Cathie Wood

Catherine "Cathie" Duddy Wood was born in Los Angeles in 1955, the eldest child of Irish immigrants. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Southern California in 1981 with a degree in finance and economics, where she studied under and was mentored by the economist Arthur Laffer. She began her career in Los Angeles as an assistant economist at The Capital Group before moving to New York. Over the next three decades Wood built one of the most substantial resumes in thematic investing. She spent eighteen years at Jennison Associates, rising through roles as chief economist, analyst, and portfolio manager, then co-founded the hedge fund Tupelo Capital Management in 1998. In 2001 she joined AllianceBernstein as chief investment officer of global thematic strategies, a role she held for twelve years, ultimately overseeing roughly five billion dollars. In 2014, after her idea for actively-managed exchange-traded funds built entirely around disruptive innovation was considered too risky at AllianceBernstein, Wood left to found ARK Investment Management. ARK's suite of thematic ETFs, led by the flagship ARK Innovation ETF, focuses on technologies she believes will reshape the global economy: artificial intelligence, robotics, energy storage, autonomous mobility, genomic sequencing, and blockchain. ARK publishes an annual "Big Ideas" research report that has become one of the most widely-read documents in the innovation-investing world. Wood has become one of the most recognizable figures in modern finance, known for a disciplined long-term research approach, bold and often contrarian public positions, and a willingness to defend her thesis through both booms and drawdowns. She is a frequent guest on financial media and hosts ARK's own "In the Know" video series and "For Your Innovation" podcast, and she appears regularly at major forums including the Milken Institute Global Conference. A prominent woman in a field with few at her level, she has also founded education-focused philanthropy, including the Duddy Innovation Institute and the Innovation Foundation. A devout Christian who named her firm after the biblical Ark of the Covenant, Wood now leads ARK Invest from its headquarters in St. Petersburg, Florida.