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Ally and Advocate - Anisha Goodly
Being an Ally and an Advocate
Ms. Goodly leads TCW’s Emerging Markets/Global Portfolio Specialist team, whose core activities include communicating investment strategies, performance and outlook, in addition to business development and product marketing. Ms. Goodly is the co- chair of Diversity and Inclusion for Women in Institutional Investments Network (WIIIN) and was shortlisted for “Ally of the Year” for the Women in Asset Management Awards. She is also a member of the Los Angeles Leadership Committee for 50/50 Women on Boards and serves on the Advisory Board of Moving the Needle.
These are the edited highlights of my conversation with Anisha. If you want to read the full interview click the Read More button at the end of the interview.
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Thank you for being here!
You were shortlisted as Ally of the Year by Women in Asset Management. What does it mean to you to be an Ally and how have you shown up to help make that possible?
I was very touched by my colleagues who nominated me for that.
I think it's partly the environment in which I was raised. My parents were very big advocates of helping others. They immigrated here from India. In some ways, they certainly had the privilege of being very highly educated and being able to create a life for my sisters and I, but that wasn't without struggle. It wasn't without other people opening doors for them and helping them acclimate to a new culture.
My parents would often tell us to fight for the underdogs. They were very much aware of the opportunities that they had been given and wanted to pave the way for others, so that was just part of the conversation growing up.
I didn’t really have the words for this as a child, but those were all very early lessons in access, empathy and inclusion. I do think about that a lot at work, that not everyone has had the same experiences. I want to understand different perspectives. It can make the outcomes for our clients so much better.
Allyship is also being an advocate. You can advocate in very simple ways in a meeting by amplifying certain voices or by making sure that people are aware of other people's work.
What conversations are we not having as women in the workplace that you wish we were?
In the last few years, I feel we are having more conversations. There are conversations that I don't think we would have had 10 years ago, like hybrid work or mental health or egg freezing. Something I’d love to see more of are return to work programs for moms who took time off; structurally that can be tough in our industry but that’s a very real opportunity to tap into talent.
It’s been wonderful to have those conversations with my female colleagues and peers, both in a smaller