In April, we’re celebrating the more than 600 dedicated volunteers who power 100 Women in Finance around the globe. As the backbone of our organization, these passionate individuals help bring to life over 250 events each year—fueling our mission and strengthening our global community. Their contributions are invaluable, and the relationship is truly mutual: while our volunteers give their time and expertise, they gain opportunities for professional development, expanded networks, and meaningful engagement. Throughout the month, we’ll highlight a few of these remarkable individuals in a series of Q&As to share their experiences and insights.
Leila Kotlar-Bouget
Co Founder and Co-Chair, Business Development Peer Advisory Group London
Executive Director and Head of Investor Relations EMEA, IFM Investors
Leila has spent over 20+ years in Investor Relations, focusing on the needs of institutional clients globally. She started her career in 2004 at BlueCrest Capital as Head of Client Services where she spent 6 years developing the Client Service and Investor Relations team and managing global client relationships. She then joined CQS (now CQS Manulife) and spent 6 years as Global Head of Client Service and Partner where she was responsible for creating and managing the dedicated Client Relations, Marketing, and Client Communications teams, working with existing and potential investors globally. From 2016 to 2024, Leila was a Partner and co-Head of CdR Capital London, a systematic commodities boutique. Leila was also on the global operating and management committee for the wider global firm spanning London, Geneva, and Dubai. Leila holds a Bachelor’s Degree in International Business (majoring in Finance) from the University of South Australia, graduating with Dean’s Merits.
For over 15 years, Leila has been an active volunteer with 100 Women in Finance. Her journey with the organization began when she co-founded the London Investor Relations Peer Advisory Group (PAG), now known as the Business Development PAG, with Genia Diamond—a role she continues to co-chair today.
▪ ▪ ▪
What initially inspired you to volunteer with 100 Women in Finance?
I was asked! I had been a member for a while, back when the organisation was so much smaller, and I was keen to meet more women across the industry. When one of the members asked me if I would be interested in forming a London PAG alongside Genia (whom I had worked with and known for many years) I jumped at the chance to create it. The rest is history!
How has the experience aligned or helped you grow in your career or personal development?
I have met the most incredible women from across the industry and formed such a comradery. This has guided me through changing jobs, changing market environments and regulatory regimes, covid, and indeed challenges in my personal life. The PAG now focuses on running sessions for senior women on ‘Beating Burnout’ as I believe the number one challenge to women in our industry today is not attracting them in, but them leaving in droves. Our industry still hasn’t worked out how to keep women working, hence the extreme lack of C-suite and senior investment professionals.
Can you share a memorable moment from your time volunteering with 100WF?
I distinctly remember a session we ran during Covid, about 6 weeks into lockdown one. It was a teach-in session from an actor on how to set up zoom, lighting, camera angles, delivery of purpose through the medium of video instead of in-person etc etc. I really thought no one would join as it was virtual and virtual sessions weren’t a thing yet. We had over 50 people join, we laughed and cried all together, and it made me feel so connected to the community we had built in a time where everyone was scared and learning how to work and live in this new paradigm.
Sari J. Mayer, CAIA
Chair, New York Senior Practitioner Committee, Organizing Committee Member, Global FundWomen Week and Impact Investing Symposium
Director of Marketing and Investor Relations at Global Credit Advisers, LLC
Sari J. Mayer, CAIA, is Director of Marketing and Investor Relations at Global Credit Advisers, LLC, a long/short credit fund manager specializing in high yield corporate credit. Previously, she led marketing at Boone Capital and served as a sell-side Latin America Telecommunications equity analyst at Salomon Smith Barney, where she earned multiple industry accolades, including top rankings from Institutional Investor. She later held investment banking roles at Credit Suisse and ABN Amro, working on landmark transactions such as the 1998 privatization of Telebras and the 2000 formation of America Movil. Sari earned her BA cum laude in Mathematics and Spanish from Amherst College, and received her MBA in International Finance from New York University’s Stern School of Business, and studied in the International Management Program at ESADE in Barcelona, Spain. A native New Yorker, she lives in New York City with her husband and is the mother of three daughters. Her extracurricular leadership includes serving as a member emerita and former Vice President of the Horace Mann School Alumni Council and a founding member of NYU Stern’s Alumnae Council.
Sari has been involved with 100 Women in Finance for more than 20 years. She has contributed as a volunteer to a range of initiatives, including serving as an organizing committee member of the Impact Investing Symposium (IIS) and Global FundWomen Week (GFWW). Over the years, her volunteer engagement has spanned several committees—including Education, Philanthropy, the NY Gala Committee, and Senior Practitioners, where she currently serves as New York Committee Chair.
▪ ▪ ▪
What initially inspired you to volunteer with 100 Women in Finance?
After transitioning among large, multi-national organizations from Sell-Side Equity Research to Investment Banking, I wanted to move into another area of finance. With many opportunities available, I did research to learn more about other sleeves of the profession including the relatively nascent alternatives sector. As part of the process, I joined various communities to expand my professional network (including professional mothers) and to get comfortable with the language of the “new” industry. One of these communities was 100 Women in Hedge Funds—now known as 100 Women in Finance—which was headquartered on the Upper West Side in Manhattan between my home and my office.
Following a few years of thoughtful investigation with the skills of an investment banker, a friend of a friend whom I met through contacts at 100 Women in Hedge Funds, I was offered the opportunity to market his event-driven hedge fund.
My prior 100 Women in Hedge Funds membership and volunteering, along with my more recent and current 100 Women in Finance membership and volunteering, have provided me connections with professional women, opportunities to learn from others, and grow both personally and professionally within the burgeoning community.
Can you share a memorable moment from your time volunteering with 100WF?
My experience with 100WF has been so memorable, I have several to share. In 2016, as an active volunteer of the organization, I had the opportunity to check off a bucket list experience. As part of the celebration around changing the name from 100 Women in Hedge Funds to 100 Women in Finance, I joined others in visiting and ringing the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange.
Post-pandemic, I co-produced an event in the office space of a long time 100WF friend. Together we created a panel of various female professionals focused on ESG. During my introductory remarks, I referenced statistics from the NHL, where my oldest daughter had recently begun working post-college. While drawing parallels between 100WF and the NHL, many others in the audience connected with me about sports-related activities. Two of those women and I have attended NHL games together and also our daughters’ travel soccer games.
Recently, I was part of the organizing committee for the Impact Investing Symposium. We were fortunate to have some extraordinary speakers including Gina McCarthy, former Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. As part of her enthusiastic, honest interview, she emphasized the need for all of us to step-up and kick butt. At the end of the conference, I gave closing remarks about the day and included the reference to kicking butt by holding up a bright yellow sign which remains memorable to all attendees and to others who watched the video summary of the event.
How has working on 100WF initiatives connected you with others in the industry or expanded your professional network?
Working on 100WF initiatives (and previously 100 Women in Hedge Funds) has connected me with others in the industry and expanded my professional network not only in my hometown of New York City, but also around the world. For example, early in my membership and volunteering I met people at NYC events who, like me, were new to the hedge fund space. We learned together and developed friendships that have continued through today. We effectively grew up in the industry. At the same time, early in my membership and volunteering, I met women who were more experienced than me who became my mentors. In the last few years, we have created a Senior Practitioner platform that holds events for senior women and collaborates with other sleeves of the organization on Mentor-Mentee events. With the global expansion of 100WF, I have had the opportunity to attend events and meet women during my travels. Recently I was in Europe where I had the opportunity to expand my professional network. This was made possible thanks to introductions made by 100WF friends and is one of the reasons that the organization is so important to me.
Marianne O
Chair, North California Peer Engagement Committee, North California Education Committee Member, 100WFinTech Global Committee Member and Virtual Program Chair, Global FundWomen Week
Co-Founder, Partner, and Portfolio Manager at Lumen Global Investments
Marianne is a Co-Founder, Partner, and Portfolio Manager at Lumen Global Investments (LGI) in San Francisco, where she oversees investment research, portfolio management, and data management. She is also a Co-Founder, Partner, and Portfolio Manager of Lumen Advisors, LLC, established in San Francisco in 2002. Lumen’s global value hedge fund was recognized with the Best Relative Value Strategy award by Global Fund Analysis in 2005. Her investment and finance career spans mutual funds, institutional accounts, hedge funds (global relative value), and global banks, including experience at G.T. Global (LGT), Dresdner RCM Global Investors, Tradewinds Financial, Gavekal Capital, and Citicorp International Limited, Hong Kong. She holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and earned her MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, as well as an M.A. and B.A. (Hons) in Economics from the University of Cambridge, U.K. In addition to her professional accomplishments, Marianne serves on the investment committees of Asian Health Services in Oakland, California, and Give2Asia, and mentors emerging finance professionals through GAIN (Girls Are Investors), U.K.
Marianne has been actively involved with 100 Women in Finance for the past 16 years. In Northern California, she is a member of the Education Committee and chairs the Peer Engagement Committee, and she also serves on the global 100WFinTech Committee. In 2014, she co-founded the predecessor to Global FundWomen Week—the Allocators-Female Fund Managers conference at 100WF in San Francisco—and is currently the Virtual Program Chair for Global FundWomen Week. Marianne is also a mentor within 100WF, supporting the next generation of talent in the industry.
What initially inspired you to volunteer with 100 Women in Finance?
As a hedge fund analyst and manager in the early 2000s, I was thrilled to join in 2006 what was then known as 100 Women in Hedge Funds to connect with like-minded professionals, especially females in the industry. After I was recruited as a committee member for the reorganized location in Northern California in 2008, I became an active volunteer. My passion is to organize well-thought-out and topical educational events with industry experts to benefit our members, facilitate meaningful connections, and promote female fund managers and other professionals in the industry. This eventually led to the co-founding of the Allocators-Female Fund Managers conference in San Francisco in 2014, now called Global FundWomen Week.
How has the experience aligned or helped you grow in your career or personal development?
As 100 Women in Finance is a volunteer-driven and highly decentralised organization, I have found we can turn almost any event idea/initiative into reality. Through the intersection of self-initiation, passion, and empowerment, I have broadened my insights not only about investment ideas and processes but also realized the importance of building up a broad and strong network early in one’s career with managers and allocators as well as the broader ecosystem. I have learnt the art of asking, event planning and organization, which is one of the best ways to learn, share knowledge, and stay connected with important professionals in our industry.
Can you share a memorable moment from your time volunteering with 100WF?
I remember sitting in the hotel lobby in San Francisco in 2013 with a fellow hedge fund manager, Nadine Terman, when we conjured up the idea of connecting female fund managers with institutional investors around the country. We thought 100WF would be the best vehicle to make this happen because at that time no other industry conferences focused on promoting female fund managers. By April 2014, 25 allocators and 25 fund managers had joined our first-ever conference, which eventually became Global FundWomen Week, now a global endeavour, connecting 300+ managers with 300+ asset allocators globally during a weeklong event of introductions, roundtable discussions, and virtual programs taking place throughout the year.
How has working on 100WF initiatives connected you with others in the industry or expanded your professional network?
Working on 100WF initiatives and programming has been the best volunteer work throughout my career, connecting me to allocators, fund managers, fintech founders, and the broader fund network. Many of my contacts have become lifelong friends and supporters of my profession, for which I am truly grateful. I highly encourage anyone to choose an organization (in your industry) and volunteer – it is the best way to build connections and network and make an immediate contribution to your professional community. Making ideas happen at 100WF has inspired me to bring innovative and effective solutions to my customers in my entrepreneurial journey.
To all our incredible volunteers, thank you for being the heart and soul of 100 Women in Finance. Your dedication, expertise, and passion drive our mission forward, creating opportunities, fostering connections, and bringing us closer to Vision 30/40. We invite you to share your favorite volunteer moment with 100 Women in Finance on social media before April 30. Whether it’s a photo, a memorable experience, or an insightful reflection from your time with us, we want to hear your story! Please tag @100WomeninFinance so we can help amplify your contributions.
If you are interested in helping to enhance the presence of women in the industry by volunteering with 100WF, please let us know through our volunteer contact form.