Influential issuers, investment banks and investors are pushing to give diversity brokerage firms active roles and more meaningful opportunities in corporate debt deals: NeuGroup’s Strategic Finance Lab podcast, episode 7.
NeuGroup founder and CEO Joseph Neu leads a panel discussion on the roles corporate debt issuers, investment banks and investors can play in providing more meaningful economics and opportunity to banks and brokerage firms owned by Black people, Hispanics, women and other minority group—so-called diversity firms.
On the podcast panel are:
- Scott Krohn, treasurer of Verizon, a leader among investment-grade corporate debt issuers supporting diversity firms. In 2021, Verizon spent $21.1 million on fees to D&I firms, or 13.2% of the total fees the company paid. And in a $25 billion Verizon bond offering last year, all nine D&I firms had an active role and were allocated a combined $487 million in bonds—most likely the largest allocation to D&I firms ever in a single deal.
- Betanya Aklilu, a managing director at Morgan Stanley and head of D&I relationships and initiatives within the fixed-income capital markets group at the firm. Under her leadership, Morgan Stanley has served as D&I coordinator on 31 investment-grade bond deals since 2021—the most on Wall Street and more than six times any other bank. D&I coordinators are lead managers on a deal whose role is to support and facilitate active participation by diversity firms.
- Keenan Choy, a managing director at Wellington Management, which manages more than $1 trillion in client assets. As a member of the fixed income syndicate desk, which oversees Wellington’s participation in new bond offerings, he works directly with issuers and underwriters, which include D&I brokerage firms.
NeuGroup for Diversity and Inclusion, led by Andy Podolsky, is a working group where NeuGroup members and their colleagues share and learn about ways to expand meaningful opportunities for diverse finance professionals, diversity firms and to support diversity and minorities in communities where companies operate or do business.
