Khalida Ali

Enacting Change at Every Level

At Vista, I’ve been able to carve out a career that is driving meaningful change in the investment and technology industries. I’m responsible for leading our firm’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. I also work across our portfolio, particularly with our Managing Directors and CEOs at our companies, to identify ways to approach DE&I within their organizations and collaborate with industry partners that are doing fantastic DE&I work. Lastly, I focus on community engagement — thinking about how Vista can support local and global nonprofits that are developing the next generation of leaders.

Since I started at Vista, we’ve worked hard to embed DE&I even more deeply across the organization. Through a collective effort, team members at every level have helped us incorporate these values into the work we’re doing every single day.

I love my role because it’s incredibly collaborative. I enjoy working with people across our investing, consulting and operating teams so that together, we can create value and make progress at scale. Everyone here is fiercely intelligent and that pushes you to approach problem-solving in a fresh way.

A Career Born Out of Curiosity

After college, I started working on Wall Street. What fascinated me was the dynamic of being on the trading room floor, where there’s so much energy, and you’re surrounded by all these really smart people. But there was also this constant thought in the back of my mind: Where is everyone else who looks like me?

Having graduated from Spelman, a Historically Black College, I went from being surrounded by individuals who looked like me to being one of three Black women in my analyst class. The question of how those worlds could be so vastly different led me to join the DE&I team at Morgan Stanley.

An Opportunity to Approach DE&I at Scale

What drew me to Vista was the opportunity to engage DE&I in an authentic way that focuses on scale and impact. When you look at the breadth of our portfolio, there is no other organization that has the same opportunity to influence two key industries — finance and technology — so strongly.

At Vista, no conversation ever starts with, “What is the business case for DE&I?” To me, that meant the leadership was already invested and didn’t need to be convinced of the value of DE&I. So instead, I’ve been able to focus on how we take our DE&I efforts to the next level, and I’ve been afforded the latitude to create and implement new solutions, such as our Conscious Inclusion programs.

Quantifying the Impact

A lot of places talk about DE&I, but at Vista, change is actually happening.

When I look at representation at our company, Vista has achieved gender parity. When I look at board diversity, 80% of our companies have at least one woman. When I look at racial diversity, 85% of our companies have at least one person of color on their board.

I’m proud of the measurable impact I’ve made thus far at Vista. I’m thrilled to have a seat at this firm at this place and time in our history. And I believe the best is yet to come.