Cheers! 6 Indian Americans among ‘100 Most Influential Women in U.S. Finance’

Six Indian Americans featured among Barron’s ‘100 Most Influential Women in U.S. Finance.

The coveted magazine, founded in 1920, gave an account of an annual list of “successful, barrier-breaking women.”

The list included Anu Aiyengar, co-head, Global Mergers & Acquisitions at J.P. Morgan; Rupal J. Bhansali, chief investment officer and portfolio manager of international and global equity strategies for Ariel Investments; Maya Chorengel, co-managing partner at TPG Rise Fund; Gunjan Kedia, vice-chair, Wealth Management & Investment Services, U.S. Bancorp; Savita Subramanian, head of U.S. Equity Strategy & Quantitative Strategy, BofA Securities; and Saira Malik Chief Investment Officer at Nuveen.

Barron’s chosen list includes executives who work for US companies and ranges from investment managers and securities analysts to public servants and policy makers.

“These women, and their colleagues, are shaping the financial industry’s future and putting the US economy on a stronger footing—and often bringing more women up through the ranks as part of the process,” the magazine said. Among the lot, Maya Chorengel, co-managing partner of TPG’s Rise Fund, is credited with infusing fresh life into impact investing into the mainstream.

She has a proven record of demonstrating that investing capital to tackle social and environmental problems can usher in a new era in the game of private-equity-like returns.

Apart from her, Anu Aiyengar, Global Co-Head, Mergers and Acquisitions, JPMorgan, is the one who from early in her career, has been interested in mergers and acquisitions. Her credentials at JPMorgan only spoke for herself. She led a global team, which did $1.5 trillion in global M&A deals despite challenges for the pandemic.

The feat of Rupal Bhansali, Chief Investment Officer, Portfolio Manager, International and Global Equity Strategies, Ariel Investments, is sure to make Indians happy. Bhansali made her third appearance on the Barron’s 100 list, saying women need to be exposed to the career paths available to them.

Sonal Desai, Chief Investment Officer, Fixed Income Group, Franklin Templeton Group, also brought cheers to the diaspora.
A member of Franklin Resources’ Executive Committee, she is a portfolio manager for several strategies, including Core Plus, Strategic Income, Low Duration, Global Absolute Return, and Global Fixed Income.

The contribution of Gunjan Kedia, Vice Chair, Wealth Management & Investment Services, US Bancorp, has been rewarded by the magazine.
Kedia has served as executive vice president at State Street Corporation and Bank of New York Mellon.

Savita Subramanian, Head of US Equity Strategy & Quantitative Strategy, Bank of America Securities, who oversees the sell-side firm’s US stock market research and sector-strategy recommendation, too brought a good name to the Indian community in the US.
Subramanian made a big leap from an intern’s position to a leader’s role in the firm in 2001.