Story 229
As the chair of a fintech board, I want to respond to stories 227 and 228. BoD’s have a clear legal responsibility to set the tone at the top; oversee ethics, conduct, and culture; and address executive misconduct or systemic issues when they arise.
The suggestion that, in both cases, conduct about an executive is severe enough to warrant media coverage and yet no meaningful action has followed, points to either a serious lapse in oversight or a degree of willful blindness. Remember, the ICI board includes members from BlackRock, Goldman, and JPM; and therefore represents the entire industry.
As a 56-year-old woman who has spent my career in this business, it’s easy to conclude it’s “willful blindness.” The Boy’s Club is not just alive and well, it’s thriving.
What’s overlooked is the broader cost of this mindset. When organizations sideline or diminish half the population—whether overtly or through culture and decision-making—they are not just failing individuals, they are weakening their own institutions. They limit perspective, impair judgment, and ultimately compromise long-term performance and credibility in ways that no board can afford to ignore.
Frankly, a reckoning is long overdue. What we are witnessing is not only shameful, it is unsustainable—and the longer it goes unaddressed, the more significant the consequences will be for leadership, governance, and the integrity of financial services as a whole.