Ep. 136: Nili Gilbert, Investment Committee Chair of The David Rockefeller Fund and Synergos

Today's guest is Nili Gilbert, Investment Committee Chair of the David Rockefeller Fund and Synergos.

Nili is Co-Founder, and most recently a Portfolio Manager of Matarin Capital, where she had responsibility for hedge fund and long-only equity strategies. Matarin has been recognized as a performance leader and as a thought leader, with its research cited in such publications as The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s. Nili regularly appears on CNBC and Bloomberg television to share insights, as well.

She holds an AB from Harvard University, graduating magna cum laude in a special concentration in Economics and Social Studies, and received her MBA in Finance and Economics from Columbia Business School, where she was a Toigo Fellow.

Nili chairs the Investment Committees of the Board of Directors of both Synergos and the David Rockefeller Fund. She has been honored as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, as Entrepreneur of the Year by the National Association of Securities Professionals, by Bloomberg Businessweek as one of the 20 “Ones to Watch” for 2019, by 100 Women in Hedge Funds as a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Scholar, by LinkedIn as one of 10 Top Voices in Finance and Economics for 2019, and with the Toigo Foundation’s Bridge to Business award. She is also a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the Economic Club of New York.

Prior to founding Matarin, Nili was Senior Director and Senior Research Analyst at Invesco, working in both New York City and Frankfurt, Germany. Prior to graduate school, Nili began her career as an Institutional Development Associate at Synergos. Nili’s early experiences working in fundraising at Synergos led her to find her passion in translating between the “values-based” conversations of social change and the “value-based” conversations of capital allocation.

Nili and I have a really enjoyable discussion in this episode about her personal journey to find meaning in her work, and the dual tracks that took along the way, with a high profile finance career where she injected her values at every step, and through her philanthropic efforts. We also have a bigger picture discussion about these thorny systems problems, and the best ways for us to address them as a society.

Enjoy the show!

You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at info@myclimatejourney.co, where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.

Episode recorded November 20th, 2020