Describe yourself in 3 words:
Passionate, intentional, driven.

How has your career shifted from the 2020 pandemic impact?
Over the past two years, our investment team and portfolio experienced tremendous changes and we emerged in a very good position. Despite the considerable uncertainty, I feel like my career meaningfully accelerated. I am very grateful for the leadership who empowered my team and me, the resilience, and tenacity of the teammates around me, and the mission of Kamehameha Schools that guided and focused me every day.

How do you manage stress and self-care?
I compartmentalize and multitask quite well. I can quickly shift between work, my board roles, and personal time with family and friends. This helps a lot when tensions rise or the pace of life picks up considerably. In terms of self-care, I am very protective of my time with family and closest friends, who calm and love me so unconditionally. I also make time to run and do pilates with Lauren Chun. I regard my board roles as a form of self-care because of the intentionality of my reasons for joining them and because each board allows me great space to think and care passionately.

What are your favorite virtual tools to use currently in business?
Microsoft Teams has been a game changer in terms of internal communication within my team. Zoom is critical for communication with the investment fund managers shepherding Kamehameha Schools’ capital all over the world. However, as valuable as these technology platforms have been, I do miss the tangibility of face-to-face meetings. I am naturally a people person, so virtual tools are hopefully just one tool in my toolbox going forward.

Did you always want this career track?
I thought I was going to be an investment banker in my senior year of college. Thankfully, I came under the mentorship of two great leaders, Alan Krueger and William Bowen, who recognized that investment banking probably wasn’t the best fit for my personality and passions. I credit the time and effort they spent listening and guiding me with my discovery of endowment investment management. Upon discovery, there was no turning back. I cold called the Chief Investment Officer of Princeton University in 2003 and volunteered to work for free if I could learn investing from him. Thankfully, he took my call and he said yes. Roll forward 18 years and I feel so fortunate to be able to invest creatively on a global scale, with tremendous teammates and broad networks, and for such worthwhile missions.

If you could look into a crystal ball, what would you want to know about your future?
Professionally, I would want to know that I stayed true to doing what I love and do best, and that is investing for institutions, organizations, and/or families with a firm sense of mission and direction. Personally, I hope that I was a giving wife, mother, daughter, sister, and friend, and that I always prioritized and treasured those among me who mattered the most.

What are two of your proudest accomplishments of your career?
I am proud of serving as a mentor over the past 20 years: I keep in good touch with about 20 former mentees throughout the investment industry. Seeing each one of them go out and assume their own leadership roles at mission-bearing institutions across the world makes me so happy. Their willingness to keep returning for conversation and to give/receive advice makes me so proud of the time we spent together.

I am proud that I had the confidence to pursue a career path less traveled in 2003, when endowment investment management wasn’t the established industry that it is today, and that I found the courage to cold call the veteran CIO of Princeton University to ask if I could shadow and learn from him.

What has been the most rewarding part of moving home to Hawai‘i for your career?
I have the rare privilege of doing what I love (investing) with a world-class set of teammates, for leadership who empowers in a place—Hawai‘i—that I love, and for a mission that brings meaning and purpose to my every day. Achieving that kind of professional combination is rare and something I hope I never take for granted.

Biggest sacrifice for my career.
I have historically spent a lot of time—12 weeks a year on average—on the road in search of attractive investments located across the world. I have sacrificed days of family time to build what I have built. My amazing husband, Dave, has generously and seamlessly picked up what I don’t get done day to day. I hope that my children see me as an example of someone who identified goals and opportunities, built meaningful relationships and networks, worked very hard, and did good work in an effort to give back for all that was given to her. I also hope that they honor their father as someone who very graciously made tremendous sacrifices to lift up his wife in order to create valuable opportunities for the entire family.

If you could tell your younger self some advice, what would it be?
I’d tell her that success doesn’t follow one path or have one definition. As I gain more experience and meet more people, I realize that the individuals I admire most have rarely followed a linear path and their success is, in fact, multidimensional. I would miss out on so many amazing opportunities on the peripheries if I followed a singular, common path. Through tremendous ups and very difficult downs, I’ve learned a lot about myself and hopefully emerged a smarter, humbler, and more thoughtful individual.