Adhere to transparency and be accountable for your actions

Jensen Partners is a woman-owned, leading global executive search firm that brings innovative solutions to the alternative asset management industry by combining data analytics with Jensen DiversityMetrics™, the enterprise software solution for workforce diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Both companies, founded and headed by CEO Sasha Jensen, make use of propriety data to increase diversity and inclusion in the investment industry.

Jensen Partners has operated for more than a decade guided by a mission that data-driven insights enable informed decision-making and better results for enterprises and investors. The company is redefining human capital procurement in the alternative investment market, helping organizations increase diversity and establish inclusive work environments.

Alternative asset management organizations have transformed how they work and hire since 2020. Jensen Partners saw the death of George Floyd in May 2020 and the accompany calls for social justice as a significant inflection point for DEI.

It became apparent that asset managers must prioritize a diverse workforce to attract and retain top talent and secure investments. As organizations responded to calls for greater equality, Jensen Partners set out to show that meaningful progress and equitable representation require more than good intentions. To achieve real, tangible results and maintain internal and external accountability, Sasha Jensen and Jensen Partners believed clients would need an empirical solution.

Jensen Partners’ push to hire marketing and distribution professionals and fundraisers helped grow the industry’s collective AUM from $5.6 trillion in 2012 to over $13 trillion in 2021. The firm has tracked human capital data since 2012, which gave them unique insights into the state of diversity across the industry and led to the founding of Jensen DiversityMetrics™, the first enterprise software solution that analyzes recruitment and retention strategies, identifies representative improvement areas, and develops always-on diverse talent pipelines.

By utilizing an extensive network across asset classes, Jensen Partners constructs detailed profiles through direct feedback from limited and general partners. Their 360° Investor Referencing™ technique, which employs a qualitative and qualitative approach, examines a candidate’s asset-raising potential by tracing their entire career. This, coupled with a behavioral analysis that reveals work style and attitude, allows Jensen Partners to give clients detailed, in-depth candidate profiles.

Jensen Partners’ data-driven strategy also addresses workforce disparities. To ensure investment in diverse organization, Jensen DiversityMetrics™ allows institutional investors to analyze diversity at multiple enterprises. Creating real goals and actionable solutions has helped clients move past baseless diversity claims. Due to the early success of the platform, Jensen Partners made an industry-first announcement: a commitment to diversity recruiting that will make sure at least 51% of the candidates come from underrepresented backgrounds.

According to Jensen, the executive search firm has a team of data scientists who use a scientific method to track and find candidates. They accomplish this using an organization chart mapping system that depicts the distribution and investment teams based on general and portfolio management performance reports.

Jensen and her team offer a unique array of services to clients, ranging from investment and distribution executive search to various auditing and evaluating strategies. Through their Diversity Platform Audit, the company can measure diversity metrics for an entire asset management firm. This gives the industry the transparency it needs to be held accountable.

By leveraging data to improve the workforce across the alternative asset management industry, Jensen Partners has made systematic and qualitative decision-making a reality for their clients in a previously data-starved industry. The demand for more transparency and accountability is set to increase as the industry, traditionally exempt from reporting DEI data, receives increased pressure to disclose their progress on advancing diversity and inclusion initiatives to investors.

Jensen Partners’ deep insight into talent markets has made them a necessary partner to many of the industry’s biggest players. Sasha and her team, armed with the data and insight to make tangible progress possible for their clients, will continue to drive the future of representation across alternative asset classes.