Diversity
'Equity' event focuses on gender diversity at investment firms
Marcia Page, executive chairwoman and a founder in 1993 of Minneapolis-based Värde Partners, sponsored a private premiere of the Wall Street movie "Equity" this week as well as a panel discussion with 155 investment professionals afterward.
"Equity," the first Wall Street movie that stars and is produced and directed by women, opens this weekend in theaters across America.
In 2014, actresses Alysia Reiner ("Orange Is The New Black") and Sarah Megan Thomas ("Backwards") launched a production company to feature strong female roles. "Equity" is the first offering.
The plot follows investment banker, Naomi Bishop, played by "Breaking Bad" star Anna Gunn. Bishop works to take a promising fledgling company public through an initial public offering of stock. She discovers wrongdoing that could scuttle the IPO and battles powerful guys more focused on fees than ethics.
"This was an opportunity, as we as a firm and industry ratchet up our gender diversity," Page said of the panel discussion. "Because in my [30] years in the industry, we really have not moved the needle in terms of diversity among investment professionals. On the other hand, it was serendipity to use the movie to have an innovative conversation about this. It's a Wall Street thriller from a female point of view. And we had a full house."
In addition to Page, the panel included Jody Gunderson, executive managing director at Carval Investors; Jennifer Ponce de Leon, senior portfolio manager at Columbia Threadneedle Investments, and Kirsten Voss, senior managing director at Värde. "Equity" was written by Amy Fox, sister of Jon Fox, a Värde guy.
There is a case to be made: Women are as sharp, more collaborative and less greedy than the boys. Need them on board, whether on Wall Street, in the boardroom, or the church offices. Diversity, including ethnic and cultural, is good.
Värde, with 235 employees in Minneapolis, Singapore and London, manages $11 billion in client money invested in several industries.
Neal St. Anthony
Construction
Activity slows after postrecession build
Construction activity in the Twin Cities has begun to taper off and stabilize following half a decade of steady growth.
A quarterly Construction Cost Index report released this week by Mortenson Construction shows that construction costs have grown at a normal rate while construction employment numbers have stalled.
"The market experienced a strong run-up in employment and costs over the past five years following the drop during the recession," Clark Taylor, vice president of Mortenson, said in a statement. "We are now at a point where construction employment has stalled in Minnesota and pricing escalation should be more consistent with long-term averages."
During the construction of several large projects such as U.S. Bank Stadium and the surrounding Downtown East developments, there was a rise in construction prices that went beyond historical averages. Without some of those huge projects, the workforce demand is stabilizing along with prices.
"Here in Minneapolis, the market is not showing as strong a result as it has in the past with several larger projects winding down," Taylor said in a podcast.
Construction unemployment in the state fell to 2.1 percent in May, its lowest level since 2001, according to June estimates by Associated Builders and Contractors, a national trade group.
It was the third-lowest rate in the country, which had a national average of 5.2 percent.
NICOLE NORFLEET
Banking
Local BMO Harris brass gets promoted as franchise expands in the Twin Cities
Two veteran Twin Cities bankers have been promoted by Chicago-based BMO Harris, the growing U.S. outpost of Canada's huge Bank of Montreal.
Katie Kelley, a longtime Twin Cities banker including stints at BMO's local predecessor, M&I Bank, and U.S. Bank, has been named vice chairwoman, with a focus on growing the business footprint throughout the Midwest, particularly the fast-growth area of women-owned businesses.
Todd Senger, regional president of BMO Harris Bank of Minnesota, has been given responsibility for BMO commercial banking operations in eight states outside of Illinois and Wisconsin. Both will continue to be based in the Twin Cities, BMO's biggest hub outside Chicago and Milwaukee.
Senger said BMO, which committed to $3 billion in additional credit here last year, is now the third-largest commercial lender in the Twin Cities area behind Wells Fargo and U.S. Bank.
BMO Harris has more than 300 Twin Cities employees in banking and wealth management.
In June, BMO struck a deal to buy Greene Holcomb Fisher, the Minneapolis-based investment bank. The firm will take the BMO name and integrate into BMO Capital Markets through a Minneapolis office.
Neal St. Anthony