Elizabeth Bramwell, the founding manager of Gabelli & Co.'s growth mutual fund who quit to form her own asset management firm and became a beacon for women in the field, has died. She was 74.
Ms. Bramwell died on March 7 after collapsing during her weekly badminton game. The cause was a blood clot.
Ms. Bramwell worked on Wall Street for 45 years, starting in 1967 as an analyst at Morgan Guaranty Trust Co. In 1985, after being employed at several other firms, her Columbia Business School classmate and celebrated money manager, Mario Gabelli, invited her to join his firm.
Two years later, she took charge of a new portfolio, the Gabelli Growth Fund, which soon began outperforming the company's main product, the Gabelli Asset Fund. Her stardom was enhanced by the firm's advertising that featured her image.
In 1994, Ms. Bramwell formed Bramwell Capital Management when Mr. Gabelli moved from Manhattan to Rye, N.Y., a suburb. The following year, she won a National Association of Securities Dealers arbitration case with Mr. Gabelli that awarded her $850,000 in salary and other compensation, which was upheld on appeal.
She also won a Securities and Exchange Commission ruling allowing her to cite her performance record at Gabelli in prospectuses for her own funds.
In December 2005, Sentinel Asset Management agreed to buy Bramwell Capital for an undisclosed amount. She continued to work as the New York-based head of her new firm's large-company growth team. At the time, Sentinel had $17 billion in assets under management.
“We were really going after (Elizabeth Bramwell) and her team,” said Christian Thwaites, Sentinel's then-CEO, according to a July 2006 story in Investment News. “It was almost like a compensation package and hiring package disguised as an acquisition.”
She retired from Sentinel in 2012.
Her survivors include her husband, William Moffat Bramwell Jr.; a son, Austin Bramwell; a daughter, Hilary Bramwell; and two grandchildren.
