Bloomberg Pledges to Inspire Young Women to Pursue Careers in Finance, Business and Technology at 2020 MAKERS Conference

Earlier this week, at the 2020 MAKERS Conference in Los Angeles, Bloomberg partnered with more than 50 companies in a powerful initiative to advance equality in the workplace. The theme of this year’s conference, “NOT DONE,” fundamentally aligns with Bloomberg’s ongoing commitment to inclusion and efforts to celebrate and empower the game-changing women who work at Bloomberg, in the broader workplace, in the news, and around the world.

“MAKERS is all about creating a better world for women and girls by driving positive change and taking action toward gender equality,” said Deirdre Bigley, Chief Marketing Officer of Bloomberg LP and a member of the MAKERS board. “To show that we are ‘NOT DONE’ advancing women, we unveiled our global “Girls Take Finance” program – in partnership with UBS – which is designed to change the face of finance – one girl at a time.”

Bigley hosted a delegation of 10 female Bloomberg leaders at the conference. She also joined other MAKERS board members on stage to announce a series of powerful initiatives to advance women in the workplace at their respective organizations.

Bloomberg committed to expanding the “Girls Take Finance” program in order to bring together girls from diverse backgrounds in 12 major cities around the globe – including New York, London, Jakarta, Johannesburg and São Paulo – to learn about the financial industry and inspire the next-generation of female leaders to pursue careers in finance and business. Last year, the program began as “Girls Take Wall Street” and brought together 120 girls for discussions at UBS and Bloomberg and then to the floor of the New York Stock Exchange to ring the closing bell. Late last year, it expanded to two locations in India: “Girls Take Dalal Street” in Mumbai and “Girls Take GIFT City” in Ahmedabad.

Portfolio Analytics Team Leader Erica Oundjian was one of the women leaders from the business who attended MAKERS 2020, where she learned many valuable lessons at the conference that she is planning to bring back to the workplace.

She noted “each speaker shared a different perspective and stories that covered lessons on women empowerment in the workplace and the challenges faced across many different industries. It quickly became clear to me that Bloomberg’s female community is filled with hard workers focused on concrete results and intend to do right by each other and increase sponsorship. The company’s pledge to expand “Girls Take” is so important to show young women that they belong in the financial industry.”

Jennifer Salaam, Team Lead for Bloomberg’s Global Agile Team, said “I was most inspired and impressed by the level of inclusion and representation at MAKERS from the various communities: Latinx, LGBTQ+, military veterans, black woman journalists and lawyers. This level of inclusion mirrors the communities that we have here at Bloomberg, which made it easy to share ideas with attendees and made me proud of the work these communities are doing. I walked away with new ideas, a fresh perspective, new connections, and a commitment to do big things together.”

Erica concluded, “MAKERS was one of the most valuable experiences I’ve had throughout my career. To know that Bloomberg has partnered with MAKERS truly shows the values of our firm and its intention to create an open community where we respect one another and value the work of our women and minority communities.”

Bloomberg has participated in the MAKERS Conference since 2015, underscoring the company’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, and celebrating and empowering the game-changing women who work at the company. For the past two years, Bloomberg has also held a satellite MAKERS@Bloomberg event at its global headquarters in New York to shine a light on those making a change for equality and inclusion in the workplace and society.