Diversity makes Sellwood a better firm, just as diversification improves portfolios.

Our culture of inclusion ensures that we benefit from the full range of experiences and perspectives that each of our team members brings to work every day. An inclusive culture is also a competitive advantage at Sellwood, contributing to our industry-leading investment team stability. An inclusive team is a stable team, and a stable team is a better partner for our clients.

Our DEI Mission & Philosophy

Credible research shows that diverse teams perform better. We believe that diversity enhances our investment process, and we want Sellwood to be representative of the clients and communities we serve. Our goal is to have a culture of inclusion, infused into everything we do, and to have a hiring process and culture that are inclusionary and non-biased. Our industry is not as inclusive of people of color, LGBTQ people, women, and underrepresented communities as it should be. Our culture of inclusion seeks to ensure that both Sellwood and our clients benefit from the diversity of perspective that comes from diversity of talent.

Walking the Walk

DEI is not political at Sellwood. We don’t ask our employees to subscribe to any particular worldview, theory, ideology, or philosophy. We seek instead to create and nurture a culture of inclusion where all voices are welcomed and all ideas respected, and drive change from within to make our team more diverse and our company more inclusive.

Sellwood is a proud member of Partners in Diversity, an organization dedicated to attracting, retaining, and developing people of color in Portland.

On our DEI journey, we are committed to:

  • Listening to our employees, our clients, and our community. Internally, we strive to create an open culture where employees are encouraged to share their perceptions, viewpoints, beliefs, identities, and stories.
  • Learning, formally and informally, from those who have novel and different perspectives. This takes the form of formal training and development, and informal conversation and culture change. We strive to meet people where they are, and lead and manage our team with empathy and humility. We all have blind spots; part of our journey is in identifying them.
  • Working to make Sellwood as inclusive and diverse as it can be. We have made tangible improvements to our recruiting and hiring process to ensure that it is non-biased and proactive in seeking out talent from underrepresented communities. We know that we need to work proactively not just to welcome but to actively seek out these diverse voices, because they won’t necessarily find us on their own.

Finally, we recognize that it is easy to articulate aspirations, but the work of culture change is difficult and incremental. We are committed to tangible improvement to our firm’s diversity, not mere rhetoric.