Catherine Duddy Wood (born November 26, 1955) is an American investor and the founder, CEO and CIO of

Ark Invest ARK Investment Management LLC is an American investment management firm based in St. Petersburg, Florida, that manages several actively managed exchange-traded funds (ETFs). It was founded by Cathie Wood in 2014. As of February 2021, the compan ...

, an investment management firm.

Early life and education

Wood was born in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

, the eldest child of immigrants from Ireland. Wood's father served in the

Irish Army The Irish Army, known simply as the Army ( ga, an tArm), is the land component of the Defence Forces of Ireland.The Defence Forces are made up of the Permanent Defence Forces – the standing branches – and the Reserve Defence Forces. The A ...

and the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

as a

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, we ...

systems engineer. In 1974, Wood graduated from Notre Dame Academy in

, an all-girls

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

high school. In 1981, Wood graduated ''summa cum laude'' from the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

, with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

degree in finance and

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...

. One of Wood's professors was

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this field there are ...

Arthur Laffer Arthur Betz Laffer (; born August 14, 1940) is an American economist and author who first gained prominence during the Reagan administration as a member of Reagan's Economic Policy Advisory Board (1981–1989). Laffer is best known for the La ...

, who became Wood's mentor.

Career

In 1977, via her mentor

, Wood got a job as an assistant economist at

Capital Group Capital Group is an American financial services company. It ranks among the world's oldest and largest investment management organizations, with over $2.6 trillion in assets under management. Founded in Los Angeles, California in 1931, it is p ...

, where she worked for three years. In 1980, she moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

to take a job at

Jennison Associates PGIM, Inc. (PGIM), formerly Prudential Investment Management, is the asset management arm of American life insurance company Prudential Financial. Headquartered in Newark, New Jersey, United States, PGIM manages more than $1 trillion in assets ...

as chief economist, analyst, portfolio manager and managing director. She worked there for 18 years. In the early 1980s, she debated

Henry Kaufman Henry Kaufman (born October 20, 1927) is president of Henry Kaufman & Company, Inc., a firm established in April 1988, specializing in economic and financial consulting, and is known by the nickname "Dr. Doom." Early life Henry Kaufman was born on ...

on why she believed interest rates had peaked. In 1998, along with Lulu C. Wang, Wood co-founded Tupelo Capital Management, a

hedge fund A hedge fund is a pooled investment fund that trades in relatively liquid assets and is able to make extensive use of more complex trading, portfolio-construction, and risk management techniques in an attempt to improve performance, such as s ...

based in New York City. In 2001, she joined

AllianceBernstein AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (AB) is a global asset management firm providing investment management and research services worldwide to institutional, high-net-worth and retail investors. AllianceBernstein's headquarters are located in Nashvill ...

chief investment officer The chief investment officer (CIO) is a job title for the board level head of investments within an organization. The CIO's purpose is to understand, manage, and monitor their organization's portfolio of assets, devise strategies for growth, act as ...

of global thematic strategies, where she worked for 12 years, managing $5 billion. She was criticized for performing worse than the overall market during the

financial crisis of 2007–2008 Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fi ...

. In 2014, after her idea for actively managed exchange-traded funds based on disruptive innovation was deemed too risky by AllianceBernstein, Wood left the company and founded Ark Invest. The company is named after the Ark of the Covenant; Wood was reading the One-Year

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...

at the time. ARK's first four ETFs were seeded with capital from Bill Hwang of

Archegos Capital Archegos Capital Management was a limited partnership family office that managed the personal assets of Bill Hwang, at one time managing over $36 billion in assests. On April 27, 2022 Hwang was indicted and arrested on federal charges of fraud a ...

. Wood was named the best stock picker of 2020 by

Bloomberg News Bloomberg News (originally Bloomberg Business News) is an international news agency headquartered in New York City and a division of Bloomberg L.P. Content produced by Bloomberg News is disseminated through Bloomberg Terminals, Bloomberg Tele ...

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

emeritus Matthew A. Winkler. As of March 2021, two funds run by Wood were on the list of the 10 largest female-run funds by total net assets. As of 31 December 2021, Cathie Wood's ARK'S ETFs came in fifth place among Morningstar’s list of top 10 wealth-destroying funds compiled by portfolio strategist Amy C. Arnott, and ranked just below investment vehicles from Credit Suisse, ALPS, Kraneshares, and Barclay. As of December, 2022, Wood's flagship fund, Ark Innovation, had lagged behind the S&P 500 for five years, dropping in value by more than 80% from last year's peak.

Awards and honors

Wood was selected for the inaugural 2021 ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

'' 50 Over 50; made up of entrepreneurs, leaders, scientists and creators who are over the age of 50.

Personal life

Wood lives in

Wilton, Connecticut Wilton is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2020 census, the town population was 18,503. In 2017, it was the sixth-wealthiest town per capita in Connecticut, the wealthiest U.S. state per capita. Officially reco ...

. She was divorced from Robert Wood, who died in 2018. She has three children: Caitlin, Caroline, and Robert. Wood is a devout Christian. During the 2020 election, she warned that Joe Biden's plan of taxation and regulation would stifle innovation. Wood also has a large following on

Reddit Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, imag ...

. In 2018, she donated funds to her high school to start the Duddy Innovation Institute, which encourages girls to study disruptive innovation.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wood, Cathie 1955 births Living people University of Southern California alumni American money managers American women chief executives Chief investment officers American people of Irish descent Catholics from California Businesspeople from Los Angeles 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American businesswomen 21st-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesswomen People associated with cryptocurrency People associated with Bitcoin