Alex Chalekian on calling out Ken Fisher: 'I know I did the right thing'

Julia La Roche
·Former Correspondent

Alex Chalekian, the financial executive behind the video that exposed sexist comments made by billionaire Ken Fisher last month, believes the problem is "much bigger than one individual situation or one individual person."

On October 9, Chalekian, the founder and CEO of Lake Avenue Financial, took to Twitter to post a two-minute video with the caption, "I'm truly disgusted." In the video, Chalekian outlines a series of comments Fisher made during an off-the-record fireside chat that were "horrifying."

According to Chalekia’s account, Fisher referred to genitalia, referenced Jeffrey Epstein, talked about tripping on acid, made other comments that left both men and women attendees "disgusted."

For Fisher, the incident has become extremely costly as numerous investors — including Goldman Sachs — have yanked money from his firm. Chalekian told Yahoo Finance that he hopes this moment can be used as a "stepping stone" to bring change to Wall Street.

"[When] I've seen something wrong, I've always spoken up about it," Chalekian he said in an exclusive interview on Friday.

In the aftermath of the comments being made public, several high-profile institutional clients, including government pensions, announced withdrawals from Fisher Investments.

While many have praised Chalekian for speaking up, some have criticized him. Still, he remains undeterred.

"Luckily, nine out of 10 messages I've gotten have been thankful, they've been encouraging,” he said. Yet “once in a while, those people who aren't happy that someone spoke up and you're going to get those Twitter trolls that some of us get,” the investor added.

“You know, honestly, the way I look at it, I have very thick skin, but all the encouragement I've gotten, that's my oxygen, and all those trolls, honestly, they're the gasoline,” Chalekian said. “It doesn't bother me whatsoever, I know I did the right thing."

As for rectifying the broader problem exposed by Fisher’s remarks, Chalekian argued that "the change needs to start at the top."

"We have seen a lot of these diversity and inclusion and other groups that have started pithing Wall Street, but that's on the lower level,” Chalekian told Yahoo Finance. “I think the leadership, the executives, have to embrace this change, have to talk about it."

According to Chalekian, some of the steps to building a better Wall Street include bringing more equality and representation to the culture, adding a code of conduct at work, and not making people feel shamed if they speak up or want to talk about a sensitive issue.

"Because of this experience, I've talked to other women, I've talked about the fact that if they ever spoke up, they were ostracized,” he said. “There were consequences for them talking up. That's got to stop."

Julia La Roche is a Correspondent at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter.