Compassion in Finance: Evidence of Change in Motion

Photo Credit: Dr. Matthias Birk.

Change is happening! If you look closely you can see it taking shape in real time. The evolution of leadership toward compassion and connection is no longer a distant ideal. It’s unfolding right in front of us.

On October 27, leaders from across finance and law, including BlackRock, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Apollo Global Management, Inc., MUFG, RBC Capital Markets, Franklin Templeton, and Lloyds Banking Group gathered at White & Case LLP’s New York auditorium, with a much larger audience online, for the second annual Compassion in Finance Summit. If you doubted that compassion could take root in even the most competitive sectors, this event offers powerful evidence that compassionate leadership’s impact is valued everywhere. When compassion takes hold in finance and law in New York City, it can take root anywhere.

Emerging Themes: Trust, Strength, and Culture

Throughout the evening, a clear set of themes emerged from individual speakers and panel discussions:

• Trust is paramount in finance, and compassion is a critical ingredient for building it.

• Compassion drives sustainable, long-term success. While fear-based, power-over styles may create short-term wins, they inevitably erode collaboration and trust.

• Compassion is strength. Every speaker embodied it as an active, courageous quality, not a soft one.

• Culture is the key. For compassion to thrive, it must be woven into organizational systems, decisions, and daily behaviors.

Photo Credit: Tsewang Namgyal.

Setting the Stage

Hosts Todd Wolynski and Matthias Birk opened the Summit by welcoming the 250 in-person attendees and the much larger online audience. Birk grounded the evening in research, citing Harvard Business Review findings that the most successful “rainmakers” are not the lone wolves often romanticized in professional lore, but the collaborators who share their relationships most widely within their firms. Among the five rainmaker types identified in the study, he noted, only the one who actively connects others consistently contributes to firm growth.

It was a fitting reminder that compassion and connection aren’t just feel-good values, they actually drive performance. Compassion’s impact in the helping professions such as healthcare or education is easy for people to grasp. Compassion enables excellence in high-performance, high-stakes environments like law and finance as well.

Opening Remarks

Tsewang Namgyal. Photo Credit: Evan Harrel

Tsewang Namgyal spoke of compassion in finance as the integration of ancient wisdom with modern definitions of success. As a Tibetan refugee who has built a distinguished career in finance, he embodies this union of two worlds. He emphasized that true success arises from recognizing our deep interdependence and shared humanity.

Johannes (Johs) Worsoe spoke personally about his mindfulness journey and how it has shaped his capacity to lead with and for compassion. He acknowledged the challenge of culture change in all organizations, but celebrated the growing momentum evident in this second annual Summit: “This room is proof of progress.”

Panel 1: Understanding Mindfulness and Compassion

Moderated by Carina Radford, this panel explored the foundations of compassionate leadership and its relevance to finance.

• Lisette Cooper, PhD, CFA opened with the science of compassion, distinguishing it from empathy: empathy feels another’s suffering; compassion acts to alleviate it.

• William Mansfield named the cultural barriers we face today: “a winner-take-all false narrative on steroids” that often prevent compassion in financial institutions.

• Jonathan F. P. Rose offered a memorable metaphor: “People grow toward purpose the way trees grow toward light.”

• James Fisher underscored that bringing compassion into finance requires “work, change, motivation, and intention.”

• Dr. Sanjeev Khagram reminded the audience that “at the core of compassion is passion,” calling for a positive intensity that can drive meaningful transformation.

Panel 2: Applications of Mindfulness and Compassion

Greg Starner moderated the second panel, which brought theory into practice with case studies from the field.

• Marcie Weiss emphasized the inner work of compassion: the discipline of presence and nonjudgment that fosters genuine trust within teams.

• Alberto E. Mihelcic Bazzana described awareness as the precursor to wise decision making, helping leaders make choices aligned with compassion.

• Michael Cooper linked compassionate leadership to community building: “Start with the human community, and let everything else flow from there.”

• Olga V. Puntus translated compassion into the language of finance: We’re skilled at managing capital, return, and risk. Compassion asks us to steward human capital with the same rigor.

• Juliane Yung, who manages teams across five countries, described compassion as deeply cultural work—recognizing and honoring the distinct emotions and contexts of diverse teams.

• Manish Bhandari urged leaders to focus not only on what they achieve but how they achieve it: The how defines our legacy.

Embodied Practices and Closing Reflections

Photo Credit: Dr. Matthias Birk.

Practice facilitators Nathan Romano, Golbie Kamarei, Rachel (Duncan) Ochinegro, and Douglas Martin each guided participants through mindfulness and compassion practices, helping integrate the insights of the evening into embodied experience.

In closing, Douglas Martin and James Rivett encouraged attendees to transform learning into action. Martin’s invitation, “The best way to learn something is to teach it,” captured the spirit of shared responsibility. Rivett, identifying himself as a novice, reminded everyone that compassion is a skill: It can be learned through practice. So practice.

A Movement Gaining Momentum

We thank White & Case LLP for hosting this event and to everyone who contributed to its success, especially Tsewang Namgyal for his vision and years long commitment to building the compassion in finance community. Planning for the next Compassion in Finance Summit is underway, demonstrating that compassion is a potent and pragmatic force for trust, effectiveness, and human-centered leadership.

We hope to see you there next year.

To read more about compassion in finance, read the complimentary ebook, Integrating Compassion into the Financial Services Industry: A Guide and Personal Reflections from Leaders in Finance, launched at the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University.