Whether George Soros funneled money to organizers of the Women’s March or not, the billionaire philanthropist has sent the world a clear message about gender equality—by putting a woman at the helm of his family office’s investment portfolio.
Dawn Fitzpatrick will be Soros Fund Management’s first female chief investment officer, and the firm’s seventh CIO since 2000. There, she will manage money for Soros, his family, and their Open Society Foundations philanthropic arm.
Fitzpatrick is wrapping up a 25-year run at UBS, where she started with a predecessor firm and became a senior executive for UBS Asset Management. Named one of the most powerful women in finance by American Banker last year, she is also one of three women on a 15-member committee advising the New York Fed on financial, economic, and public policy issues.
The hiring, first reported by Bloomberg, is arguably a great move for Fitzpatrick, but a step down in one respect—at UBS, as the Wall Street Journal notes, she oversees more than $300 billion in assets; at Soros, she’ll be overseeing $25 billion.