy, and less stress and burnout. Self-trust and trusting others is the key ingredient for human-centred cultures.

Growth

Changing the course of peoples’ lives is our guiding purpose. Our programs and initiatives are designed to help participants find and build a career and life they love, anchored by the lifelong pursuit of learning and growth.

Community

We unite the industry in a shared goal of creating an ecosystem where every person can flourish. The work we do thrives on partnership and collaboration to drive meaningful change.

Partnering with Future IM/Pact extends, and complements, the existing programs we already have in place supporting young women at the undergraduate level.

Photo of Yolanda Beattie

About our Director

Future IM/Pact founder, Yolanda Beattie, spent around 15 years in marketing and public affairs in funds management before applying her trade to elevate the national conversation on gender equality during a three year stint on the executive team at the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA). She left WGEA in 2016 to run Mercer’s diversity and inclusion consulting practice before branching out on her own in 2019 as director of Yo&Co, with Future IM/Pact as the flagship program.

Established with eight founding partners with a focus on inspiring women at university, Yolanda has grown the program to include over 20 leading super funds, fund managers and other industry participants. 

After recognising the need to do more to retain, develop and promote great female talent, in 2023 she expanded the program’s remit to inspire rising professionals and leaders to cultivate an inner game mindset and create environments where everyone can do their best work.

Meet the Future IM/Pact team

Laila Hage-Ali

Program Director

Laila has a rich marketing background with 17 years’ experience across a variety of industries to create meaningful, long-term connections between brands and their customers. At Future IM/Pact, Laila is responsible for all aspects of program delivery and industry partner management.

Melanie Miller

Program Manager

Mel has been working at Future IM/Pact since its inception. Before that she spent six years at the Workplace Gender Equality Agency as their communications and digital advisor, managing several of their key campaigns. At Future IM/Pact Mel is responsible for managing all of the programs, as well as running our digital services.

Bridget Hoskins

Communications Director

Bridget has over ten years’ experience working in corporate communications and change management at leading financial institutions in Australia (and a 3 year stint at the BBC in London). At Future IM/Pact, Bridget develops communication strategies to spread the word about all the amazing work we do at Future IM/Pact.

Tracey Bailey

Business Manager

Tracey spent 25 years as a practice manager in a large Sydney-based physiotherapy practice.  Prior to that role, she worked in association and conference management for 8 years. At Future IM/Pact, Tracey manages all our business administration.

The Future IM/Pact Mentoring Circle was an incredible experience. The mentors were accessible and offered continued support. It's a really valuable experience for any student interested in investment management.

The Lift sponsorship program helped me gain new insight into how I need to think and act differently to increase my impact as a leader and deliver on our growth ambitions. It has had a profound impact on me.

Featured resources

Case study
Yo&Co started working with Munro Partners in 2019 when they were a team of 10. They had experienced exceptional growth in funds under management and knew investment in their culture was essential to ensure their ongoing success.
Article
As we hit the 5-year mark since Future IM/Pact was created, we have grown and adapted to the changing needs of the market and are again expanding our remit to support a flourishing and human-centred investment management industry where everyone can do their best work.
Blog
As someone who has spent countless hours working on my self-awareness and development, I still regularly get in my own way. Over the past few weeks, I've been leaning more into the self-awareness tools I teach others to help me shift unhelpful thoughts and behaviours.

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