As a woman and mother of three children with 17 years of investing business experience, Ankur Crawford knows how the industry can show little support for those demographic groups and others.
“When I came back to work after the birth of my third child in 2019, it would have been nice to have a support structure,” she said. “Not that my firm wasn’t great, but I couldn’t express my feelings in a way that I could with peers.”
In response, she formed a networking group for women at the firm and for others in investments and finance. “I don’t want to pit women against men, it’s just that women typically interact and communicate differently.”
Being different is nothing new for Crawford. The child of Indian parents born in Kansas, where her father was studying for his doctorate degree, she moved to Saudi Arabia where her father later taught and was sent to a boarding school in the Himalayas.
The family moved to Buffalo, New York, when she was a teenager, and a bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and material science followed.
Crawford’s first job, however, was with Alger. “I didn’t want to be labeled and after a fortuitous interview with the firm’s CEO, who recognized my abilities even though I had never taken an economics or accounting class, they took a shot.”
Having experienced different societies and living with different people, she says that being different can be a real strength. “It doesn’t have to be a weakness, and proving that is what motivates me.”