In Letter, DAMI Urges NYC Comptroller Brad Lander to Fire Managers that Can’t Figure Out Diversity
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Yesterday, the Diverse Asset Managers Initiative (DAMI) issued a letter urging New York City Comptroller Brad Lander to commit to stronger action to hold accountable institutional investors that continue to lack diversity within their portfolio management and decision-making teams.
Comptroller Lander recently called for New York City’s pension systems to reevaluate and, if needed, end mandates with BlackRock, Fidelity, and PanAgora for failing to provide adequate decarbonization plans. That is impressive and decisive leadership, and it underscores how little of this type of action we have around diversity.
DAMI Founder and Executive Director Robert Raben applauded Lander’s leadership and asked for the same with respect to diversity writing, “What you’ve done for carbon, we’d love to see you do for people.”
Raben further highlights this need within the letter, writing, “Sending a clear message to asset management firms that do not reflect the diversity that leads to enhanced returns will help ensure that the City’s pension investments are both high-performing and reflective of New York’s values.”
A full copy of DAMI’s letter to Comptroller Lander can be found below.
Robert Raben
Diverse Asset Managers Initiative
525 9th Street NW, 7th Floor
Washington, DC 20004
December 3, 2025
Brad Lander
New York City Comptroller
1 Centre Street
New York, NY 10007
Re: DAMI Letter Commending Leadership on Pension Accountability and Urging Consistent Standards on Diversity
Dear Comptroller Lander,
On behalf of the Diverse Asset Managers Initiative (DAMI), I want to applaud your leadership in calling on New York City’s pension systems to reevaluate, and, if needed, to terminate, mandates with firms like BlackRock, Fidelity, and PanAgora over their failures to provide satisfactory decarbonization plans. This decisive action reflects precisely the kind of fiduciary rigor and transparency that the City’s retirees and taxpayers deserve, but sadly, as so many institutional investors shirk their responsibilities, more action and accountability is needed.
Just as important is your longstanding recognition that how capital is allocated matters as much as where it is allocated. In your recent announcement of nearly $32 billion in pension investments directed to diverse and emerging managers, you rightly noted that investing, “... MWBE asset managers have been some of the strongest performers throughout our portfolios and that deepening partnerships with diverse-owned asset managers who are all too often left out of the conversation must remain a strategic imperative.”
We urge you to apply that same leadership lens on diversity when reviewing mandates with other firms that continue to lag in representation among their portfolio management and decision-making teams. A lack of diversity at the team level, even within firms that are not majority-owned by people of color or women, perpetuates the same inequities that have long defined the asset management industry.
We believe that sending a clear message regarding asset management firms that do not reflect the diversity that leads to enhanced returns, will help to ensure that the City’s pension investments are both high-performing and reflective of New York’s values.
One is hard pressed to name a single example of an allocator terminating a manager’s relationship because that manager couldn’t or wouldn’t curate diverse talent.
What you’ve done for carbon, we’d love to see you do for people.
Sincerely,
Robert Raben
Founder and Executive Director, Diverse Asset Managers Initiative