Darren Steinhardt, managing director of Queensland headquartered dealer group Infocus, said the group had achieved a 48:52 female to male split across its national team of around 100 staff, with “many senior roles across all functions including technology, investment, strategy, and operations being led by women”.
Mr Steinhardt said the days of women being employed in primarily support or service roles within advice businesses were “mostly a bygone era” and “for clients and colleagues alike, the change is for the better”.
“The women of Infocus are formidable professionals who stand shoulder to shoulder with one another and with their male colleagues and they contribute enormously to our growth, performance and culture, as well as to ensuring the financial outcomes for our clients are delivered,” he said.
Mr Steinhardt added that women represented the majority of emerging talent in the advice business, with Infocus’ 2020 adviser of the year and most of those flagged for future senior leadership positions being female.
“We recently held our inaugural workshop for up-and-coming talent across our national team and based purely on merit, every participant was female, which signals an exciting change for our team and for the industry more broadly,” he said.
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“We recently held our inaugural workshop for up-and-coming talent across our national team and based purely on merit, every participant was female”