Growing Number of Outsourced Chief Investment Officer (“OCIO”) Firms Adopt Data Aggregation Technology, Impact Scores, and Benchmarking Metrics Developed by Lenox Park Solutions as Standard Tools to Measure Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (“DEI”)
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Lenox Park Solutions, Inc. (“Lenox Park”, or the “Company”), a leading collaboration and data analytics financial technology firm, has reported that OCIO firms totaling nearly $160 billion in assets under advisement are now using the Company’s data aggregation tools, impact scores, and benchmarking metrics to encourage DEI transparency and reporting among the asset managers in their portfolios.
Lenox Park, which provides virtual platforms for peer collaboration, data aggregation, and data analytics, has long been the leading solutions provider for public pension funds seeking to gather data and report standardized metrics on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (“DEI”). Many of the top public pension funds in the United States subscribe to the Company’s services, including California Public Employees’ Retirement System, Teachers’ Retirement System of The State of Illinois, Maryland State Retirement & Pension System, Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management, New York State Common Retirement Fund, State of Rhode Island Office of the General Treasurer, and Teacher Retirement System of Texas. In the last 24 months, Lenox Park has also become the preferred DEI analytics provider for leading foundations and endowments who are taking tangible steps toward deepening their efforts around gender and racial equity: in the Fall of 2020, Kresge Foundation and MacArthur Foundation announced a partnership with Lenox Park to promote an industry standard for how to aggregate and assess DEI data. Since then, the Company has added several peer foundations including Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation Trust, McKnight Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and The Rockefeller Foundation, to name a few. University endowments have also sought Lenox Park’s technology tools to assist in data aggregation and analytics around DEI in their investment portfolios.
Also among the clients in Lenox Park’s impressive roster is a growing cohort of OCIOs that now includes Agility, Brown Advisory Incorporated, CornerStone Partners Capital Management, LLC, Hall Capital Partners LLC, and Syntrinsic Investment Counsel. “I really admire the group of OCIOs with whom we’ve cultivated relationships,” said Jason Lamin, Lenox Park’s Founder & CEO. “In working with them, we’ve benefitted from and been able to incorporate much of the work and perspective they’ve gathered over the years from their own client networks, and together we’re nudging the asset management industry toward making tangible progress in normalizing transparency and reporting around DEI, and in adopting generally accepted accountability standards.”
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According to a recent Knight Foundation study, only 1.4% of capital is represented by diverse managers; given much of the $80+ trillion asset management industry is influenced by investment consultants and OCIOs, these organizations are in a prime position to address this unacceptably low participation by women and people of color. Lamin added, “To move the needle on DEI in any meaningful way, and at an acceptable pace, we first have to aggregate clean, consistent, standardized data from primary sources. With more than $4 trillion in asset allocator clients now using our tools, metrics and benchmarks, we’ve proven we can do that well; but it’s imperative that our industry sees even more coalescence among allocators of capital to fully adopt these standards, and avoid some of the pitfalls seen in the broader ESG space where multiple competing metrics have inhibited progress. OCIOs are critical to broad industry adoption, and can ultimately pave the way to greater transparency as the industry strives to realize the participation of underrepresented and systematically excluded groups.”
“Agility is committed to advancing DEI transparency in the asset management industry that reflects our priorities and those of our clients. We feel that in order to improve the pace at which underrepresented groups participate, it’s imperative to have constructive discussion and accountability measures in place. We’re engaging our managers around the diversity of their whole staff, including not only of owners, but of the investment teams that are ultimately putting our clients’ dollars to work, and we’re excited to subscribe to a standard, common language around assessment using Lenox Park’s LPI Score and Benchmarks,” said Amita Schultes, Ph.D., Partner at Agility. “We believe using a generally accepted, universal language that enables evaluation of the entirety of a firm’s diverse representation is good for the industry, and for managers themselves, who are often searching for standardized reporting.”
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