At the 2024 Museum of American Finance Gala on March 7 , the Museum honored Richard H . Clarida with the Whitehead Award for Distinguished Public Service and Financial Leadership , Charles M . Royce with the Financial Innovation Award , Howard Marks with the Lifetime Achievement Award and Tina Byles Williams with a Special Recognition honor . Excerpts from the remarks delivered that evening are published below .

RAUDLINE ETIENNE

Founder & CEO , Daraja Capital

I am here to introduce the recipient of the Museum ’ s Special Recognition honor , Tina Byles Williams . Tina is the founder , CEO and CIO of Exponance , one of the largest diverse and women-owned firms in the United States with assets of $ 17 billion . Tina is a trailblazer , not only for women and minorities , but for the industry as a whole . She is widely regarded as a pioneer in the field of identifying and investing with talented entrepreneurial investment management firms . For nearly 30 years , she has built an ecosystem and reputation for seeding and supporting diverse managers .

Since inception , Exponance ’ s multimanager platform has funded almost 200 emerging managers , 60 % of which were founded by women and diverse entrepreneurs . Through Tina ’ s vision , Exponance has been a leading force multiplier in the drive to expand opportunities for diverse professionals and firms in this business . She has garnered recognition by a multitude of organizations and has served on multiple prestigious boards .

Tina leads from the front , and it has been her personal mission to provide opportunity for those who pursue their dreams and who have ambitions of success in the finance industry . I am one of those to whom she has given opportunity , as she was my first boss , post-MBA , and I was employee number one .

I have witnessed her entrepreneurial journey , and I am here to provide testimony . She is brilliant . She is an innovator .

She is a maverick . She is a role model , particularly for women who , like me , follow in her footsteps . Tina , you ’ re a true leader — a thought leader . Your impact is noble . It ’ s visible . Those who have benefited thank you .

TINA BYLES WILLIAMS

CEO , CIO and Founder , Exponance , Inc .

I want to first thank David [ Cowen ] and the Board of the Museum of American Finance for this fantastic recognition , in which I get to be mentioned in the same breath as icons of our industry . In our industry , performance can be dissected into beta and alpha . Beta is the performance derived from keeping pace with the market . Alpha is the performance that can ’ t be attributed to the market . Like many of you , my betas were resilience , curiosity and hard work . But , as a Jamaican first-generation immigrant woman , who came to this country with nothing but a decent high school education and the clothes on her back , I needed alpha to get from there to founding a $ 17 billion investment company . And that alpha came from some of you . My amazing teammates , some of whom are here , my wonderful husband and , of course , our client partners .

You see , I am here because our early clients took a risk on our firm . I ’ m proud to say that we ’ ve been able to repay their trust with performance , by expanding the circle of opportunity and funding , and providing seed financing for over 200 firms . Many of these firms are led by women and diverse professionals because diversity can actually enhance performance .

We also honor our early believers and the trust of our early believers through our foundation — A Good Measure Foundation — which we established on our 10th anniversary to support those who educate our youth and improve the lives of impoverished and marginalized women and children . Because I knew many of them when I got to this country . And so , through the combination of community service and financial sponsorship , we ’ ve been able to provide financial literacy and leadership training to hundreds of youth for whom finance , money and investing are alien concepts .

One of the greatest privileges of leadership is the opportunity to mentor talented young professionals . That ’ s why I ’ m so deeply moved by Raudline ’ s comments , as she mentioned she was employee number one . And , as many of you know , she went on to bigger and greater things and became Chief Investment Officer of New York Common and now has founded her own private equity firm , Daraja Capital , which also seeds promising private market investors . So , she too is demonstrating that expanding the circle of opportunity yields performance .

And , so , I just want to say by God ’ s mercy , the coda of my entire story in this country has not been written . Whenever it occurs , I hope my eulogy will recount that I loved my family and friends fully and that my clients and colleagues will attest that — like our distinguished colleagues and honorees here tonight and the past recipients of this Special Recognition — I was a great investor and a leader who did it the right way . Then I hope that all of the above will say that I left the world a little better than how I found it .

10 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Spring 2024 | www . MoAF . org