Meet Pavan Pemmaraju, our staff security engineer. As part of our Why We Work Here video series, he talks about why he thinks diversity and Ellevest’s mission go hand in hand.

Pavan Pemmaraju, staff security engineer

I’m from India, where I see the gender gap quite a bit. In general, not just financially, but there were a lot of rituals and, you know, different things that were very different for women. And I always used to fight them in my own way.

People thought I was being rude or whatever. The less orthodox, like my parents, thought that I’m just a nuisance a little bit. But they were always, in general, supportive.

Every company has a mission, that’s why there’s a company. Whether do they actively, strongly seek out the mission is a different question.

I see now how diversity can really help. I think the culture is fantastic. It makes you want to work harder, if anything, and I think it’s so much easier to communicate to people because of all the diversity. And I think also it brings a lot of perspective to the company as a whole.

My name is Pavan Pemmaraju, and this is why I work here.