Fixing the Funnel: Tanya Van Biesen on Equity, Leadership & the Future of Finance

Despite decades of progress, investment banking still loses too much of its best female talent. Not because of lack of ambition, but because of culture, access, and rigidity.

In this conversation, Tanya Van Biesen, President & CEO of VersaFi, outlines what’s broken and what must change!

With over 4,000 members, VersaFi is Canada’s leading organisation dedicated to accelerating the advancement of women in the financial sector. Tanya brings a unique lens shaped by 23 years in executive search, senior leadership at Catalyst, and deep sector expertise in financial services.

Her message is clear: gender equity isn’t just a moral imperative, it’s a business necessity.

The Investment Banking Drop-Off: Where We’re Losing the Talent

At the entry level, investment banks have a close to 50/50 gender split. But fast forward five to seven years, and the funnel narrows sharply.

Tanya explains why:

Parental Leave & Flexibility: While firms may offer generous leave on paper, the reality is that taking time off especially for men is often career-limiting in practice.

In-Group Culture: Male-dominated networks still control access to key deals and client relationships.

Exclusion from the “Juicy Work”: Women with equal ambition aren’t always given equal opportunity.

“You see the same faces going out for drinks, or cycling, or golfing,” Tanya says. “That’s where trust is built, and where the work gets handed out.”

Without opportunity, even the most talented women begin asking: Why stay?

Leaders Need to Be More Than Performers

“Leadership isn’t just about delivering numbers,” Tanya says. “It’s about how you retain and develop people.”

She challenges the industry to:

Normalise caregiving: Men want flexibility too but fear it’ll cost them. Change won’t happen until leaders themselves take meaningful leave.

Be intentional with opportunity: Who are you giving stretch assignments to? Who's consistently getting reps? Tanya encourages tracking this, just as some law firms have started doing.

Invest in potential: Recognition shouldn’t only mean bonuses. It should include development like coaching and planned downtime between deals. “We’re burning people out” she warns.

AI Is Coming and It Will Reshape Everything

AI is predicted to eliminate analyst and associate roles, the traditional entry path into investment banking.

That’s a double-edged sword. On one hand, Tanya says, the skills that remain client engagement, trust-building, communication are areas where women often excel.

But if the bottom of the pipeline shrinks, and the new tech roles (prompt engineers, data scientists) skew male, we risk locking women out of the leadership track altogether.

“We need to push universities to get more women into these fields,” she says. “Otherwise, the future will repeat the past with different tools.”

AI doesn’t replace the human touch; it amplifies it.

The Next Frontier: The $30 Trillion Wealth Transfer

Women are living longer. Divorce rates are rising. And over the next decade, more wealth will transfer into the hands of women than ever before.

But here’s the problem: most women prefer working with female advisors and there simply aren’t enough of them.

Tanya calls this “a demographic tsunami” for the industry. If firms don’t recruit and retain more women in wealth advisory, they’ll miss out on one of the biggest growth opportunities of this generation.

“This isn’t about fairness,” she says. “It’s just bad business not to act.”

Advice to Leaders: Build Inclusion Into Your Daily Habits

Whether you’re an MD, Partner, or in the C-Suite, Tanya offers practical, everyday leadership shifts:

• Audit who you’re hearing from in meetings and who you’re not

• Make space for underrepresented voices, especially when they’re not in the room

• Expand your “go-to list” for deals and pitches, don’t default to the usual suspects

• Lead with generosity and service, not just performance

And if you're early in your career? Tanya recommends three things:

1. Find an employer who invests in you

2. Network like it’s your job, inside and outside the firm

3. Play the long game careers are marathons, not sprints

Leadership, Equity & The Power of Persistence

Tanya Van Biesen’s leadership journey from P&G sales to CEO of VersaFi has been anything but linear. But her message is sharply focused:

We don’t have a talent problem. We have a structure and culture problem.

Fixing the funnel won’t happen by accident. It takes intentional leadership, measurable change, and a mindset that sees equity not as a favour, but as a force multiplier.

In Tanya’s world and the future of finance integrity, inclusion, and innovation all go together.

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