If James Brown was to write one of his famous songs in 2013 would he still start the first line with this is a man’s world? Perhaps it would take him a couple more years to be convinced but it is clear that women are increasingly climbing up the career ladder. As we will show in the report more and more women establish and manage their own companies. In the future more female entrepreneurs will found their own companies and generate wealth. The Forbes Billionaires List 2013 for example features yet another record number of women with 138 women worth at least one billion dollars, compared with 104 in 2012. As the numbers of women attending university and pursuing professional careers increases, women are becoming a growing target group for investment managers as well as venture capitalists looking for new business opportunities. In many parts of the world women are however still subject to discrimination in access to training and jobs and are often confined to mostly “female” occupations, according to a report by UN agency ILO. This despite the fact that employment equality has been shown to go hand in hand with economic growth. In addition to this, there are yet 2.4 million women in the UK who do not work but want to according to the UK Women’s Business Council. This report will present the recent trends and profiles of women in business, insight and analysis of new wealth created by female entrepreneurs and offer advice on how to approach female HNWI. The focus will be on differences between men and women in business sectors and board memberships, and the specific challenges female entrepreneurs can face. Building on the findings there will be a final chapter on how to approach female high net worth individuals. The report offers analysis based on information gathered from the Wealthmonitor database. It also includes interviews with Anna Sofat, CEO of financial services boutique Addidi and Afi Ofori, Managing Director of Zars Media, two key professionals who are very familiar with the topic. An extended part of the interview with them can also be found in the final section of the report.

1. Women and wealth
Female entrepreneurs, HNWI and
how to approach them

2. Women and wealth
Female entrepreneurs, HNWI and how to approach them
About Wealthmonitor
Wealthmonitor is a unique and proprietary intelligence service that identifies new wealth being created as a
result of potential and announced liquidity events and provides extensive details on those high net worth
individuals (HNWI).
Wealthmonitor was launched in Europe in January 2006 and has since proven invaluable for its audience. Since
2010 Wealthmonitor has expanded to also include North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific and Africa.
Key Facts:
• Since the launch of Wealthmonitor in January 2006 we have identified and profiled more than 160,000
individuals.
• The database represents total estimated wealth of EUR 1.06tr and prospective wealth of EUR 2.6tr.
• Our research team add more than 2,700 individual dossiers to the database each month, comprising
personal and professional information.
• The service also comprises information on a network of more than 39,000 advisory firms servicing HNWIs
including financial, legal, accounting and PR firms.
• Our global network of 400 journalists collect, translate and summarise all relevant information published in
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To find out more or to request a free trial visit:
www.wealthmonitor.com
Or contact:
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florian.pixner@wealthmonitor.com
+44 (0)20 7059 6245

3. Women and wealth
Female entrepreneurs, HNWI and how to approach them
Contents
Overview
Business sectors – Where is the wealth created and where are the women?
Board of Directors – A man’s world or a changing climate?
Female Entrepreneurs
How to approach female HNWI
Conclusion and future trends
Interviews
Contributors:
Sabina Andersson
Research Analyst
sabina.andersson@wealthmonitor.com
Christian Meyer
Head of Research Wealthmonitor
christian.meyer@wealthmonitor.com

4. Women and wealth
Female entrepreneurs, HNWI and how to approach them
Overview
If James Brown was to write one of his famous songs in 2013 would he still start the first line with this is a
man’s world? Perhaps it would take him a couple more years to be convinced but it is clear that women are
increasingly climbing up the career ladder. As we will show in the report more and more women establish and
manage their own companies. In the future more female entrepreneurs will found their own companies and
generate wealth. The Forbes Billionaires List 2013 for example features yet another record number of women
with 138 women worth at least one billion dollars, compared with 104 in 2012.
As the numbers of women attending university and pursuing professional careers increases, women are
becoming a growing target group for investment managers as well as venture capitalists looking for new
business opportunities. In many parts of the world women are however still subject to discrimination in access
to training and jobs and are often confined to mostly “female” occupations, according to a report by UN agency
ILO. This despite the fact that employment equality has been shown to go hand in hand with economic growth.
In addition to this, there are yet 2.4 million women in the UK who do not work but want to according to the UK
Women’s Business Council.
This report will present the recent trends and profiles of women in business, insight and analysis of new wealth
created by female entrepreneurs and offer advice on how to approach female HNWI. The focus will be on
differences between men and women in business sectors and board memberships, and the specific challenges
female entrepreneurs can face. Building on the findings there will be a final chapter on how to approach female
high net worth individuals.
The report offers analysis based on information gathered from the Wealthmonitor database. It also includes
interviews with Anna Sofat, CEO of financial services boutique Addidi and Afi Ofori, Managing Director of Zars
Media, two key professionals who are very familiar with the topic. An extended part of the interview with them
can also be found in the final section of the report.

5. Women and wealth
Female entrepreneurs, HNWI and how to approach them
Business sectors – Where is the wealth
created and where are the women?
Although many women are becoming more successful in business and face less
discrimination the global wealth is still largely in the hands of men. As reported by
Forbes in 2013, women accounted for less than 10% of the world’s billionaires.
Even though the situation is changing, there is reason to ask why the earnings of
women still tend to lag behind.
One reason could be that the sectors traditionally attracting women have not
been sectors where people are most likely to accumulate wealth. The United
States Bureau of Labor Statistics and the European Union Labour Force Survey
both report that women mainly work in service based industries, administration
and retail, where the earnings are considerably lower. Sectors associated with
higher earnings such as oil and gas, bio-technology, media, financial services and
lately computer/IT are on the other hand largely populated by men. In FORTUNE’s
annual ranking of America’s leading businesswomen, most of the women on the
list were working in the financial services sectors and computer/IT, followed by
the retail and food sectors, which suggests that if women are to become powerful
and wealthy, choosing a non-traditional career path could be vital for success.
The women in the Wealthmonitor database come from a wide variety of sectors.
Not suprisingly, the sector with the largest number of women is the rather broad
services sector. It represents 21% of the women added to the Wealthmonitor
database in the last 12 months. The second and third largest sectors are the
computer/IT and the industrial sectors with 11% and 9% respectively. The
financial services sector, often mentioned as an sector dominated by men,
follows fairly close behind with 6%. This shows that a large part of the HNWwomen provided by Wealthmonitor in the last year have, as perharps expected,
been associated with the traditional services sector. Just as the women on the
FORTUNE list, a large part of the women in the Wealthmonitor database are
also working in the growing computer/IT sector, finance and the industrial sector,
showing that they are key sectors for successful women of today.
continued...
Success stories from
the WM database
Going against the
norm, a female
entrepreneur in the
database co-founded a
construction business
in 1982. She is married
and has two daughters
and practise Feng
shui. Her total wealth is
estimated to be above
EUR 30m.

6. Women and wealth
Female entrepreneurs, HNWI and how to approach them
Business sectors – Where is the wealth
created and where are the women?
Wealthmonitor Female shareholders (4148 individuals) – July 2012-July 2013:
25%
21%
20%
15%
11%
9%
10%
7%
5%
5%
1% 1% 1% 1%
3%
2%
4%
6%
5%
6%
3%
3%
4%
3%
2%
Utilities
Transportation
Services (other)
Real Estate
Other
Mining
Media
Manufacturing
Leisure
Covernment
Financial Services
Energy
Defense
Consumer: Retail
Consumer: Other
Consumer: Foods
Construction
Medical
Chemicals and materials
Biotechnology
Automotive
Agriculture
Telecommunications
Industrial
Computer/IT
0%
As this report will show, the profiles of today’s businesswomen, entrepreneurs and female High Net Worth
Individuals can be multifaceted and seem to be in a state of change. With more women on board of directors in
a wide range of sectors, and female entrepreneurs making their fortunes through building their own businesses
and investing wisely, it is in the interest of wealth managers to get updated with how the minds of women of
today work.

7. Women and wealth
Female entrepreneurs, HNWI and how to approach them
Board of Directors – A man’s world or a
changing climate?
As boards have historically been managed by men, several countries have taken up the task to increase diversity
and get more women involved. Norway introduced a law in 2006 stipulating that publicly traded companies
must appoint at least 40% female members to their boards or risk forced dissolution by delisting from the Oslo
Stock Exchange. Even for a country considered by both the World Economic Forum and UNDP to be one of the
most gender equal in the world, this was a regulation fairly controversial when introduced. Other countries have
chosen different paths, with the UK chosing the slightly softer approach of setting a target (although without
sactions if not reached) of a 25% female make up of FTSE 100 companies by 2015.
According to the European Board Diversity Analysis 2012, women now account for almost one third (30.8%) of
all new European board appointments in what is an accelerating trend. Norway unsurprisingly tops the ranking
with 36.4% women on board positions, with Finland (27.1%) and Sweden (24.6%) as second and third, even
though they don’t have quotas.
Countries with highest/lowest number of women*
2012
Norway
36.4%
Finland
27.1%
Sweden
24.6%
France
20.5%
Italy
8.4%
Austria
8.0%
Luxembourg
6.1%
Portugal
4.7%
*Proportion of women on Board of Directors in companies of a market capitalization in excess of EUR 4 billion.
The results suggest that quotas do get the numbers up. In Sweden it has also been suggested that the threat
of introducing quotas could have a positive effect in itself. The fact that Italy is showing low numbers could be
related to women also taking less part in the active workforce as a whole, with only 47% of women in paid work
compared to 67% of all men, according to the OECD. This however does not explain the poor results of Portugal
where the division of labour is far more equal with 60% of the women in paid work compared with 68% of men.
Wealthmonitor data suggests that although a higher percentage of the Italian women included in the database are
Board Members, with an impressive 1 in 4 of every shareholder, the progress has been close to none in the last
four years compared to Sweden with an impressive increase of women in our database who are Board Members.
continued...

8. Women and wealth
Female entrepreneurs, HNWI and how to approach them
Board of Directors – A man’s world or a
changing climate?
2008
Italy
Sweden
2012
Italy
Sweden
Board Member
151
25
136
32
Grand Total
595
78
532
67
Board Members (%)*
25.4%
32.1%
25.6%
47.8%
*Proportion of women in the Wealthmonitor database who are serving as either Chairperson or
as a regular Member of the Board of Directors in at least one company
The large increase in women on Swedish Boards is not matched in the EBD data,
which reports a meagre 2 % increase between 2008 and 2012. The European
Board Diversity Analysis restricts their data sample to companies with a market
capitalization in excess of EUR 4 billion, where Wealthmonitor on the other hand
provides an insight in how the structure of board membership has changed
throughout a range of companies from start-ups to large multinational companies.
This shows that, in a more broad perspective, an increase of women on boards
have still occurred in Sweden. It also indicates that a significant increase in the
number of women on boards of bigger companies could be imminent, even
without quotas.
Italy decided in 2012 to introduce a law which requires listed and state-owned
companies to ensure that one-third of their board members are women by 2015.
Judging by the reported stagnation of development in the boards of both smaller
and large companies it remains to be seen whether the law will have the wished for
effects in Italy in the coming years.
Afi Ofori who is Managing Director of Zars Media hopes that improvement will
come through entrepreneurship, as the number of business women continues to
grow. She also bring up the topic of culture and the fact that quotas in the case of
Norway may only have been part of the explanation as it is a country with highly
ranked gender equality overall.
Sectors such as retail and service tend to have most diverse boards, where
science- and engineering related fields on the other hand have few women
on their boards. As our data suggests, as well as the list of the top 50 female
entrepreneurs in the world indicates, the wealth is still largely created in the
sectors with less female representation.
Success stories from
the WM database
Despite Italian
women’s struggle to
get onto boards and
to executive roles,
the Wealthmonitor
database features
numerous examples
of successful Italian
women, including one
Chairwoman of a retail
company, who is also
a Board Member of
a financial company.
She has a degree in
Economic History,
has five children
and is engaged in a
number of non-profit
organizations, and has
an estimated potential
wealth of EUR 45m.

9. Women and wealth
Female entrepreneurs, HNWI and how to approach them
Female Entrepreneurs
Despite the recent trends, the gap between male and female entrepreneurship
is nonetheless high. We find only a few exceptions, such as in Singapore and
Thailand where more women found their own business than men, according
to a 2012 Forbes report. Switzerland, Guatemala and Brazil present a
business environment where the gender gap is minimal. Still, according to
a study conducted by Dell, the countries that are leading in fostering female
entrepreneurship are USA, Australia, Germany and France followed by
Mexico. They listed factors such as cultural norms being supportive of female
entrepreneurship, education and access to financial capital as crucial to the
success of women in business.
Wealthmonitor provides the latest intelligence not only on successful M&A deals
but also on early investments made into start ups. Those investments may not
immediately boost the personal account of entrepreneurs but will help individuals
to grow and develop their own business. Wealthmonitor’s database contains over
158,000 individuals of which 27,000 are female. Since women often take the
main responsibility for children, balancing work and family and financing a startup at the same can prove challenging. Afi Ofori believe employers and nurseries
need to become more innovative in supporting parents of young children so that
having a child would not need to have a negative effect on a woman’s career.
By increasing the number of female role models other women might also pursue
more bold careers and be encouraged to explore their own business ideas.
One step towards a successful career is higher education, and in 2012 female
university graduates outnumbered male graduates in the EU by a ratio of
approximately three to two according to Eurostat. Looking at university applicants,
the UK admission service for instance received 80,000 more applications by
women for the September in 2013 semester than by men. The figures for
approaching a MBA are however still fairly low. In 2011 the Telegraph reported that
only 31% of women took part in AMBA-accredited programmes worldwide.
continued...
Success stories from
the WM database
One of our Top 10
female entrepreneurs is
the daughter of a wellknown media business
man. She founded a
media production firm
and has an estimated
total wealth of EUR
60m.

10. Women and wealth
Female entrepreneurs, HNWI and how to approach them
Female Entrepreneurs
Caterina Fake, co-founder of Flickr and a university drop out has a more
straightforward advice and says: “Want to be an entrepreneur? Drop out of
college”. A quote that indicates a certain level of risk that few women might be
tempted to take on. However, Afi Ofori at Zars Media says being more risk averse
is not necessarily wrong nor a sign of weakness. “We just take our time to do a lot
of research to understand what we are doing before we make the decision.” On
the one hand the majority of research conducted in the last decades describes
females as more risk averse than men, as men are thought to have a more
aggressive style of management and make their decision faster. Taking a closer
look at the topic however reveals more nuances. Finanznachrichten.de reported
in 2013 that female entrepreneurs with investable wealth above GBP 1m are more
likely to take risk in their areas of expertise than typical female HNWIs. Also, in an
article from 2012 Forbes found that women tend to have a higher fear of failure at
a young age whereas men get a higher fear of failure as they get older.
Success stories from
the WM database
Another example in
our Top 10 table is a
successful self-made
business woman, who
co-founded a gambling
company with a
relative in 2000. Her
estimated total wealth
is above EUR 30m.
She acquired a degree
in econometrics, drives
an Aston Martin and
enjoys spending time
with her family in her
hometown

11. Women and wealth
Female entrepreneurs, HNWI and how to approach them
How to approach female HNWI
Unlike previous research has reported, the interviews conducted by Wealthmonitor shows that women do not
necessarily see risk differently or want to be approached in a very different manner than their male counterparts.
Whether a person is more or less prone to take risks in their career and with their investments is often down
to other factors than gender, such as age, professional and cultural background and previous experience. It
is however important to keep in mind that some women can be put off by financial jargon, especially in cases
when the person is not used to having someone taking care of their finances for them.
To view women as a coherent group when it comes to financial advice could prove to be a mistake and shy a
potential client away to seek advice elsewhere. There are a number of factors to take into account, and we have
discussed this issue with Anna Sofat and Afi Ofori to get a deeper understanding of where we stand today.
Build relations and understand the client
As obvious as it might sound, meeting a client on their own terms is important yet not always happening. Afi
Ofori believes that the investment process needs to be simplified and explained in a manner that the client
understands. She has herself bad experiences of banks discussing topics that she felt she could not relate
to or understand, and therefore turned the offers away. Investment managers also need to take the time to
understand the women and how they look at investments. Ofori also believes that business women who built
their fortunes and women who inherited their fortunes work in different ways when it comes to risk, confidence
and types of investments.
To build trusting relations and taking wealth management to the next level is exactly what Anna Sofat does at
financial services boutique Addidi, aimed primarily but not exclusively towards women. To put the emphasis on
lifestyle wealth and not just crunching numbers has been proven a popular take on wealth management, she
says, with investments her clients can relate to and social investments that still bring good returns for the clients.
Risk-Intelligent v.s. Risk-Averse
This topic has been discussed throughout the report since it often is brought up when talking about women,
careers and wealth. Numerous articles have throughout the years cemented an image of women being more
risk averse and careful than men, both when it comes to investments as well as in their approach to careers and
business life. There is however reason to start to question this standpoint as more and more women become
entrepreneurs, business owners and building and maintaining their wealth by breaking new ground. For advisors
to assume that women have less tolerance towards risk can mean they miss out on clients who decide to go
elsewhere for advice that they feel is more suitable for a woman of today.
Both of our interviewees agree that the assumption that women in general are risk averse is old-fashioned and
changing. To be more understanding about risk, or being a “considered investor” as Anna Sofat from Addidi
puts it, does not mean an advisor should assume a client is afraid of taking risks. To take into account the
age and situation in life as well as the type of HNWI could prove far more appropriate and open new doors to
understanding how the particular client wants their wealth to be managed.

12. Women and wealth
Female entrepreneurs, HNWI and how to approach them
Conclusion and future trends
Although recent data from the European Board Diversity Analysis shows little improvement of gender diversity
on Swedish Board of Directors, Wealthmonitor data on trends in small and medium sized companies paints
a different picture. A significant increase in the number of women on such boards indicates a change in large
corporations could be imminent, even without quotas, once these women have gained more experience.
As the number of women graduating from university continues to rise more qualified women will be competing
with men and pursuing a career in the future, increasing the chances of equality in top management and
leadership of businesses.
The topic of women and risk is not as straight-forward as many reports previously have claimed. To assume
that women have a certain approach to risk merely because they are women is a simplified view that should be
challenged in order to fully understand a potential entrepreneur and client.

13. Women and wealth
Female entrepreneurs, HNWI and how to approach them
Interviews
Anna Sofat – Addidi
Afi Ofori – Zars Media
CEO and Founder of financial services boutiqe Addidi.
20 years experience of advising private clients, previously
serving as Managing Director at Fiona Price & Partners, the
first firm to provide financial advice for women by women.
Managing Director and founder of Zars Media. A Corporate
event organiser and promoter of working women with 13
years experience in financial sales. She is also the founder
of the Women In Sales Awards.
Women who come to you for advice, have they built their
own businesses or have their largely inherited their wealth?
Is your experience that women tend to work in certain
business sectors?
We are quite a broad shirt, so I would say the majority is selfgenerated.
Yes, but that is changing quite a lot. The financial service and
media industries are still male-dominated. However, over the
years, more women are going into those sectors.
Do you feel there is a difference between these two types
of women and the way they choose to invest their money?
Possibly one of the differences is if you’ve inherited money, or
divorced or widowed. Then you are a bit more used to having
somebody take care of it for you. Age also matters, the older
generation, particularly age 60 and onwards tends to delegate
a lot more.
Do you believe women are more risk averse?
I suppose on the whole you probably become more risk averse
as you get older unless you’ve got quite a bit of wealth. I would
say, generally speaking, entrepreneurs are used to taking risks
and are quite comfortable with that. Younger women too,
before you have families and such responsibilities there can be
a feeling of having less to lose therefore you are more prone to
taking risk.
Do you think that women are neglected or misunderstood
by the financial institution when it comes to launching their
own business?
I don’t think they are neglected, perhaps sometimes
misunderstood. Work-life balance continues to be an area of
concern. Although a challenge, it presents unique opportunities
for companies to continue to attract women and provide familybased benefits.
So how do you think banks can help women who want to
start their own business?
I have no doubt that the banks are aware that a growing part of
the UK’s wealth is controlled by women. As a growing number
of women in the UK enter the workforce, the banks have an
opportunity to design products that are attractive to women.
A lot of research suggests that women as more risk averse
than men, do think that is accurate?
It is sometimes claimed that women take less risks than
men, do you agree?
I think it is changing, I would have said yes probably ten years
ago. There is sometimes an element of money that they would
perhaps ring fence and not want to take risk with, and that
tends to be around their children and their home. But outside
of that I don’t think they are, there are plenty of women who are
comfortable with taking risks.
I completely disagree and I will tell you why: women take risks
all the time and are often responsible for their families and their
children’s education. Women appear to be risk averse because
we tend to take time to make decisions and consider all viable
options first before making a choice. And if that is seen as a
taking less risk then I think they are wrong.
Some say women are more prone to have “done their
homework” before they go to an advisor, that they look into
things more thoroughly, or seek advice from a more wide
variety of sources. Do you think that is true about women
more than men?
Any final comments on women and investing?
I think they are considered investors, yes. They would think
about things and not necessarily run into things because they
happen to be the latest good buy. Often they will shy away from
anything pressure orientated because they want to think about
things and look into things a bit more.
The main thing for financial institutions to remember is that
for most women it’s all about building relationships. First learn
what is important to women and then design products that
fit into their priorities; but most importantly make it simple to
understand and jargon free.

14. www.wealthmonitor.com