InvestmentNews honors Stifel's Alex David at sixth annual DEI Summit

InvestmentNews hosted its annual Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Summit in New York City Wednesday to honor those working to make wealth management a more diverse profession.

In the sixth iteration of the ceremony, six firms and 15 individuals were celebrated for their contributions, including a Lifetime Achievement award to Alex David, the president and CEO of Stifel Independent Advisors and Chair Emeritus of Association of African American Financial Advisors.

At the event, David recounted working as a bike messenger during his teenage years, delivering papers to Wall Street firms and eventually getting a job in an insurance firm’s mail room. After an executive caught him reading a copy of the Wall Street Journal in the freight elevator, David was invited to learn more about stock trading.

Over a career that took him from a wholesaler to asset management and eventually to wealth management — with stops at the New York Bar Association and as a restaurateur mixed in — David followed two guiding principles: failure and dignity.

“Failure is a critical and distinct part of growth. You must go through a period of failure to actually grow,” he said in an interview with Leslie Tabor, Charles Schwab Advisor Service’s director of business consulting and education. “Always leave a person with their dignity. Even if you need to fire someone, humanity says you can always leave them with their dignity.”

In his first two years as CEO of Stifel Independent Advisors, the firm has more than doubled its assets under management to $6 billion, with 40% of newly acquired client assets overseen by advisors from underrepresented gender and ethnic groups. In 2022, Stifel Independent Advisors drew in 23 new advisors and the $2.53 billion they managed.

If the rest of the financial services industry would treat DEI as a business problem, rather than a cause to treat as a charity without any expected return, it would quickly be solved, David said.

“Let’s stop calling [DEI] an initiative,” he said. “It’s a business imperative.”

Carson Group, Raymond James and M&T Bank were also recognized as Diversity Champions for their efforts fostering diversity, equity and inclusion within their own firms or the financial services profession at large. Three more firms — DFD, The Finity Group and Northern Trust — received Outstanding Practices awards for specific programs developed and implemented to increase diversity, equity and inclusion of its firm or clients.

InvestmentNews also gave 10 “See It, Be It” awards to individuals who have been effective role models for increasing diversity in wealth management.

Four others were recognized as “Rising Stars” for exceptional contributions to the profession and demonstrated leadership qualities at an early stage of their career. This year’s Rising Stars included Kofo Akosile, a financial planner with Prudential Advisors; D’Andrea Kinley, a program manager at the Financial Alliance for Racial Equity; Chelsea Bernstein, a financial advisor with Morgan Stanley; and Markell Byrd, the senior vice president and head of affluent markets, wealth and investment management at Wells Fargo.

The complete list of award winners can be found here.

Wednesday’s DEI Summit also featured a conversation on the current backlash against DEI programs by some in the industry. This often reflects a fear that improving opportunities for some people means taking away opportunities for others, said Scarlett Abraham Clarke, vice president and chief diversity and inclusion officer with Commonwealth Financial Network.

“Communication is key. How are we articulating these initiatives?” Clarke said. “This does not mean we are not hiring white men anymore.”

Things are also likely to get tougher as DEI and environmental, social and governance investing increasingly become part of the political debate, said George Nichols III, president and CEO of The American College of Financial Services.

“We’re going to be challenged going forward. It’s going to make my job harder, it’s going to make all of your jobs harder, because you’re going to want to use certain words and those words are going to ignite people who want to get away from [DEI],” Nichols said.  

Despite the challenges, it’s important to continue to celebrate the progress that industry has achieved. There’s a long way to go, but tangible change has been achieved, Clarke said.

“There’s a lot of rewards [that come with progress], and I would just encourage us to celebrate those rewards as they come,” she said. “There’s been a lot of change and I think we have to pause and celebrate that as well.”