Combining tactical skills and vision, Pammi Bhullar’s career and personal goals are to make progress in closing wealth and opportunity gaps.
She views her role as leader of Edelman Financial Engines’ diversity, equity and inclusion efforts as the perfect opportunity to do that. Growing up in rural southwestern Pennsylvania, she said that having an Indian émigré father and an American mother helped her appreciate the value of having very distinct perspectives.
“I learned that regardless of background, everyone should be respected,” she said. That led to educational and career choices where the common thread has been an effort to “bring people together who are very different in order to achieve their potential.”
Her undergraduate degree in marketing and theater arts from the University of Pittsburgh was followed a few years later by a master’s degree in business with a concentration in nonprofit management from Boston University.
After working and volunteering in nonprofit programs involving education and talent development, Bhullar spent five years with Thermo Fisher Scientific, ultimately becoming its senior manager of global diversity and inclusion.
She joined Edelman Financial Engines in early 2021 to design and launch its DEI program.
“We’re trying to increase the diversity of our applicant pool and to educate and support employees in the ways they need,” she said. “My goal is to elevate the voices of all employees, and especially underrepresented people, by removing barriers. I hope we can be a role model for other RIA firms.”