Curry joins from McCormick & Company where she was senior director of global diversity and inclusion.
During her time there, she successfully developed and implemented a multi-year global diversity and inclusion strategy and established a firm-wide framework to drive accountability.
The latest appointment comes after chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) Joe Sullivan, together with 330 CEOs, signed the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion pledge in July 2017.
In November last year, Legg Mason hosted its first “Day of Conversation” at its offices around the world to promote open dialogue and an exchange of ideas and understanding of different perspectives.
Two Legg Mason affiliates, David Sheasby, head of stewardship and ESG at Martin Currie and Mary Jane McQuillen, portfolio manager and head of ESG investment at ClearBridge Investments, shared their support on Legg Mason’s hire.
Sheasby said: “Diversity is one of the key attributes that we will look for in an organisation. With diversity comes diversity of experience and perspective, which not only helps avoid group-think and improve management of risk, but recent research shows that it can also contribute positively to financial returns.”
McQuillen added: “ClearBridge believes businesses benefit from understanding diverse perspectives; we are delighted our parent company continues to take steps to ensure many voices have an impact at Legg Mason.”
