Our Committee

Quantess London is a not-for-profit social group founded in 2014. Quantess captures two things that the group is deeply passionate about: data and connection. We provide a lively platform for women in quant – be it data science, finance or technology – to share their practical, quantitative research ideas. It aims to promote interactions among quantesses (yes, coined by yours truly) across varied industries through our open discussion forum.

Our missions are to provide members with access to innovative research, to build a network across organisations and seniority levels, to encourage members to participate and present at meetings, and to highlight and promote any contribution to research projects.

The idea was first born in a London pub. We started as a small group of four people who were simply looking to connect because it was hard to identify visible female role models in this career path. Knowing that they are not mystical beings (at least what LinkedIn told us), we created seminars to form an active community of quantess. Today, we have over 100 members across varied industries who all carry the passion and ambition as when we started. We will continue working hard in innovative ways and take Quantess to more exciting places.

Nandini Srivastava

Nandini is one the founders of Quantess and our point-of-contact for speaker line-ups. Next to generally being one of the nicest human beings, she also kicks-ass as an economist and quant – after completing her PhD at Cambridge in the econometrics of the art market. Nandini is currently a Director at J.P. Morgan.

Cherry Muijsson

Cherry is one of the founders of Quantess and our public relations and outreach officer. She promotes our events and manages sponsor relationships. Cherry is a Vice President and Multi-Asset CIO at BlackRock. Before that, she was in BlackRock’s Financial Markets Advisory Group. She holds her PhD in Financial Macroeconomics from Cambridge University.

Katharina Schwaiger

Katharina has been attending Quantess events since the founding in 2014. Passionate about quantitative investing and increasing gender diversity in the investment industry, she has been supporting Quantess since. She is currently a Managing Director at Blackrock in the Factor-based Strategies Group, and holds a PhD in Mathematics/ Operational Research from Brunel University.

Tara Sharma

Tara oversees the operating logistics of our events. She is one of the most down-to-earth people you’ll encounter. She has over seven years experience in risk management and enjoys reading and sharing new quantitative ideas in finance. Tara holds a Msc Financial Mathematics degree from the LSE and is currently a Vice President at BlackRock.

Catherine Gu

Catherine is one of the founders of Quantess. An economist cum data scientist, she is fascinated by the way digital information shapes the future. She has held position as an investment research analyst at Man Group and then as a strategist at J.P. Morgan. She is currently the Global CBDC Lead at Visa.