A NEW scheme supported by 80 of the City’s leading fund managers will see 100 black interns hired as part of efforts to improve the underrepresentation of black talent in British financial institutions.

Launching today, #100BlackInterns, which is open to black university students and graduates, will give meaningful opportunities to young, university-educated black people trying to break into the City, organisers say.

The participating firms, which include Goldman Sachs Asset Management, J. Rothschild Capital Management, Royal London Asset Management and Stepstone Global, have so far committed to offering a paid internship to a black candidate next summer in a frontline investment position. More firms are expected to sign up in the next few weeks.

“In over two decades in the City, I have rarely come across anyone who looks like me”

Dawid Konotey-Ahulu

Internships will last for a minimum of six weeks beginning in the summer of 2021.

The roles on offer are in critically important investment teams that make key decisions worth billions of pounds.

Firms from all parts of the investment management industry, including long only and hedge funds, private equity, credit and real estate managers, together with consultants and pension funds, are participating in the programme.

The initiative is being coordinated by Dawid Konotey-Ahulu, co-founder of Redington and Mallowstreet, Jonathan Sorrell, president of Capstone Investment Advisors, Michael Barrington-Hibbert, founder and managing partner of Barrington Hibbert Associates and Wol Kolade, managing partner of Livingbridge. They aim to address the lack of black portfolio managers in the UK following a 2018 study by New Financial which stated that there are just 12 in the entire UK investment management industry.

Sorrell, president of the global, alternative investment management firm Capstone Investment Advisors, said: “We felt we wanted to do something really tangible to build a bench of compelling black talent in our industry for the long-term. By providing such a special entry point into portfolio management, we hope to attract great black students to a career path they may not have otherwise contemplated.”

‘Powerful’

“In over two decades in the City, I have rarely come across anyone who looks like me,” Konotey-Ahulu, co-founder of pensions advisory group Redington and online pensions forum Mallowstreet, said. “It is so powerful that the investment management industry has agreed to help welcome more black talent into our industry. We hope other professions will follow suit and have an impact on the representation of Black talent in their own industries.”

The scheme is the latest of a number of initiatives announced to improve prospects for black people within the financial sector.

In July, Lloyds Banking Group announced its plans to increase the number of black staff in senior management roles. A month earlier, Barclays and a number of other banks and financial service providers signed an open letter published in The Sunday Times, pledging to commit to reporting on the key sustainable and long term actions on black inclusion.

Interested applicants are required to submit a one-page CV and covering letter of no more than 400 words. The deadline for applications is 13 November.

Further details can be found at www.100blackinterns.com.