Mary Cahill, CEO and CIO, Acansa Investment Management Group

When Mary Cahill, who previously served as deputy CIO at Xerox Corp., became the first chief investment officer at Emory University and built Emory Investment Management Corp., which manages the Emory endowment and the Carter Center Foundation, EIM had 65% of its assets in just one stock, Coca-Cola Co.

She ended up transforming it into a $7 billion global multiasset portfolio. And after observing several of the unique challenges facing endowments and foundations during COVID-19, she co-founded Acansa Investment Management Group LLC, a Tyson's Corner, Va.-based outsourced CIO firm focused on serving the needs of institutions without investment offices with customized solutions from professional teams with top-tier in-house CIO experience.

Acansa was designed to serve no more than nine clients at any one time. "We do this to develop close partnerships with our clients, and to provide customized institutional management, recognizing that each one is unique and deserves an investment office tailored to their particular needs and ambitions," she said. Acansa has $720 million in assets under management.

But despite her success Ms. Cahill thinks progress for women in the industry remains sluggish. "I was fortunate to have mentors in college, and early in my career, who found me and guided me," she said. She noted many of the headwinds she faced during her career still linger today, "most notably with respect to the pay disparity for men and women in the same roles. There were also networking opportunities for men, where I and my female colleagues were often not included, but this forced me to be creative and persistent in finding paths to growth and opportunity."