Tina Byles Williams says she's lived the American dream, leaving City Hall to build one of the largest Black-run investment firms in the U.S. But worries success is elusive for many in that business.
Xponance oversees $20 billion in clients’ money, much of it for public pension plans. That includes $234 million in foreign stocks it selects for the Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System , which invests to help fund pensions for more than 200,000 state troopers, social workers, state-college staff, corrections officers, lawmakers, and other state workers and retirees..
other money managers routinely contributed to Pennsylvania politicians of both parties. The practice was curtailed by the SEC in a 2010 policy change. Byles Williams told the Union League crowd that she still believes in the American dream, the “fundamental premise” that “with focus, hard work, and a little bit of luck” an ambitious immigrant or native can make contacts and rise to build a career, an institution, a family with community concerns and larger aspirations.
She hailed the concept of “mutualism,” community cooperation and collective action, exemplified by the early labor union movement and other social movements, to secure changes such as greater access to education and limits on working hours. Byles Williams considers mutual support a precursor of participation in capitalist society by people who don’t start out wealthy.