A Path to Trinity

Meredith Jenkins is the Chief Investment Officer of Trinity Wall Street, where she oversees $5.5 billion of the church’s endowment and real estate assets. Before taking the helm as Trinity’s first CIO, she was the co-CIO of Carnegie Corporation of New York, Andrew Carnegie’s foundation, from 2011 to 2016. She joined Carnegie in 1999 as its first investment associate and was an integral part of the build-out of the Corporation’s investment capability under its first CIO. During the period, Meredith spent four years in Asia as the Corporation’s special representative focusing on opportunities in China, Japan, India, Southeast Asia, and Australia.

Meredith started her career at Goldman Sachs in investment banking, Sanford Bernstein in research, and Cambridge Associates in consulting before attending Harvard Business School. She currently sits on the Investment Committee of the Wenner Gren Foundation and the Board of Directors of the University of Virginia Investment Management Company.

Our conversation starts with Meredith’s early career lessons and discusses alignment of interest, standing by managers in difficult times, markers of success, manager research in Asia, the co-CIO structure at Carnegie, and governance in her new challenge of starting an investment office from scratch. Fun loving and smart as a tack, Meredith offers pearls of wisdom throughout our conversation.