Published 10-28-22
Submitted by AllianceBernstein
At the end of September, AllianceBernstein was honored to partner with colleagues at Equitable to support the Thurgood Marshall College Fund Leadership Institute by hosting a reception for students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) at AB’s New York office. During the event, AB President & CEO Seth P. Bernstein shared insights into the financial services industry, the firm and career opportunities at AB. AB’s Global Head of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and Corporate Citizenship Janessa Cox-Irvin, Diversity Partnerships & Programs Manager Raquel Barlow, and members of our Campus Recruiting team also participated in the event.
Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF) is the nation’s largest organization exclusively representing the Black College Community. TMCF member-schools include the publicly supported HBCUs and Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs). TMCF has historically provided centralized access to diverse talent and established a platform to educate diverse communities on the finance industry and build financial literacy. Every year, TMCF hosts a Leadership Institute for diverse talent to interact with corporate partners and receive professional development.
During this event, AB and Equitable employees interacted with high-achieving talent, discussing the firm, the industry and other opportunities.
AB is deeply committed to growing diverse talent in the financial services industry. In June 2022, AB established its HBCU Scholars program, which provides diverse students exposure to AB and the financial services industry. The HBCU Scholars program has featured 11 scholars to date. The program is open to sophomores from four university partners: Tennessee State University, Fisk University, Hampton University, and Alabama A & M. Students from these institutions have the opportunity to receive a scholarship, in addition to a 9-week internship filled with immersive learning opportunities and mentorship.
In alignment with AB’s “Drive to 25” initiative to increase the firm’s diverse talent by 2.5% by 2025, our HBCU Scholars program seeks to create a diverse talent pipeline for the firm and the industry by engaging early and often.
Learn more about AB’s approach to responsibility here.
AllianceBernstein (AB) is a leading global investment management firm that offers high-quality research and diversified investment services to institutional investors, individuals, and private wealth clients in major world markets. We believe corporate responsibility, responsible investing and stewardship are intertwined. To be effective stewards of our clients’ assets, we strive to invest responsibly—assessing, engaging on and integrating material issues, including environmental, social and governance (ESG), and climate change considerations in most of our actively managed strategies. We also believe that strive to hold ourselves as a firm to similar practices that we ask of issues. Our stewardship practices, investment strategy and decision-making are guided by our purpose, mission and values.
Our purpose—pursue insight that unlocks opportunity—inspires our firm to act responsibly. While opportunity means something different to each of our stakeholders; it always means considering the unique goals of each stakeholder. AB’s mission is to help our clients define and achieve their investment goals, explicitly stating what we do to unlock opportunity for our clients. We became a signatory to the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) in 2011. This began our journey to formalize our commitment to identify responsible ways to unlock opportunities for our clients through integrating material ESG factors throughout most of our actively managed equity and fixed-income client accounts, funds and strategies. AB also engages issuers where it believes the engagement is in the best financial interest of its clients.
Because we are an active manager, our differentiated insights drive our ability to deliver alpha and design innovative investment solutions. ESG and climate issues are important elements in forming insights and in presenting potential risks and opportunities that can have an effect on the performance of the companies and issuers that we invest in and the portfolios that we build.
Our values provide a framework for the behaviors and actions that deliver on our purpose and mission. Values align our actions. Each value emerges from the firm’s collective character—yet is also aspirational.
As of September 30, 2023, AB had $669B in assets under management, $458B of which were ESG-integrated. Additional information about AB may be found on our website, www.alliancebernstein.com.
More from AllianceBernstein