Eight months into his job at Aegon Asset Management, a senior director in real estate private equity was approached by the person who hired him and asked this question: “Is there anything that has surprised you since joining the organization?”
He thought for a moment before offering this comeback: “I’m surprised by the lack of ego. In most asset management firms, you find the individuals whose egos you have to navigate. I don’t see that here.”
Those were affirming comments to his interlocutor, Lara Osterhaus, the organization’s head of real assets and a member of the senior management group responsible for establishing the organization’s culture and hiring its investment professionals. Notably, the leadership team in the real assets division of Aegon is 78 percent female.
Indeed, it is egotism that will sink a job candidate when sitting across from Osterhaus. Naturally, her staff member’s observation about the organization’s unpretentious cul
