Fondsfrauen

An individual membership for women with work experience costs 199 euros a year and includes the mentoring and buddy programs, the events, the Fondsfrauen Gipfel and a member area with a video archive. Students pay 20 euros a year and attend the summit and a young professional workshop free of charge. A business membership for sole traders, coaches and startups costs 890 euros a year and adds a company profile, an annual blog article and speaker slots at events.

Larger firms such as fund companies, banks and depositaries join as sponsors or supporters. The sponsors include asset managers such as Allianz Global Investors, Amundi, BlackRock and Fidelity International, the custodians State Street and Northern Trust, and Clearstream of Deutsche Börse Group. Among German fund companies, DekaBank and Helaba Invest support the network as well.

The mentoring program pairs women who have at least five years of work experience with an experienced mentor for twelve months of advice and exchange. Applications open once a year, and mentors and mentees are matched in the first months of the following year. Members early in their careers join the buddy program, which starts in small groups led by the Young Talents Steering Committee and adds one-to-one meetings when the group size allows.

The Fondsfrauen Gipfel is the annual one-day summit of the network in Frankfurt and brings together more than 500 women from the financial industry. The 2026 edition discussed longevity as an investment theme, the effects of AI on daily work and on asset management, and the expectations of next-generation investors. Master classes, a young professional workshop with speed dating and networking tips complete the program, with speakers from firms such as DWS, Union Investment, ING and the Zürcher Kantonalbank.

The Fondsfrauen Award honors people and companies that work for more gender diversity in asset management and the financial industry, and it had been presented seven times by 2025. Awards go out in five categories: Company of the Year, Woman of the Year, Fund Manager of the Year, Role Model of the Year and Rising Talent. The jury consists of the three founders together with Maren Schmitz of KPMG, Prof. Dr. Alexandra Niessen-Ruenzi of the University of Mannheim and Hans Heuser, publisher of FONDS professionell.

At the ceremony in Frankfurt in October 2025, CACEIS became Company of the Year, and Sina Meier of 21Shares was named Woman of the Year. Dr. Denisa Čumova of La Française won Fund Manager of the Year with a strategy based on machine learning, Carola Marx of DWS became Role Model of the Year, and Nina Blachut of Union Investment received the Rising Talent award.

Anne E. Connelly, Anke Dembowski and Manuela M. Fröhlich founded Fondsfrauen, and Anne E. Connelly leads the network as CEO. Anne E. Connelly worked at Pioneer Investments, now part of Amundi, and was managing director of Morningstar Germany before she also founded the finance platform herMoney for women. Anke Dembowski has worked in the fund industry since 1989 and writes for FONDS professionell and Institutional Money, while Manuela M. Fröhlich heads fundraising and investor relations at ALIGN in Zurich.

An advisory board helps the founders set and reach their goals for the network. Its members include Kerstin Gräfe of Amundi Deutschland, Dr. Anja Hochberg of the Zürcher Kantonalbank, Anja Mikus of the German nuclear waste fund KENFO, Ilse Munnikhof of ING Deutschland, Carola Schroeder of Union Investment and Dr. Katharina Seiler of DWS. The company behind the network is Fondsfrauen GmbH, based in Erding near Munich.