Dr. Ylva Baeckstrom

About

Dr. Ylva Baeckstrom

Dr Ylva Baeckstrom spent two decades in senior positions in financial services internationally and then as the CEO of a fintech start-up. Ylva is now an academic researcher at King’s College London and Gothenburg University Business School.

Also a qualified psychotherapist and accredited coach, Ylva has an international psychotherapy practice where she helps both couples and individuals struggling with relationship problems in their personal and professional lives. In her coaching work she particularly supports women in financial services: where her research shows they are desperately needed.

Ylva’s research is in behavioural finance – looking at how real people respond to financial situations and to people. She is an expert on gender bias and stereotyping in business. Her ability to link academic insights to real world problems has caught the eye of the Financial Times, Sunday Times and the Evening Standard.

She founded the Economic Equality Impact Group at King’s and co-founded the Swedish Centre for Sustainable Finance. Both institutes strive to increase diversity and equality in the financial services industry and beyond – tracking positive and profitable impact for corporations, employees and consumers.

Ylva is often called upon as a leading expert on gender bias, diversity and inequality in finance, business and entrepreneurship. Prior to obtaining her PhD, Ylva enjoyed a fifteen year career in banking, heading structured products and client investment management businesses. She experienced the rollercoaster ride leading up to the credit crisis and is proud of resisting the pressure to promote credit linked instruments to her clients.

In the midst of this Ylva raised two children and is a veteran of the office gender politics around parental leave and the having-it-all high wire act.

Her academic research is published in the Journal of Corporate Finance, the European Journal of Finance and the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization.

Ylva delivered a TEDx talk in 2020 and her first book ‘Gender Bias and Finance: Addressing Inequality in the Financial Services Industry’ will be published by Routledge in 2022.

In her talks and media appearances Ylva is a role model and inspiration to people regardless of gender. She inspires senior managers to run workplaces that get the best from everyone – regardless of whether they are employees or consumers of financial services.

Her message is universal and highly valued across the board: from international banks making long term decisions on business practice to individuals faced with making investment choices to secure their financial futures.