Claudia Morales of BlackRock: Working to increase the number of women in finance

“Having this network and companies that assist their employees when they face some kind of hardship is fundamental, so that they can move forward and continue to deliver their best.”

Claudia Morales

Claudia Morales, Vice President of BlackRock, a U.S. investment management firm headquartered in New York, believes and her experience has borne out that to attract more women to finance, since college, schools need to introduce and continue to expose them to the concept of making a career in Math and Economics. We should also show them opportunities in these areas and share other women’s successful stories. Such knowledge will enable the younger ones to understand that a finance career is within their reach and not as complicated as they may seem.

Three years ago, Morales moved with her family from Chile, her birthplace.

“You can’t dream of something you don’t know,” says Morales, who studied Industrial Civil Engineering at the University of Chile.

In 2017, she co-founded Mujeres en Finanzas (MEF) – an organization headquartered in Chile and Spain focused on encouraging, supporting and promoting women in finance. Morales wants to show other women that there are opportunities that require their skills and talents in all areas of the finance field.

“I come from a world that’s far distant from the financial industry. I had zero contacts. I had no role models and I didn’t know what people do in finance. This is why we set this goal at MEF,” she says.

An array of inspirations

Throughout her life, Morales has collected what she calls an “array of inspirations” that have brought her to where she is today.

She was the first generation in her family to go to college. “We were not well-off. When I started working at the age of 24, I wasn’t just providing an additional source of income; I had the highest income in my household,” she recalls.

“So, for me, studying and having a career were not just issues that I was passionate about, they were the tools that allowed me to give my family a better life as well. This was my first inspiration.”

In terms of her career, her first example was María Elena Ovalle, the first female board member at the Central Bank of Chile. Inspired by her, she applied for a job and ended up working there for five years.

“I was not a board member at the Central Bank. Who knows if maybe later on [I would have been]? But I was the first woman to chair the bank’s union. I thought only the elite worked in finance, and yet there I was. I didn’t come from that world. I also contributed with my social awareness and a desire to help others. These were very important steps to me,” she says.

When you work towards a goal in life, you can fulfill all your dreams. “Every day on my way to work at the Central Bank of Chile, I used to listen to a very knowledgeable economist on the radio, someone who I really admired. When I decided I wanted a different job, a friend of mine sent my resume to this professional.

“I had no idea that he had my resume until I received an email one evening, inviting me to apply for a job. I couldn’t believe it! After that, we worked together for 10 years. We still work together, although in different areas of the company. He is Mr. Axel Christensen, who is BlackRock’s Chief Investment Strategist for Latin America,” she reveals.

In terms of personal life, her driving force has been her daughter and husband, who, respectively, left behind their school and job in Chile to move to New York with her. Together, they have faced these new challenges, which have gotten even more tough since the pandemic started.

Morales believes that achievements are not just one person’s responsibility. They always require the support of others.

The greatest personal challenge she has faced – and where her personal life met her work life – was a cancer diagnosis in 2013. She had to undergo constant treatments, including chemotherapy. During that time, the support she received was crucial.

“The assistance provided by the company and colleagues, who at the end of the day are your friends and become part of your family, was very important. Having this network and companies that assist their employees when they face some kind of hardship is fundamental, so that they can move forward and continue to deliver their best,” she states.

Few women in leadership positions

When she started working at BlackRock, she realized that she could help connect women who held leadership positions and have them serve as an example to other women. This was something that hadn’t seemed attainable when she started her career. Regardless, there is still a way to go.

“There are still few women in finance. Maybe more now than when I started, but the figure is still very low, especially at the top-level of management, which is 20% in Chile. And, when it comes to women in board positions, that’s barely 9%. That’s very low female representation at these levels.”

The good news is that entrepreneurs can now consider investment strategies in companies that are under environmental, social and governance (ESG) metrics. Morales indicates that this helps us understand how companies are managing their talent and accounting for the gender gap.

She explains that more and more investors and investment funds at BlackRock have confirmed that they value investment institutions and portfolios that consider these principles in addition to profitability.

Learning from crisis

The most important historical event in Morales’ career was the 2008 financial crisis, which also changed her career forever.

“The economy was my only sphere of action, because I came from the Central Bank and had a Master’s degree in Economics. But when the crisis hit, I had to reinvent myself,” she explains.

In her line of work, she also had to address issues related to finance, which required extra effort: “I had to make a complete turn, study more financial aspects and models and combine my macro and micro economic knowledge with finance. But that was what finally led me to where I am now.

“This crisis was a challenge for everyone. We hadn’t seen such a deep economic and financial crisis since the 1930s. This is why I found it important to validate my knowledge in order to have better tools. I learned a lot, both personally and professionally.”

Morales says that when she was a student, she thought that the economy had nothing to do with finance. Her career has shown her that it is, in fact, a very big world. As a child, she thought she’d study something like social work or law, but she realized she was good at math in school. Even so, her career path shows that she has never abandoned her social awareness.

Challenges that have yet to come

According to Morales, the challenges faced by the next generation of leaders in finance will be mobility, technology and innovation. They will also need to consider issues such as sustainability and the environment.

She also thinks that new leaders need to be more inclusive and always think about people. “They cannot lose sight of the organization’s purpose. I don’t mean just in terms of financial aspects; they should always consider the general welfare,” she suggests.

Keeping yourself well informed when making decisions is also important: “I used to read the newspaper every day, but today there is more access to information on the internet. For example, I have access to Bloomberg and that helps me stay much more connected,” she says. “But the important thing is to know what to do with that information and how to communicate it.”

Finally, she would like her legacy to be a more inclusive and equitable financial system. “I want anyone who wants to reach a high-level position to be able to do so,” she concludes.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Bloomberg.

Bloomberg invited the GETTERS of the financial market in Latin America to share their insightful stories about their careers, their success stories and the challenges they had to face while not only witnessing the development of this fast-paced environment, but actively contributing to its evolution by creating new tools, sharing best practices and inspiring change.