The Fund Finance Association (FFA), a non-profit industry association for the fund finance market of which Wells Fargo is a founding member, celebrated its eighth annual Global Fund Finance Symposium in New York on March 21, 2018, with current sitting president, Jeff Johnston, head of Wells Fargo Securities’ Subscription Finance group A premier gathering for professionals of the fund finance industry, this year, it took a special moment to recognize one of its members, Dee Dee Sklar, vice chair of Subscription Finance at Wells Fargo Securities.

Sklar is the first recipient of FFA’s Women in Fund Finance (WWF) award for her work to increase engagement and participation of women in the fund finance industry. Going forward, this annual award, named the “Dee Dee Sklar Award,” will be presented to a member who carries on the mission of Women in Fund Finance and the legacy Sklar has built within the association.

Late 2016 after speaking to senior industry women, Sklar approached the board of the FFA to establish a group to help educate, advocate and promote women across the fund finance market. There was a need for this group, as women in the industry are under-represented and currently, FFA has a total of approximately 30% female members.

The organization started with U.S. and European senior committees with co-heads in each location as well as a junior committee. Committee members include banks, law firms and private equity firms. The vision was for senior-level committees to act as steering committees for each geography and junior committees to support their efforts. Sklar understood that setting up this structure would allow the senior committees to provide oversight from a high level while also allowing junior women the opportunity to get involved in the junior committee work.

In its first year, the Women in Fund Finance initiated over 700 women across US, Europe and Asia, all thanks to the effort and sponsorship of Sklar.