Diversity in Investing with Rob Rahbari

Money Checkup with Anjali Jariwala

Less than 2% of global assets under management, across mutual funds, hedge funds and other asset classes, is managed by women and people of color, according to a 2019 Knight Foundation report. After a decades-long career in investing, University of Rochester Senior Investment Officer Rob Rahbari knew statistics like these. So in 2020, when the university’s president challenged every university department to recommit to diversity, equity and inclusion, Rob and his teammates developed an open-source list of funds owned and managed by women and people of color to share with other endowments and foundations.

“It doesn’t mean anything until dollars start moving in the direction of these diverse firms. We haven’t seen a sea change there yet, and we’ll only be satisfied when that happens.”

Moving investment dollars is challenging and will likely be a slow process. Rob hopes his team’s list is just the first step.