Sandy Urie is Chairman Emeritus at Cambridge Associates, a role she has held since 2016, when she retired as Chairman and CEO, having held the CEO role since 2001, and capping an over 30 year career at the firm. Her current focuses include sustainability and impact investing and she has held multiple board and investment committee roles. Currently she sits on the boards of the Stanford Management Company, Social Finance US, Crane Institute for Sustainability (parent organization of The Intentional Endowment Network – IEN), and Plymouth Rock Insurance Company.
Sandy was one of the first people to inspire me in the world of investment, and I sat, enthralled, during my Cambridge Associates induction as she described her rise through the ranks of the firm, all while juggling mothering a toddler and then young child. It was (and remains) so rare to find a role model who has actually made some of the same choices and trade-offs that you face yourself day to day.
As an investment professional Sandy is without parallel. Passionate and visionary, she led the vision for global expansion of Cambridge Associates and now is at the forefront of its work on sustainability and impact investing. She loves what she does, loves the value it brings to the investment process of countless institutions from endowments to foundations to large family offices and has always been effective in nurturing a network.
We also manage to find time to discuss teaching and Russian language and literature in particular – which, as we have often discussed on this podcast, can be a pathway to better communication and storytelling, and highly useful in other careers.
This series was made possible by the kind support of MainStreet Partners, a London-based independent and dedicated sustainable investment advisor that provides ESG multi-asset and multi-manager portfolios and a range of holistic portfolio analytics tools including sustainability ratings and bespoke sustainability intelligence. It was also supported by Carbonado Partners, an industry expert in capital raising for all asset classes, that endeavors to provide thoughtful solutions that address emerging managers’ perspectives and challenges.
