Investec Asset Management is delighted to announce that Chief Operating Officer Kim McFarland has been listed in the Financial News Top 100 most influential women in finance in Europe, the Middle East and Africa for the second year running.
Financial News, published by Dow Jones & Co, is one of Europe’s top institutional trade publications.
McFarland also held the title of South African Business Woman of the Year in 2002 and sits on the advisory board of the UCT Graduate School of Business. She is one of the core team who, along with CEO Hendrik du Toit, grew Investec Asset Management from a company with assets under management of R1 billion and a staff complement of just fifteen in the early 1990s to an international investment manager with approximately R450bn in assets under management today. Investec Asset Management ranks as one of the world’s 100 largest managers of third-party assets.
McFarland quotes navigating Investec Asset Management through the past twelve months among her greatest achievements – the company managed net inflows of R11.3 billion through the credit crisis.
Over the past three months, Financial News canvassed the market for opinion and drew up a long list of 250 women across Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The top 100 were chosen for influence over their area, leadership within their sector, performance over the past year, and their capacity to shape their business and/or industry over the year to come.
Kim McFarland, COO of Investec Asset Management, commented:
“It is vital for a business environment to be built holistically as a meritocracy. The work environment needs to be set up to ensure that achievement and ability are rewarded in an organisation irrespective of background. Recognising this, we have a number of senior women who have risen up through our firm and this has resulted in an encouraging, open and non-threatening work environment for all.”
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