Behind some of the world’s most recognized brands today are a collective of female CEOs who you might not have heard of. These women have repeatedly demonstrated and proven to the business world that they have what it takes to win as a driving force in their respective fields. Meet Sarah Alfandari Chief Executive Officer and President of Dalton Investments.

Prior to joining Dalton Investments, Ms. Alfandari was a Managing Partner with Longchamp Asset Management, a French asset management company that she co-founded in 2013. As head of the non-investment teams throughout her more than 7 years with the firm, Ms. Alfandari was notably in charge of business development, and she forged a strategic alliance with Dalton Investments to structure, seed and market their investment expertise through UCITS vehicles, the European equivalent of US Mutual Funds. After beginning her career in New York as a sales person for the equity derivatives business of Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking, Ms. Alfandari joined Morgan Stanley in Paris where she oversaw the marketing and communication teams for the bank’s UCITS funds platform.

Ms. Alfandari holds a master’s degree in business administration from ESCP Business School with a major in finance, from which she graduated valedictorian, and a bachelor’s degree from University Paris Dauphine – PSL.

From Cultural Shift to Corporate Sector

Born in France, Ms. Alfandari spent the early years of her childhood in New York. Growing up, Ms. Alfandari was fortunate to be given the opportunity to visit trading rooms and was truly fascinated by their special energy. She asserts, “My upbringing in a family with very strong moral values allows me to stay anchored in a reality where I look to do my job to the best of my abilities, with humble intentions, a strong sense of purpose, and commitment.”

After moving back to Paris and studying business there, she continued to regularly visit the US over the summers. Ms. Alfandari started her professional career in the US after graduating from her master’s degree. She shares, “Having been exposed early to different cultures acted as a springboard to developing interpersonal skills, as it provided an invaluable opportunity to learn to adapt and find ways to connect with people, wherever they came from, while appreciating their differences and the benefits of a broader array of mindsets and viewpoints.”

In the workplace, Ms. Alfandari’s ability to navigate various cultures has helped her understand how to gather people and create cohesion, if not emulation, across a common project or objective.

The Role at Dalton Investments

Dalton Investments (“Dalton”) is a global investment management firm with institutional clients worldwide, which usually share similar objectives and time horizons but have their own regulatory environments and reporting requirements.

As the CEO and President of the firm, Ms. Alfandari drives the company’s strategic orientation. Key business matters and development areas are discussed with her Executive Team, which includes representatives of all business facets, and major business decisions are taken after discussion with the company’s majority owner.

Ms. Alfandari’s responsibilities range from business development, in which she is actively involved, to managing profitability and overseeing the teams responsible for the organization’s operations. On a dayto-day basis, this entails managing current client relationships and developing new ones, promoting cutting-edge operational infrastructure, overseeing legal, compliance, and regulatory issues across numerous jurisdictions, and ultimately ensuring all key internal and external factors and opportunities are consciously evaluated. Ms. Alfandari states, “My focus on managing the business allows our majority owner and Chief Investment Officer to be entirely dedicated to our investment activities. I still engage with our portfolio managers, analysts, and traders on an ongoing basis to continue to uphold an entrepreneurial spirit and ensure strategic vision is embraced throughout the firm.”

A Value-Oriented Investment Management Firm

Dalton Investments was formed in 1998 by a small group of seasoned investors sharing a common passion for unconstrained value-oriented investments in the listed markets. While the company’s most visible value proposition focuses on Japan and PanAsia equity investments, Dalton has also been managing a Global Equities strategy since 1999 exhibiting a very solid risk return profile and has more recently expanded to the broader Emerging Market equity space.

As opportunistic investors, Dalton Investments does not limit itself to its current set of expertise and keeps an eye out for opportunities outside the company’s traditional set of competencies. Ms. Alfandari says, “We have consciously been building internal seeding capabilities, which we expect to leverage as we identify compelling and secular investment themes.”

Constantly Evaluating the Market Changes Ms. Alfandari believes that Asia provides fantastic investment opportunities. To paint a broad picture, there is phenomenal growth in India, Taiwan, and SouthEast Asia. Japan, on the other side, offers a unique opportunity to align with extremely talented entrepreneurs operating in niche areas and trading at particularly attractive discounts. The combination of corporate governance improvements in Japan and the constructive engagement of investment firms such as Dalton allows businesses to unlock significant shareholder value. She believes that Korea, where Dalton’s CIO has also been involved for over 35 years, is on a similar path for value creation.

These are admittedly overarching investment themes in Asia, however Ms. Alfandari believes the key to investment success is in building concentrated portfolios of high-conviction and high-quality stocks with a benchmark agnostic approach.

Dalton Investments aims to bring that expertise to its clients to help them achieve their own investment goals. Ms. Alfandari dedicates a fair part of her time looking to understand the investor community’s investment needs and objectives while assessing the best ways to provide the breadth and depth of the firm’s expertise.

Aiming for Global Expansion

Ms. Alfandari aims for Dalton to be the preferred partner of some of the most sophisticated institutions globally in their Asian and Emerging Markets equities allocations. Although the company is best known for its ability to significantly outperform the Japanese equity market (having annualized 6% over 26 years), it has strong and scalable track records across the region, whether for single country or Pan-Asia mandates, built patiently with the exceptional talents hired over the years, who have become an integral part of the firm’s success.

Dalton Investments’ team believes that Asia and Emerging Markets more generally are on the cusp of a broad-based economic expansion, especially India. The company nonetheless states, “As bottom-up stock pickers, we also find great investment opportunities in more developed market economies like Japan and Taiwan.”

Supporting and Leading All Together

Moving to Dalton Investments, Ms. Alfandari took on a CEO role with a 21-year-old firm, joining an established team with a proven track record and well-rooted processes. She finds that her earlier experience in starting a company from scratch provided a singular learning curve, both as a professional and as a leader. Reflecting on both endeavors, she highlights that, “There is a common thread in both experiences as there cannot be actual leadership without a management team strongly supporting the group effort. Taking the time to listen to team members, clearly communicate and align behind the vision is invaluable to success.” Ms. Alfandari adds “I feel incredibly fortunate to be steering Dalton Investments’ next phase of growth along with highly talented professionals whom I trust to find the best way to execute on those objectives.”

Psychological safety is an idea popularized by Amy Edmondson, a professor at Harvard Business School. It entails that an organization should create a work environment in which team members feel safe to express their opinions and creativity. Usually, this approach not only leads to a strong entrepreneurial spirit but also to great outcomes.

Ms. Alfandari tries to ensure that her team members understand that every “ask” has been carefully thoughtthrough and discussed, that she will assist and provide guidance as necessary, and that each success, when it happens, is a collective success.

When possible, Ms. Alfandari looks to act as a mentor. She has personally enjoyed the incredible benefits of having amazing mentors throughout her career and has learned immensely from them. She states, “In my CEO position, I always seek to understand my team’s perspective before we can settle on a direction.” Ms. Alfandari also values her clients and peers. She believes that no one really owns the truth and that there are different ways of reaching an objective. She generally looks to create consensus, although she does not falter from expressing her own convictions incisively.

Ways to Improve Leadership

Ms. Alfandari finds that ideas spearheaded by Ray Dalio from Bridgewater, Adam Grant from Wharton, and Amy Edmonson from Harvard Business School, resonate with her style. In Ray Dalio’s Principles, she likes the concept of “Believability.” She says, “We learn a lot when highly “believable” people agree to disagree. We hire high achievers and as an institution we benefit from their inputs.” She adds that Believability is not universal; it is dynamic and situation specific: one can be highly believable on a topic and not or less so on another one. Nor is it necessarily linked to seniority. Junior people can be highly believable, say on new technologies for instance.

For this approach to be successful, every member of the team needs the psychological safety to speak-up, a concept advocated by Amy Edmonson.

“All in all, this is consistent with the type of leadership favored by Adam Grant. Listen to all your employees: the wisest may not just be the most naturally gifted speaker; give your employees time off to rest when they need to recharge; remove toxicity in the workplace, don’t promote it; give numerous opportunities for feedback; acknowledge mistakes: change your mind if a better idea comes along; lead from the back.”

As far as values are concerned, Ms. Alfandari’s executive team and she are true believers in the following:

• Accountability, meritocracy, and recognition of people’s contribution
• Combination of animal and team spirit, mutual trust
• Benefits of aligning interests across the firm and together with clients and portfolio companies.

Overcoming Obstacles

Challenges are defining moments in any successful tale, and Ms. Alfandari was no exception. She encountered numerous difficulties during her journey, including finding a job in the middle of the global financial crisis, launching a regulated asset management and investment advisory business from the ground up, and growing it to a thriving firm with over $1 billion in assets under management, and last but not least, becoming the CEO of an asset management firm with offices spread around the US and Asia, just prior to the outbreak of the COVID pandemic. She states, “Create your own path, especially in global, tier-1 organizations, and accept the idea of developing off-beaten tracks that fit your personal values best, even within extremely competitive environments that can sometimes stifle individual fulfilment.”

Ms. Alfandari has shared the following insights from her journey:

• Stay humble, accept the idea of rejection and setback, learn how to turn dynamics in your favor, believe in yourself
• Develop grit, trust your intuition and stay assertive in your core area of expertise
• Develop resilience, stay focused when things go sideways, concentrate on areas where you can have direct impact and be creative. Take the time to find the right mentors: these are your teachers and your confidents. You will learn from them, they will help you grow and want you succeed.

Sharing Insights on Women Leadership

Despite receiving support from both male and female mentors throughout her career, Ms. Alfandari has witnessed the underrepresentation of women in asset management, and although she notes some progress, the industry remains male-dominated, particularly in senior positions. In recognition of the benefits of encouraging diversity, Dalton is taking an active role in improving female representation. As part of this effort, the company is advocating for greater board diversity in Japanese portfolio companies and is working to remove obstacles to women taking an active role.

At Dalton, the team values diversity in terms of bringing a range of perspectives to the table. Ms. Alfandari believes that the under-representation of female leaders in investment management is a drawback for the industry. She encourages women to have faith in themselves and take chances, as studies have shown that men are more likely to apply for jobs and pursue promotions with more self-assurance than women.

Another challenge is the absence of female role models in senior investment management positions. Ms. Alfandari strives to make a difference by being visible and actively mentoring women in finance. She advises the next generation of women to reach out to prominent female leaders, who may be more willing to help than they expect.

As a leader of an asset management firm, Ms. Alfandari is committed to creating an inclusive and equal workplace, with fair compensation and promotion opportunities and providing support to achieve a healthy work-life balance. She encourages all leaders to adopt similar practices and eliminate biases in recruitment and hiring processes.

Ms. Alfandari believes that success is a complex and multi-dimensional concept, and what works in one industry or situation may not be effective in another. Leaders must be agile and able to course correct when facing unpredictable circumstances. In her view, leaders should also assess their capability to support, elevate and empower their team members. This entails being a good listener, open to new concepts, and having a clear business vision while creating an environment that enables the team to work together efficiently.

Ultimately, the three key principles she would offer as advice to aspiring leaders are:

• Stay focused: to paraphrase Ray Dalio’s principles: you can do anything you want to achieve but you can’t do everything you want to achieve
• Listen to clients, partners and service providers, yet allow yourself to walk away if there is no natural symbiosis
• Respect your team members: they are your best assets