IWD 2023 Inspirational Women - Roxane Sanguinetti
During the month of International Women's Day, we are featuring some of the inspirational women in our community, asking them what an equitable space looks like to them and spotlighting their greatest career and personal achievements in line with this years' theme of 'Embracing Equity'.
Roxane is head of strategy at GHCO, a registered market maker and one of the fastest-growing liquidity providers, specialising in ETFs and ETPs on and off all major European exchanges.
Trader, passionate about tech and entrepreneurship, she joined GHCO just as the company emerged as a leading fintech company. She advanced the fixed income ETF trading and investor relations, and now focuses on innovative areas of growth such as digital assets. Prior to joining GHCO, she held positions at Merrill Lynch and HUBX.
A fierce advocate for diversity & inclusion, Roxane joined Alma Angels from its early days in 2019, an inclusive community of investors actively supporting ambitious female founders.
"I head up the global Strategy at GHCO, a market-making fund at the crossroad between trading and technology. Previously, I led the fixed-income ETF trading, while I now focus on innovative areas of growth for the business and relationships with key stakeholders. Prior to joining GHCO, I held positions in trading at Bank of America Merrill Lynch before joining an early stage capital markets start-up, HUBX. From an early age, I loved numbers. At 15, I learned to read financial statements to start investing (with the little money I had earned). I went on to study International Business at ESSEC Business School and I hold a Master's in Quant Finance from Bocconi University.
One thing that drives me is striving to create a more equal and accessible world. Whether it be seeing more women succeed in the male-dominated industries of finance and tech, or bridging the funding gap for female and minority founders (incl. LGBTQ+), or getting more women to start investing. I leverage my position at GHCO to impact internal policies and the culture of the company (I brought on new parental leave policies for eg. for better care of both parents), but also to impact the wider industry in many ways. Recently, I became co-head of the London Chapter of Women in ETFs, organising events to bring both women and men to work on the diversity and inclusion issues faced by the finance industry. Separately, since 2018, I have been actively advising founders to get them investment-ready, giving insights into the angel and VC ecosystem. I also joined Alma Angels from its early days in 2019, an inclusive community of investors actively supporting ambitious female founders, which has now grown to 350 angels (of which 70% identify as women and 27% as people of colour).”
Advice to your younger self
I would tell my younger self: to start meditating! Over the years I have become so much better at managing stress and I have learned to worry less about the small things so that I can focus on big goals and projects. And learn to negotiate – that will be useful in all sorts of ways.