Michelle Lopez is about to cap off her first year as the head of Australian equities at Aberdeen Standard Investments. She shares with Kanika Sood the journey that got her there and the challenges facing women in funds management.
When 2018 ended, Michelle Lopez had no idea that six months later she would be promoted to Aberdeen Standard Investments’ head of Australian equities, a role overseeing $1 billion in investments for the global funds management giant.
However, there were signs and a clear succession plan.
Prior to the job offer, the company had sent her to an INSEAD leadership program in France and London and then head of the Aussie equities team Robert Penaloza had been introducing her to the research houses that rated its funds as his deputy.
For her part, Lopez had been tallying up knowledge of areas likes fund pricing, trading compliance and marketing – outside of her main passion for picking stocks.
“It was a clear, deliberate succession plan. The INSEAD program was really the start of thinking about who will be the next person whenever the situation arose,” she says.
Lopez was born to a Spanish couple who immigrated to Australia. She grew up in a strict catholic household and attended public schools while living in Sydney’s West Ryde.
The family was entrepreneurial in spirit, with Lopez’s father owning a string of businesses.
This, Lopez says, gave her a sense of hard work.
“You know, I saw my parents build something and that was a greatl foundation for me, and it was also an instigator of learning, growth and that natural curiosity,” she says.
“One of the things my dad used to say is reputation carries through roles and positions. Always act with integrity.”
For her university education, she picked a double degree in law and applied finance, drawing from her interest in math and physics at school.
However, she soon realised law wasn’t for her and instead graduated with a double degree in applied finance and a bachelor’s of commerce with a major in marketing. She would later complete a CFA qualification in her early years working at Aberdeen.
Coming out of university, she knew a little about the banking and corporate finance world but almost nothing of funds management.
The latter came in the form of a job at Watson Wyatt, now Willis Towers Watson, where she researched investment funds and strategies for the firm’s institutional clients.
The opportunity to switch presented itself as a job advertisement in the Australian Financial Review. Aberdeen was hiring graduate analysts and Lopez decided to take a pay cut and handed in her resignation at Watson Wyatt within about six months of joining.
Aberdeen in 2004 was a different world. It was yet to go through the mergers and acquisitions, the team was about a third of what it is now, and the current managing director Brett Jollie was one of the many distribution staff.
Aberdeen in 2004 was a different world. It was yet to go through the mergers and acquisitions, the team was about a third of what it is now, and the current managing director Brett Jollie was one of the many distribution staff.
Its Australian business focused on fixed income funds, while the international equities business was tilted towards emerging markets.
“It was still a big organisation but there was a very local feel and a huge amount of autonomy,” she says.
Lopez’s initiation into the business came with a shock. Within six months for her joining, the majority of the equities team quit in rapid succession for family reasons.
The development forced Aberdeen to lean on its Singapore-based equities team and build out its local team which included Natalie Tam, who is still on the team as an investment director.
“My current boss Flavia Cheong [now the head of equities for Asia Pacific] took me under her wing a little bit. And we quickly built out our team here,” Lopez says.
“So that was my start to ASI, and I think with hindsight that really strange initiation into the organisation was a blessing in disguise. It allowed me to learn about all aspects of funds management.”
Over the next 17 years, Lopez would rise from graduate analyst to an investment manager, then investment director, and finally in January last year to deputy of the Australian equities team, as Penaloza decided to move to Aberdeen’s Thai office.
She says the business’ willingness to invest in its employees, the diversity of its leadership, a strong investment process and her love of investing is what has kept her there.
Her promotion has so far proved fruitful, with all of ASI’s Australian funds beating the benchmarks on a three and five-year basis.
In the next six months, she will announce her own deputy, but for right now Lopez can only share the three qualities looked for in that person.
“Firstly is support of the broader strategy and the team. I didn’t want an individual player that was most concerned about their own output,” she says.
“Second one is, someone who was respected for the ‘investor’ that they are. So if someone comes into this role and they don’t have the respect of the table, you will have people leaving within months.
“Third is, a person who comes to our investment meetings and draws the best out of positions. I wanted to make sure they were drawing information out of individuals that made the investment case a better one.”
On why so few women hold leadership roles in funds management, she points to a lack of flexible working arrangements.
“And this is where it gets a bit contentious, funds management is a very demanding job. And to do it well and to have that long tenure, you do need to make sacrifices and tradeoffs with regards to family life,” she says.
“I can’t be the mother that does [school] pickups and drop-offs every day or cook every meal.”
She also hopes that the COVID-19 enforced work-from-home arrangements will nudge management teams towards allowing more flexibility, in what could keep more women in leadership positions in funds management.
She also hopes that the COVID-19 enforced work-from-home arrangements will nudge management teams towards allowing more flexibility, in what could keep more women in leadership positions in funds management.
For Lopez, her success is due in large part to her investment prowess, but also comes down to the firm’s culture, which has supported many non-caucasian or non-male leaders in rising through its ranks.
“Maybe I am lucky because I hear a lot of stuff that happens in our industry. Maybe I am naive but I’ve never, to this point, felt like a victim from that perspective,” Lopez says.”Maybe I am lucky because I hear a lot of stuff that happens in our industry. Maybe I am naive but I’ve never, to this point, felt like a victim from that perspective,” Lopez says.
She also doesn’t hold back in voicing her opinion or disagreeing if she knows where she’s coming from and it’s not emotionally geared, she adds.
“And I actually encourage the others around me [to do this] as well because it leads to better decision making. If you want to talk about diversity…there’s a lot of companies that honestly, pay lip service,” she says.
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