As Diane Bourdo explains it, “I was working at a goofy job after finishing college as an English major of the most annoying sort” when a friend piqued her interest in investing. That led to Bourdo earning an MBA in finance, becoming a certified financial planner and joining The Humphreys Group, an all-woman, fee-only planning firm in San Francisco, in 1989. Initially, she focused on investments. “I wasn’t that pulled into holistic financial planning at first, but over time, I saw its power to effect positive change.”

Becoming a firm principal in 1993 and its president in 2005, Bourdo strives to create opportunities for women to talk about non-numerical aspects of money, which she believes helps produce better financial outcomes by incorporating emotions. The firm recently became a certified B Corporation, meaning that it meets high standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose.

— Evan Cooper