ABGSC Women in Finance Foundation begins supporting student-run non-profit at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg

The ABG Sundal Collier Women in Finance Foundation is proud to begin sponsoring Chalmers Capital Management, a student-run non-profit at Chalmers University of Technology. The group aims to create effective investment strategies for the portfolio it maintains, as well as provide a platform for students to gain practical experience in capital markets.
The initiative serves students interested in a future career in finance and fintech. Currently, the group consists of over 30 members who are passionate about financial markets; its members are primarily students with academic backgrounds in mathematics and engineering, as well as students from other academic backgrounds.

Above: The current board of Chalmers Capital Management, from left; Andreas Helgesson (Head of Operations), Adam Ladenvall (President), Keivan Mohsen Vand (Vice President), and Henrik Stenfelt (Board Member).

Having struggled for years to attract female members, the current board is now proactively seeking to implement measures, with the support of the Foundation, to recruit women to the group, specifically targeting female engineering students at Chalmers University of Technology and female students at the University of Gothenburg.
At present, the group is in the process of interviewing female role models within the Swedish finance industry with the aim of utilising the interviews as marketing materials in their efforts to reach female students in programmes such as Industrial Economics, Financial Mathematics and Financial Data Science. The group will utilise committees handling the student contact at the different study programmes to directly reach female students effectively, using email, Slack channels, posters and campus TV, as well as student union newsletters and mailings.
The background to their strategy is a survey carried out by the Swedish Securities Market Association (SSMA), which identified the importance of promoting female role models in attracting young women to the finance industry. Additionally, Chalmers Capital Management intends to collaborate with campus organisations for female students, for example by organising lunch lectures with female role models like those interviewed, as well as promoting their student group more broadly at the university, specifically highlighting the opportunities within the finance industry and encouraging more female students on campus to learn about the world of finance.

Above: Female role models from the finance industry to be featured in interviews, from left; Anna Jönsson (CEO at Storebrand Asset Management Sweden), Petra Ålund (CTO and Head of Technology at SEB), Catrin Jansson (Portfolio Manager at C WorldWide Asset Management and ABGSC Women in Finance Foundation board member), Frida Emanuelsson (COO at Strand Kapitalförvaltning), and Mari Rehnman (Fixed Income at Strand Kapitalförvaltning).

Chalmers Capital Management’s Head of Operations, Andreas Helgesson, commented that: “At present we have no female members – a situation we would like to change. The board’s main goal is to increase the share of female members to at least 33%, matching the percentage of female students at Chalmers as a whole. We are in the early phase of executing our planned recruitment activities, but we have already received some applications from female students to join, which is promising. We hope to see further results as we progress with this initiative throughout the year. Ultimately, our goal is to encourage more female students to pursue the exciting opportunities in the finance industry”.
The Foundation’s Marianne Daae is pleased to welcome an application from an additional student initiative, and commented that: “Until now, the Foundation has provided financial support to student initiatives run by and intended for women. It is encouraging to see that the male members of Chalmers Capital Management are eager to improve the gender balance within their student group. Generally, “MNT” (i.e. mathematics, natural sciences and technology) studies have struggled to attract women, and since recruitment to the finance industry also includes candidates with this academic background, it is important to secure female participation within student groups that seek to promote finance as a career path at these schools, in order to achieve a more gender balanced finance industry in the future”.

About Chalmers University of Technology
Chalmers University of Technology, founded in 1829, is a Swedish university located in Gothenburg that focuses on research and education in technology, natural sciences, architecture, mathematics, shipping and management areas. The university was in 2018 named one of the top ten global leaders in engineering education by an MIT report. Across its two campuses, Chalmers has approximately 10 000 full-time students and 3 100 staff.

About Chalmers Capital Management
Chalmers Capital Management is a student-run non-profit organisation and part of the Chalmers Student Union. It provides students interested in financial and capital markets with an environment where they can gain real-world experience before graduating. Employing a variety of qualitative and quantitative analytical tools, as well as risk-mitigating techniques, Chalmers Capital Management responsibly manages a portfolio of carefully selected stocks.
Chalmers Capital Management is divided into two divisions, one of which focuses on traditional investing strategies and the other on quantitative strategies. The quantitative analysis section employs mathematical models and statistical techniques to evaluate investments and leverages machine learning and big data analytics to identify market patterns and trends. The qualitative analysis section, on the other hand, conducts in-depth research on companies, industries, and market dynamics, considering factors such as management quality and competitive positioning to provide valuable context for the data-driven insights generated by their quantitative counterparts.
Its team has academic backgrounds in areas such as Mathematics, Industrial Engineering, Business, Law, and Computer Science. Members are students at either Chalmers University of Technology or the University of Gothenburg, and the team includes both Swedish and international students.
Read more about the student organisation here.