Dr. Sylvia Kwan, Ph.D., CFA

Chief Investment Officer, Ellevest
Specialty: Impact Investing, Private Alternative Investments

Sylvia is the Chief Investment Officer at Ellevest, a technology-enabled financial services company built by women, for women. In this role, she is responsible for creating the investment solutions, strategies, portfolios, and proprietary algorithms that drive Ellevest’s investment recommendations across both automated digital and customized private wealth advisory services. She guides the firm’s investment philosophy and leads the development and due diligence of Ellevest’s impact and gender forward investments.

Prior to joining Ellevest, Sylvia was a founding member of the investments team at Financial Engines, L.L.C. one of the first successful digital advisors. During her tenure, she developed scalable, robust investment processes to manage over $14B in AUM for over 200,000+ client accounts.

Sylvia also co-founded the boutique RIA firm, SimplySmart Asset Management, serving individual investors with fully customized global investment solutions. Her financial services experience also includes portfolio management positions at Charles Schwab Investment Management, where she was director of equity quantitative research, and at the Boston Company, where she managed over $500 million in institutional fixed-income assets.

Sylvia is a Director of Exit 182 Group, LLC where she shares responsibility for the fiduciary oversight of Grinnell College’s $3B endowment. She recently joined the Board of Lotus Campaign, a startup non-profit focused on housing-driven solutions to homelessness. Syliva serves on the Board of The Alternative & Direct Investment Securities Association (ADISA), the largest U.S. trade association representing the alternative and direct investments industry. Sylvia also serves on the UniFi by CAIA Advisory Council, a micro-credentials and certificate educational program designed for advisors and private wealth managers.

Sylvia holds both Chartered Financial Analyst® and Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst® designations. She earned a B.S. in applied mathematics and computer science from Brown University and a Ph.D. in engineering-economic systems from Stanford University. Her doctoral dissertation on investor behavior and social interaction was one of the first in the field of behavioral finance.