BHEF CEO Leadership Group Announces Project to Address Workforce Needs and Enhance Educational Opportunities in the Financial Services Industry

Preparations in Place for Launch of National Higher Education and Workforce Initiative Financial Services Project in 2014

Washington, D.C. (February 26) — BHEF Vice Chair Roger W. Ferguson, Jr., president and CEO, TIAA-CREF, announced the formation of a CEO leadership group to address the important workforce needs of the financial services industry. Through the Financial Services Industry Workforce Project, co-led by Ferguson and Peter A. Weinberg, partner, Perella Weinberg Partners, this group will identify how higher education can partner with businesses in the industry to design innovative undergraduate programs that equip students for success. Other members of the Financial Services Leadership Group include:

• Jorge Benitez, managing director, North America and chief executive, Accenture;
• Edward B. Rust Jr., chairman of the board and chief executive officer, State Farm Insurance Companies;
• John B. Veihmeyer, chairman and CEO, KPMG LLP;
• Larry D. Zimpleman, chairman, president, and CEO, Principal Financial Group.

BHEF members in financial services recently identified the growing demand for a highly-skilled workforce trained in data analytics, digital, risk management, and cybersecurity for the investment, banking, insurance, and services sectors. Supported by BHEF’s Higher Education and Workforce Initiative, the Financial Services Workforce Project has a distinct focus on attracting women, underrepresented minorities, and veterans, to undergraduate disciplines that feed the financial services workforce. The first project will focus on needs in the New York City region, employing BHEF’s strategic business engagement model’s five levers of impact—c-suite leadership, philanthropy, employee engagement, core competencies, and funded research—to align higher education with industry needs.

“BHEF’s groundbreaking engagement model provides a new approach for business and higher education to collaborate and produce evidence-based solutions to our nation’s workforce needs,” stated Ferguson. “Through partnerships with national and regional leaders, industry associations, and higher education, the financial services project will create collaborative pathways and educational strategies to prepare students with deep content knowledge, work experience, and workplace competencies that will allow them to succeed in financial services careers.”

BHEF CEO Brian K. Fitzgerald noted that the organization’s bi-annual meetings serve as an ideal launching pad for these innovative efforts: “The expansion of BHEF’s National Higher Education and Workforce Initiative into the financial services industry and New York City re-affirms our proven formula of deploying our model of strategic engagement between business and higher education to build on a region’s comparative advantage to create workforce solutions. In less than two years, BHEF members have generated momentum which has surged the initiative from 12 to 20 workforce projects which address regionally significant needs.”

BHEF will formally launch the Financial Services Workforce Project on June 19 at its summer meeting.