Eve Ellis (Vice President, the Matterhorn Group, William Blair) has received numerous awards, both for her work as a top wealth advisor and for her leadership in promoting equity and empowerment in financial services and beyond.
In a new episode of Head to Head, Eve joins Co-Heads of Distribution Kirsten Pickens and Ryan Robertson to discuss what it means to be “passionate about fairness,” why she advises young professionals to “work where you’re valued” and how she helps clients build wealth while changing the world for the better.
About Eve Ellis, CFP®, CIMA®
Eve Ellis is a wealth advisor developing sophisticated solutions which integrate traditional investments, trust and estate planning, lending, and philanthropy for a select number of high net worth individuals, families, family offices, and nonprofit organizations, as well as custom planning for executives and entrepreneurs anticipating late-stage, pre- and post-liquidity events.
She also advises interested clients on socially responsible and impact investments, and provides access to two proprietary portfolios which she co-manages – the Gender Parity Strategy and the Matterhorn/Refinitiv Diversity & Inclusion Strategy – to investors seeking to align their investments with their values.
At William Blair, Eve is a member of the firm’s Community Impact Steering Committee which facilitates the William Blair Foundation grant-making; the firm’s Global Inclusion Council which is responsible for implementing its inclusion and diversity strategy; Private Wealth Management’s Diversity & Inclusion Task Force; and the cross-functional working group to advance the firm’s ESG initiatives.
Transcript excerpt:
Kirsten Pickens:
In this episode, Eve discusses what it means to be passionate about fairness, why she advises young professionals to work where you’re valued, and how she helps clients build wealth while changing the world for the better. So let’s get started.
Eve, thanks so much for joining us today. We are so excited to have this conversation with you. I got to say, you’ve made the Forbes America’s Top Women Wealth Advisor List, Crain’s New York Notable Women in Financial Advice List. You’ve done speaking engagements at Davos. So many things. Your accreditation in this industry is fantastic, but financial services is actually a third career for you, right? You started off your time as a professional tennis player, I think. Is that right?
Eve Ellis:
That is true.
Kirsten Pickens:
We can’t wait to unpack that.
Eve Ellis:
We shall. First, thanks for having me, but go ahead. You were in the middle. I was interrupting already.
Kirsten Pickens:
Absolutely. We appreciate it. We wanted to start with, like we do with all of our podcasts, to hear your beginning. What was your path to becoming a wealth advisor?
Eve Ellis:
Well, it was a circuitous path indeed. After, you mentioned, after I competed, I was on the Satellite Pro tennis tour and I coached tennis. So I think of that as kind of my first career. I coached the women’s varsity tennis team at Columbia University and Barnard College. I also was the coach of the US men’s tennis team in the Maccabiah World Games in Israel. And after coaching, I then had a web consulting company. So, I think of that as my second career. After 9/11, I decided that that was really not a passion of mine and I remember seeing an ad in the Wall Street Journal for a financial advisor. And as I remember it, I’m not sure if this is accurate, but as I remember, it said, “educators, entrepreneurs, attorneys and accountants come learn about being a financial advisor.” And at that point I had been hearing about family members and friends making unwise financial and investment decisions. And it’s not that I thought I had the knowledge at that point, but I thought that I could have researched and found them solutions. So when I saw educators and entrepreneurs, I felt, ah, this is something I should learn about. And really, I feel as though I get to coach people in a more important part of their lives than their tennis. Let’s hope that their financial lives or their more important area of their lives. So, I just knew this made to me it was a perfect fit. It made sense.
