This version of the article first appeared on CNBC’s Inside Wealth Newsletter. This is Robert Frank, a weekly guide to wealthy investors and consumers. Sign up to receive future editions directly in your inbox. Elizabeth Lilly founded her own asset management company in 2017, making her 30-year dream come true. Since working as an equity analyst in her 20s, she had carried a composition notebook with the intention of imagining what a future company would look like and writing down lessons from financial powerhouses that worked like value investor Robert Bruce and turnaround expert Jack Byrne. Less than two years later, Lily gave up after receiving an offer from one of her clients that she couldn’t refuse. The Pohlad family, best known as owners of MLB’s Minnesota Twins, needed a Chief Investment Officer to oversee the vast portfolio spanning public equity and direct investments in HealthTech and manufacturing. Lily had reserved about letting go of her new independence to work in the family’s office, but she decided it was worth broadening her horizons. “I was doing small public equity shares, so I weighed it against what I could learn, private equity funds, direct investment,” she said. “I told myself, ‘This is the point of my life that I don’t know when I’ll get this opportunity again.’ Lily is one of many women at the helm of a well-known family office, that is, many women who have private investment arms for wealthy families. Last summer, James Dyson appointed Jane Simpson as Chief Investment Officer for his family office, Weyborn. In 2022, billionaires Michael Del and Sergey Brin appointed Alisa Mall and Marie Young as CIOS for the family office, respectively. “I’m amazed at the number of women with CIOs. That’s amazing,” Lily said. “There was a huge change compared to where I started my business in 1985,” Lily said that women could thrive in their roles because female investors, generally speaking, are more conservative in financial decision-making. She noted that the family office has patient capital and only deploys funds when appropriate opportunities arise, measuring performance from a year perspective rather than a quarter. “I think it’s a matter of temperament,” she added. “Women investors look at all research and are more uniform and investment decisions are less impulsive.” According to a survey by Botoff Consulting, women hold 29% of their executive positions in their family offices. However, only 16% of the 433 people in the surveyed companies reported having female CIOs. Four female CIOs who spoke to CNBC said their close network makes up for what is missing in the number of spaces. Margo Doyle, CIO of S Cube Capital, is part of the WhatsApp group of women CIOs and hosts dinners and cocktail events for other family offices in the San Francisco Bay Area. Kristin Gilbertson, CIO of the Access Industry at Len Blavatnik, jointly described the Family Office Industry. “When you assign it to an external manager, it’s a bit of a team sport,” she said. “We share references, share experiences, and leverage each other’s expertise.” Gilbertson joined the Brabatnik family office in 2013 after overseeing donations at Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania, managing pension investments at the World Bank, and working on economic reforms in the former Soviet Union, before joining the family office in Brabatnik in 2013. “To be honest, it’s one of the few times in my career where I’m not aware that I’m a woman,” Gilbertson said of Access and her work with Brabatnik. Gilbertson said she was asked for her contribution experience. Blavatnik, an investor known for his bold bets such as getting Warner Music, and his right-hand CEO, Lincoln Benet, wanted the CIO to build a diverse portfolio with low risk of external funding, she said. Like Lily, Noel Line of Builder Vision once counted her as a client. She met Lucas Walton, a Walmart heir, when she managed Impact Investment at Cambridge Associates in 2019 and joined the family’s office. “You can really focus your time.” Meanwhile, Doyle left Cambridge Associates in 2014. She had moved from Boston to San Francisco the previous year, so she wanted to help build a family office from scratch. “You drink water here and you get entrepreneurial spirit,” she said. Doyle contacted the CIO of a detached house office she knew and introduced her to Mark Stevens, a billionaire venture capitalist and former managing partner at Sequoia Capital. Doyle was hired to lead the S-Cube capital portfolio after five months of discussion, not only about his investment strategy, but also his communication style and personal goals. For example, Stephens and his wife Mary signed the pledge they gave, vowing to contribute most of his family’s wealth to charitable causes. “When you’re in this high-level position within your family office, it’s a very personal relationship you’re developing,” she said. Doyle advised to prepare to adapt to your aspiring family office CIO in terms of managing different types of assets as well as working with future generations of families. “You’re certainly going to have multiple risk tolerances, liquidity needs, and duration,” she said. “Thinking about the range of inputs that are affecting your portfolio is an important ability to build when you are evolving in your career.”
(LR), Elizabeth Lilly from Pohlad Companies, Kristin Gilbertson from Access Industries, Margo Doyle from S-Cubed Capital
Courtesy of Elizabeth Lily. Courtesy of Lauren Maxwell. Provided by Margo Doyle
This version of the article first appeared on CNBC’s Inside Wealth Newsletter. This is Robert Frank, a weekly guide to wealthy investors and consumers. Sign up to receive future editions directly in your inbox.
Elizabeth Lilly founded her own asset management company in 2017, making her 30-year dream come true. Since working as an equity analyst in her 20s, she had carried a composition notebook with the intention of imagining what a future company would look like and writing down lessons from financial powerhouses that worked like value investor Robert Bruce and turnaround expert Jack Byrne.
Less than two years later, Lily gave up after receiving an offer from one of her clients that she couldn’t refuse. The Pohlad family, best known as owners of MLB’s Minnesota Twins, needed a Chief Investment Officer to oversee the vast portfolio spanning public equity and direct investments in HealthTech and manufacturing.
