Good morning! Michele Kang invests $25 million in women’s soccer, UConn wins NCAA championship, and women-led public companies are outperforming the tariff market crash—so far.
– Down but not out. On Wednesday, Hypatia Capital released an analysis of its Women CEO ETF, an investable fund made up of U.S. public companies with female CEOs, from Jane Fraser’s Citi to Tricia Griffith’s Progressive. Over the last two chaotic months since President Donald Trump took office, the analysis found, businesses in the WCEO ETF had outperformed the broader market. While index benchmark ETFs dropped 6.2% in March, the WCEO ETF dropped only 4.9%.
Of course, later in the day on Wednesday, Trump gave his “Liberation Day” speech announcing the full scope of his tariff plan, sending markets into freefall. Thursday and Friday turned out to be the largest two-day wipeout of shareholder value ever recorded, according to Dow Jones. In total $11 trillion in value has been erased since Trump’s inauguration, with more than half of that disappearing last week. Hypatia Capital managing partner and chief investment officer Patricia Lizarraga went back to the drawing board and shared a new analysis with Fortune of women-led businesses’ stock performance through market close Friday.
On April 3, the S&P 600 fell 7.6% while the WCEO ETF fell 6.1%. By market close Friday, the WCEO ETF outperformed its benchmark by over 100 basis points. Hypatia conducted an industry-based analysis to determine whether the industries in its fund accounted for the difference—and determined that was not the reason why women-led businesses were outperforming the market.
The fund invests in all women-led public companies in the U.S. with at least a $500 million market cap. Lisa Su’s AMD is its top holding, followed by Jayshree Ullal’s Arista Networks and Revathi Advaithi’s Flex.
Lizarraga believes the 1.1% delta could be due to women-led companies’ likelihood of having more defensive balance sheets, lower debt-to-equity ratios, and higher cash reserves. In 2021, an article in the Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance found that female CEOs’ cash ratio was 18% higher than the mean among the top 1,500 publicly traded companies in the U.S. “In a down market, when investors may punish highly leveraged companies and reward stability and larger cash reserves, these traits may become a competitive advantage,” Lizarraga says. “The WCEO ETF, which includes a diverse range of companies from small-cap to mega-cap, may be benefiting from this prudence.”
When the startup and venture capital world entered its prolonged downturn in 2022 and focus shifted from growth to profitability, female founders found themselves better prepared; with less access to capital, many had long run their businesses more responsibly. The same now seems to be holding true for the largest women-led public companies in the U.S. After this morning’s market open, we’ll see whether this competitive advantage persists.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
The Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune’s daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world. Today’s edition was curated by Nina Ajemian. Subscribe here.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- March Madness. UConn won its 12th NCAA championship—a record for the program with star Paige Bueckers—beating South Carolina 82-59. This is the first year that money was on the line for women's teams, with a unit system and collective $15 million to be paid out.
- R&D. Michele Kang, owner of the Washington Spirit and founder and CEO of Kynisca, announced a $25 million investment in U.S. Soccer, focused on researching and developing women's soccer. Plus, Kynisca Innovation Hub operations will be integrated into the Soccer Forward Foundation. The Athletic
- Fifth funding freeze. Brown University is now the fifth university facing a potential cut in federal funding, as the Trump administration accuses schools of failing to fight on-campus antisemitism— $510 million is on the line for Brown. Christina Paxson, the university’s president, said that some of these demands “raise new and previously unthinkable questions about the future of academic freedom and self-governance.” New York Times
- Brand charged. Russell Brand was charged with rape, sexual assault, and indecent assault for crimes against four women, spanning from 1999 to 2005. The British actor and comedian responded to the charges in a video message on X, saying, “I was a drug addict, a sex addict, and an imbecile. But what I never was, was a rapist.” ABC
- The Rhode ahead. Hailey Bieber is reportedly considering a sale of Rhode, her makeup and skincare brand that brings in almost $200 million in annual revenue and could be worth over $1 billion. Sources also shared that Bieber is working with investment bankers at JPMorgan and Moelis to find a buyer. Reuters
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
SDI Presence, an IT services provider, named Shoma Meyer CFO. She was previously VP of finance and accounting at SPR.
Venture capital firm Felicis appointed Elisa Schreiber as CMO. Previously, she was a marketing partner at Greylock.
Inari, a seed company, named Vivien Bonazzi chief data officer. Most recently, she was chief biomedical data scientist and managing director at Deloitte.
Digital infrastructure provider Equinix (No. 465) appointed Harmeen Mehta as EVP and chief digital and innovation officer. Previously, Mehta was chief digital and innovation officer at BT Group.
Caterpillar (No. 59) appointed Christy Pambianchi as CHRO, effective May 1. She succeeds Cheryl Johnson, who announced her retirement in January 2025. Pambianchi is departing Intel (No. 79), where she has served as EVP and chief people officer.
Fluor (No. 265) announced Tracey Cook as the company’s new CHRO, effective April 7. Cook currently serves as senior vice president of human resources at Fluor and replaces Stacy Dillow, who is leaving the company to pursue a new opportunity.
Julia Anderson, SVP, chief technology and information officer at Campbell’s (No. 419), will depart at the end of July 2025.
Every Friday morning, the weekly Fortune 500 Power Moves column tracks Fortune 500 company C-suite shifts—see the most recent edition.
ON MY RADAR
I’ve spent years helping female founders access capital. Now that they have AI, they might not have to Fortune
How the Skinny Confidential’s Lauryn Bosstick turned blog readers into customers Inc.
How an $800 baby carrier became the Birkin of mom gear Wall Street Journal
PARTING WORDS
“Our dream listener is the girl who’s grinding, she’s moving up the ladder, she’s working hard, she’s falling down and getting back up.”
— Phoebe Gates on her new podcast The Burnouts, part of Alex Cooper’s Unwell Network and cohosted with Sophia Kianni
