Hatch's internal move brings the representation of women at the asset manager’s top table to 50 per cent. The group said she will lead global efforts to continue building relationships with investment managers and teams to help best customize clients’ portfolios. She joined the firm’s research team in 1993 and takes over from O’Neill in heading all private and public asset class research across the firm.

As head of global investing, O’Neill will oversee the firm’s research and four client practices: Endowments and foundations, pensions, private clients, and the outsourced investment business CA Capital Management. O’Neill joined Cambridge Associates in 1995 and most recently served as head of global investment research, where he managed portfolios and helped build stronger links between the research and investing teams.

“Noel and Ashby have demonstrated exceptional leadership and commitment to Cambridge Associates’ mission and values for decades,” said the group’s CEO David Druley. “They have each had a large impact on our ability to deliver outperformance for our clients, remaining laser-focused on uncovering and accessing what we believe are the best investment opportunities around the world.”

The firm, founded 45 years ago, provides portfolio management and outsourced investment office services primarily for endowments and foundations, pensions and private clients. It has offices across the US in Boston, Arlington, Virginia, Dallas, Menlo Park, San Francisco and New York, and overseas in Beijing, Singapore, London and Sydney.

The issue of promoting more women to senior wealth management roles remains a major one. A number of big banks have publicized their aspirations to have more women executives. In August, Citigroup said it aims to lift its share of women in mid- and senior-level executive positions to 40 per cent by 2021 from the current 37 per cent.

Citigroup in the UK is also an early adoptee of the UK Treasury's Women In Finance Charter, which has specific goals relating to where banks should be in the proportion of women represented in their executive populations over a specific time period.

In March, Goldman Sachs Group said that it was committed to having women account for 50 per cent of employees globally “over time.” JPMorgan Chase & Co is expanding the reach and funding of a group established to promote women working inside the bank, and to help female clients, including entrepreneurs and individuals.

The publisher of this news service produced a research report about two years ago into issues around women in the industry.